In 1843, Mr. Crittenden purchased the Giddings place, on the north side of the Public Square, with the stone residence on it, then considered an elegant mansion. The price paid for the lot, house and furniture was ten thousand dollars--a high price as rates then were, but marvellously cheap now. To that house he removed his family from over his store, and lived there twenty-five years, when it was turned over to business purposes. About the year 1853, he erected the fine business block on Water street, now occupied by Stillson, Leek & Doering, at a cost of fifteen thousand dollars. In 1868, he put up the handsome block on the same street that is occupied by Childs & Co. The cost of this was not less than forty thousand dollars, and it is a decided ornament to the street. The purchase of the land and the erection of those elegant blocks, in addition to the one occupied by his own business, furnish sufficient evidence of the prosperity of his jewelry business, the regular stock of which has grown from an investment of five hundred dollars to one of more than a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. [Illustration: Yours Truly, N. E. Crittenden] But it must not be supposed that this prosperity was uninterrupted throughout Mr. Crittenden's business life. There were dark storms which threatened disastrous wreck, and nothing but stead-fastness of purpose and force of character brought him through. In 1836 the financial tornado swept over the land and stripped nearly every business man bare. When the storm was at its height Mr. Crittenden found himself with fifty thousand dollars of New York debts past due, and without the money to pay them. Collections were cut off, and whilst he was thus unable to raise the means from his debtors, his creditors were likewise stopped from pouncing upon him. Other men in like condition were compounding with their creditors, and thus getting out of their difficulties by partial repudiation. Mr. Crittenden declined to avail himself of the opportunity, and, in course of time, his creditors were paid in full, though that result was brought about by years of toil, of steady, persistent application to business, of shrewd financiering, and of rigid economy.