Letterhead top - Axel Silversparre

I purchased this letterhead top along with 4 others on ebay this past March. I was drawn to the image of the men surveying. The billhead is dated 188_ and states: Axel Silversparre civil and topographical engineer Washington D.C.

Axel Silversparre was born in 1834 at Strangas Sweden. He came to America. In January and February 1862 he recruited Battery H out of Chicago. His command was know as “Silversparre’s Battery.”

In March the battery was ordered to St. Louis where it was equipped with as a four 20 pound gun battery. In the spring of 1862, after it was immediately reassigned to Grant’s Department of Cairo which was building up for campaigns on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. Silversparre’s Battery took part in the Battle of Shiloh forming the center of the line of artillery and repulsed the last charges of the Confederates. Soon after the battery became part of General Sherman’s command attached to the 2nd Division of the XV Corps where it remained for the rest of the war. In the summer of 1862, Silversparre was made Chief of Artillery at Fort Pickering during the Memphis Campaign but was captured during one of the battles for Memphis and never rejoined his battery.

After the war he was connected with the Quincy mines in Michigan. In 1880 we find him in Colorado employed as an engineer in the Rio Grande office. After that he ends up in Washington D.C. where he produced a map of that city. He is credited with creating the first map of the state. He died in May 1906.

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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.

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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.

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THE EPHEMERA OF BUSINESS

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