The Anatomy of a Billhead.

Billheads have generally the same anatomy.

Top (Heading): Has a line to handwrite in the date and the name of the person who bought the items. The name of the company appears here usually behind the word “Bought of,” “Bro.” or
See picture below for example.

Usually any graphic is depicted to the left of the name of the company. I have yet to see a billhead that has a lone graphic to the right, usually if it has a right graphic it has graphics on both sides of the name of the company. See below for nice graphic of a rifle from EE Eaton.

Body: Lines to write goods received. It is fascinating to see what is bought of companies. For instance, below is a billhead for Biggs, Spencer & Co. of Chicago showing that Austin Seeley has purchased boy’s guns. I have a whole slew of billheads for Seeley and will have a few posts later about this early Wisconsin gunsmith.

Bottom: Usually indicates who the items were paid for and how the items were shipped. Sometimes proprietors wrote long notes to customers about store stock. See below for an example of this from EE Eaton to Seeley. Eaton refers to having a hard time getting stock in the city, this was after the Great Chicago Fire and I speculate that there were tons of new goods coming in by rail, thus is was a busy time.

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Baking Powder Billheads

In 1843 the first modern version of baking powder was discovered and manufactured by Alfred Bird, a British chemist. In 1846, Justus Von Liebig in Germany experiments with yeast made from sodium bicarbonate and hydrochloric acid with explosive results. In 1885, Eben Horsford and George Wilson manufacture chemicals which eventually became the Rumford Chemical Works. Horsford formulated and patented Rumford Baking Powder, the first calcium phopshate baking powder. In 1889, William Wright and chemist George Rew developed a double-action baking powder marketed under the name Calumet Baking Powder. Below find some examples of baking powder billheads.

Billhead of the Month: Schmit Bros trunks Oshkosh WI

I picked up this Schmit Brothers billhead recently in Eau Claire. I currently have it for sale on ebay right now. It is a nice triple graphic billhead. Here is my ebay write up: 1895 billhead for The Schmit Brothers Trunk Company manufacturers of trunks, traveling bags and valises of Oshkosh Wisconsin. Great header graphics with three images. Left side is the firm’s mill at Summit Lake, middle is the firm’s factory and left side is the firm’s warehouse. Billhead has creases. Peter Schmit was born in 1840 in Prussia. He emigrated to the U.S. in June 1854 and located inRacine WI. He was engaged in farming until 1861 when he enlisted in Company D, 6th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He engaged in the battles at Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, Mine Run, Bull Run, Gettysburg, Atlanta, Macon, and Savannah. He was mustered out in June 1865. He came back to Racine and kept a hotel until 1866 when he joined his brother Henry’s trunk business. Henry had established the bus...

Newest edition to my collection - Widdicomb Furniture Co.

Lately, I can't help but buy some U.S. letterheads and billheads. I have an affinity for billheads / letterheads / receipts from the 1870s. Here is a recent purchase for the Widdicomb Furniture Co. of Grand Rapids Michigan. For 145 years, the Widdicomb name has been recognized in the furniture world. The earliest Widdicomb company was organized in 1857, by George Widdicomb, a British trained cabinet maker, employing 12 men, plus his four sons Harry, William, George Jr., and John. Except during the Civil War, a Widdicomb furniture firm was run by the family until 1916. The John Widdicomb Co. was founded in 1897 when John left the parent company to form his own firm. Though he died in 1910, that firm continued under his name until the 1990’s, and purchased the title of the original company in the 1970’s.

THE EPHEMERA OF BUSINESS

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