Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/151

 Barnabas Bradl David.

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��BARNABAS BRADT DAVID.*

By Rev. J. G. Davis, D. D.

��In the early records of the French Protestant Church of New York City, appears the name of John Da\dd, a Huguenot, an emi.grant. who married Elizabeth Whinehart. They settled in Albany, and had eleven children, of whom only five attained majority. Peter David, the sixth child, born March 11, 1764, married Elizabeth Caldwell, born May 24. 1764, the only child of Joseph Caldwell, an officer in the British navy. They also lived in Albany and had a large family of eleven children ; Barna- bas Bradt David, born August 8, 1802, the subject of the following sketch, was the ninth child and fifth son. On the death of his mother, which occurred September 17, 1808, the family was widely scattered, and the lad Barnabas found a home for the next five years with a family named Truax, in Hamil- ton Village, New York. At the end of this period he was taken into the family of an older brother, Noble Caldwell David, who resided in Peterborough, New York. Of his previous opportun- ities of instruction we are not informed, but during his stay of two years in Pet- erborough he was permitted to attend school part of the time. The death of Caldwell David's wife became the occa- sion of a third removal, which brought him to Keene, New Hampshire, into the care of an older sister, Mrs. David Holmes. The journey was made in the winter, in an open sleigh, without robes, and being poorly clad, the hardship and exposure were vividly remembered. He was interested in his studies, and enjoyed the privileges of the schools in Keene, so far as they were open to the children

��of the town. The question of an em- ployment coming up for decision, it was determined by his friends that the lad should go to Boston and enter the shop of his eldest brother, John David, as an apprentice to the art of whip mak- ing. At that time no machinery was employed in the business, and the ap- prentice was taught every part of the craft.

Before the termination of his appren- ticeship, his brother, John David, was re- moved by death and an opportunity was presented of taking the stock and tools and carrying on the business. He was ambitious, and his early experiences had made him self-reliant and courageous. The opening was promising, but he had neither money nor credit. In this ex- igency a partnership v/as formed with Mr. Samuel B. Melendy, who had some knowledge of the craft. With the be- gining of the year 182 1, the firm of Melendy and David raised a sign in Dock Square. The young men were willing to labor and they determined by industry and economy to win success. For a time the room, which they hired, served a two-fold use as they worked and slept in the same apartment. They lived cheaply and the work benches were cleared at night to fumish a place whereon to rest. Having no one to en- dorse a note for the firm in Boston, they had recourse to Mr. William Melendy, who had recently retired from business m the city and returned to Amherst, New Hampshire. By the most direct route, the distance from Boston must have been over forty-five miles, but Mr. Melendy, starting in the early morning

��* From the Bay State Monthly for May, iS

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