THE EPHEMERA OF BUSINESS

About 2 years ago I purchased a large billhead ledger in Eau Claire Wisconsin. I soaked out the billheads and sold many of them. To my surprise the first 20 pages had three layers of billheads. One of these buried billheads was for Wm T. Price lumberman and farmer and proprietor Hixton Mills. As you can see, the little billhead is in poor shape, but the history behind Price makes it a historical gem. William Thompson Price was born at Barre Township , Pennsylvania in 1824. His father was a farmer and at one time Sheriff of Huntingdon County PA. William worked on the farm and also as a clerk in a store at Hollidaysburg PA and studied law. In 1845 he immigrated West, first to Mount Pleasant Iowa where he intended to work in the law business. He soon moved to Black River Falls Wisconsin and went into the pine woods six miles north of Neillsville with two other men and got out 700,000 feet of logs during the winter. In the summer of 1846 he accepted a position as book keeper...

I have some cupid graphics for your enjoyment today.

I picked up this billhead recently on ebay and I was somewhat surprised it went so cheap. Nice early billhead with left side graphic of a bottle and funnel with the words across the bottle - drugs, paints and dye stuff. really faint plate mark on left side. I love researching the billheads I buy and this one was very interesting. I usually start my research by typing in the firm name with quotes in google to see what pops up. Nothing of any substance came up for Dart & Van Keuren. Next it’s on to searching google books by firm name, then include the city, then include the type of business. Nothing too helpful yet for Dart & Van Keuren. I have a link to a listing of online state and city directories , so I check there. There was an 1827 Longworth directory free through google books so I checked it and there was no Dart listed as a druggist, there were three Darts listed: Anson, Norman and Russel. There were two Vankeurens listed: Peter and Abraham. So, back to regular go...

The stereotype Chinaman is mostly found on billhead and letterheads associated with tea. The first introduction of tea in Europe was in Portugal. But it wasn't until the formation of the East India Company in 1602 that the use of tea became known on the Continent. In 1669 the East India Company's first invoice of teas was received from China. In the space of 100 years from 1718 to 1818 the East India Company sold 750,219,016 lbs. of tea. The consumption of tea in the United States before the Revolution was considerable. It was Britain's taxation of tea that led to the rallying cry of No Taxation without Representation. As soon as it could, the United States opened trade with China. Ships from Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Salem were the most active in the new China trade. By the 1830’s, trade routes were well established between the United States and China. Thus tea became the most important commodity Americans obtained from China through the end of the 19th...

Michael Treacy was born in 1844 at Massachusetts. He moved to St. Paul in 1856 and worked for TM Newson in 1859. He soon learned the trade of job printer with the job department of the Pioneer Press and worked for them for twenty-two years when in 1882 he went into business for himself with partners under the firm name Brown, Treacy & Howard. His brother John also worked for the Pioneer Press and eventually joined the firm. In 1894, the firm became Brown, Treacy & Co. with Hiram Brown, Treacy and Dennis Sperry as partners. In 1896, the firm invested money with Herbert H. Bigelow to print and sell calendars. That firm was known as Brown & Bigelow. In December, 1900 the firm of Brown, Treacy & Co. was dissolved due to the death of Michael Treacy. In 1905 Brown died. In 1924, Bigelow was sentenced to two years in Leavenworth prison for income tax evasion. At Leavenworth he was befriended by Charles Ward who was serving a sentence for narcotics. Wa...

1878 blue colored billhead for Fitts & Austin wholesale grocers and jobbers in teas located on Reade Street in New York City. Company partners were Friend P. Fitts and Robert F. Austin. Item purchased was Antelope cigars. Billhead has creases. Friend P. Fitts made money in the California Gold Rush. An 1850 San Francisco directory lists him with the firm Fitts & Tilden (Thomas Tilden) shipping and commission merchants. Sometime in 1850 Fitts moved to New York City and started the grocery firm of Fitts, Martin & Clough. The firm made a specialty of teas, coffees and spices. Robert F. Austin was soon admitted as a partner of the firm the name became Fitts, Austin & Turner. Turner died and the firm became Fitts & Austin. Fitts retired in 1879 and Austin joined forces with James Nichols under the new firm name of Austin, Nichols & Co. In the 1940s the firm expanded into the alcohol business and pays distilleries to make a line of spirits and...

I purchased my first 18th century UK billhead back in December. Billhead is for Thomas Walker broker and dealer in ship stores located at King's Place New Buildings in Portsea which is part of city of Portsmouth located on Portsea Island. Items purchased by John Porteus for the ship Derwent. From wikipedia: The area was originally known as the Common and lay between the town of Portsmouth and the nearby Dockyard. The Common started to be developed at the end of the seventeenth century, as a response to the overcrowding in the walled town of Portsmouth. This development worried the governor of the dockyard as he feared the new buildings would provide cover for any forces attempting to attack the dockyard. In 1703, he threatened to demolish any buildings within range of the cannons mounted on the dockyard walls. However, after a petition to King George, royal consent for the development was granted in 1704. In 1792 the name of the area was changed from the Common to Portse...