After remaining some time under the care, and in the employment of his uncle, he was apprenticed to the tanning and shoemaking business, it being then the practice to conduct both branches by the same person, working at the former in the summer, and at the latter during the winter months. For the tanning department, however, he always retained the strongest partiality. Up to this period, his opportunities for acquiring knowledge were extremely limited: a few weeks’ schooling during the winter, and such books as accidentally fell in his way, were all the means vouchsafed to him. After learning his trade, or trades, he commenced business on his own account, in the town of Worthington, Massachusetts, and, by his industry and strict attention to it, won the regard and confidence of his neighbors. He was enabled to obtain credit for the purchase of leather, which he manufactured into shoes; always paying promptly for it at the period he had agreed. The first hundred dollars he earned, and that he could honestly call his own, he appropriated to educating himself at the Westfield academy. When that sum was exhausted, he again betook himself to his trade. His diligence and application were remarkable; sixteen hours out of the twenty-four, he usually devoted to labor. After prosecuting his business for some time alone, he formed a partnership in trade with a friend; subsequently they were burned out, and Mr. Lee lost what little property he had accumulated. He then dissolved with his partner, and removed to the city of New York. But before establishing himself permanently in the city, he made a voyage to St. Mary’s, Georgia, taking with him a small adventure in leather. The adventure not proving a profitable one, he returned to New York, after remaining one winter at the south. The vessel in which he took passage being wrecked off Cape Fear, he made the journey to New York, in company with a Yankee friend, on foot. In one instance on this pedestrian journey, his money being exhausted, he chopped wood for a farmer, to pay for his food and lodging. About the year 1807, Mr. Lee commenced business as a leather-dealer, in a small building in Ferry street, New York. Being appointed agent for an extensive tanning establishment in Massachusetts, called the “Hampshire Leather Manufactory,” he laid the foundation in the city of New York, for a trade in a branch of domestic industry, which speedily rivalled any in the other Atlantic cities. His prudence, punctuality, and economy, enabled him to accumulate means for enlarging his business; and but for feeble health, the future to him was a bright path of success. In this business, namely, the selling of leather on commission, he continued for about thirty years, until his final retirement from mercantile pursuits.