THE EPHEMERA OF BUSINESS

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...

Here are some Gies & Co. billheads. Click here for a nice history of the company from another website. Check out Gies trade cards too.

Well, I meant for this post to be part 2 of the Dart & Van Keuren billhead, but Peter Van Keuren has proved to me a difficult research job. I thought Van Keuren would at least yield a little bit. With an unusual last name, usually I am able to find something. It is exceedingly difficult to research common last names even when you have location information. The few tidbits I was able to uncover possibly related to Van Keuren was there is a later New York directory reference to an Abraham Van Keuren listed as a druggist - possibly a son, nephew or son-in-law who learned the business from Peter which was common in the 19th century. I also found a note for a Peter Van Keuren listed as a postmaster in Northern New York. That's all there is for Mr. Van Keuren. Now onto a new purchase - an 1836 billhead for Richard Downie brazier and tin plate worker located in Hereford. Lovely left side graphic of the inside of the firm showing workers.

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...