He was possessed of a
strong, vigorous constitution, and a quick, penetrating intellect. His
education was limited, for he was taken from school at the age of
eleven, and set to earning his living. Upon leaving school, he was
apprenticed to a Mr. Sylvester Proctor, who kept a "country store" in
Danvers. Here he worked hard and faithfully for four or five years,
devoting himself, with an energy and determination surprising in one so
young, to learn the first principles of business. His mind matured more
rapidly than his body, and he was a man in intellect long before he was
out of his teens. Having gained all the information it was possible to
acquire in so small an establishment, he began to wish for a wider field
for the exercise of his abilities. A retail grocery store was no longer
the place for one possessed of such talents, and thoroughly conscious of
them at such an early age, and it was natural that he should desire some
more important and responsible position.
Accordingly, he left Mr. Proctor's employment, and spent a year with his
maternal grandfather at Post Mills village, Thetford, Vermont.
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