This edition of On Beyond Holcombe by Malcolm A. Goldstein is a part of a continuing series on the firms that used battleship proprietary revenue stamps:
CHRISTIAN XANDER
DEC 31 1898
The number of cancellations involving the letter “X” on
battleship revenues approaches zero, and the challenge of finding one to
construct a philatelically based article around is daunting. The RB27 cancelled by Christian Xander offers
such an opportunity and this writer willingly embraces it, perhaps because his
family name makes researching Christian Xander considerably easier than it
would be to reconstruct the life of a John Smith whose life paralleled Xander’s
in every detail. Suffice to say, Xander
proves an interesting subject.
The genealogical records are sufficient and reasonably
straightforward enough to sketch the broad outlines of Xander’s life, providing
just enough detail to tantalize. He
appears to have been born in Grossweier, a small town in the state of Baden in
southwestern, Germany, quite near Strasbourg, France, on January 10, 1837 the
son of an earlier Christian Xander and his wife Magdalena Zerr (Zirn), who
himself was the son of an earlier Christian Xander and his wife Maria
Jorger. By 1864, he had emigrated to the
District of Columbia, and on December 22nd of that year married
Caroline Blume (Blum), also a German emigree born in 1848, at the Concordia
Lutheran Church in Washington, D.C.
Although the online baptismal records of the Church (corralled and
posted by the Mormon Church) show a male birth (Carl Hy) in September, 1865 and
a female birth (Maria Wilhelmine) in December, 1866, he listed his two children
as Henry born in 1866, and Mina born in 1868, in the 1880 Census. Perhaps he simply did not remember his
children’s birth dates.
Xander listed himself as a wholesale liquor dealer in that
census, but as early as 1872, he was sufficiently established as a merchant to
act as an incorporator for the Boundary & Silver Springs Railway Co, a
trolley system for the District of Columbia, one of a group of visionary
businessmen willing to invest to build the latest transportation improvement
for the city of Washington. However, in
responding to a circular letter sent out by the Senate Finance Committee to the
business community inquiring about the need for change in custom duties, Xander
left a portrait in his own voice of the very small manufacturing portion of his
liquor business as it existed in 1893. As background, he explained that his winery
had been established in 1882 and capitalized at $18,000. For the vintage year
1893, he manufactured approximately 10,000 gallons of “sweet reds and clarets” worth approximately
$15,000. Classifying the importance of his business, he affirmed that “[w]ine
is a necessity for people of sense as a nutriment and hygienically.” Responding
to a series of questions aimed at ascertaining the impact of the then current
economic depression, now called the Panic of 1893, on his business, Xander
affirmed that he had continued to run at full capacity, had experienced no
increase in competition, and had produced more goods than in 1892 “because
producing exceptional quality, the demand for it is increasing.” He employed
six men at $12 to $21 per week and even sniffed: “[m]y wine-making business is
for quality; I care not to sell my own product wholesale - they are above trade
wines in quality.” As to his view on the customs duties which were imposed only
on imports, he stated, since his trade was “local,” and he feared “no import,
... [his] recommendation [was] to leave things alone.”
As a wholesaler, Xander gave a plug to one of his domestic
champagne manufacturers in 1896, by issuing a hearty recommendation of its product
as equal to the more expensive imported champagnes. The manufacturer then printed Xander’s letter
in a trade magazine with the following elaboration: “The Opinion of a
Wholesale Dealer - Christian Xander
is the largest wholesale liquor dealer in the City of Washington, and enjoys
the reputation of being one of the most careful and competent judges of wines
in the United States.” Xander’s letter carefully explained that:
As many physicians constantly order
your Imperial Sec for delicate patients it must be on their experience that
your wine can conveniently take the place of the expensive French champagnes,
which especially in the case of poor families, are rather inaccessible, and be
the sickness ever so severe, your wine does take the place of the foreign
brands with equal effect,
and effusively concluded: “You may use these, my assertions
and experiences, for they testify simply to the high character of an honest
wine.” Xander was willing to carry the
challenge to foreign imports even further by displaying his own quality wines
at the Paris Exposition of 1900.
In 1905, Xander was regarded as a significant enough citizen
to serve on one of the committees charged with organizing the Inauguration of
President Theodore Roosevelt which took place on March 4th of that
year. However, the most revealing
insight into Xander’s private life may be his long support of, and membership
in, the Washington Saengerbund, a society dedicated to the promotion of German
music. His son, Henry, who often
appeared as the society’s pianist, went on to serve as a longtime director of
the group. Xander died apparently
suddenly on March 7, 1908 at age 71 and was buried on March 10, 1908. His widow continued to make donations of wine
to one of the local charity hospitals for years after his death.
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