A young man went to Lee, Mass., in November 1851, and learned his trade making edged tools.

The evidence

• “Our subject passed his boyhood at home, receiving his preliminary education in the common schools of his native town, and supplemented it with a course of study in the ordinary English branches, algebra and bookkeeping at the Connecticut Literary Institute at Suffield. After finishing his studies there he worked for a time on a farm, but in November, 1851, went to Lee, Mass., and learned his trade, that of making edged tools and machine knives in all their various branches, finally acquiring an interest in the business. Mr.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/34a-biographical-1.md, Vol. 2, PDF p. 317 / book p. 815

  Brown, William Fiske, editor. Rock County, Wisconsin: A New History of Its Cities, Villages, Towns, Citizens and Varied Interests, from the Earliest Times, Up to Date. Chicago: C. F. Cooper & Co., 1908. 2 vols. archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon01brow, archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon02brow.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources