Signatures on business paper ephemera

I recently purchased a large lot of letterheads and other paper ephemera from an online auction was from a Rockford Illinois family. That family was the Brolins. The patriarch was Willard A. Brolin Sr. He had is hand in numerous Rockford businesses and was a millionaire before the 1929 stock market crash in which he lost everything. Amongst that lot of papers was a rather benign looking letterhead for an R.L. Beckwith of Center Harbor New Hampshire. The typed letter discusses business. I always do a quick research of the items I sell on ebay just to make sure I am not missing anything. To my surprise, Richard L. Beckwith was a Titanic survivor! There is a market for Titanic survivor signatures and I was fortunate to be able to market this as such. What also helped me to link this to the Beckwith Titanic survivor was other paper in my lot from William Monypeny Newsom - who was Beckwith's stepson. Without that link, I would have had to put a caveat on my listing as a "possible" survivor, but with that paper, I was able to be sure this was the correct Beckwith.

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CAPEWELL HORSE NAIL COMPANY

I regularly purchase goods and paper at a local online auction. In December, I noticed that a lot of random estate / household goods also had a small pile of what looked to be calendars. I won the lot and sure enough it included many advertising calendars. Many of those were for the Capewell Horse Nail Company of Hartford Connecticut. These calendars were damaged, but the color and graphics were still very bright. Last week, I happened on a lot of paper through ebay that included a billhead for the company. Attached are photos of all for your enjoyment.

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...

Oswego New York Mills

Oswego is located on Lake Ontario and at the mouth of the Oswego River in north-central New York . In 1826 the first mill was built in Oswego for the manufacturer of flour. The mill was built by Alvin Bronson and TS Morgan on the east side of the river. An adjoining mill was thereafter built by Henry Fitzhugh. From that first mill onward, the flour milling business blossomed in Oswego chiefly due to it the hydraulic power of Oswego Fall and the Oswego River . On July 5, 1853, fire destroyed most of the mills and elevators on the east side of the river. All of the lost mills were rebuilt. Eventually the Oswego mills lost ground to the Western mills, but the paper mills moved took their place. A list of the mills in 1853 included: Empire - run by Doolittle, Irwin & Wright Ontario – run by GLAB Grant Atlas – run by Geo. Seeley Magnolia - run by Chas. Smyth Lake Ontario – run by Fitzhugh & Littlejohn Washington – run by Penfield, Ly...

THE EPHEMERA OF BUSINESS

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