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BUSINESS SIDELIGHTS 1830-I920 Chapter 6 The period between 1830 and I9oo was the golden age of individual enterprise. A young man who was bold and shrewd and ready to risk one dollar to gain ten, could usually, with a little luck, make his fortune. The most successful business man in the earlier years was Norman Hamilton. He was born east of the Hudson and migrated to the village of Mendon, New York State -an area that was then part of the American frontier. As he approached manhood, he was naturally influenced by the bustling life around him; and he learned to admire the energetic and sometimes ruthless men who, by leading the way in turning the wilderness into a prosperous land, made themselves wealthy, powerful, and respected. For a few years, Hamilton worked in a Mendon grist-mill. But when he was twenty two, he decided to push westward in search of his fortune. Thus in 1828 he migrated to Mudge Hollow (Canning) where he worked in a distillery and saved his money. Then in 1831, having aquired a small capital and sensing the opportunities that waited for him in Paris, he came to Capron's small village. During his first fifteen years in Paris, Hamilton dominated the economic life of the village, and won the reputation of being (accord- ing to a description in History of Brant County) one of those pushing, independent, succeed-at-any-price Yankees." He founded a distillery and a pork-packing factory; he rented and then bought a grist and a gypsum mill from Capron; he bought parcels of land 61 i0 ,.