Masonry Magazine November 1973 Page. 11
Past chairman and present secretary of the National Joint Apprenticeship Committee, Robert Ebeling (center), visits a jobsite in the Detroit area to review the progress of apprentices Jim Snow, Local 2 of Detroit, and Ray Hicks, Local 26 of Mount Clemens. Hicks is the son of Howard Hicks, a partner in the firm of Ebeling & Hicks, mason contractors headquartered in Romeo, Mich.
younger brother, Thomas, learned the craft from their father the most accepted method then of learning a trade. Two of Paul's sons, in their turn, served their apprenticeships in the family's shop in Boston.
Paul Revere's excellent craftsmanship in silver is still prized today. Some 500 of his originals church silver, flagons, tankards, cups, spoons are known to exist. He also doubled as a coppersmith and cast church bells, a number of which may still be heard in New England cities. And he is credited with founding the U.S. copper and brass industries. At age 67, he set up the first copper rolling mill in Canton, Mass., forerunner of the present-day Revere Copper and Brass Company.
Revere's famous contemporary, Benjamin Franklin, was indentured to his elder brother, James, in 1718 to learn printing at the age of 12. Their father paid James 10 pounds to teach Benjamin the ropes as well as to supply him with food, lodging and other "necessaries." In those days, it was a handsome arrangement.
Young Benjamin was committed to a nine-year apprenticeship and was to have received a journeyman's wage just before he turned 21. But because of differences with his brother, he quit shortly before completing the full specified time for the reason, as he put it: "Thinking my apprenticeship very tedious, I was continuously wishing for some opportunity of shortening it." Even though he didn't make it all the way, Franklin managed to do exceedingly well for himself, even without a journeyman's card.
It wasn't until the mid-1800's that the United States began taking a closer look at the apprenticeship system, with an eye toward improving it. The Pennsylvania Railroad masonry Nov./Dec., 1973
Herschel Hunt (far left), of Indianapolis, Ind., past chairman and now representative of the National Joint Bricklaying Apprenticeship & Training Committee, casts an experienced eye on two young apprentices to ascertain their progress in field work.
provided one of the first examples of the graduated wage scale paid to apprentices in 1865. Though hardly a glittering model to be followed, it prescribed a payment of 50 cents per 10-hour day for the first 620 days of training, 60 cents a day for the next 310 days, and 80 cents daily for the remainder of the training term. If and when