Chicago Board of Trade Members: John Marshall

JOHN MARSHALL,

MAY

22

1900

NEW YORK.

David Thompson scan

Mr. Marshall was CBOT member #6978.  He was in the grain export business and based in New York City according to the list of members of the Chicago Board of Trade from 1900. 

New York Stock Brokers: Stout & Company

STOUT & CO.

MAR

27

1901

David Thompson scan

The day rotor on the cancel has transfered the 6 from 26 and the 2 from 28, so that 6 and 2 sandwich 27. 

New York Stock Brokers: Sutro, Scholle & Company

New York Times, December 9, 1898

Sutro, Scholle & Co.

SEP    21    1898

David Thompson scans

Soon after the canceling of the stamp above, and not too far into the 1898 tax period, Mr. Scholle left the firm Sutro, Scholle & Co.  Lionel Sutro's brother joined the firm and the firm became Sutro Brothers in 1899.  Has anybody seen a Sutro Brothers & Company cancel?  If so, please write to 1898revenues@gmail.com.

From The New York Morning Telegraph of January 5, 1899:

American Brewing Company of New York

American Brewing Co. of N. Y.

NOV

17

1898

Langlois scan

Insurance Agents: Ferguson & Wallace

Ferguson & Wallace,

MAR

29

1899

Saginaw, M.

Ferguson & Wallace,

APR

6

1899

Saginaw, M.

scans by David Thompson

Ferguson & Wallace were William Wallace and Frank A. Ferguson.  Based in Saginaw, Michigan, their  company sold insurance and surety bonds. 

1898 Revenue Exhibits at ARIPEX all Garner Gold Awards and Another Phoenix Check

1898 Revenue exhibits did well at ARIPEX!  All four of the 1898 revenue exhibits garnered Gold Medals! 

Additionally, Hermann Ivester's single frame exhibit, The Saint Louis Provisionals 1898, won the show's Single Frame GRAND AWARD, the ARA's award for the best revenue single frame exhibit, and the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitor's special award for the exhibit having the Best Title Page. 

Winning the ARIPEX single frame grand award, automatically qualifies Hermann's exhibit for the national single frame "Champion of Champions" competition at Ameristamp Expo in Little Rock Arkansas in February 2014!  Congratulations Hermann!! 

The ARIPEX multi-frame RESERVE GRAND award went to Frank Sente's 10 frame exhibit, Spanish American War Fiscal History: The US Documentary Taxes 1898-1902.  Sente's exhibit also was awarded the American Revenue Association Grand Award as the best overall revenue exhibit.       

Standing in front of Len McMaster's exhibit from left to right are:

Frank Sente, Len McMaster, Hermann Ivester, and Bob Hohertz

 

1898Revenue blog readers can enjoy much of the material in these four exhibits vicariously. 

 

Len McMaster's, "I. R." Overprinted 1898 1cent Franklin Postage Stamps, exhibit is available online here at 1898Revenues.

 

Many of the 1898 Saint Louis Provisional Issues in Hermann Ivester's exhibit and much more information about them can be found here on 1898Revenues.  And now that Hermann's wonderful material is in exhibit format, we'll be asking him to scan those 16 pages to put up on 1898Revenues.  

 

It was a thrill for me to view Hermann's exhibit as all I've ever been able to do is read about these stamps. Previous owners of the material never exhibited it, Hermann being the first ever to do so! 

 

Bob Hohertz  has blogged extensively about the revenue stamp paper of the 1898 tax era on 1898Revenues. Much of the material in his exhibit, Revenue Stamped Paper of the Spanish American War Tax Era, may be found in his blogs.

 

And finally, individual blogs about some of the items from my exhibit, Spanish American War Fiscal History: The Documentary Taxes 1898-1902, can be found among the On Document Uses blogs on 1898Revenues.    

 

Shows aren't just about exhibits and awards however; more importantly they provide a venue where collectors, exhibitors and dealers can meet, trade information, and discuss mutual interests.  The camaraderie and good fellowship developed from face to face meetings with others having similar interests far outweighs awards. 

 

I finally got to meet 1898 revenue contributor Sean Roberts.  Len McMaster and I discussed a joint article about bisect stamp usages from the 1898 tax era, and I attended the meetings of the American Revenue Association.  And I would be remiss if I didn't provide a link to the American Revenue Association website; it's their annual meeting that I'm attending at ARIPEX prompting these Phoenix-related blogs.

 

Here's an interesting bank check.  Other than being datelined Phoenix, Arizona, it's a generic printed form; essentially it could have been used at any bank!

 

Bank of Arizona check on generic check form

January 27, 1899

 

Drawn by John Lawler against the Bank of Arizona, Prescot, Aziz. (Note mis-spelling of Prescott) it was made payable to "Valley Bank" or bearer.  The pair of one-cent large I. R. overprint stamps paying the 2cent check tax apparently were applied at the bank as they bear a double ring cancel reading: "The Valley Bank"/ "Phoenix, Arizona"

 

John Lawler was a prominent Prescott businessman who had extensive cattle and mining interests.  His papers are available at the University of Arizona.  Perhaps he was on business in Phoenix and picked up this form check at the Valley Bank to secure $200 cash. 

 

As I now live in Prescott, Arizona it's a treasured item in my 1898 collection.

 

             

   

              

           

 

Our Crowd: Hallgarten & Company, Albert Loeb & Company

HALLGARTEN & CO.

MAR

29

1901

New York.

David Thompson scan

ALBERT LOEB & CO.

FEB

13

1901

N. Y.

Langlois scan

Our Crowd: J. S. Bache & Company

Jules S. Bache

Our Crowd: Goldman, Sachs

Marcus Goldman

Our Crowd: Lehman Brothers

Mayer Lehman

Emanuel Lehman

LEHMAN BROS.

NOV  16 1899

LEHMAN BROS.

MAY

9

1901

N.  Y.

Our Crowd: J. & W. Seligman & Company

The firm of J. & W. Seligman, headed by Joseph Seligman, had its origins in 1837 in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, when Joseph arrived as a young immigrant from Germany.  Joseph would progress from foot peddler to one of the greatest financiers in the history of United States.  By 1865 the Seligman firm alone would sell $60 million of a single United States bond issue.  By 1898, Joseph would be dead, but the firm would still be doing big business.  While the Seligman name has since faded from high finance, the firm was the second great Jewish New York financial firm to emerge in the 1800s, after that of August Belmont and his Rothschild connections. 

J. & W. SELIGMAN & CO.

1899

Stephen Birmingham recounts the story of the Seligman family, and Joseph Seligman's efforts to unite his brothers into a worldwide financial empire.  Though the beginnings were in Mauch Chunk, the route for the Seligman family to New York would pass through the deep south, like the path of the Lehman brothers.  

NEW YORK

NOV   29   1901

J. & W. S. & CO.

Joseph Seligman

William Seligman

1898 Revenues Bibliography -- Our Crowd: The Great Jewish Families of New York

Stephen Birmingham's 1967 non-fiction book "Our Crowd" The Great Jewish Families of New York (find at Amazon here) is a must for collectors of 1898 revenues, especially the dollar commerce values.  While the dust jacket is out-dated with its victorian lace and tiffany style lamp, Birmingham's family-business tree and family histories provide a simplified but useful map of the relationships between some of the most significant families and enterprises in New York and consequently some of the greatest users of revenue stamps during the 1898-1902 tax period.

The 400 page book documents the stories of wealth creation of the great Jewish families of New York  through the 19th and 20th centuries, including the Seligmans, Lehmans, Kahns & Schiffs.  It is not only an interesting history but a good read. 

Above is the inside cover, illustrating the family-business tree.

Over the next week this site will feature some of these families and individuals through their firm's appearances on stamps and documents used during the 1898 tax period. For my collection, the book has helped to provide a kind of puzzle guide.  Many cancels can be fit into the boxes of the family tree above, for example.  Better, though are the prospects for future collecting.  Most collectors find their satisfaction in filling the spaces in pre-printed albums.  The compulsion to collect and complete is fundamental to most of us in the hobby.  The collector of revenue cancels has in most cases eschewed the printed albums for space-filling, and we need find our guides that might indicate completion some other way.

For example, the lists of members of the New York Stock Exhange or the Chicago Board of Trade from 1898-1902 are an important part of my collecting library, especially as computer searchable documents.  Each list provides an exhaustable set of firms and indiividuals that might have used revenue stamps from their respective trading associations.  Similarly, the book Our Crowd provides a similar exhaustive set of possible users of 1898 revenue stamps, just organized along family lines and showing the interconnectedness of family and community.

In the coming days the site will feature the following families/firms and their cancels which feature Mr. Birmingham's book:

J. & W. Seligman & Company

Lehman Brothers

Goldman, Sachs

J. S. Bache & Company

Hallgarten & Company

Albert Loeb & Company

For the collector of 1898s, how does one organize their collection of stamps like those below?  Their are many ways; the history of families as told in the book Our Crowd is one way. 

LEHMAN BROS.

GOLDMAN, SACHS & CO.

J. & W. SELIGMAN & CO.

ARA Meeting at ARIPEX 2013 and an Interesting Phoenix National Bank Check

The American Revenue Association is holding its annual meeting at ARIPEX 2013 this weekend in Mesa, Arizona.  The show runs from Friday April 19 through Sunday April 21 at the Mesa Convention Center. 

The show is open to the public at no charge and features 226 frames of philatelic exhibits and more than 40 participating dealers.  Although not all of them are exhibiting 1898 revenue material, six contributors to the 1898REVENUES blog have  exhibits at the show: Bob Hohertz, Frank Sente, Len McMaster, Ron Lesher (Court of Honor), Hermann Ivester, and Mike Mahler.  A seventh contributor, Sean Roberts, has a dealer booth. 

In addition to the ARA, other groups having meetings at the show are: the State Revenue Society, the US Possessions Philatelic Society, the American Society of Check Collectors, and the American Airmail Society.  A special court of honor exhibit featuring several Buffalo Balloon stamps, a unique proof of the stamp, and just one of 3 known covers to have survived the 1877 balloon flight that carried mail bearing these stamps will be on display. 

ARIPEX is a World Series of Philately qualifying exhibition and any collectors or readers of this blog in the Phoenix/Mesa environs would benefit from attending.  Four 1898 tax era exhibits will be on display.  For more information about the show, go here.

Our thanks to Bob Hohertz for providing an interesting revenue imprint check drawn on The Phoenix National Bank and payable to the Central Avenue Driving Association. 

  Phoenix National Bank Check

11/22/1900

Bob Hohertz Scan

 

 

Central Avenue a major north south artery that runs through the heart of Phoenix. From the Phoenix Market Trends website we learn this interesting tidbit about the development of North Central Phoenix in the late 1900s and the role of the Central Avenue Driving Association.

 

 "Development of the North Central Avenue area began in 1895 when William J. Murphy platted the Orangewood subdivision. This two-square mile area bounded by what are now Northern Avenue and Bethany Home Road, between 7th Avenue and 7th Street was promoted as the Orangewood Residential Village.

Murphy’s concept about Orangewood was to create a suburb of Phoenix “wherein might be established rural homes at an easy distance from the city.” He believed that the large lot size would attract upper income residents of Phoenix, wealthy outside investors and immigrants who would utilize the lots to build large estate homes surrounded by citrus groves. The subdivision was divided primarily into 20-acre size lots with Central Avenue extending through the property as the subdivision’s principal roadway.
Olive and ash trees were added along both sides of Central Avenue with citrus trees from Southern California planted on the interior portions to make the subdivision more attractive to new investors and homeowners. The exclusivity of Orangewood was evident in that at the turn of the 19th century, the Central Arizona Driving Association arranged to have Central Avenue deeded as a “driving street” for property owners to drive their horse-drawn buggies. There was even a separate path on the east side of Central Avenue for horses and riders only.

We hope we can provide a couple of blogs during the show and perhaps a photo or two as well. 

 



        

Shipping Companies: Oelrichs & Company

OELRICHS & CO.

AUG

3

1899

NEW YORK

Shipping Companies: Compagnie Generale Transatlantique

Postcard for the S. S. France of the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique

COMPAGNIE GENERALE TRANSATLANTIQUE

AGENCE

SEP  25  1899

DE

BOSTON

Langlois scan

CANCELED

MAY  14  1901

Cie. Gle. Tque.

Thompson scan