“Having preserved these printed papers I will not further write of those days but rather will begin about the time I left school in July, 1846, going first as errand boy to Mr. Robert Thornely becoming afterwards his apprentice in Silk Hat Finishing on October 1st, 1847.�? (Ashley p.1).
“My Father, at that time and ever afterwards, declared that he paid the account in the office at the mills, but as the receipts could not be produced a distress was put in the house and the furniture sold- at least so much as to meet the miller’s claim�? (Ashley p.2)