Home » History » American Presidents » THE NATICK COBBLER: HENRY WILSON, PART I

THE NATICK COBBLER: HENRY WILSON, PART I

© John S. Cooper

The life of Henry Wilson, second Vice President under President U.S. Grant, was a real American success story. Born in poverty, he worked his way up the economic ladder until he became a wealthy man. He then entered politics, and again became a success. After three terms in the U.S. Senate, he was nominated and elected Vice President of the United States.

He was born Jeremiah Jones Colbath on February 16, 1812 in Farmington, New Hampshire. His lazy, drunkard father named him after a local man of wealth, hoping for immediate financial gain or eventual inheritance. Of course, neither of these came to pass. Wilson hated the name, and changed it as soon as he came of age. He chose the name Henry Wilson either inspired by a biography of a Philadelphia teacher named Henry Wilson or by the portrait the Rev. Henry Wilson that appeared in a book on English clergymen.

At the age of ten, Wilson’s father apprenticed him to a local farmer for a period of eleven years. According to the contract, Wilson was to be allowed at least one month of formal schooling each year if there was no work to be done. Wilson was rarely able to attend school for more than a few days at a time. He made up for this lack of formal education by reading every book he could find. He was determined to improve his situation in life, and spent all his free time trying to improve himself, mainly through reading. At the age of nineteen, he took a pledge of abstinence from alcohol, and never drank alcohol again.

In 1833, Jeremiah Jones Colbath reached the age of twenty-one and was freed from his apprenticeship. After changing his name to Henry Wilson, he headed to Boston, and settled in the town of Natick just outside Boston. He learned the trade of shoemaking, and became a cobbler. On a vacation to Washington, Wilson came into his first contact with slaves working the fields and the slave warehouses and auctions. Wilson determined to do all he could to end slavery, and from that time on was active in the antislavery movement. Years later, while a member of the U.S. Senate, he took great pride in introducing legislation that ended slavery in the federal District of Columbia.

After his trip to Washington, Wilson returned to Natick. Even though it was in the midst of the economic depression created by the Panic of 1837, Wilson’s factory was a great success. Rather than make shoes himself, he hired contract workers and supervised their work. He produced a much larger quantity of shoes at a lower cost, and made a fortune.

The copyright of the article THE NATICK COBBLER: HENRY WILSON, PART I in American Presidents is owned by John S. Cooper. Permission to republish THE NATICK COBBLER: HENRY WILSON, PART I in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.