in addition to farming the small parcel, he went into the tanning business. from a single vat hollowed out of a log, by 1852 he had several employees and had built a facility for the work. he sold the house for $3,200 ($ in contemporary dollars) to william harrison gates in 1853. after another sale in 1865, the tannery burned down sometime before 1874; an account from 1879 says that only a fragment of a foundation wall remained at that time.