The study opens with a portrait of Daniel Freeman Emery (1801-

1891) who founded the company in partnership with Joshua W. Water[1]house. Readers are given the history of the founders and the bustling port, complete with illustrations, maps, documents, bill-heads, and fam[1]ily and company photographs.

The company was one of many hardware firms in the city. By chance, the Middle Street store survived the Great Fire of 1866, although buildings on either side were reduced to ash. Still, the firm moved to new, larger quarters, and in 1875 historian Edward Elwell called Emery[1]Waterhouse “the largest in the Hardware line in this city or the State.”

The Emery family ran the business until the death of Daniel, Jr., in 1929 — the year of the stock market crash. In 1930 the Emery Block burned and was rebuilt. Then in 1933 the new president of the firm, Charles D. Alexander, shot himself and the company was found to be close to insol[1]vency. At this point Charles L. Hildreth (1902-1976), son of a leading lo[1]cal family and graduate of Bowdoin College and Harvard Law School, was talked into buying the firm. For Hildreth it was a way to stay in Maine near his family and turn a fading company around.