8. Edward Damon Assumes Control (1854)
When Edward Damon was fifteen years old, he wrote to his cousin, Henry F. Smith:
“You want to know how I get along. I work in the cotton room tending drawing. It is very clean work for the factory. I go to work at seven and work half an hour, then half an hour for breakfast, then work again from eight o’clock until half-past twelve. Commence again at one o’clock and work until half-past seven. I like it very well.”
Edward attented Groton School and Phillips Academy. His semesters were punctuated by periods of time spent working in various roles at the mill, working in both bookkeeping and manufacturing. Such a comprehensive apprenticeship served him well—he was not yet eighteen when he took over the business upon his father's death.
Despite his youth, Edward stepped in with knowledge and maturity. He increased production, made extensive repairs on the mill, and purchased new machinery. In 1861, Damon Mill was contracted by the U.S. government to produce fabric for the United States Army. Business boomed as a result, but this success was cut short on June 19, 1862 by a fire that completely destroyed the mill. Adding tragedy to difficulty, Edward had planned to take his brother William as a partner in the business, but William died serving in the Army at Harrison’s Landing, Virginia.
This photograph of Edward Carver Damon was used to illustrate his biography by Henry F. Smith in the Fourth Series of Memoirs of Members of the Social Circle in Concord (1909).