Excerpt from The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 8: Published Quarterly, Under the Patronage of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society; For the Year 1854 At twenty-two years of age he joined a party of young men in settling a township in Maine the conditions being that they should have each alternate lot, provided they would build a house, and clear up a certain number of acres. In this occupation two sum mers were employed, and the various experiences of frontier life, the hardships encountered with the hopeful heart of youth, and the expedients by means of which difficulties were overcome, were the subject of much amusement in after years. But labor on a farm was not to his taste. It was evident that his special gift was not for handling the axe and guiding the plough. He had an early desire to become a merchant, and, the way opening for acting out this inclination, he entered into business in the country; first, at Ashburnham, in company with Col. Jewett, and afterwards at New Ipswich, with Charles Barrett, Esq. These fields however were too narrow for his ambition. In 1794, at the age of 28, he established himself as a merchant in Boston, and from that time his career was one of uninterrupted and honorable prosperity and usefulness. In 1799, he visited England, and hav ing formed a partnership with his younger brother, Hon. Nathan Appleton, he was for many years engaged very extensively in the importation of English goods. At a later period he was largely interested in the Cotton manufacture, which, with a wise foresight of the future industrial wants of the country, had been introduced through the agency of his brother, oting in connection with two or three associates, first at Waltham, and afterwards at Lowell. As he grew older, he gradually withdrew from business, and at length retired from any active participation in it. But he retired from business only to give his thoughts more exclusively to objects of kindness, charity, and public utility. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.