Cancel for November 3: Pennsylvania Railroad

P.  R.  R.

NOV    3   1898

During the early 20th century the PRR was the most highly valued corporation in the world.  By the 1970s it would suffer an inglorious collapse with its merger to its greatest competitor, the New York Central, to create the Penn Central.  The Penn Central in turn would suffer one of the most high profile collapses in American corporate history.  But in its day the PRR was a great company, and possessed a huge fleet of steam and electric locomotives.  Today you can see examples of these locomotives at the Strasbourg Railroad Museum in Pennsylvania.

The Pennsy's T1 locomotive, an advanced and sophisticated steam locomotive developed during World War II.  Development was expensive as was its operation, and the investment in steam while other railroads switched to diesel presaged the decline of the railroad. 

Cancel for November 2: Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton Railway

C.  H.  &  D. RY

NOV  2   1899

The Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railway was based in the Ohio and was incorporated in 1846.  It was bought out by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1917.  Chartered to build a line from Cincinnati to Hamilton, Ohio and then to Dayton, it continued to build and expand throughout its life, and ran sleeping car services throughout the central midwest.  See the poster below promoting its Pullman Car services.

In the early years of the railroad it had the nickname "Charge High and Damn Rough Ride."  The purchase of Pullman cars and the upgrading of its tracks must have eased this reputation.

Cancel for November 2: St. Anthony Falls Bank

ST. ANTHONY FALLS BANK

NOV

2

1898

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN

The stamp was likely used on a bank check. St. Anthony Falls Bank was taken over by the First National Bank of Minneapolis in 1922, which in turn would be taken over by a bank holding company that also controlled the First National Bank of St. Paul. That holding company would be called First Bank System, which later would change its name to U.S. Bancorp, which exists as a major national bank today.

Notes on St. Anthony Falls: Above is an aerial view of what St. Anthony Falls currently looks like. The natural falls are long gone and there is now a man-made structure in place. St. Anthony was once an independent town but joined Minneapolis in 1872.

***

The site is more recently famous for the St. Anthony Falls Bridge which was built to replace the I-35W bridge that collapsed during rush hour on August 1, 2007.

Cancel for November 1: Erie Railroad

ERIE RAILROAD CO.

NOV

1

1900

NEW YORK

The Erie Railroad operated in New York State, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, originally connecting New York City with Lake Erie.


In 1960 the Erie merged with the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad to form the Erie Lackawanna Railroad, becoming part of Conrail in 1976.

Cancel for October 31: B & G

B.  &  G.

OCT 31 1898

Denver

Cancels for October 30 & 31: The Milwaukee Road

Circular Date Stamp:

C. M. & ST. P. RY. CO.

OCT

30

1900

Printed Cancel:

C. M. & ST. P. RY.

Stamp above has hyphen-hole perforations, consistent with the separation technique used on the battleship revenue stamps as of the beginning of 1900.  Stamp below, though cancelled one day later than the stamp above is rouletted.  The Milwaukee Road must have had some leftover rouletted sheets that had printed cancels applied sometime in mid 1900.

Circular Date Stamp:

C. M. & ST. P. RY. CO.

OCT

31

1900

Printed Cancel:

C. M. & ST. P. RY.

Cancel for October 29: H. W. Power

H. W. POWER

OCT

29

1898

CLEVELAND, O.

Cancel for October 28: Evansville and Terre Haute Railroad

E.  & T.  H.  R.  R.

OCT 28

1899

XXX

Route map for the Evansville and Terre Haute that includes routing for the L&N and the CE&I.

Cancel for October 28: Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad

While I can't make out the entire cancel, there is enough here to determine the company that placed the cancel on the stamp. Especially with the reference in the cancel to "The Belt" railway.  The Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad owned the Dearborn Station in Chicago including all the tracks leading into it. The C&WI was owned by five railroads that used the station, so that those railroad did not need their own lines leading into arguably the most important railroad city in the world at the time. The C&WI is now a part of the Union Pacific Corporation.

C&WI Timetable from 1963

Cancel for October 27: Indianapolis Abattoir Company

Indianapolis Abattoir Co.

OCT

27

1900

Indnpls, Ind.

***

A mid-major meat packing firm from "The Jungle" days of the dressed meat industry.

Cancel for October 26: R. S. & Co.

R. S. & CO.

*   OCT   *

*     26     *

*   1898   *

*   *    *   *

Need some help identifying this firm

Cancel for October 26: L. Van Cleef

L. Van Cleef,

OCT 26 1898

Insurance.

-----------

Mr. Van Cleef and his business are so far untraceable to me. This block of four likely payed all or a portion of the tax on insurance policy.

Cancel for October 25: The Turners of Philadelphia

THE TURNERS

OF

PHILADELPHIA.

-1898-

OCT 25 1898

----
Cancelled 50 years after the founding of The Turners organization.




US commemorative postage stamp issued in 1948 for the 100th anniversary of the founding of The Turners. (Scott 979)

--------

Many Germans immigrated to the United States following the failure of the 1848 revolution designed to introduce democratic reforms into the governments of the German states. Among these immigrants were members of the Turners, an athletic and political organization founded in Germany during the second decade of the 19th century. Turners quickly established societies (known as Turnverein or Turngemeinde) in the American cities in which they settled. These societies served as athletic, political, and social centers for German communities in the United States. The Turners most important contribution to American life in their communities had been the advocacy of physical education and fitness. Turners successfully lobbied local school boards in many cities for the inclusion of physical education classes in the curriculum and Turner instructors served as the directors of physical education programs in many school systems in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

---from the American Turners Local Societies Collection, 1866-2006. Abstract and full document on this organization can be found here: http://www-lib.iupui.edu/files/u51/mss038.pdf.

Cancel for October 21: J. G.

J.  G. 

OCT  21  1898

Cancel for October 19: National Surety Company

NATIONAL SURETY CO.

OCT 19 1900

NEW YORK.

***

On June 9, 1897, the Superintendent of Insurance in New York, Louis Payn authorized the National Surety Company to commence business with capital of $500,000. Interestingly, one of the directors of the company in 1897 was a man named Henry Payn. "Hey, I know what we can do guys, let's get a family member of the Super of Insurance and put him on the board! Then we'll get our license."

Cancel for October 18: Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway

W. N, Y,  &  P. Ry.

OCT

18

1899

XXX

The Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway was first named in 1895 after a reorganization.  The railway was acquired and leased by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1900. 

The railway's line ran from Emporium, Pennsylvania to Rochester, New York. 

1900 route map

1898 Pass

Cancel for October 17: Ketcham National Bank

KETCHAM XXX BANK,

OCT

17

1898

TOLEDO, O.

***

The Ketcham National Bank was originally organized in 1888 with John Ketcham as its President. The name of the bank was changed to the National Bank of Commerce in 1899 and was located at the corner of Madison Avenue and St. Clair Streets. The National Bank of Commerce was consolidated with the National Bank of Toledo in 1907.

Cancel for October 16: The Hartford Fire Insurance Company

Hartford Fire Ins. Co.

Oct 16 1900

CHICAGO.

Oval Date Stamp from 1900 for the Hartford Fire Insurance office in Chicago, just a few years after the Chicago fire destroyed many US insurance companies and before the San Francisco earthquake caused similar tremors in the US insurance industry.

A Hartford post-SF earthquake advert touting their corporate strength in the face of earthquake-related claims.

-------

The Hartford was founded in 1810 and is one of the oldest continually operated insurance companies in the United States.

Cancel for October 15: B. & M.

B. & M.

OCT

15

1898

Chicago

Cancel for October 11: J.B.M.

J.   B.   M.

OCT 11 1898

CHICAGO.

Cancel for October 10: Union National Bank

U.       N.       B.

OCT   10   1898

OAKLAND, CAL.

***

The Union National Bank of Oakland was organized in 1875 and closed in 1909.

Cancel for October 9: A.W. Brooke, Auditor for American Refrigerator Transit Company

Auditor's Office,

A. W. BROOKE

OCT  9  1899

X2 Century Building

St. Louis,  xxx

Auditor's cancel from American Refrigerator Transit Company (ART).  The American Refrigerator Transit Company was a St. Louis, Missouri-based private refrigerator car line.  The company was established in 1881 by the Missouri Pacific and Wabash railroads and it is now a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Corporation.

ART refrigerator car or "reefer".  Image from http://www.trainweb.com/.

Cancel for October 8: L. D. K.

L.  D.  K.

OCT

8

1898

TOLEDO, O.

Cancel for October 7: Chauncey Brothers

The firm of Chauncey Brothers & Co. were stock brokers and were located at 96 Broadway in New York City. There is not much material available on line about this firm, though through a New York Times obituary from 1899 it is possible to read about the death at 38 years of Samuel Sloan Chauncey from the firm who went out west to recover from an illness but never quite did.

Pharmaceutical Cancels: H. K. Mulford

H. K. MULFORD CO.

PHILA.

Undated circular handstamp for the pharmaceutical firm of H.K. Mulford Co., an antecedent company to the current Merck Corporation.  H. K. Mulford developed diptheria anti-toxin in the United States in the late 1890s soon after its initial discovery and use in Germany.  They also developed an early small pox vaccine and kept its own cattle to do so.  Unlike many of the snake-oil firms of the time, H.K. Mulford developed some effective vaccines and medications, and is considered by many authorities to be one of the first firms in the United States to use scientific methods to develop and create medicines. 

H.K. Mulford developed the drug to combat the toxin secreted by the diptheria bacillus.  Diptheria's damaging effects come from that toxin.  Prior to the development of an effective vaccine against diptheria which would have promoted human immune response to diptheria and prevented a case of the disease, scientists discovered anti-toxin in the blood of animals exposed to diptheria and developed methods to extract effective doses of the anti-toxin.  In the early 20th century a vaccine would be developed against diptheria.  Antibiotics are used against active diptheria infections.  Diptheria anti-toxin is still made today but is rare.

H.K. Mulford would eventually be acquired by the firm of Sharpe and Dohme, which would in turn merge with Merk.  Mulford's early history would presage Merck's later success as a developer and manufacturer of vaccines.

Cancel for October 5: A. T. Van Heusen & Son

A.T. VAN HEUSEN & SON,

OCT
5
1900

AMSTERDAM, N.Y.

A.T. Van Heusen & Son were general insurance agents for Fire, Life, Accident and Tornado insurance in Amsterdam New York at the corner of East Main and Church Streets, according to the 1893 publication "Amsterdam, its representative business men and points of interest." The business was established in 1881 and expanded by buying another agency.

Cancel for October 4: Scofield, Shurmer & Teagle

S. S. & T.

OCT      4   1899

Scofield, Shurmer and Teagle were featured on this blog back on August 6.  The company was a major competitor to Rockefeller's Standard Oil even though there were family connections between Rockefeller and one of SS&T's partners.  Rockefeller would take control of SS&T and make the son of one of SS&T's partners a key manager in his empire.

Many railroad cancels are featured in this blog including those of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad.  The LS&MS was caught up in a law suit smaller oil companies like SS&T brought against Standard Oil for negotiating and demanding cheaper freight charges for carrying oil while forcing the LS&MS to charge competitors more.

Cancel for October 3: East End Savings Bank

Circular date stamp from East End Savings Bank in Cleveland, Ohio from 1899. The East End Savings Bank was merged with the Cleveland Trust Company in 1905.

Insurance Cancels: Phoenix Part 2

PHOENIX

DEC

1

HARTFORD

Another Phoenix Insurance cancel.  A peculiar factoid about this company is that when it was first started in 1851 it only insured those that abstained from alcohol.  At that time it was called the American Temperance Life Insurance Company.  By 1861 the company dumped the name and the business model, adopted Phoenix as its name, and decided to take on drinkers.  Not sure how their agents made sure their customers didn't drink.

Cancel for October 1: Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance

Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut circular date stamp from October 1, 1898. I like the way the o and the e are segued in cancel. In the calendar below the Phoenix Company did the same with the o and e in an agent's calendar.

You can see a timeline of a history of this corporation here: http://www.phoenixwm.phl.com/public/about/history/index.jsp. This is the website for The Phoenix Companies, which remains based in Hartford, and still focuses on life insurance in 2009.

Cancel for September 30: Wm. Linn, Allen & Co.

WM. LINN, ALLEN & CO.

SEP

30

1898

I know nothing about this company.

Cancel for September 30: Mountain Copper Company

Mountain Copper

SEP 30 1898

Company, Limited.

-------

A holder of mines in the western United States, California-based Mountain Copper was a Scottish controlled corporation that in 1899 was producing about 4% of US copper output.

Cancel for September 30: George Bancroft & Company

GEORGE BANCROFT & CO.

SEP

30

1898

***

Circular date stamp from George Bancroft and Company with a neat little four point diamond at the bottom. George Bancroft and Company was a brokerage firm based in New York. George Bancroft was the son of Aaron Bancroft, and they were partners together in George's firm. The New York Times in January 1900 posted a story of George Bancroft's suspension from the Consolidated Stock and Petroleum Exchange for misbehaviour in recommending a Mr. Hidreth for a seat on the Exchange.

Blogging 1898 Revenues

As of today I've been blogging here for 6 months.  I started the blog so that I could keep active with parts of my collection, even though I have it all packed in safe keeping in the US while I live and work in Nairobi, Kenya for several years.  Instead of travelling with the stamps I travelled with scanned images of the stamps.  And the scanned images have proved to be a great collecting tool, enabling close examination without actually handling the stamps themselves and allowing for the creation of this "virtual collectors blog".

The daily readership of the blog has taught me a few things.  I'm not sure this blog has ever had a visit by a serious collector of US revenue stamps.  I can't be sure because nobody of this description has ever sent an email or made a comment in the comment sections of the blog.  Through tracking software I know that occasionally I do get a visitor that lingers on the blog and explores the different feature areas, but mostly I get people interested in valuing battleship stamps that they found in a relative's collection.  In six months less than a dozen people have ever viewed the blog in more than just a passing way and then returned at a later date.  I'm not really sure yet what this says about US revenue and 1898 revenue collecting, but I figure some combination of the following factors are present:

• Few people collect 1898 Series revenue stamps anymore;
• Of the few that do collect them, few use the web or search engines like Google as a collecting tool;
• I am absolutely certain that nobody that could be considered "young" (<40) has much interest in these stamps.  Otherwise there would be many more stopping by.  Especially with the relative lack of this kind of material and information available on the web;
• The blog just hasn't been around long enough to pick up any sort of momentum. 
• This blog stinks!

The last bullet shouldn't effect first time viewers.  However, I do realize that this blog is a work in progress and might in fact not be so good.  But I like doing it, and it helps me stay in touch with a collection of mine that with the way I have been busy with work and family over the years has been more of an accumulation than a collection.  It is now on its way to becoming a collection.

With regard to the second bullet above, as of September 26 a google search of the following search strings yields interesting results:

     Search Phrase                                            Google Rank
     1898 Revenues                                           #1
     Battleship Revenues                                   #4
     2 Cent Documentary                                   #1
     1898 Series Revenue                                 #4
     US Revenue Stamps                                  >100

I searched 1898 Revenues since that is the title of the blog.  The blog comes up number one in a google search.  Battleship Revenues comes up number 4, behind a website with that name.  2 cent Documentary was searched because I feature so many of them.  It came up number 1 in the search.  1898 Series Revenue was searched because the battleship stamps I feature right now have the words on the stamp.  Lastly, a search for the general term US Revenue Stamps yielded no result for this blog.  All in all, this blog is showing up high in these searches for the specific terms.  What this shows me, despite the fact that I am getting few hits on this blog, is that collectors in the specific field (if there are any) don't really use the web for their collecting interests.  Time to modernize this hobby, bring it to the web, and make it more virtual!

Thanks for your interest if you are reading this.  I have some plans for the coming months and years that involve several general areas of work and posts:

• An exploration of the Chapelle/Joyce proprietary printed cancel lists
• An exploration of the available literature and research on these stamps
• Continued posting of cancels by date

Cancel for September 27: Soo Line II