Throughout this website, the people who engaged in occupations that required interaction with the public have been noted and described. Particular occupations facilitated and encouraged the growth of civilization in the wilderness: Inns and taverns encouraged the growth of towns by making travel over long distances practical. Grist mills provided the means for settlers to have their grains ground into life-sustaining flour. Saw mills made the building of wood frame houses and barns somewhat easier than that of log, brick or stone structures. Woolen mills made the weaving of cloth for clothing and bedding quicker and easier than being done on hand looms. Blacksmiths, wainwrights and similar craftsmen kept wagons in repair and produced and repaired hand tools. Because of the fact that people who engaged in these occupations came in contact every day with large numbers of other people in the region, it is of importance to know who they were and where they lived and worked. But that does not mean that they were of any more importance than anyone else; it simply means that they were well known and acquainted to and with their neighbors.
The majority of the residents of Bedford County, as in many of its neighboring counties, were not innkeepers or millers or blacksmiths. The majority were farmers. In spite of all the specialized craftsmen who contributed to the spreading and maintenance of civilization, if it were not for the farmers, the civilization would come to an end through starvation.
A fact that surprises some people is that many of the individuals who practiced a specialized craft or occupation also did a bit of farming. Most town lots included a garden or an animal pen in their backyards. Quite often a craftsman's income did not supply enough money to keep his family fed and clothed. The small vegetable garden or the pen with a few chickens or a cow augmented the craftsman's income.
Benjamin Franklin, in his Positions to be Examined, Concerning National Wealth, which he published in 1769, stated:
"There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war, as the Romans did, by plundering their conquered neighbors. This is robbery. The second by commerce, which is generally cheating. The third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry."
