The year before Isaiah Williamson went to the city to stay, a quaint little volume was published, entitled "Philadelphia in 1824," whose title page proclaimed it to be "a complete guide to strangers." This book gave the population of the city proper as one hundred and twenty-one thousand, and stated that "the built up parts" stretched along the Delaware River three or four miles, and backed up toward the Schuylkill River to the extent of only about a mile, covered with unbroken buildings on both sides of the street. This central region had as its principal thoroughfare High Street, now Market Street, and was bounded by Callowhill Street on the north, and Lombard Street on the south. East and south of Independence Hall was the finest residential section. Center Square, now covered by the City Hall, was practically open country. The business center was only two or three blocks back from the Delaware, north and south of High Street.
It was on Second Street, near Chestnut, that Williamson secured a position as salesman in a store that dealt in much the same class of commodities as those to which he had been accustomed in the country store at Fallsington. Doubtless he had a reference from Gillingham, who probably recommended him to the owner of this particular store. It is known that the Fallsington people kept up their interest in the youth who had gone to Philadelphia, and bought from him when they came to the city. Some often ordered goods from him by mail.
Within a year it came to his knowledge that the owner of a small drygoods store, located on Second Street, above Pine, wanted to sell his stock and fixtures. Isaiah had carefully kept his money and had added a little to it. He was in a position to start in business for himself, and the idea interested him. He went to his cousin, Peter Williamson, a druggist, and a level-headed man, for advice. The cousin told him to buy the store. But Isaiah was already cautious of his money, and he thought it best to go home and talk to his father about it. The father's advice Isaiah had always taken, and he knew it to be prudent and wise.
Mahlon Williamson had such confidence in the integrity, good sense, and ability of his son that he not only approved of the venture, but sold some cattle that he might supplement his son's meagre capital. He loaned Isaiah several hundred dollars to enable him to increase the stock of goods. This adventure, entered into when he was twenty- four, was the starting point of the career of Isaiah V. Williamson as a Philadelphia merchant.
From the very beginning he had considerable success. The next year, 1827, he took William Barton into partnership, and they moved their drygoods business to a larger store, at the corner of Second Street and Coombe's Alley. They appear to have attempted to go also into the wholesale business, as a commission house, in addition to their retail business. But the partners proved to be of unequal ability, and the partnership was dissolved within a year. Isaiah was disappointed, and was faced with the problem of liquidating the business or buying out Barton's interest. Once more he went home to consult his father, who raised the money to enable his son to become the sole owner. It was not long before the young man's guiding principle of not spending just because he was earning made it possible for him to return the borrowed money.
A little later Williamson was attracted by the location and reputation of the business of John S. Newlin, who had let it be known that he wanted to retire. Williamson thought so much of the opportunity that he sold his own business with the idea of buying Newlin's. But before doing so, with his usual caution, he spent a year or more in the store as a clerk under Newlin's tutelage, desiring to learn everything about the business before risking all his capital in pitting a country experience against city methods. When he felt that he knew the details of the business, Williamson made a deal with Newlin, who then retired. Williamson took hold with new ambition and confidence.
One of the clerks was a Penn Manor boy, H. Nelson Burroughs, who had had business experience similar to Isaiah's in a large country store at Taylorsville. The young men were congenial in tastes and training. Both had been accustomed to the practice of rigid economy in the country stores from which they came, and where they had learned also habits of hard and diversified work. They ran the city business with the same frugality and energy and adaptability. Many a time Williamson might have been heard to say something like this:
"Nelson, get out the wheelbarrow, and we'll bring over those goods I bought at auction."
If they could save cartage, so much the better. What work they could do themselves they did. They followed the principle of watching every penny. But rigid economy and close attention to the details of the business did not blind them to the bigger things. They were always reaching out, dreaming dreams and making them come true. Burroughs soon developed a remarkable capacity as a salesman, and he is said to have been one of the first in Philadelphia, if not the pioneer, to go out and solicit business for a wholesale house. He was particularly successful with the Southern merchants, who at that time patronized Philadelphia more than any other Northern city. He used to go to see them at their hotels, won their confidence, entered into their social life, and thus obtained a large share of their trade. It is said that he sometimes sold goods to the amount of three hundred thousand dollars in a year—a phenomenal showing for a young salesman in those days.
It is not surprising, therefore, that after some time Burroughs was unwilling to work any longer on salary. He asked to be admitted to partnership. As Burroughs was too valuable a man to let a rival concern secure, Williamson acquiesced. Under the firm name of Williamson and Burroughs, formed in 1834, the business grew and prospered rapidly. Its sales were larger than those of any drygoods house in the city, and there were proportionately larger profits. Both men looked out with clear eyes over the city for opportunities to invest their earnings. Burroughs became one of the early presidents of the Commonwealth National Bank. Williamson soon began to impress his personality and influence upon the financial life of the city.
It is interesting to consider the conditions that existed in Philadelphia during the decade in which Isaiah Williamson rose to the position of the city's foremost drygoods merchant, and to speak of other men with whom he began to come into contact in the business life of the city.
Isaiah Williamson was already well on the way to outstanding success in the city of his choice before railroads connected it with New York and Baltimore, and before the new form of transportation began to bring the west into contact with the Atlantic seaboard. The mails, as well as passengers and good, went by steamboat, stage coach and wagon. The revolution in the economic life of the nation through steampower applied to transportation on land and sea was just ahead.
Philadelphia was still lighted by oil lamps—some sixteen hundred under the care of night guards. Gas lighting came in 1835, the year after Williamson and Burroughs formed their partnership. But Philadelphia, compared with other cities, was a metropolis, and its public works and institutions, its homes and churches, and high degree of culture were things to boast of. The fine water system, with the great reservoir at Fairmount on the Schuylkill, had been completed. The city fire plugs gave sufficient pressure to reach the tops of the highest buildings, and the fire-fighting volunteer hose companies did efficient work.
Eleven daily newspapers kept the city posted. Of the meeting houses and churches, there were nearly a hundred in 1825, representing the Catholics and the various Protestant denominations—Presbyterians, Methodists and Episcopalians were most numerous, in the order named. Those were the days when chains were stretched across the streets in front of the churches during Sunday services. The charitable institutions included the notable and splendidly conducted Pennsylvania Hospital; three dispensaries affording aid to the poor in their homes; two almshouses; several asylums for orphans, women, the deaf and the dumb, and lunatics; numerous humane and soup societies, benevolent orders had lodges, and other helpful organizations. The Franklin Fund provided loans to assist "young, unmarried artificers" who had served their apprenticeship.
In the Philadelphia and the Mercantile libraries, the newcomer could find attractions, as well as in the collections of the Philosophical Society, the Philadelphia Museum, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Academy of the Fine Arts. At the fore stood the University of Pennsylvania, the principal building then being situated on Ninth Street, where the Post Office now stands. Among the scientific organizations were the College of Physicians and the Philadelphia Medical Society, and the new Franklin Institute, just organized in 1824—to bring together exhibitions of the products of American workshops.
The theatres numbered five. Two of them were temporary summer theatres at Tivoli and Vauxhall Gardens near Centre Square. The old Chestnut Street Theatre was then one of the architectural features of the city. The editor of the "Guide to Philadelphia in 1824" remarks in this connection: "Such are the dramatic entertainments in Philadelphia. If they are not as numerous as in some other cities, it may be attributed perhaps to the general disposition of the inhabitants inclining them to more sober and scientific amusements."
But Isaiah Williamson, on coming to Philadelphia, doubtless found the statistics regarding the city's wealth, commercial enterprises, and business outlook of chief attraction. The city's capital in 1823 was estimated at $158,000,000, invested in Government and bank stocks, and insurance companies; in bridges, canals and roads; in factories, merchandise and shipping; in personal and real estate.
He found an efficient Chamber of Commerce, recommending fixed rates of commission on all forms of domestic and foreign business; and the Custom House in its fine new building on Second Street, below Dock. He found a flourishing export and import trade, the exports amounting annually to about $10,000,000, and the imports to $14,000,000. And he perceived that Philadelphia was even then distinguished as a manufacturing city, its cotton factories being especially notable, using two or three thousand looms and annually producing cotton cloth worth $2,000,000, or more.
Three packet lines to Liverpool were talked of, in order that the business of importing for Philadelphia merchants, which for a time had fallen into New York hands, could be restored to the city. As to internal trade, he learned that a surprising amount of business was being done by wagons, especially westward throughout the State. A single house in Philadelphia loaded two hundred for Pittsburgh in one year, with an average weight of two tons.
Williamson became interested, also, in the two canals then in the process of building, the Chesapeake and Delaware, and the Union; in the stupendous work of the Schuylkill Navigation Company by which navigation had just been opened the whole way from Philadelphia to Reading and the coal mines; and especially in that organization of a couple of years before, the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, having the purpose "to bring to market the valuable stone coal which abounds in a mountain situated on the margin of the Lehigh, about forty-six miles above the confluence." The anthracite coal business was then in its infancy. With his quick, nervous temperament, he clearly comprehended the possibilities of the future development of the city as a manufacturing and mercantile center. He was constantly thinking of its future, of which he was always as enthusiastic as his nature would permit.
At that time there were also many young men who, like Isaiah Williamson, were at the beginning of business careers that later gave them prominence. There was the shrewd and diligent John Grigg, whose small book business later developed into the large affairs of Grigg, Elliott & Co., and finally into the publishing house of J. B. Lippincott Company. Joseph H. Seal, a farmer's boy (whose experiences paralleled Williamson's), had then begun in a small way as a drygoods merchant; he made his fortune in a few years, and retired in 1838, leaving a large part of his money in commercial enterprises as a special partner, which was the good practice of sixty years ago.
He came into contact with the active young men of this time, such as John Welsh, Joseph R. Evans, and Jonathan Fell, and their sons; Thomas Ridgway and his partner, John Livezey; Alexander Henry, his son, and his nephew of the same name; Robert Wain and his successors; the Becks, the Willings; the Latimers; Jonathan Leedom; Eyre and Massey, whose many ships went all over the world; and Thomas P. Cope, then in the prime of life, whose regular packet lines to Liverpool, started in 1821, preceded all other lines, all of whom gave him a certain inspiration as these and others were all in the same boat with himself, making their fortunes.
Henry Budd, James Steele, Henry Sloan, and Alexander J. Derbyshire were clerks at that time in various concerns. Isaac R. Davis, also, was a clerk with H. C. Corbit, before the drygoods firm of Corbit, Davis & Co., had been formed. The sons of Matthew Carey, pioneer publisher, were already fairly started in the publishing and general bookselling business, in the two firms of Carey & Lea and Carey & Hart. George W. Carpenter, at twenty-three, was still an assistant to Charles Marshall in the drug business, and not till three years later began the independent career that sent his medicines all over the land. David Freed, another country boy, had just started in for himself in the retail flour trade. Charles Oakford, whose hat manufacturing later occupied many "palatial stores," was not done learning his trade, and not until two years later did he start out with his first order of four hats taken in "a little cubby hole" on Lombard Street. Edmund A. Souder, to whom belongs the credit of beginning the coasting trade to Maine and beyond, was still a young clerk in a commission house. Charles S. Boker—who in later years as president of the Girard Bank rescued it from its difficulties—had at that time scarcely more than made a start in the business of hats and shoes. The young Samuel Bispham had in a few years pushed the wagon trade of Alter & Bispham all over the State, and was laying the foundation for the future strength of Samuel Bispham & Sons. Six years older than Williamson, Benjamin W. Richards—son of a wealthy father, and a Princeton honor man—had married a daughter of Joshua Lippincott, and in 1825, the firm of Lippincott & Richards, commission merchants, was one of the largest in the city. Five years later Richards was Mayor, and through life one of Philadelphia's prominent and best men.
These are a few of the young men who were Isaiah's contemporaries and neighbors in businesss when he came to Philadelphia, and all of whom became more or less notable in after years through their industry, fair dealing and indomitable pluck. Contact with them gave him a certain inspiration, as they were all in the same boat with himself, making their fortunes.
In this thriving, bustling city Isaiah Williamson was matching a country boy's experience against city methods. He found that he had much to learn before he could hope to attain a large success. There were many strong men to compete with among Philadelphia's merchants, and there were many long and well-established houses. Their signs were numerous on Front, Water, Dock, Second, Third, and High Streets.
But are not the country boys, ever anew coming into the cities, the salvation of the cities? God did not build cities. He made trees and stored iron and stone and coal and clay in the earth. To men he left the task of finding and using these things. It was theirs to mine and forge and dig and build brick walls for homes and businesses. The majority of men that have made outstanding records in the cities were born among the trees and fields.
To Isaiah Williamson the city was an open race course for country boys. He was not the only one who came with the inexperience of youth and filled with great ambition. He determined to enter the race and make a fair struggle to win. Win he did, amid great applause from his fellow runners of those early days, who praised his name and gave him full credit at the time of his voluntary retirement from the activities of Market Street.
Nature has given to almost every man a dowry of latent energy that flames up to the surprise of the man himself when he needs it most.
Young Williamson came to Philadelphia, saying to himself, "I must and will conquer circumstances." All his strength rose and asserted itself when his will power became enlisted in his work.
In 1837 the firm of Williamson & Burroughs was dissolved. Isaiah retired, and his youngest brother, Mahlon, became the active Williamson of the firm. It was reorganized under the name of Williamson, Burroughs & Clark. Isaiah left money in the firm as a special partner.
This was the end of Isaiah V. Williamson's active participation in the life of Philadelphia as a drygoods merchant. He felt that he had made a comfortable fortune in less than twelve years, and in those times the possession of one hundred thousand dollars was considered a large fortune. For a man still in his thirties to have made in a little over a decade a sum like this by straight business dealing—no speculation—was a remarkable feat. At the time of his retirement he had the reputation of being one of the richest young merchants in Philadelphia, and he was much praised because his money was the result of his own effort.
It was not uncommon in the past for business men to fix an age or the amassing of a certain sum of money as the time of retiring from business. In our own time there are men who have won fortunes, and who have withdrawn from active business, and who have made to education and charities the best of all gifts, the gift of their time and talents to college and church work, notably in Philadelphia, Charles Custis Harrison and the late George C. Thomas, and in New York, Morris K. Jesup.
To Isaiah Williamson, who was not constitutionally strong, and who was a bachelor with simple tastes, one hundred thousand dollars, in the thirties, was a mountain of money far in excess of his personal needs. His decision to retire in favor of his younger brother was characteristic of the man. He always knew when to stop. He was a man of few words, good at listening but quick to stop when through speaking, or when he had made his bargain or concluded his investment. The subsequent events of his life prove that he knew when to stop giving all his time and attention to a drygoods business on Market Street.
It must also be borne in mind that the country Quaker loved quiet and needed much rest. He was fond of books. The extremely modest man had attained a far greater degree of culture than he was generally credited with. He kept up the study of French under a private tutor for some time after coming to Philadelphia. He read it easily, and if he did not speak fluently, it was because there was none with whom to talk. A portion of his books still remains in the possession of one of his nephews, and there is eloquent testimony to Williamson's intellectual tastes in glancing along the shelves.