Business, Madness & Social Betterment - Postal History Sunday

It's the last Sunday of March and we have another edition of Postal History Sunday on the GFF Postal History blog!  Let's see if we can learn something new.

I do feel it is important for me to remind all of you that if your Sunday is busy, you can still enjoy Postal History Sunday on any day of the week.  Whenever it is that you find time to join us, make sure you take those troubles and worries and pretend they are a sheet of paper.  Fold that paper in half as many times as you can until it's really, really small!  Then, flick it to the floor so the cat can play with it.  It won't take long before you can't find those troubles anymore (until you decide to clean under the fridge).

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This week's entry starts with a simple business letter that was sent from Paris, France to Geneve, Switzerland in 1879.  Like many of the business letters of the time, the content was simply folded over on itself for mailing, no envelope was used.  Postal historians refer to these as folded letters or folded lettersheets (we can be so clever sometimes!).

This item is actually newer than many of the things I collect.  Yes, it seems odd to say it is newer and then point out that it is from 1879, but it is nonetheless true.  Most of the things that interest me are mailed prior to the mid 1870s.  The General Postal Union (GPU) was formed in 1875 and it set standards and postage rates between many of the nations of the world.  By the time we get to 1879, the GPU was now the Universal Postal Union (UPU).  Most postal entities were a part of this agreement by the time this letter was mailed between France and Switzerland.

This letter was mailed at a rate of 25 centimes for every 15 grams.  It was sent from the Gare du Nord post office in Paris on July 18, 1879 and it was on a train in Switzerland the next day.  There is no specific marking telling me when the Geneve post office accepted the item for delivery.

Gare du Nord was (and is) a train station in Paris that served as the terminus for the Paris-Lille railway run by the Chemin de Fer du Nord (essentially Northern Railway).  The train station building being used at the time would have been the second such building with this name.  The first being replaced by this one in 1865.  This train station is still in service as of this writing and can be seen below.

This recent photo of the Gare du Nord was taken from the Paris by Train site on March 18, 2021.

Traveling Post Offices

As international mail became more standardized with the GPU and then the UPU and as the number of mail train routes increased in France and Switzerland, the postal services also simplified the markings they put on each item of letter mail.  

For this particular piece of mail, we have a postmark on the front for when the item was brought to the Gare du Nord on July 18.  Well, actually, we have that same marking twice.  One is used to deface the postage stamp so it can't be used again and the other is on the envelope.  I suppose the second strike is so the recipient can see when the French postal service got the letter for mailing.

The only other postal marking is the "ambulant" marking on the back.  An ambulant marking is also known as a marking for a Traveling Post Office (TPO).  Most trains that carried the mail had a mail car with a clerk who had the duty of processing mail and making sure it off-loaded at the proper train stations.  And, yes, they were also responsible to taking on additional mail at each stop.

 This photo was taken from the Postal Museum site referenced below on March 18, 2021.

If this interests you, the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum has an excellent online article that shows how a mail clerk in the United States was able to snag mailbags without the train stopping!  I suspect their European counterparts may well have done the same for some locations.   The photo above shows a clerk snagging a mail bag (look closely for the hook and the mailbag by the doorway). 

The marking on the back of the letter reads: Ambulant 19 VII 79 243 No 2.

The first three parts are the date (July 19, 1879) and it is likely the rest identifies the train and/or the postal clerk.  The only clues we have for the routing of this mail are that it was mailed at the Gare du Nord post office in Paris and that it was on this train in Switzerland.  

This is, perhaps, one of the reasons I take a little less joy in mail after 1875 - there is so much less for me to read on each piece of mail!  There were numerous possible routes for it to get from here to there and we have fewer clues to help us take that journey.

But there is still plenty to explore!  If there weren't we wouldn't feature this item on Postal History Sunday, would we?

Lebaudy Freres

The folded letter contains an invoice for product (refined sugar) sold to Cottier & Matthey in Geneve.

Lebaudy Freres (Gustave and Jules) were a very large and successful Sugar Refinery that was located north of Paris.  The two brothers made a significant fortune and some tidbits I picked up as I read about this business suggested that there may have been a number of dubious practices with respect to their workers.  Another odd little fact that came to light was that their company used a significant amount of gas for their refinery operations.

Gustave was apparently the head of the company and also an elected member of the National Assembly from 1876 to 1885.  He was linked to the death of Leon Gambetta in 1882 - though I do not know if this was deserved or not - and he lost re-election in 1885.  However, he was again elected in 1889.

The photo below of Gustave Lebaudy is from Wikimedia commons.

Without knowing the details of the situation, it is tempting to point to this as an historical example of the short attention span the public often has when it comes to political figures.  One could claim that it was possible that he was never linked to Gambetta's death and the public was now informed of that truth - but it is more likely that the public had simply moved on from the prior scandal. 

(information from Henry Coston, "Dictionary of the bourgeois dynasties and the business world" - Editions Alain Moreau, 1975, p.343)

The Generations that Follow

Gustave had two sons who apparently took over the business.  These two decided that they would expand into the building of semi-rigid airships (zeppelins or blimps).  The sugar refinery business continued until 1960 when it was purchased by rival Sommier, but it seems that the two sons of Gustave had plenty of energy for the airships and probably left the running of the refinery to subordinates.

In any event, Paul and Pierre Lebaudy worked with engineer Henri Julliot to build a dirigible that ended up being purchased by the French military in 1904, only a couple of years after they proved its abilities with a first flight.

The publication "Flight" of July 24, 1909 reported that the British government was looking to add dirigibles, including the possibility of ordering some from the Lebaudy brothers.  This article reports that the French and others were already in possession of airships developed by them.

It might be tempting to presume that most of the rigid airship development in the early 1900s focused around the German Zeppelins (like the Hindenburg) that were so prominent in the 1930s.  However, there was concurrent development in France, the United Kingdom and the United States during this period as well.  The Lebaudy airships are often overlooked in summaries of airship development, but they were, apparently, able to make some sales.

Mad Jacques

Gustave might have been proud of his sons' accomplishments in air technology, but I wonder if Jules would be as pleased with his son, Jacques.  Jacques took his sizable inheritance and became the subject of no small amount of mockery.  In 1903, he recruited 400 mercenaries and claimed a piece of Morocco (near Cape Juby) as his new "Empire of the Sahara."

The photo below was taken from this blog article by Darren D'Addario, featuring an old print article on Jacques Lebaudy.

Jacques made a "royal visit" to London later in 1903 and was lampooned by PG Wodehouse. This Emperor's Song was published in the Daily Chronicle on October 2, 1903.

The following is the content in the Chronicle:

M. Jacques Lebaudy, “Emperor of the Sahara,” arrived in London on Monday for the purpose of purchasing agricultural implements for his colonists, and is staying at the Savoy Hotel, inaccessible to interviewers and tradesmen. “His Majesty” has been out on several occasions, but always contrives to escape observation.]

The lot of an emperor is one

Your comfort-loving man should shun;

It’s wholly free from skittles, beer,

And other things designed to cheer.

There are worries small, and worries great,

Private worries and worries of state,

But the one that most distresses me

Is the terrible lack of privacy.

It rather tries my temper, for

I’m such a retiring Emperor.

In the Savoy I sit all day

Wishing people would go away;

Cross, disgusted, wrapped in gloom,

I daren’t go out of my sitting-room.

Every minute fresh callers call.

There are men on the stairs and men in the hall,

And I go to the door, and I turn the key,

For everyone of them’s after me.

Which is exasperating for

A rather retiring Emperor.

There are strenuous journalistic crews,

Begging daily for interviews;

There arc camera fiends in tens and scores,

Philanthropists and other bores,

Men who are anxious to sell me hats,

Waistcoats, boots, umbrellas, and spats,

Men who simply yearn to do

Just whatever I want them to.

Which causes me annoyance, for

I’m such a retiring Emperor.

Of course “the compliment implied

Inflates me with legitimate pride,”

But often I feel, as my door I bar,

That they carry their compliments much too far.

That sort of thing becomes a bore

To a really retiring Emperor.

Lebaudy and his family moved to the United States in 1908 and he became increasingly erratic, threatening the life of his wife and daughter on multiple occasions.  In the end, it was his wife who ended his life and the authorities decided not to press charges against her.  According to some sources, the tipping point was Jacques' insistence that he needed a male heir by his own daughter.

 

The story of Jacques Lebaudy and the Empire of the Sahara is actually a fairly easy one to track down as there have been multiple retellings that reside on the internet.  A couple of the blogs listed in the final section also provide more detail regarding Jacques and his brother, Max (who died of tuberculosis in 1895), and the plight of workers in the sugar refineries.

Like Father Like Son?

 

Perhaps, the apple did not fall so far from the tree?   Jules (Jacques' father) owned many properties in Paris and was known for stock trading manipulations that may well have contributed to a 'stock crash' in 1882 that led to a significant depression lasting to the end of the decade.  In both the case of Jules (the father) and Jacques (the son), there was no lack of money and clearly plenty of desire to manipulate things to suit their own whims.

 

(see White, Eugene, The Crash of 1882 and the Bailout of the Paris Bourse, Springer-Verlag, 2006.)

A New Hero - Saving the Best for Last

 

Perhaps bad can bring about good?  My favorite story that comes from exploring this business letter happens to be that of Amicie Lebaudy, Jules' spouse (born Marguerite Amicie Piou, 1847).

 

Amicie wrote books under the pseudonym Guillaume Dall and engaged in some philanthropic activities while her husband lived.  After the crash of 1882 and Jules' death in 1892, Amicie created (anonymously) the Groupe de Maisons Overieres (Workers Housing Group Foundation).  Not only were affordable houses created, it was her goal to create a healthy 'habitat' for those who lived in them.  The foundation is still in operation today.

Of particular interest is the statement on the foundation's site that Amicie wanted to avoid placing the name "Lebaudy" on the foundation because "Lebaudy was synonymous with money ill-gotten."

In the process of digging, I found this interesting blog post by Laurence Picot (in French) that also explores this family history, starting with Amicie.   

From his post, we have this paragraph (translated to English):

"Today, in 2017, we stroll through the streets of Paris and we can identify on the facades of magnificent real estate groups the sculpted and anonymous woman who holds out a handkerchief or an olive branch to women, children, and the poor. Her foundation still exists and continues to build low-rent housing. There are 2400 units now, in Paris and the suburbs, and 86 workshops. About 6,500 people live inexpensively in spacious, sunny apartments with a style that one might consider classy."

Another useful online article by A Boutillon provides even more insight (also translated from French):

"In her retirement from Saint-Cloud, Amicie had begun to write.  In 1893 she published, under the pseudonym of Guillaume Dall, a first work entitled "La Mère Angélique, abbesse de Port-Royal, her correspondence .”  In the years that followed, she wrote seven or eight others, mostly essays and some children's' books. At the same time, having decided not to keep her husband's legacy, she became one of the greatest philanthropists of her time. She financed anonymously, her name not to be revealed until after her death, the purchase of land and the construction, between 1900 and 1905, of a new hospital for the Pasteur Institute, and provided grants for students without resources."

It is said that part of the motivation for funding the hospital was in response to her son Max's demise from tuberculosis.  The photo of the statue comes from Boutillon's article which indicates that the bust is actually located at the Pasteur Institute.

I may have just acquired a new hero to add to my list of amazing people who have graced this good earth.  Well done, Amicie.  Well done.

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Sugar refineries, business letters, airships, politics, scandal and good works.  This Postal History Sunday may have outdone itself!  I hope you enjoyed your time reading this entry and perhaps you learned something new.

There are numerous resources throughout the text this week and I'm just going to ask you to take them if you wish to learn more.  I'm going to be 'lazy' and not repeat them in a resources section this week.  Have a fine remainder of the day and I hope your week goes well!

For What Ails You - Postal History Sunday

Once more you find yourself visiting the GFF Postal History blog to read the most recent edition of Postal History Sunday.   If you are new here, you are most welcome!  If you are returning, you know what to do!  Please grab a snack and a beverage and pull up your favorite chair to join the rest of us.  Maybe we'll learn something new?

Oh - and before we get started, we need to take those worries and troubles and spread them on the bottoms of your shoes.  Put those shoes on and walk around outside for a few minutes until you've successfully wiped them off and you can't recognize them anymore.

There - now we're ready!

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The 1893 Columbian Issue

Like so many collectors of United States stamps, I always held the 1893 issue that commemorated the landing of Columbus as something I would love to obtain a complete set of someday.  This is a tall order because there are sixteen different stamps in the group and the last five have denominations of $1 through $5.  That translates to a significant chunk of change if you want to collect a whole set.  Why?  Well, they don't cost a couple of dollars anymore - they can cost a lot of dollars!

The most common denomination is the 2 cent stamp.  There were lots and LOTS of these printed and you can find pretty much as many of them as you would like if you wish without spending much money at all.  And, if you would like to collect postal history with that stamp, you can do just fine on a shoestring budget.

For example, here is a fairly common piece of mail from Stoughton, Wisconsin to Madison mailed in the 1890s.  I like it because we used to live in Madison and we had friends living in Stoughton.  There's a personal connection which makes it a little more interesting for me.

I have a long-standing goal to see if I can find a piece of postal history showing each of the Columbian stamps that have a denomination UNDER the $1 value.  I suspect I won't allow myself to spend what it would take to get those with $1 and up denominations - and I am okay with that.  And, the majority of the items with dollar values fail to show payment of an actual postage rate.  They were often mailed to a collector and overpaid the postage needed.  That typically doesn't interest me either.

After all, there is enough of a challenge (and reward) finding the lower value stamps properly paying a postage rate as it is!

Along Comes the Otis Clapp & Son Correspondence

If you are a postal historian, you recognize that we owe a debt to those who kept all of their old envelopes and wrappers and we owe an equal debt to the subsequent caretakers of this material who eventually allowed someone else to take them for collecting purposes rather than burning them!

Recently, there have been a fair number of items coming out that were addressed to or sent from Otis Clapp & Son.  Most of the material appears to be the address and postage portions of packages that were wrapped in the typical brown paper used for parcels at that time.

Above is a package front addressed to Otis Clapp & Son of Providence, Rhode Island.  Total postage is 45 cents, including a 30 cent and 6 cent Columbian issue stamp.

Unfortunately, the mute cancels are smudged and unreadable if they had any words on them in the first place.  And, since there is no return address on this package piece we cannot ascertain where it was mailed from, nor can we be absolutely certain as to the year it was mailed.  However, it is a fairly safe bet that this item was mailed in 1893 simply because the 1 cent and 2 cent issues are from the stamp series that was commonly found at post offices from 1890 to 1893.  A new series of these with slightly different designs was issued in 1894.  The stamps with most common use (such as these low value stamps) tend to make their appearance on postal history items closer to their dates of issue.  If this package were mailed in 1895, for example, we would expect the designs of the 1 and 2 cent stamps to match that new series.

Wait!  You want to know what I mean by a "mute cancel?"  

Let me remind you of this stamp:

The oval cancel has city name "Boston" across the top.  If you look at the oval cancels on the package wrapper, you will see no indication as to the town and there doesn't appear to be a date either.  They have nothing to say - hence they are mute.  It's not my term, but it is the one used in the hobby to indicate that no city or date is included in the postal marking.

Internal Fourth-Class Mail 1879-1912

Since these are package fronts, we cannot be certain, but it is a good, educated guess, that the contents fit the definition of fourth-class mail.  Essentially, anything that was not classified as first, second or third class mail fell into this final class of items that could be sent via the postal service.  This included various merchandise, including the types of materials Otis Clapp and Son might ship out or receive. 

The rate was very simple - 1 cent for every ounce up to 4 pounds and was effective from May 1, 1879 to December 31, 1912.  Thus, the item above would have weighed 45 ounces (2 lbs 13 oz)

A similar, third-class mail rate was 1 cent for every 2 ounces and was applied to all types of printed matter packages, such as books, circulars and newspapers.  It too, had a 4 pound limit, which eliminates it as a possibility for the package front shown above (at this rate, it would have weighed over five pounds).

The item shown above is franked only by a 15 cent Columbian stamp and is likely an example of a 15 ounce package mailed at the fourth-class rate.  However, we cannot rule out the possibility that this was printed matter carried in a wrapper - and it could have been a third-class rate.  We'll never know for certain, and that's just the way things are sometimes!

There are two options to describe this one:

1. It was a catalog or some such printed item that weighed 30 ounces and was mailed as a third-class mail item.
2. It was merchandise of some sort that weighed 15 ounces and was mailed at the fourth-class rate.
   

Thirty ounces is a pretty hefty catalog for a specialized company like J. Ellwood Lee and Co, so my guess is that this was also a fourth-class mail item.

Unlike the first item, we have no other other clues to help us determine a likely year of mailing and just like the first item, we have no postmarks that will help us.  However, a quick history of the J. Ellwood Lee Company gives us an idea that, perhaps, we should not be surprised if it was used somewhere in the 1893-1894 period.

J. Ellwood Lee Co

The J Ellwood Lee Company of Conshohockem, Pennsylvannia (say that town name three times fast!) was a well-known supplier of medical supplies, such as rubber gloves, ligatures, rubber tubing, as well as other medical equipment.  

John Ellwood Lee was born in 1860 and started the business in the attic of his parents' home in 1883.  By the time the Columbian Exposition came around (the time when the Columbian stamps were issued) in 1893 his company was quite well established.  J Ellwood Lee Company won five gold medals against international competition at the fair.  The company's involvement in the exposition doesn't make it hard to see why Columbian issue stamps might be on some of their mailings.

This article on the Pennsylvania Heritage site can provide more detail on J Ellwood Lee if you find that interesting. 

Oddly enough, Johnson & Johnson (yes, that Johnson & Johnson) purchased J. Ellwood Lee Company in 1905, placing Ellwood Lee onto its board of directors. 

Supposing this package held rubber tubing (not a bad guess giving Otis Clapp & Son's activities), 15 ounces could have held a decent bit of tubing.  Below is an invoice (that I do not own) that was on an online auction site.

The invoice shows an 1894 purchase of reels of silk - presumably used for stitches.  Given Otis Clapp & Son's focus as a pharmaceutical business and the advertising on the front, I think it more likely that the second package front carried some sort of rubber tubing.

Antikamnia Chemical Company

Above is an item that bears 51 cents in postage to carry a package that must have weighed three pounds and three ounces of weight.  Unlike the other two, this one was sent from Otis Clapp & Son to a customer in St Louis, Missouri - the Antikamnia Chemical Company.

Once again, we have a 1 cent stamp from the 1890-93 definitive issue that encourages me to believe that this, too, is an 1893-94 mailing.

The Antikamnia Chemical Company (established 1890) was known for its powder and tablet products to reduce pain.  The main ingredient, acetanilid, was sometimes mixed by this company with other active ingredients such as codeine, heroin and quinine.  The initial efficacy of acetanilid rested on a single German study of 24 patients, but the company is known for prolific advertising to maintain sales even after running afoul of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.  

More may be read if you locate the second resource in the "Resource Section" at the end of this blog.

The bookmark shown above is not in my possession and was found as an offering on Etsy.  A person could also find advertising covers for this firm if there was interest.

Otis Clapp & Son

Otis Clapp first opened his retail homeopathic pharmacy in 1840 and the company Otis Clapp & Son was still operating until it was purchased in 2008.  Oddly enough, you can find the company advertising various homeopathic remedies over a long span of time AND you can find it listed as a publishing company.

By all accounts, Otis was a remarkable individual, serving in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, is listed as a founder for M.I.T., the Boston Female Medical College and an orphanage. 

Otis' son was also quite remarkable.  Dr. J. Wilkinson Clapp was as professor of pharmacy at the Boston University Medical School and put emphasis on research.  A decent outline of their history can be found at the Sue Young Histories site.  Sadly, the old Otis Clapp company site with the company history has been taken down, so I can no longer reference it.

Apparently, Otis Clapp bottles are a fairly popular collectors item.  These bottles were found on the Antiques Navigator site. 

What I find interesting in all of this is the connections these three pieces of postal history make within the medical and pharmaceuticals fields.  Clearly, Otis Clapp & Company was populated by exceptional people and the early stories surrounding that company are generally positive.  Similarly, J Ellwood Lee was seen in a good light - even by employees well after he could have been excused from personal interaction with the workers.  In both cases, the primary players saw significant success while being regarded as good and honorable individuals.

On the other hand, the founders of the Antikamnia Chemical Company could be said to have found financial success, but there is some question about the ethics and quality that went along with it all.  It could be interesting to uncover how Clapp and Lee might have felt about Antikamnia. 

But, perhaps we should get back to the postal history stuff now?

Why the Ugly Cancellations?

The postal markings available to us on these parcel fronts are far from helpful to the postal historian.  However, they did the job they were intended to do - deface the postage stamps so they could not be re-used.  

Most third and fourth class mail items were struck with cancellation devices that did not include a date and sometimes did not even indicate a city/town of origin.  In the fine book by Beecher and Wawrukiewicz (see resources), they suggest that these 'mute' cancels purposefully eliminated the date to not call attention to the speed of delivery of this type of mail.  

We need to remember that all sorts of things were being mailed in fourth-class.  Sometimes an item would simply have a mailing tag tied to it.  With all of the different sizes and shapes, shipping could provide some interesting puzzles for the postal service.  It is no wonder that it might take longer and it is understandable that they did not want to give customers any additional ammunition to complain about the speed of delivery.

Not all of these cancels were perfectly mute - often giving a town name.  It is possible these markings had such text, but I can't make it out if they did.

As far as the quality of the strikes are concerned, we can also surmise that the package surface was rarely as stable as a flat letter on a solid surface would be.  It does not take much of an experience with a stamping device to figure out exactly how hard it is to get a clean strike on an unevenly supported surface.

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Thank you so much for joining me for this edition of Postal History Sunday!  

Some of you might take note that a prior version of this post appeared in the GFF Postal History Blog in November of 2020.   I took the time to add to the introduction and edit to make it more accessible to a wider audience - hopefully so anyone could read this and enjoy!

Have a great remainder of the weekend and I hope your upcoming week goes well!

Resources:

H. Beecher and T. Wawrukiewicz, US Domestic Postal Rates, 1872-1999, 2nd ed.  ( a newer, third edition to 2011 is now available) 

Fiedler, William C. (1979). "Antikamnia: The Story of a Pseudo-ethical Pharmaceutical". Pharmacy in History. 21 (2): 59–72

There and Back Again - Postal History Sunday

Welcome again to Postal History Sunday on the GFF Postal History blog.  This is the place and time where I share something about the postal history hobby I enjoy and, perhaps, you end up learning something new that interests you.

Take those troubles and worries and put them into a box.  Then, put that box into another box and put THAT box into ANOTHER box.  To keep this postal history related, you should then mail that box to yourself and when it arrives....   smash it with a hammer (who can name that animated movie reference?).  Oh wait, we don't want to smash potential postal history.  Removed the lid with the stamps, address and postal markings first.  Then, you can smash what remains with a hammer.

Worcester, Mass to London

This particular post is going to focus on two letters to the same individual.  The first can be seen below:

This letter was mailed on Dec 19, 1865 at Worcester, Mass and it left the next day on a Cunard Line steamship named Asia from Boston.  The Asia landed at Queenstown (Cobh, Ireland) on December 31 where it unloaded this letter in the bag of mail destined for London.  That bag of mail went by train to Kingston and crossed the St Georges Channel to Holyhead.  From there to London, it was mostly railway until it was taken out of the mailbag and marked with the receiving exchange mark (the red London marking on the left side).

I often find I get a better appreciation for things once I see a map and I can place where everything belongs in my head.  Feel free to click on the map to see a larger version if you want more details.  Kingston is the port by Dublin and Queenstown is the port by Cork (Cobh).  There was a regular steamer service between Kingston and Holyhead that carried passengers, goods and, of course, the mail.

Oh, and before I forget, the cost of mailing a letter from the United States to England was 24 cents as long as it did not weigh more than 1/2 ounce.  That explains the 24 cent stamp on this envelope.

Opportunity Knocks

Some time ago, a couple of people asked if I would write about how I find some of the things for my postal history collection.  While this post won't focus entirely on that, it makes some sense to talk about how I found the two envelopes I am featuring in this post.

Back when eBay was new(er), it was not unheard of to be able to find reasonably priced stamps and postal history.  You just needed to know which categories to look and what keywords to use when you were looking.  At one point in time, there was a postal history category for the United States inside of a larger "stamps" category.  I regularly searched for items with a 24 cent stamp and almost always got the same list of the same offerings - all of which did not interest me.

But, one day I saw a auction lot that showed this item as the main photo, so I went to look at it.  I found out then that there were actually two covers in the lot - and the price was very, VERY reasonable.  I did not hesitate on this one (and you'll see why later).   The price would have been good even if it were only this first piece. 

The Honorable P.C. Bacon goes to Europe

I was able to find a biography of the Honorable Peter Child Bacon ( b. 11 Nov 1804, d. 7 Feb 1886) in this book that included the histories of several Massachusetts towns.  (reference #2)  P.C. Bacon was married to Mary Louisa Batchelder (b. 15 May 1815, d. 9 Jun 1886) and they appear to have had four sons and one daughter, though I have not dug any more deeply to confirm that information.

Photo is reported by wiki to be from the first source listed at end of blog, I have not personally confirmed this - that's for another day.

P.C. Bacon was a lawyer for a well-known and respected firm that bore his name and worked out of Worcester starting in 1844 (with prior work in Oxford and Dudley).  He was the first representative from Worcester in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1848, when the city was first incorporated.  The resource linked above suggests he was elected as mayor of Worcester in 1851 and 1852 while another source lists him as the third mayor of Worcester, serving from 1849-51. 

Apparently, the Honorable P.C. Bacon took a trip to Europe towards the end of 1865, returning in January of 1866.  While in Europe, it was common for a traveler to maintain a line of credit with a financial house for ease of travel and the coverage of expenses (without carrying all of the money you might want with you for the entire trip). 

In addition to providing the monetary services, some financial houses would also provide mail forwarding or mail holding services for the traveler.  This gave his family, friends, and business associates a method for reaching him if they needed to.  (just a reminder, no phone service in 1865... but I think you knew that!)

But, what happens when P.C. Bacon goes home?

The line of credit with the financial house was purchased for a period of time that covered the travels of an individual and any services rendered could be paid for by using the balance of the account.  So, if the traveler went to Paris for a week, they could use their balance with the financial house and direct mail to be forwarded to them in Paris.  But, what happens if a letter arrives and the line of credit was closed because the traveler had returned home?

The second envelope - the one that did not even get top billing in the ebay lot - illustrates exactly what happens.

 

The second letter was mailed in Worcester on January 2 of 1866 and arrived in London on January 13.  Baring Brothers & Co had managed Bacon's line of credit and provided the mail forwarding service.  They apparently figured out that he had left (and not left them with a balance to cover forwarding costs for mail that needed to get sent on the U.S.).  As a result, they remailed this letter in London on January 20 and sent it back to Worcester as an unpaid letter. 

 

This letter retraced its steps - taking the train from London to Holyhead, crossing the St Georges to Kingston and then taking the train to Queenstown.  Once there, it left on the Cunard Line's Africa on January 21 which arrived at February 3 in Boston.

 

Baring Brothers applied no stamp and they apparently did not pay ANY postage for the return trip to the United States.  That means the recipient would be required to pay the postage for that return trip.

 

This is the key marking on that cover that tells me what the Honorable P.C. Bacon was going to have to pay the United States post office in order to read the letter that traveled across the Atlantic Ocean twice.  The marking is in black ink - just one indication that the item was received unpaid.  But, what can make it confusing is that it gives us two possibilities for the amount to pay.

24 cents or 32 cents.  So, which was it?

Depreciated Currency in the 1860s

With the event of the Civil War, the United States had to abandon the 'gold standard' that they had used.  In very simplified terms, paper money, prior to 1863, could be exchanged for a full equivalent value of precious metal.  However, the demands of the war led the U.S. Treasury to issue what became known as "greenbacks" that were given legal tender status (you could purchase things with them), but you could not exchange them for a similar value in precious metal.  In other words, the gold standard was abandoned from 1863 to the late 1870s - from the middle of the Civil War through the Reconstruction Period.

 

The value of these greenbacks was actually less than the same value in coins minted in precious metal (typically silver).  As a result, the post office would receive 24 cents in coins OR you would pay 32 cents if you used a form of paper money to pay your bill.

An excellent article titled A Brief History of the Gold Standard in the United States by Craig K Elwell provides a rundown that made sense to me, even though I am not big on the topic of monetary systems.  If you make yourself read it fairly carefully, you may find that you begin to get an understanding as well.  Or, you can just take my word for it - your call!

Some postal historians enjoy looking for examples of this sort of marking that gives the recipient the choice to pay in greenbacks or specie (coins) and there are numerous examples of these markings that can be found without much trouble.  I am one postal historian who is fine with having the one example - and it's a good one, because it has so many possible story lines.

But wait!  There's more!  P.C. Bacon's sons

I am occasionally amazed by all of the directions the research for a particular cover can take.  In the process of chasing threads of information, I discovered a website that provides the Rosters and Geneologies of the 15th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry for the Civil War. 

 

 

Apparently, P.C. Bacon had two sons who joined the 15th Massachusetts.   The photo above, from that site, and is reported to depict Francis (Frank) and William Bacon.  

Frank was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant and transferred to the 102nd New York Volunteers on April 22, 1863.  He died at the battle of Chancellorsville on May 2nd.  

An obituary for Francis E. Bacon was published on 13 May 1863 at "The Worcester Palladium", Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts, as follows: 

Death of Lieut. Bacon
We have to record, as another of the sad fatalities of this war, the death of lieut. Francis Bacon, son of Hon. Peter C. Bacon, of this city. He was killed at Chancellorsville, in the last great fight on the Rappahannock. He is spoken of by those who knew him best as a young man of more than ordinary promise. Two years ago, at the age of 19, he was among the first to go into the service as a private in the third battalion of Rifles; and soon after the expiration of the term of three months, for which that corps was enlisted, he entered the Fifteenth Massachusetts Regiment; and not long ago was appointed and commissioned a lieutenant in the 102d New York regiment. His early death, at the age of 21, is a loss to his friends and to the army.

William would also die in the Civil War at the Battle of Newmarket (Virginia) on May 15, 1864.  One wonders exactly how the parents processed the loss of not one, but two sons to this conflict.  Was this trip a business trip or did both parents travel in an effort to find a new perspective?

 

And more - Baring Brothers & Company

It turns out the Baring Brothers would have a key role in the Argentinian Banking Crisis of 1890-1 that the banking firm would survive with the intervention of the Bank of England.  Even more interesting is that Baring Brothers would actually succumb to a "self-inflicted" investment crisis in 1994-5, over 100 years later.

This banking crisis apparently had some of its roots in the differences between paper money and specie (precious metals), which makes for an interesting parallel with the depreciated currency marking.  I will not pretend to be a financial expert at this time and merely reference anyone who is interested to take the link above or find the third reference shown at the end of the post. The photo above is from page 69 of that reference.

The wonderful thing about all of this is that we can take any of the storylines and dig into them deeper if we wish.  The Bacon family was prominent enough that there are multiple opportunities to explore their lives and what they experienced.  Baring Brothers had a long and involved history in banking, so if that story takes hold, we could certainly do much more with it.  But, from my perspective, the simple fact that a letter crossed the Atlantic Ocean in both directions to get to the recipient makes for a compelling story all by itself.

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Thank you for joining me in this week's Postal History Sunday and I hope you learned something new.  And if you didn't, I hope you enjoyed the process where I show that I learned several new things!

For those who might like to hunt down some of the resources for additional reading or exploration, here are some citations.

1.  Rice, Franklin Pierce, Worcester of Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-Eight:Fifty Years a City : A Graphic Representation of Its Institutions, Industries, and Leaders, Worcester, Massachusetts: F.S. Blanchard & Company, p. 22.

2. Ammidown, Holmes, Historical Collections: Containing 1. The Reformation in France and II. The Histories of Seven Towns, 2nd Edition, Vol 1, New York, 1877.

3. Straining at the Anchor: The Argentine Currency Board and the Search for Macroeconomic Stability, 1880-1935  Eds: Gerardo della Paolera and Alan M. Taylor, University of Chicago Press, ISBN: 0-226-64556-8, URL: http://www.nber.org/books/paol01-1, January 2001. 

4. Elwell, Craig K, Brief History of the Gold Standard in the United States, Congressional Research Service, June 23, 2011. 

5. The website, Rosters and Genealogies of 15th Massachusetts Voluntary Infantry, lists resources for some of the information used to create their site.  Site referenced Mar 12, 2021.

Turn, Turn, Turn - Postal History Sunday

Welcome to this week's edition of Postal History Sunday on the GFF Postal History Blog!

Take those troubles and worries and put them in the middle of a book you know has a dull spot around page 212 that you normally skip over.  Don't we all have one of those that we read the introduction and get about half-way and we find we just want to skip to the end?  Really, there is no reason to feel guilty as we have read that section once and we can be forgiven if we skipped a few words even the first time because they were not really speaking to us.  And, if you are the sort to re-read books, you know the rules are different - read what you want and skip the pages around 212.  You have more motivation to do so because you know your worries are tucked safely between those pages!

Two Addresses, Two Stamps, Two Postmarks?

So, we'll start this week's Postal History Sunday with a circular that was sent in 1865 from Etna, New York to Dryden, New York and to Edward Welsh.  If you look on the lower half of the folded letter you will see the very light Etna postmark dated April 7, 1865.  There is a 2 cent stamp depicting Andrew Jackson that paid the 2 cent fee for an unsealed circular.

The letter met the requirements for a circular and its cheaper postage rate because it was left open so the postal clerk could check for a personal note.  Also, the content was pre-printed except for a few hand-written things that were allowed by the regulations of the time.*

The curious thing about the item?  Well, there happens to be ANOTHER 2 cent stamp paying the 2 cent circular rate where Mr. Welsh mailed the item from Dryden on April 10 back to the Town Clerk at Etna.  To avoid confusion, he crossed out his name and address.

*for further discussion - see addendum at end of this blog

So, what was Mr. Welsh returning to Etna?  This is a signature confirmation form where Mr. Welsh was accepting the position of "Overseer of Highways for District No. 143."  Postal laws of the time allowed for such signature confirmations to be an unsealed circular, even though there was hand writing in addition to the printed matter.  The handwriting only consisted of signatures, a date and a district number.  There was no personal message included, which would have disqualified it for the special rate.

This certainly makes sense that Welsh would simply use the paper that required his signature and mail it back by re-addressing the letter and adding appropriate postage.  Why waste the paper and put it in an envelope?  Doing so might even require that he pay an extra penny for the 3 cent letter mail rate - something I'm sure he didn't want to do.  After all, what compensation do you think a Overseer of the Highways would receive in 1865?

By the time we reach 1865, the development and upkeep of turnpikes were on the decline.  The principle of a turnpike was that private companies would undertake the building of a road, and by doing so, they would have the right to collect tolls.  This site provides a short and interesting history of the Great Western Turnpike in New York state.  Of interest is the fact that the story mentions an alternate route the locals often used to avoid the toll road - these were often referred to as "shunpikes."  (and now you know)

I mention this because I found some record of a couple of attempts to create turnpikes through Dryden.  One in 1836 (the Norwich and Ithaca Turnpike) and another in 1816 (the Homer and Genoa Turnpike).  It is unclear to me if either were completed or active in Etna in 1865.  That said, overseers of highways, whether they were turnpikes or publicly funded roadways, were often farmers who might contract to oversee the maintenance of a section of road.  There might be several such positions for any given township. 

 An interesting short history of road development and turnpikes in the United States can be found at the link for those who want to learn more.

The Concept of a "Turned" Cover

Each of the items I am showing today are examples of what a postal historian would call a "turned cover."  The concept is pretty simple.  An item was mailed with an initial address and then the same letter or envelope was modified to allow for it to be sent on to a different address.  

What we see next is actually an envelope that was unsealed completely and then refolded and re-glued.  The original postal address and stamp were on the INSIDE of the envelope and the second use was on the outside.  An astute collector noticed this and slit the sides open so a person could easily see each side.

This envelope was clearly another unsealed circular (2 cent rate) mailed from Trenton, New Jersey on May 22, 1868 and received, apparently, the next day at Brandon, Vermont.  The printed corner card (that's the red ink printing at the upper right) is for John A. Roebling in Trenton.  It turns out that this was a company (John A Roebling & Sons) that made wire rope which later went on to building suspension bridges.  They made the cables for the George Washington Bridge connecting New York and New Jersey and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

The docketing may pertain to some sort of business dealing by the addressee E.D. Selden of Brandon, but I cannot be certain.

Selden must not have been a wasteful sort, because when they needed an envelope, they deconstructed this one and essentially folded it inside out, re-gluing it and remailing it with a 3 cent stamp for the letter rate.  It was sent on to M.F. Blake Esq. of South Barton, Vermont.  The "Esq." typically indicates that the addressee advertised as a lawyer.

According to the History of Rutland County, Vermont, Vol 1, E.D. Selden had been the owner of the Selden Quarry (1849-1864).  But, we cannot be sure if this E.D. Selden after he had sold the quarry or if this is one of Selden's offspring with the same initials.

Turned Covers Aren't Always Neatly Opened

As you can imagine, not every piece of postal history comes out of the process of doing its job (carrying the mail) unscathed!  How often have you opened mail, only to tear it into a an unsightly mess?  After all, you aren't thinking that someone might like to collect that useless envelope in the future, right?

Now, imagine that the envelope served its duty by carrying mail once, was deconstructed, folded inside out, reconstructed and mailed again - only to have someone violently open it that second time around!  That envelope might look a bit like this one does:

Here we have another unsealed circular mailed from an unknown location to Front Royal, Virginia.  The year is likely after the Civil War and I would place it between 1866 and 1869.  The envelope was repurposed and mailed by Thomas W Ashby, Esq at the 3 cent letter rate, being sent from Front Royal to Pattonsburg (VA).  There is likely enough information here to learn more about the correspondents, but that may be for another day.

Paper Scarcity and Paper in Transition

One of the themes you might notice here is that the first mailing of a re-used (or turned) item was typically a printed matter item (an unsealed circular).  A printed matter item was typically mass-produced and several were sent out at one time, accounting for the discounted postage rates enjoyed by such items.  

So, suppose you are Mrs. Eleanor Boles of Mooreland, Ohio and you receive this nice, big envelope from some company mailing a circular to you advertising their wares.  You might not be interested in what they have to offer, but you can certainly use that nice, big envelope!  

In fact, you could mail something that was a bit heavier!  Something that weighed over a half ounce and no more than one ounce, and put six cents of postage on there to send it to Mr. Andrew Daig in Rochester, Pennsylvania. 

The shortage of paper in the Southern states during the Civil War is well-known and often written about.  In fact, there are numerous examples of envelopes being made out of wall paper in the South at that time.  These, and turned covers, are often referred to as "adversity covers" in that context.  

But, there was even more at play here.  Up until this point, most paper was made of ragstock (rags), which was a bit more expensive and becoming harder to come by.  On the other hand, the mid 1800s shows the rapid growth of the paper industry that used wood pulp as the basis for paper (the first machine credited to be able to do this was developed in 1844).

At the same time, postage rates were being decreased by many nations to support the use of postal services by the general public.  In the United States, the event of the Civil War found more people desperate to communicate with loved ones separated by conflict.  The demand for paper and envelopes for mail was increasing.

Then, you add the normal shortages that happen when there is a conflict and you either have people unwilling to pay the price for paper products or people unable to easily get said paper products.  Whether it was for the purpose of scrimping and saving or lack of access, we will never know - but we still get two stories for the price of one when we find a turned cover!

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Thank you for joining me for this week's Postal History Sunday!  I hope you learned something new and that you were entertained while I shared something I enjoy.  

If you would like to read a bit more about the history of paper in the United States, I found this article:

The Press, Paper Shortages, and Revolution in Early America by Roger Mellen

Roger Mellen (2015) The Press, Paper Shortages, and Revolution in EarlyAmerica, Media History, 21:1, 23-41, DOI: 10.1080/13688804.2014.983058

Have a good remainder of the weekend and a great week to come!

Addendum

The United States Postal Act of 1863 (March 3 - effective April 1), set several new regulations for the carriage of mail in the United States.  Among those things was the new definition of mailable matter and third-class mail.  One sub-class of third-class mail was the "transient circular."  These were pre-printed mailings that were not regularly scheduled as a newspaper or other subscribed material might be.  The rate was 2 cents for up to three circulars to the same address.

Section 24 of this act reads:

Mailable matter, wholly or partly in writing, or so marked as to convey further information than is conveyed in the original print, in case of printed matter, or sent in violation of the law ... shall be subject to letter postage.

In other words, an item would qualify for the reduced postage rates for printed matter UNLESS additional writing was included that extended the original message.

So, a penciled note in the margin that said, "Doing well at the farm, Martha fell into a well yesterday though," would result in the requirement for letter-rate postage.  On the other hand, the pre-printed form shown with the first turned cover was allowed because only specific filled in details (date, district number and signatures) were included.  All writing was to fulfill the function of the form and no additional messaging was applied.

On the other hand, I am pretty certain that if someone returned an order form with their order filled in, it would require letter postage.  All in all, it was part of the evolving interpretation of postmasters for what met requirements and what did not.