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.

Rubber Goods

The rubber industry in the United States can hardly be said to have had any real and tangible existence until the discovery of the process of vulcanization in 1844 by Charles Goodyear. The first rubber ever imported into this country was brought into Boston in the year 1800 and came in In that same year a patent was granted to one Jacob Hummel, of Philadelphia, for a gum-elastic varnish; of which, however, there seems to have been no further mention. Some ten years later, in 1823, a Boston sea-captain, coming from South American ports, brought with him a pair of gilded rubber shoes which excited the greatest interest. Two years later, 500 pairs of rubber shoes, made by the natives along the Amazon, were brought into Boston, this time without the fantastical refinement of gilding. They were exceedingly thick, clumsy, and unshapely shoes, and yet they sold readily, bringing from $3 to $5 per pair as they were found that they were a secure protection against dampness. This was the e

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

THE EPHEMERA OF BUSINESS

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