Wednesday, July 18, 2012

International Pulp Company


INTERNATIONAL PULP CO.
NOV 13
1900

Langlois scan


The International Pulp Company's primary business, despite its name, was mining, and mining in New York State.  It mined numerous minerals, including asbestos and talc, though it also had interests in forest products and power generation.  The company was not the favorite of environmentalists.


Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Chicago Board of Trade Members: #4202 - J. J. O'Leary




J. J. O'LEARY
AUG   31   1899
CHICAGO.

David Thompson scan

J. J. O'Leary was John J. O'Leary, member #4202 of the CBOT and a commission trader.



Monday, July 16, 2012

Insurance Company of North America


INS. CO. OF N. A.
MAY      8     1899

Langlois scan


The Insurance Company of North America was founded in Philadelphia in 1792.  It grew to be one of the largest insurance companies in the United State before merging with Connecticut General to form the insurace company CIGNA in 1982.  CIGNA is now owned by the Swiss-based insurance firm ACE Limited.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Burlington & Missouri River Railroad in Nebraska Livestock Contract




Contract for hauling a load of livestock on the Burlington & Missori River Railroad in Nebraska listing the corporate family of associated railroads including the:

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad
Chicago, Burlington & Northern Railroad
Hannibal & St. Jospeph Railroad
St. Louis, Keokuk, & Northwestern Railroad
Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad
Chicago, Burlington & Kansas City Railway

The one cent documentary tax stamp contains a B&MRRR printed cancel from 1899.

The contract was for the shipment of 76 head of livestock from Doniphan, Kansas to Kansas City.  Doniphan was on the B&MRRR in Nebraska mainline.

Railroads were often used at this time to move livestock on the hoof to processors in big cities like Omaha, Kansas City, and Chicago.  The processors would then ship dressed meat in refrigerated or iced train cars, often referred to as "reefers".


Saturday, July 14, 2012

On Beyond Holcombe: Allen & Hanburys

Editor's Note: Malcolm Goldstein is a contributing blogger for 1898 Revenues. This post is part of a continuing column on the companies that used proprietary battleships.



The roots of Allen & Hanburys, Limited lie deep in English, not American, soil. It originated as the Plough Court Pharmacy in London in 1715, and its founder, Silvanus Beven, born in 1691, was accepted into the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries only after a seven years apprenticeship. That society, in turn, traced its beginnings to the Society of Pepperers, chartered in 1180. Beven traveled in well-to-do circles, marrying the daughter of the Royal clockmaker. His family followed him into the business, which continued during the Eighteenth Century as a succession of partnerships.



In 1792, William Allen became associated with the partnership, and soon came to dominate it. He was elected to the Royal Society for his work in botany and chemistry, spoke several languages and befriended some of the rulers of Europe, including George III of England and the Czar of Russia. Being a Quaker, Allen held strong abolitionist opinions, was a founding member of the British anti-slavery society that is now the oldest human rights organization in the world, and helped sponsor the first worldwide anti-slavery convention held in London in 1840. Allen survived his first two wives, and through the family of his second wife Charlotte, Daniel Bell Hanbury, who became a renowned scientist in his own right, apprenticed to the partnership in 1808.




Allen & Hanburys cancelled 1 1/4 cent proprietary stamps

After Allen’s death in 1843, Daniel Bell Hanbury and then his son, a second Daniel Bell Hanbury, took control of the business. In 1879, the American Pharmaceutical Association began awarding a gold medal for significant discoveries or advances in the pharmaceutical field in honor of the younger Hanbury, whose scientific achievements apparently even surpassed his father’s, but who suffered from a weak constitution and died in 1875. Daniel Bell’s second son, Thomas, having participated and grown wealthy in the business, became a notable horticulturist and after 1867 restored an estate on the Riviera , whose Hanbury Gardens remain renowned today. Because there were multiple Hanburys, by 1858 the company name was fixed as the plural, Allen & Hanburys, not Allen & Hanbury. Its incorporation in 1878 added the title “Ltd.” The company grew to have branch offices in Canada, South Africa, Australia, India, Malaysia and Argentina and agencies in many other countries. A reporter watching the manufacture of pastilles at one of the factories in 1906 marveled that “from the time the liquid mass leaves the pan until the pastilles reach the customer ... a human hand shall not have touched them.”

At the turn of the Twentieth Century, when Allen & Hanburys, Ltd canceled battleship revenues at their warehouse in Niagara Falls, NY to comply with American tax requirements, it was involved in a variety of pharmaceutical businesses. As well as manufacturing a variety of infant formulas, up to and including Allenbury’s Rusks, a special first solid food for babies, the company also produced some eighty different varieties of Allenbury’s pastilles, as well as castor oil, soaps, and malt extracts, at that time considered particularly invigorating as a supplement for general nourishment. It was among the leaders in introducing cod liver oil to England and purchased special facilities for its manufacture on Norway’s Lofoten Island. The company also expanded into fabricating surgical instruments and even manufactured specialized operating tables for London’s notable St. Bart’s Hospital. It survived severe bombing damage inflicted on its plants during World Wars I and II. In 1958, the corporation was purchased by Glaxo. In 1968 it launched a treatment for asthma still utilized and respected today. At present, Allen & Hanburys, Ltd. operates under its own name as a division of GlaxoSmithKline.



Thursday, July 12, 2012

New York Stock Brokers & Chicago Board of Trade Members: Raymond, Pynchon & Company

Raymond Pynchon likely stock trading cancels:



RAYMOND, PYNCHON & CO.
NOV 22 1900
NEW YORK.




RAYMOND,
NOV
21
1901
PYNCHON & Co.

Langlois scans


Stock memorandum of sale from Raymond, Pynchon for 100 shares of Southern Railway


********

Raymond Pynchon likely futures trading cancel:


Raymond, Pynchon & Compay cancel

David Thompson scan

Raymond, Pynchon also traded on the Chicago Board of Trade.  Staff with membership in the CBOT included George M. Pynchon, #5422.




********

Raymond, Pynchon, though a loyal tax payer in the Southern Railway transaction above, was charged by the New York State Attorney General in late 1910 for reusing cancelled New York State tax stamps.


From The New York Times, Jaunary 1, 1911:

BROKERS SUED FOR TAX STAMP FINES

Raymond, Pynchon & Co. Said to Have Used Old Stamps on Stock Sales Slips.

PENALTY OF $500 PROVIDED

Attorney General's Office Investigating Other Cases--Member of Firm Says That Charge Is Untrue.

Frederick C. Tanner, Chief Deputy Attorney General in charge of the New York City offices, announced yesterday that he had instituted a suit against the brokerage firm of Raymond Pynchon of 111 Broadway for amounts aggregating $180,000 representing fines for using cancelled stock tax stamps.

Every brokerage house is compelled by law to attach transfer tax stamps to the memoranda of sales representing business transacted on teh Stock Exchange at the rate of 2 cents for each $100 of par value.  The number of stamps sold by the State runs into the millions each year.  The Controller's office has complained that brokers' clerks and office boys have been cheating the State and their employers by using stamps after they have been cancelled.  The Controller's detectives have found several times in the past a consideratble traffic in cancelled stmaps and have contended that these have been used in place of new ones.  Each stamp is supposed to be cancelled by the broker as soon as it is attached to a bill of sale, and a fine of $500 is provided for the use of cancelled stamps.

When the tax was first imposed five years ago the method of cancelling these stamps was by initialling them in ink.  This method was changed to a punch system, each stamp having a series of perforations punched in it after being used.

The $180,000 which the Attorney General's office seeks to collect from Raymond, Pynchon & Co. represents the fines on 300 stamps bearing Raymond, Pynchon & Co.'s perforation which the authorities will try to prove had been used a second time by that firm.  These stamps, it was said, had been doctored by pasting paper on their backs, corresponding in color to the face of the stamp, in order to hide the perforations.

Attorney General Tanner will conduct the case for the Controller's office, and said yesterday that other brokerage firms were being investigated and that more suits would soon be filed.

Harry Raymond, head of Raymond, Pynchon Co., said last night that the charge had used cancelled stamps was not true.  He said that it was impossible, either by carelessness or dishonesty on the part of clerks for such a thing to happen, as the stamps were purchased in sheets under responsible supervision.

He explained that while the Deputy Attorney General might have doctored stamps in his possession, they had gone out of Ryamond, Pynchon & Co.'s office properly cancelled on the original use.  The firm was not reponsible for what may have happened to the stamp after the sales slips went into the possession of third parties.  He said he expected to have no difficulty in disproving the charge.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Chicago Board of Trade Members: J. P. Molloy


J. P. MOLLOY,
AUG 17  1899
CHICAGO


CBOT futures sales receipt and contract document fragment. 
Langlois scan

Chicago Board of Trade Members of the J. P. Molloy commission trading firm included:

#4623 James P. Molloy
#6744 Edward J. Molloy




Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Chicago Board of Trade Members: Rumsey, Lightner & Company


RUMSEY, LIGHTNER & CO.,
 226 LA SALLE ST. CHICAGO.
JUN   10  1899

Langlois scans




RUMSEY, LIGHTNER & CO.
JAN
XX
XXXX


Members of the Chicago Board of Trade from Rumsey, Lightner & Company included:

#1363 Israel P. Rumsey
#2181 Frank P. Schmitt
#394 Frederick Dickinson



From A History of the City of Chicago:  Its Men and Institutions, 1905:

Rumsey, Lightner & Co., commission merchants, was organized in 1892 by Israel P. Rumsey, M. C. Lightner and F. P. Schmitt.  Mr. Rumsey, the senior member, has been in the commission business in Chicago continuously since 1866, excepting about two years. between 1889 and 1892, and has been at various times the head of different firms, some of which have done the largest flour and grain receiving business on the Board of Trade.  Mr. Lightner died in 1895, and Frederick Dickinson was admitted to the firm, and Mr. Lightner's interest purchased. The firm is doing a strictly commission business, receiving grain, flour and seeds from Western shippers, and also buying and shipping for Eastern mills and grain men on a commission basis. Connected with the business is the buying and selling for future delivery, which enters largely into the Board of Trade commission business. The city offices of the firm are at 226 La Salle street, in addition to which they operate branch offices of Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Peoria.

Israel Parsons Rumsey, of the firm of Rumsey, Lightner & Co., commission merchants, was born February 9, 1836, in the town of Stafford, New York, the son of a Genesee County farmer. At the age of seventeen, after an academic education, he was placed in the wholesale and retail dry goods store of Howard & Whitcomb of Buffalo, New York, at the meager salary of $25 and board for the first year. He remained in Buffalo until 1857, when he celebrated his majority by going as far West as Keokuk, Iowa, where he  obtained a situation in April of that year. It was about this time that whole armies of young men were coming West. Seeking employment, and failing to find it, the greater number of them returned to their Eastern homes.

Rumsey, however, determined never to "take the back track," as it was called, and upon the failure of the firm that had employed him, he bought the delivery route of the principal daily paper of Keokuk, "The Gate City," and went to delivering papers, working thereat from one o'clock in the morning until seven. It was not long, however, before he was called back to the same store at much advanced wages, and at the same time being made the acting proprietor, or agent, of the party who purchased the stock, in which capacity his former employers found themselves as clerks under his charge.

Here he remained until the spring of 1858, when he was ordered to move the stock to Chicago.  This change brought him to the city which has since been his business home. He obtained a situation in the fall of 1858 with the grain and provision house of Flint & Wheeler, one of the largest receiving houses in the city. He made rapid progress in mastering the position of salesman, and in 1860, when Flint & Wheeler changed their business more into the line of banking and exchange, they gave much assistance to Mr. Rumsey's first commission firm, which was organized under the name of Finley, Hoyt & Rumsey.



Mr. Rumsey was fairly well established in the commission business, and rapidly making a name for himself, when the Civil war broke out. His patriotism would not allow business prosperity to keep him from giving his services for the suppression of the Rebellion. His forefathers had fought for their country in 1776 and in 1812. Rumsey felt it was a duty he owed his country to fight for it in '61, and in April of that year he helped to organize "Taylor's Chicago Battery," which Was mustered into the United States service July 16, 1861, as Company B, First Illinois Light Artillery: Mr. Rumsey was elected its junior second lieutenant.

The battery left Chicago for Cairo in May, 1861, and was camped at Bird's Point, Missouri, during the fall of '61, and Rumsey's first engagement was in the battle of Belmont, Missouri, on November 7. of that year, which was General U. S. Grant's first battle of the Rebellion. Grant's army was organized for the Tennessee camp in February, 1862, Mr. Rumsey was assigned to the Second Brigade of General John A. McClernand's division, and was acting assistant adjutant-general for General W. H. S. Wallace during the campaign, until reaching Shiloh, Tennessee, which included the battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. On April 3, 1862, General W. H. L. Wallace was assigned to the command of the Second Division of General Grant's army at Shiloh (known as General C. F. Smith's division), and Mr. Rumsey was retained on General Wallace's personal staff, he being such a favorite of the general's that the latter kept him close to him and even insisted on their lying under the same blankets.

Late in the afternoon of the memorable day of April 6, 1862, General Wallace fell mortally wounded, and his body lay upon the field of carnage all night. Mr. Rumsey was detailed among those to accompany the remains to Ottawa, Illinois, where they were interred, and upon his return to his battery found that he had been promoted during his absence to the rank of senior second lieutenant. The battery was assigned to General W. T. Sheman's division, just before the battle of Shiloh, and remained in the same Second Division, Fifteenth Army Corps, until July, 1864. During this time Lieutenant Rumsey took part in all the battles and marches of that most active and reliable division of Sherman's Army of the Tennessee, and "which was never whipped," from Shiloh, Tennessee, April, 1862, to Atlanta, Georgia, July, 1864, and which included the siege of Corinth, battles of Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, siege of Vicksburg, Jackson, Louisiana, the movement of General Sherman's army from Vicksburg to Memphis by boats, the march from Memphis to Chattanooga, Tennessee, Mission Ridge, General Sherman's march to relief of Burnside at Knoxville, and the campaign to Atlanta. During the siege of Vicksburg he was again promoted from senior second lieutenant to captain of the battery.

Captain Rumsey returned from the war in the fall of 1864, and entered into the flour brokerage business with his brother, John W. Rumsey, whose enlistment in Battery A had just expired, under the name of I. P. & J. W. Rumsey. Two years later they entered upon the receiving of flour, later adding grain, and the firm name was changed to Rumsey, Williams & Co. The name has been changed several times. The next change was to I. P. Rumsey & Co., then to Rumsey & Walker, then to Rumsey & Buell, in all of which firms Mr. Rumsey remained at the head, and continued so until 1889, when he sold his interest to Messrs. A. C. Buell and James Templeton, and retired from the Board of Trade.

This retirement, however, was but temporary, for after two years of engaging in the manufacturing business, his losses convinced him that the saying still held good, and that "old men should not change their business." He accordingly reentered the commission business, in 1892, organizing the firm of Rumsey, Lightner & Co., which still exists under the present title, although Mr. Lightner died in 1895.

Mr. Rumsey is a large stockholder in, and vice-president of, the Cleveland Grain Company of Cleveland, Ohio. This company controls and owns several elevators on the "Big Four" Railroad, that at Cleveland
holding over half a million bushels of grain and doing a business of over $2,000,000 a year.

Mr. Rumsey has at times been quite active in local politics. He organized the campaign for high license in Eugene Cary's run against Carter H. Harrison for mayor of Chicago, the outcome of which was the increase of the liquor license from $100 to $500, and which yields the city over $3,000,000 annually. Mr. Rumsey was a power in the politics of the Fourth Ward, where he resided. He was instrumental in nominating S. D. Foss for alderman on the Independent ticket some years ago, and was made chairman of the campaign committee which carried Foss to victory, much to the surprise of the Republican party, which was especially
strong in that ward. The election of O.O.Wetherell on the Independent ticket, against both party nominees, is another example of Mr. Rumsey's enthusiastic work in local politics. He has been closely identified with "The Citizens' League for the suppression of the sale of liquor to minors and drunkards;" since its organization in 1877, and its president since the death of its first president, Mr. F. F. Elmendorf, in 1883. The history of this league is phenomenal.

Mr. Rumsey was on a number of important committees and active in the preliminary work of securing the World's Fair for Chicago. In this connection he made several visits to other states, and was sent to Washington to look after the expenses there, as the motto of the finance committee was "A million for success, but not a dollar for boodle."

He is prominent in Presbyterian church life and work, and was for eight years one of the board of managers of the Presbyterian Hospital. He is a trustee of the Presbyterian League, chairman of the finance committee that raised the money to build the Grace Presbyterian and Sixth Presbyterian churches, in which he was for many years an elder. He is also identified with the Loyal Legion and Thomas Post, No. 5, of the Grand Army, also a member of the Union League Club.

Monday, July 9, 2012

New York Stock Brokers: Schafer Brothers




New York Times classified, 1906


 

SCHAFER BROS.
AUG
1
1898
NEW YORK.

Langlois scan






Sunday, July 8, 2012

Chicago & West Michigan Railway

Or is it Pere Marquette?  Or the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern?  There is much going on with this check:


RN-X7 tax stamp printed check, prepared for the Chicago & West Michigan Railway, overstamped by the Pere Marquette Railroad and with a paid stamp from the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway.


The Pere Marquette Railroad was created on November 1, 1899, and absorbed through merger three railroads on January 1, 1900:  the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad, the Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western Railroad, and the Chicago and Western Michigan Railway.

The Chicago & West Michigan check above was written only 12 days after the railway was merged into the Pere Marquette.  The PM RR, rather than throwing out a tax paid and preprinted check by C&WM Ry, simply overstamped their own name across the top of the check.

As to the use of the check, and with help from Bob H:  The PMRR hauled some cars belonging to the LS&MS the month before (actually, the C&WM did since the PM didn't own them yet.) and they are collecting mileage from the LS&MS.  The PM wrote up this draft and sent it to the LS&MS, who audited it, approved it (that oval "correct" stamp at lower left) and paid the money. 

Saturday, July 7, 2012

On Beyond Holcombe: A. L. Calder

Editor's Note: Malcolm Goldstein is a contributing blogger for 1898 Revenues. This post is part of a continuing column on the companies that used proprietary battleships.





Albert Lawton Calder staked his claim to fame on the tooth cleaning compound Dentine. In an age devoted to praising American ingenuity elaborately, graciously and generously, the exhibit of the company bearing his name at the Jamestown Exhibition of 1907 was thus lauded:


An artistic corner was reserved for the exhibit ... . The superlative qualities of this dentifrice were advertised in a quaint and unique way.

Calder’s Saponaceous Dentifrice, prepared by Albert L. Calder, was the first tooth powder made in this country, and was the first to attain national and foreign sale; it was, therefore, peculiarly appropriate that it should be exhibited at the Jamestown Exposition. Dentine has always been manufactured with the same care used in putting up prescriptions , and it has justly enjoyed such a reputation - since first manufactured in 1850 - that many tooth powders since placed on the market have aimed at equaling in its purity and quality, but none have [sic] succeeded so far.



This substance was always described as “saponaceous,” which means, essentially, soapy. Precisely why it was “saponaceous” is unclear, but perhaps the term was meant to emphasize that it was neither gritty nor abrasive. Apparently, Calder’s product was prepared legitimately in a non-toxic manner and never seems to have run afoul of the Pure Food and Drug Law crusaders. Judging by the frequency with which the cancel appears today, it must have been extremely successful in its time.




A. L. Calder 5/8 cent proprietary stamps


A. L. Calder, born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1825, opened a retail pharmacy there in partnership with Joseph Balch in 1842. Between 1848 and 1850, he worked in Boston for Seth W. Fowle, later of RS 91 fame. In 1850, he returned to Providence and, in 1851, opened a retail pharmacy with his brother George, who two years later shifted his attention to his own broader wholesale drug, chemical, paint and dye business. Albert continued the retail pharmacy until 1886, and, in fact, a Calder cancel has been identified on the earlier governmental proprietary issues. Albert was an original member of the Rhode Island Board of Pharmacy, as well as its President from1870 to 1885, and also acted as President of the newly formed local Providence pharmaceutical association when it organized in 1874. Yet Calder gave ever increasing attention to marketing his own brand, and finally closed his retail business entirely to devote his time to the manufacture of Dentine.

In 1890, he acted his firm’s representative to the National Wholesale Druggists Association meeting, and, at some point, subscribed his company to the NWDA’s plan to control retail re-sale prices which was finally declared illegal as a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law in 1907. As a staunch Republican, he also participated in local government and other civic endeavors. In 1879, he became a director of the Providence Athenaeum, the city’s library. At his death in 1899, he was lauded as a leader and benefactor of his Unitarian Church for more than forty years, and praised for his continuing dedication to church and civic causes. George, apparently less civically minded, closed his wholesale business and retired in 1900. He died at age 86 in 1916.


A L Calder appears to have been succeeded in the manufacturing business by his son, A. L. Carter 2d, and the business continued to flourish. In 1908, the year the company incorporated, the national printing trades magazine reported that the Calder company’s entire advertising budget was being channeled into streetcar advertising to the detriment of magazine and newspaper advertising. By 1912, the Company had moved to a new location and was operating as both the Albert L Calder Co and the Calder Dentine Co. In 1921, the Calder Dentine Co re-incorporated, lasting as a pharmacy supply house until 1937 before finally ceasing business in 1938.

The Calders must have traveled among the elite of Providence. In 1902, a miniature portrait of Mrs A L Calder was lent by its painter to a display of “Fair Women” sponsored by the Copley Society at Copley Hall in Boston Mrs Calder and her daughter-in-law were both listed in the 1905 Providence Society Blue Book as members of the Providence Art Club. Mrs Calder was listed as a visitor to the fashionable and posh Battle Creek Sanitarium in 1908, and Mrs Calder 2d served as a General Vice President of the National Daughters of the American Revolution in the early 1920s.


Thursday, July 5, 2012

New York Stock Brokers: John Bianchi


OCT 28 1898
JNO.  BIANCHI.

Thompson scan



JUN 3  1902
JNO. BIANCHI

Langlois scan



Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Chicago Board of Trade Members: Henry O. Parker


H. O. PARKER
JUL   22   1899
CHICAGO, ILL.

David Thompson scan

Henry O. Parker was CBOT member #2486.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Chicago Board of Trade Members: Charles E. Gifford & Company

David Thompson and I have begun to work with a listing of members of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) from the 1898 tax period that can be found in an annual volume called:  "Annual Report of the Trade and Commerce of the City of Chicago."  These were published for generations, and can be found for the years 1898-1902 and beyond, even as ebooks through Google and downloadable as free .pdfs. 

Futures contracts required tax stamps, though the level of taxation didn't require the use of dollar values on most contracts.  Battleships predominate, and a large number of the battleship stamps that can be found in collections were cancelled by CBOT members.  Today is the first example, cancelled by the firm Charles E. Gifford & Company.



C. E. G. & Co.
NOV  11  1899

Langlois scan


In 1900, the listed members of the CBOT from the Charles E. Gifford firm include:

#2054 Charles E. Gifford
#5252 Charles E. Gifford Jr.
#2524 Isaac Gifford



Above is one of the few dollar commerce stamps we have found that was likely used on a CBOT transaction.  This stamp was included in a post of unknown cancels.

Monday, July 2, 2012

New York Stock Brokers: Henry Brothers



HENRY BROS. & CO.
NOV
1
1901
N. Y.

Langlois scan



HENRY BROS. & CO.
NOV
15
189X
N. Y.

David Thompson scan





Sunday, July 1, 2012

Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railway


Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railway Company
check with printed tax stamp RN-X7


The B,CR&N Ry operated as an independent railroad from 1876 to 1903 and was thereafter succeeded by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway.



B, CR & N Ry route map 1901

Saturday, June 30, 2012

On Beyond Holcombe: Daggett & Ramsdell


Editor's Note: Malcolm Goldstein is a contributing blogger for 1898 Revenues. This post is part of a continuing column on the companies that used proprietary battleships.

Daggett & Ramsdell, a skin care products provider, can be reached on the Internet, and maintains a website ready to sell its beauty products. Today, it offers a variety of creams and fillers to shade, plump and tone the skin, but the company’s history began with a revolution in the manufacture of cold cream. Volney Chapin Daggett and Clifford Ramsdell were both born 1859 and both graduated from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, Ramsdell in 1882 and Daggett in 1885. They opened a retail drug store in New York City as partners in 1890. At that time, pharmacists were trained to compound themselves many of the decoctions and elixirs they sold, including cold cream for women. Daggett and Ramsdell found that women’s cold cream, then made with a vegetable oil base, soon went rancid on their store shelves. In fashion industry lore, Daggett is acclaimed as the man who produced the first stable and long-lasting cold cream by substituting mineral oils for vegetable oils. The rest, as they say, is history.



D&R handstamped 1 1/4 cent proprietary


When the company later trademarked its mineral oil based cold cream under the retail brand name “Perfect,” it claimed it first had used that name in 1893. For a period of years beginning in 1897, Ramsdell pursued his own interests, starting with an extended tour of Europe, and later worked in Newark and Chicago, ending with his formation of the Ramsdell Drug Co. During the Spanish-American War, Daggett was operating a drugstore on lower Fifth Avenue. In January,1902, the company expanded its product line to include “Perfect Cold Cream Soap,” and by 1907, had transitioned entirely from the drugstore business to the cosmetics business. Ramsdell later rejoined Daggett & Ramsdell, but died in 1911.



Daggett continued to lead the company from success to success, adding face powders as a product line beginning in 1913. Apparently just before the stock market crash in 1929, Daggett shrewdly sold the company to Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, who marketed Daggett & Ramsdell products through its subsidiary, Stanco Distributors, Inc. Daggett himself, who remained only a director of the company after the sale, outlived both his wife and only child, dying at age 84 in 1943. The company, under new management as a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey, apparently gained ground during the Depression by successfully acting as American manufacturer for a new line of perfume and cosmetics designed by the French couturier Elsa Schiaparelli which was marketed as well by Stanco Distributors, Inc. It even commissioned an ad for its products from Dr. Suess in 1940. Since the end of World War II, ownership of the company has changed hands a number of times and today the products are distributed by Fiske Industries, Inc.

Friday, June 29, 2012

New York Stock Brokers: Latham, Alexander & Company


LATHAM, ALEXANDER & CO.
JAN
2
1901
N.  Y.

Langlois scan





The New York Times, August 19, 1909: