Billhead of the Month - Fitts & Austin

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 the brand name of Wild Turkey comes about. The firm would get out of the grocer business and focus on alcohol and purchased the Ripy Distillery in 1972.

Here is a nice example of a Fitts & Austin cigar box with label.

Next up an Austin, Nichols & Co. trade card and early 20th century letterhead.

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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.

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

Newest edition to my collection - Widdicomb Furniture Co.

Lately, I can't help but buy some U.S. letterheads and billheads. I have an affinity for billheads / letterheads / receipts from the 1870s. Here is a recent purchase for the Widdicomb Furniture Co. of Grand Rapids Michigan. For 145 years, the Widdicomb name has been recognized in the furniture world. The earliest Widdicomb company was organized in 1857, by George Widdicomb, a British trained cabinet maker, employing 12 men, plus his four sons Harry, William, George Jr., and John. Except during the Civil War, a Widdicomb furniture firm was run by the family until 1916. The John Widdicomb Co. was founded in 1897 when John left the parent company to form his own firm. Though he died in 1910, that firm continued under his name until the 1990’s, and purchased the title of the original company in the 1970’s.

THE EPHEMERA OF BUSINESS

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