l(in the same year, and the building of the first post office and the first bank in 1639 and 1674, respectively (Boston: History 2008). Boston even has the honor of claiming the publication of the nation's oldest newspaper, Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick, although it was banned in 1690 after only one issue and replaced by the long-running Boston News-Letter in 1704 (Boston: History 2008). Boston's population by 1750 totaled 15,000 (Boston: History 2008).
In the years prior to 1877, Boston figured prominently in America's history, particularly during the American Revolution. When Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere lived there, Boston's North End was "dominated by wharves and shipyards and peopled with mariners, ropemakers, housewrights, and silversmiths, along with wealthy merchants" (Triber 1998). In that day, artisans like his family, which were silversmit
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