REMINISCENCES

OF

BENJAMIN FERRIS.

BY HIS SON, DAVID FERRIS.

In penning these memoirs I am aware that they are records of an humble life, unconnected with military renown, or with titled or noble descent, or with political distinction; "but in the quiet ways of unobtrusive goodness known." My father was born in the house now standing on the N. E. corner of Third and Shipley streets, 8th mo., 7th, 1780; it was built by his father, Ziba Ferris. My father was interested in genealogical research and traced his ancestry back several generations with industry and

success.

Samuel Ferris the original emigrant of the Ferris family, (and the one from whom it is supposed all of that name in the United States have descended) came from Reading in England. He settled east from Boston, at Groton. His son Zechariah, settled in New Milford, Conn. Zechariah had eight or nine children; the family were Presbyterian but became dissatisfied with the sterner doctrines of that sect, and eventually joined the Friends (called Quakers). It is remarkable that five of them came to be preachers in the

society of Friends. Four of the brothers, John, David, Zechariah, and Benjamin moved to Wilmington, David in 1737, John in 1748. The settlement of these four brothers all earnest ministers of Friends in a small town, had a marked effect on the prosperity and moral character of the place. William Shipley, also a Friend of quite large means, invested in property here and settled about the time David Ferris came. From this time the place prospered, many Friends moved in, and their meeting increased. In 1738, their first meeting house was built at Fourth and West Sts. My father placed the following lines at the head of a Genealogy:

I would not take descent from Royal line,
Could all the wealth of all the world be mine;
Hereditary ills torment the race,

Deep in their robes the stains of vice we trace;
I boast a nobler birth, to me 'tis given

To trace my lineage up from earth to Heaven.

When my father was five or six years old, a friend who was visiting at their home amused the boy by taking him on his knee and showing him a watch; he opened it and let the child see the wheels moving, explaining that they moved the hands so as to indicate the time. That incident caused my father to choose watchmaking as a business. My Grandfather Ziba, deceased, when my father was about 14 years old in 1794; then the question of choosing a trade came up and he earnestly pleaded to learn watchmaking. His school education up to that time was very limited, merely the rudiments, under teachers of very limited capacity and book knowledge.

He was apprenticed to Thomas Parker of Philadelphia, and faithfully served out his time with him and learned all that could be learned of the trade there. He and his fellow apprentice would leave their beds often before daylight and walk three or four miles before breakfast; this early exercise kept them in robust health and preserved them from the evil effects of long confinement at the bench. When father went to Philadelphia, hundreds of French emigrants were arriving in this country. They were often the most highly educated and gifted Frenchmen of noble families; exiled by the Revolution. My father was much interested in them and he wanted to learn their language, but his mother was much shocked at the atrocities of the French revolution then in progress, in France; and used her influence to prevent it. Father's temperament was one to overcome difficulties. Closely confined at his trade, without money and with every obstacle in his way; during his apprenticeship he learned French, and learned it well; learned to speak as well as read it, and some of the Frenchmen told him he had acquired the real Parisian accent. His term of apprenticeship was improved also by the study of history, particularly that of England in which he became very well versed; his memory of dates was so good that he could recall the time of the occurrence of any important event in English history, with the date and duration of the reign of each monarch. All the money he could save was spent in buying books or paying for instruction in useful knowledge. He was a selfmade man, and that "spark of nature's fire," of which the poet Burns writes. When his apprenticeship ended he had acquired a fund of useful information; a knowledge of human