Among the political leaders of modern times _Henry Wilson_ long held a conspicuous place in the United States. His early connection with the gentle craft procured for him the familiar and not unfriendly sobriquet "The Natick Cobbler." Wilson was born at Farmington, New Hampshire, February 16th, 1812. From his schoolboy days until he entered on political life he seems to have been connected both with shoemaking and farming, but chiefly with the former occupation. Part of his time, viz., from 1832 to 1837, he was a thorough-going son of Crispin, working on the stool from daylight till dusk. From 1837 to 1840 he was still connected with the trade, but in the more ambitious position of a "shoe manufacturer." In the year 1840 he devoted himself to the life of a politician. The office of President of the Massachusetts Senate was held by him in 1851 and 1852. Three years after this he became a senator as a representative of the same State. This honor he held for seventeen years, that is, till 1872. In 1861 he was made Colonel of the Twenty-second Massachusetts Volunteers. The highest office to which he attained was that of Vice-President of the United States, which post he held from 1872 to 1875, the year of his death. Henry Wilson was held at the time of his death in general and hearty esteem for the valuable services which he had rendered for thirty-five years to his country. Like many another famous son of St. Crispin, _The Natick Cobbler_ was a friend of freedom and a sworn foe to all kinds of tyranny. For many years he stood side by side with the best men in the Northern States, fighting the battle of liberation for the slaves, and at last was permitted to rejoice with them in the triumph of the good cause. One is very much tempted to multiply instances of men like Wilson, who, having begun life as shoemakers, found their way into the Congress of the United States. _Seven_ such men at least have sat in Congress during the present century.[186] It may also be mentioned here that Franklin in his Autobiography speaks of a member of the _Junto_, a "William Parsons, bred a shoemaker, but loving reading, who acquired a considerable share of mathematics," and "became surveyor-general;" and that Philip Kirtland, a shoemaker from Sherrington, Buckinghamshire, who settled at Lynn, Mass., in 1635, was the founder of the immense trade in boots and shoes for which that city has obtained an unrivalled name throughout the States.