During the first half of the present century the tanning business was a widely diffused industry. Nearly every town in the vicinity of the present town of garland was favored with the existence of a tannery, where the hides of animals slaughtered for food could be converted into leather, thus supplying as ever existing necessity. From the middle of the century the small tanners disappeared. This was due partly to the growing scarcity of the bark supply and partly to the increasing tendency of absorption of small manufacturing industries by large establishments and corporations, whose command of money enabled them to appropriate improved modern methods and expensive machinery. A few years subsequent to the War of the Rebellion, the small tanneries had all disappeared. LincolntownÕs first tanner, who was also a shoemaker, was Andrew Griffin. Mr. Griffin purchased ten acres of land of Joseph Garland, located on the brook between the present residence of David Dearborn and Barton McComb. Here he built a small framed house for his family in 1806 and a shop for his business. A small level plat still shows the locality of is tan-vats, which were just outside his shop. A rude covering protected his bark and apparatus for grinding it, from rain. His machinery for grinding the bark was of the most primitive character. It consisted of a circular platform of plank, ten or twelve feet in diameter, through the center of which an upright post was set firmly in the earth. The section of the post above the platform was about three feet in height. A circular piece of granite six feet in diameter and ten or twelve inches in thickness was placed on the outer edge of the platform. A wooden shaft was passed through the center of the granite and firmly fastened, one end of which was attached to the top of the post in the center of the platform by a revolving joint. A horse, harnessed to the opposite end on the shaft, traveled around the platform. The bark was broken into small pieces and thrown under the rolling stone and thus reduced to a condition suitable for use. The grinding of a single cord of bark was a good dayÕs work. It was a tedious method, as indeed were all the processes of manufacturing leather in those days, but they met the requirements of the times.