I looked more deeply into Channing Smith because I love that name, and he turned out to be quite interesting! Channing was one of my 3rd great-grandfathers:
Channing Smith (1797-1878, b. Massachusetts)
. James Arnold Smith (1830-1894, b. Connecticut)
. . Bert Laraway Smith (1863-1922, b. New York)
. . . Bert Laraway Smith Jr.
In 1811, at age 14, Channing was “bound out” as an apprentice to learn the trade of the woolen dyer. His apprenticeship lasted until he was 21, and then he practiced his trade until he retired at age 68.
I learned all this and more in an article that his grandson, also named Channing Smith, wrote in 1917. It’s called “Textile Manufacturing in Retrospect,” and it’s available here: https://books.google.com/books?id=6C8wAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA144
The elder Channing’s father, Joel Smith (1770-1800, b. Connecticut), died when Channing was three. I wonder if that led to Channing’s need to learn a trade so young, at 14? Or maybe 14 wasn’t young by the standards of the day?
The photo above shows a snippet of the 1850 U.S. Census in Blackstone, Worcester County, Massachusetts. Channing’s wife was Eliza Beebe (1805-1878). Listed below Eliza on the census page are four of their children; six more children are listed on the next page, which I couldn’t fit into the screenshot.
The census shows that Channing and Eliza’s sons John and James and James were also dyers. James, as shown above, was my 2nd great-grandfather.