Morning journal and courier., 1889-03-18
A NATIVE OF NEW HAVEN.

Death Of the NestOr of JeWelers-Born
 i'm This City In 1795-A Pioneer fin
 the Once Western Wilds of New
 York State.
 ITHACA, March 16.-Joseph Burritt, one of the oldest, if not the oldest jeweler in the State, and one of the best known of interior craftsmen, died in this village last event ng. aged ninetY-four years.
 He was born in New Haven in 1795 and was apprenticed. at an early age to a watch
 maker and silversmith of the Elm City,
 tower clock of whose construction still marks
 and tolls the hours for the students of Yale
 college, as it did for their sires and grand
 sires before them. This ingenious craftsman
 also made and repaired the mathematical,
 optical and nautical instruments for all the
 country round about as we'll as for New Ha-
 ven itself, which, it will be remembered, was
 during the war of 1S12 the only neutral sea-
 port in the northern States, and therefore
 place of considerable commercial importance. All in ail, this Yankee teacher of MT. Bur- ritt's was genius and a proficient workman in those good old days, when spoons were beaten out by hand, clocks, both wood and brass, were constructed by the same leisurely process and port of a watch, if broken or lost could not be ordered by size and number from factory as in these days, but had to be replaced laboriously by hand. While serving his apprenticeship, MT. Burritt, by permission of his master, made for himself an excellent set of tools, which he used for many years. MT. Burritt completed his apprenticeship and his majority in the year 1915, and natur- ally cast his eye about for desirable place | in which to ply his craft. In the following year, therefore, our young journeyman \ bought horse and wagon, and taking his | wife (for he had married in the meantime) ! and the tools of his trade, in company with l another journeymau silversmith named Fair child, of Stratford, Conn.,, he set out for a new land beyond the Hudson, of which ! vague rumor had come to him while he was | learning his trade. It was ten days pill ! orimage overland to the little hamlet which | marked the site of the present hourishing village of Ithaca. Deer, startled from the \ thickets, started across the road in front of the hardy pioneers.
 | A score of rude dwellings constituted the | village of Ithaca at that time, and it was no | easy matter to secure home or store in such settlement; but MT. Burritt finally succeeded in obtaining room on the second floor, and started to work.
 | When he left Stratford he intended to set- tie somewhat north of Ithaca, but by the ad- vice of friend who informed him that there was no craftsmen of his order in Ithaca, he decided to stop there. He found, however, ! that there was silversmith named Burdick \ brisk business, and his companion, Fairchild, growing homesick, he entered \ into a partnership with Burdick, which was l continued almost uninterrupted for twenty ' five years. They had all the work they could ! attend to till far into the night. In 1888 MT. Burritt's son, Joseph O., was made partner | in the business. After fifty years of success, l just before the war MT. Burritt retired from business at the solicitation of his friends dis I posing of his interest to his son and partner, I who has since conducted the business either ! alone at present or in connection with ! others, who have since established stores of | their own.
 | With very few exceptions the watch repairers ! of Ithaca and adjoining towns acquired their | knowledge of the craft from MT. Burritt, ! and all united in testifying to his ingenuity I and thorough workmanlike qualities.
 1 Though ninety-four years of age last Au- | gust, Mir. Burritt was remarkably well pre- | served. He used no glasses, artificial teeth, or ear-trumpet; his step was firm, his eye bright, and his mind clear. Until within a | few years past he had had a workshop above the store, where he passed regular hours of
 labor every day. With advancing years, \ however, came the tremulous hand which | refused longer obedience to the will, and he ! finally trusted himself to do only the coarser \ grades of clockwork.
 His regular attendance at the familiar place | of business on State street became second I nature, and he might have been seen there | every day, newspaper in hand. In his habits | he was very temperate and methodical, which probably accounts in part for his great longevity.
 One of the few parallel instances of longev- \ ity in our trade is that of the Foster Bros, Newburyport, Mass, who retired from busi- | ness about three years ago at the age of near | ly ninety, after s>partnership extending over I period of moro than sixty years.
 By dint of industry and economy our aged \ jeweler had been able to amass very fair | competence, and, to the day of his death, was the oldest man in Ithaca and was re- spected by all his fellow townsmen for his ! many sterling qualities.-Jewelers' Review.