Introduction

Biography

Sylvester was the son of Jo­shua Main and Han­nah Gil­bert, and fa­ther of Hu­bert Main.

He start­ed out as a sing­ing school teach­er. He lat­er part­nered with Lu­ci­us Big­low to take over Will­iam Brad­bu­ry’s bu­si­ness in 1867, form­ing the well known Big­low & Main pub­lish­ing house.

Among the play­mates who used to ga­ther on the vill­age green was Syl­ves­ter Main, who was two or three years old­er than I. He was a prime fa­vor­ite with the gent­ler sex, for he used to pro­tect us from the an­noy­anc­es of more mis­chie­vous boys.

In the au­tumn of 1834 mo­ther and I left Ridgefield and went to live again in West­ches­ter Coun­ty [New York]; and I then bade my friend, Syl­ves­ter, adieu.

Not un­til thir­ty years lat­er did we meet again, this time, strange­ly enough, in the of­fice of Will­iam B. Brad­bu­ry with whom he was af­ter­wards a bu­si­ness part­ner; and from 1864 to the time of his death in 1873 we worked to­ge­ther con­stan­tly.

Crosby, p. 8

Works

• Cottage Me­lo­dies, with Will­iam Brad­bu­ry (New York: Carl­ton & Por­ter, 1859)
• Hallowed Songs, with Phil­ip Phill­ips & Theo­dore Per­kins (New York: Carl­ton & Por­ter, 1865)