THE EPHEMERA OF BUSINESS

I recently purchased some billheads New Hampshire . The billheads trade between firm spellings of Tibbets and Tebbets. Both have the same address No. 20 Market Street . Both have simple signboard advertisement on the left hand side with slightly different product listings. The Tebbets is dated 1876 and the Tibbets is dated 1875. In a Manchester New Hampshire directory dated 1882 is shows a Tebbets Brothers in Rochester, an E.A. Tibbets & Son in Great Falls/Somersworth (more on New Hampshire’s crazy confusing double town names and the difficulty it creates in researching old businesses in another soon to be post). Even a Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire interchanges the spellings of the surname. An Ebenezer Armstrong (E.A.) Tebbets is listed as a merchant. His son William Tibbets is listed as being a clerk in the firm of Tibbets & Brother at Somersworth, then he became a partner in his father’s firm under the name E...

Besides having highly decoative billheads, many companies also carried this over into the receipts for collection. These receipts are smaller than billheads are are normally printed lenghtwise. Think of a piece of letterhead but have the size. Many of these were pre-printed with blanks to fill in the amounts owed.

Paint, Oil, and Varnish Industry. The paint industry in the United States started in New York City , in 1715, when linseed oil was put on the market as an article of commercial value. This first mill was closely followed in 1718 by one in Connecticut , erected by John Prout, Jr. Later in 1750 the Dunkers, in Lancaster Co., Pa. , started the industry and by 1786 had four mills in operation. While paint had been used many years before the linseed-oil industry was started, yet its manufacture added a great stimulus to the use of paints because it aided greatly in the manufacture of paints and varnish and later became a necessary adjunct to the business. The rapid growth of the linseed-oil industry had not been without its effect in stimulating the use of paints. These colors were, however, wholly imported, and grew but slowly in general favor. Nevertheless by 1714 painters' colors were for sale in Boston , and while their employment, even for painting the churches, was fr...