156                    THE OLD MERCHAJVTS
 

CHAPTER XVIII.

I have alluded in one of these chapters to the firm of
Pxiorman, Johnson & Co., and to the individual partners.
I did not say much about Daniel Ayres, who was of the
firm, or rather of the firm of Boorman, Johnson, Ayres
& Co, His career is worth noticing. At the age of
twelve years, after graduating In one of the public
schools of this city, he was, in 1802. apprenticed to the
firm of Blackwell and McFarlan, then at the corner
of Water street and Coenties slip. The tirm consisted
of .loseph Blackwell, senior and junior, and Henry Mc¬
Farlan. This store was then, and long continued, the
liead-quarters of the iron trade. The senior Blackwell
dleu in 1807. The firm continued, omitting the plural,
in the name of Blackwell. In 1828, Mr. Blackwell, the
junior, also died. The firm was now changed — Mr.
Ayres being admitted a partner — to McFarlan & Ayres,
the two McFarlans being father and son. Few now re¬
member the old firm, nor the magnitude of the iron
business they then carried on, as the leading house in
that trade.    This firm was discontinued about 1833.

In this year, James Boorman invited Mr. Ayres to
become a partner in the iron department of the firm of
which he was senior— after thirty-one years service in
the former establishment, as ypjireiitice and partner —