Rockland, Maine...The 14 year old Apprentice in 1882
On what I believe was Amos' mothers' side, Uncle Sam Mugridge had a successful sailmaking business in Rockland where it was arranged that 14 year old Amos should go to learn the trade. His two older brothers, Harry and Wilmont had before been directed to go the same way. Amos's younger brother Herbert went into sailmaking as well, and his name shows up in records when all the brothers worked together in Bath. Castine native Mugridge began his Rockland enterprise in 1866. Maine Magazine in 1907 states Sam had 6 to 8 employees.
Sailmaking apprenticeships in the 19th century were often as long as 7 years, beginning as young as age 14. Apparently Amos divided his early years in the Mugridge loft between learning the trade, and attending school back home in Brooksville from November till March, when as the story goes, Isaiah would drive him the 18 miles to Bucksport to catch the steamer to Rockland. "Driving" in the 1880s' in this case was done in a "Maine pung", a roughly fashioned sleigh pulled by a horse.
