One can hardly turn from the history of manufactures in Providence without some reference to the manufacturing of jewelry. A Cyril Dodge made silver shoe buckles “two doors north of the Baptist meeting-house” about the time of the Revolution, but the first real manufacturer of jewelry in Providence was Nehemiah Dodge, who, just after the Revolution, started in a little shop on North Main Street as a goldsmith and watchmaker. He also made necklaces, rings and miniature cases. Dodge lived to be over ninety years old and to see the industry spread wonderfully. By 1805 there were three other jewelers, one of whom, by the way, was a Jenks, and they employed all told about thirty workmen. In 1810 there were 100 workmen; in 1815, 175; and in 1832, 282. The census writers of 1860 give eighty-six shops with 1761 workmen; in 1880, 148 shops with 3264 employees, and in 1890 there were 170 shops employing 4380. These figures cover Providence only. Many other shops were located in near-by towns. These were all small and tended to multiply. The journeymen were the highest paid artisans anywhere about, earning from $5 to $10 a day, and two or three were constantly setting up for themselves. The oldest jewelry firm in or about Providence is said to be the Gorham Manufacturing Company now located in the suburb of Elmwood. Jabez Gorham, its founder, was first engaged as a jeweler with four others about 1813. In 1831 he formed a partnership with H. L. Webster, a journeyman silversmith from Boston, and specialized on the making of silver spoons, thus starting the Gorham Manufacturing Company.[147] Palmer & Capron, another old firm, was founded about 1840. [147] _Ibid._, Vol. III, pp. 377-381. There were other early centers of mechanical influence. With the invention of steam navigation, New York became a center of engine building for the steamboat trade, and the Allaire, Quintard, Fletcher, Delamater, and other works, were well known many years ago, but for some reason New York City has never been conspicuous for tool building, the Garvin Machine Company being the only large firm in this field. Worcester, Hartford, Philadelphia and Windsor, Vt. (small and secluded as it is), have contributed signally to tool building throughout this country and Europe, and will be taken up later. We have considered Pawtucket first, because it was the earliest center and because its wide influence in building up other centers is little realized. The extensive water power available in the Merrimac Valley gave rise to the great textile interests of Manchester, Lowell and Lawrence, which have far outstripped those centered about Pawtucket, but the textile industry began in Pawtucket and with it the building of machinery and tools. CHAPTER XI THE RISE OF INTERCHANGEABLE MANUFACTURE