The Cincinnati, Portsmouth & Virginia Railroad Company Buys Revenue Stamps

A few years ago a small stack of accounts payable checks from the Cincinnati, Portsmouth & Virginia Railroad Company appeared at a paper money show. They were particularly interesting in that the goods or services that occasioned each check were spelled out in some detail. For instance, the check below was written on August 1, 1898 for fifty dollars, paying for "Postage and Int. Revenue Stamps for use in General Offices."

The next check is even more interesting, written on August 10, 1898 to the Strobridge Lithographing Company for "Imprinting Revenue Stamps on PayRoll checks #7160 to 8500, Vouchers 500 blanks." It is rare that we know which of the initial 28 companies printed the revenues on any given document. Strobridge was located in Cincinnati, so it was a logical, but not necessary, choice. Unfortunately, I do not have one of their imprinted paychecks. If any reader does, I'd like to see one.

The C, P & V had imprints put on their accounts payable checks as well. The one below, written on August 25, 1898, paid $3.25 for "Full amount of claim account for one lamb killed and two injured near Fenton tank, by Train 42. July 17th, 1898, as per papers."

One more, written October 27, 1898, paying $13.00 for "Amount of claim account of loss of two cases of sausage. account of delay caused by burning of West Fork Bridge in October 1897, as per papers."

All of these checks were signed by Thomas Hunt, Treasurer, and Samuel Hunt, President. Samuel was also President of the Ohio River and Charleston Railway. Both of his companies are pictured in the 1901 map below.

Samuel Hunt went on to become President of the Detroit Southern, which went into receivership by 1904 and was absorbed into the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton in 1905. Hunt was President of that company briefly, dying later that year.

The Fullerton List: Organizing for a Revised Catalog

This post is part of a continuing series on Richard Fullerton's 1952 Catalog of Railroad Company, Street Railway & Express Company Printed Cancellations on the 1898 U. S. Revenues.

  

Should there be a new catalog for documentary printed cancels?  The ongoing work to review Mr. Fullerton's catalog has revealed for me various reasons to update and revise his original work.  Nowadays we've serious advantages he did not have, including Google and the internet as a research tool, email and the internet as a collector's association tool, and websites and the internet as a publishing tool. 

The process to review his catalog has revealed several areas where this 1950s work falls a bit short: unlisted railroad cancels, unlisted non-railroad use of printed cancels, information on which to base a new organization for the catalog, and the possible reasons and purpose behind the use of printed cancels.

This post considers a new possible basis for the organization of the railroad cancels.

In Richard Fullerton's list, the cancels are listed alphabetically by railroad.  No surprise there, as this is logical and enables a collector to readily find the railroad to which their cancels belong.  However, while this is a simple and logical idea, the catalog provides little guidance about the basic nature of documentary printed cancels, their purpose, and the small group of companies which chose to prepare and use printed cancels.  A little knowledge about these companies provides a different picture about the railroad printed cancels than is presented by Fullerton, despite the short railroad descriptions he supplies in the back of the catalog. 

The business relationships between the railroads that printed and used the cancels is for me the most compelling organizational basis for these cancels.  Three large corporate groups were responsible for all but one of the railroads that used printed cancels and that are listed in the Fullerton catalog. 

Fullerton includes two unnumbered pages at the back of his catalog of historical information on the 20 railroads he lists.  He cites the Poor's Manuals from 1873-73 and 1888, and Henry Tolman as sources on these railroads.  The historical information includes dates of original incorporation and succession and name change information.  There is some reference to ownership or control by larger railroads, including some listed in the catalog.  However, the simple descriptions don't knit the information into a clear pattern, which with resources like the internet and Google is a simpler task today.  I am still something of a journeyman in understanding the railroad business of the late 1800s.  I would be interested  if there are any experts out there who could shed light on the associations within and between these railroad ownership groups. 

There are 3 major railroad groups to be found among the railroads in the Fullerton Catalog:

1.  The Burlington group
2.  The Gould/Southwestern group
3.  The Northwestern group

The Milwaukee Road, aka Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, is the one railroad that I have not been able to identify as part of one of these groups.

The largest group of railroads in the Fullerton catalog are the railroads controlled by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.  Those railroads include:

RR020, CB&QRR, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy:  This was the mother company.

RR005, B&MRRRinNeb, Burlington and Missouri River RR in Neb:  Acquired by the CB&Q in 1872.

RR010, CB&KCRy, Chicago, Burlington & Kansas City Ry: Acquired by the CB&Q in 1880.

RR015, CB&N, Chicago, Burlington & Northern RR:  Acquired by the CB&Q in 1890.

RR025, CFM&DMRR, Chicago, Fort Madison & Des Moines RR: Acquired by the CB&Q in 1901.

RR050, H&StJRR, Hannibal & St. Joseph RR:  Acquired by the CB&Q in 1883.

RR070, KCStJ&CBRR, Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs RR: Acquired by the CB&Q in 1880.

RR085, StLK&NWRR, St. Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern RR:  Acquired by the CB&Q in 1881.

Pass good for 4 CB&Q Railroads

The second largest group of railroads in the Fullerton catalog are those that were part of the Gould empire, initially built or acquired by Jay Gould in the southwestern United States and carried on by his sons.  This group of railroads includes a printed cancel and a railroad unlisted by Fullerton (TSERY).  A likely source for unknown printed cancels would be southwestern railroads associated with the Goulds.

RR050, I&GNRR,  International and Great Northern RR:  Acquired by Jay Gould in 1880.

RR060 Memphis Route Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis Ry.  See the article attached to the original post on this railroad and its cancels. 

RR065, KCNWRRCO, Kansas City, Northwestern RR Co:  Part of Gould's MOPAC.

RR075, MOPACRYCO, Missouri Pacific Ry Co:  Controlled by Jay Gould from 1879.

RR080, StLIM&SRY, St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Ry:  Acquired by Jay Gould in 1883.

RR090, StLSWRYCO, St. Louis, Southwestern Ry Co:  Not sure when and if Jay Gould took control; however, Edwin Gould, Jay's son, was the VP of the company in 1891.

RR095, STLSWRYCOofTEX, St. Louis, Southwestern Ry Co of Texas:  This the Texas branch of RR090, and therefore in Gould control as well. 

RR105, TSERY, Tyler Southeastern Ry:  A subsidiary of the Gould controlled St. Louis and Southwestern Railway.

Jay Gould. 

John Rockefeller of Standard Oil said that Gould was the most skilled businessman he had ever known.

The last group of 4 railroads was controlled by the Chicago and Northwestern

RR035, C&NWRy, Chicago & Northwestern Ry:  The mother company.

RR040, CStPM&ORyCo, Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Ry Co:  Controlled by the C&NW  by 1882.

RR045, FE&MVRR, Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley RR:  The C&NW gained control in the late 1800s and merged the railroad into the C&NW by 1903.

RR100, SC&PRR, Sioux City & Pacific RR:  Became a part of the C&NW system in the 1880s.

Lastly there was one independent railroad in the Fullerton catalog that do not appear to be associated with other railroads issuing printed cancels:

RR030   CM&StPRY      Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Ry


There is much to unlock philatecally in these associations, and many questions that are raised.  Consider:

• Why are all these railroads in the midwest and southwest?  Why didn't eastern railroads used printed cancels?  Just as the USPS issued the Kans. and Nebr. overprints on definitive postage stamps for security reasons, was security in this part the United States the coherent compelling reason behind the use of printed cancels for these railroads?
• Why did these corporate groups use printed cancels when others in the region did not?
• Are there possible "orphan" railroads associated with the railroad groups that might have used printed cancels that are unknown to philately?  These corporate groups provide an interesting lead or basis in which to start a search.

I would be interested to know what others think about such an approach, and who would be willing to help in the building and authorship of a revised documentary printed cancel list.  Please write to 1898revenues@gmail.com.  John Langlois

Cancel for December 19: Adams Express

Adams Exp. Co.

DEC

19

1898

J.  E.  D.

Shore Line Drawing Room Car Ticket of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad

As promised, here is some information on the drawing room car ticket with a battleship revenue that I recently won on eBay.

The seller listed this ticket as being from the Boston-New York Shore Line. Fine, but when I went to do some research on it, I couldn't find any such railroad existing in the proper time period. It does not help that the battleship revenue was applied over much of the name, and that the handstamp cancels do not show the railroad name clearly.

What I finally did track down was a Shore Line Express as part of the New York and Boston through train service of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. The Shore Line service left New York daily at 3:00 p.m. and stopped at New Haven, New London and Providence before reaching Boston at 9:00 p.m. A reverse route with the same timing also existed. The Official Guide of the Railways for February, 1901 described the Shore Line Express thus: "Vestibuled Parlor Cars and Vestibule Buffet Smoking Car New York to Boston and Through Coaches. Vestibuled Dining Car New London to Boston."

I'm satisfied that this is the correct railroad service for two reasons. First, there is definitely an "N.H." on the partial cancel on the back of the ticket, and something to the left of it, probably "N.Y. &." Second, on the front one can see that the General Ticket Agent's name was States, and J.N. States held this position for the New York, New Haven & Hartford in the relevant period.

This map is from the February, 1901 Guide.

Update to Pewabic Company Post

The original "Pewaric" cancel post from December 15 has been adjusted. The actual spelling is Pewabic.

Battleships with Printed Cancels Used on Checks

John's recent post with a Saint Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern cancel on a one-cent battleship triggered this one.

One-cent battleship revenues weren't really made for use on checks - that's why the two-cent ones were printed, after all. Finding pairs of those with printed cancels used to pay the check tax is a bit unusual. I've only run into three so far.

The first example is the use of two one-cent battleships with Saint Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern printed cancels used to pay the check tax in Little Rock. I wasn't able to get information on J.R. Miller tying him to the railroad, but someone of that name was on the Board of Directors of the Little Rock, Hot Springs and Texas Railroad Company and could have had access to the overprinted stamps. One Mrs. J.R. Miller died in her seventies in June of 1916.

The second example is also from Arkansas. P.H. (?) Hammond of the P.M. Company used a pair of battleships with Saint Louis Southwestern cancels to pay the tax. If anyone can guess what the P.M. Company was and how Hammond got hold of the stamps for his personal use, I'd be interested.

My last example is of a pair of one-cent battleships with printed American Express cancels being used to pay the check tax. S.J. Hopper was a Sturgis railroad agent in the correct time period, which would explain how he obtained the stamps.

Companies did put printed cancels on two-cent battleships for use on checks. The battleship on the check below has a Mo Pac cancel, and was properly used by the railway.

Another proper use is shown on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad railroad draft below. The auditor of the B.&M.R.R.R. was requesting payment of car service fees from the Chicago & West Michigan Railway, which became part of the Pere Marquette on January 1, 1900.

Cancel for December 15: The Pewabic Company

Author's Note 12/17/2010:  The original title of this of post was "The Pewaric Company."  I've scrutinized this cancel a bit more and decided to run a search on a different spelling.  "Pewabic" produced different results, leading to identification of the source of this cancel.  So this post has since been edited.

PEWABIC

COMPANY,

DEC  15  1898

IRON MOUNTAIN,

MISSOURI

On April 4, 1853, the Pewabic Mining Company was organized as a corporation for mining copper, under the laws of the state of Michigan.  The company expanded beyond Michigan and included assets in Iron Mountain, Missouri.  Around the time of this cancel the company employed approximately 600 people at their Iron Mountain minesl

Iron Mountain mining operations were large enough to spur the building of dedicated railroad lines into the region, including the St. Louis, Iron Mountain, and Southern Railway, which issued its own printed cancels as illustrated below.

A link to Iron Mountain history is included here. 

Iron Mountain was originally alleged to be a large mass of nearly solid iron.  While productive mining did exist at the site for many years, the mythology of the mountain's purity did not match reality.

Printed cancel for the

 ST. LOUIS, IRON MOUNTAIN AND SOUTHERN RAILWAY

The StLIM&SRy was originally built to transport iron ore from Iron Mountain up to St. Louis.  Overtime it would expand and become part of Jay Gould's railroad empire.  Its remnants are now part of the Union Pacific.

William Moses Gould, the famous "Iron Mountain Baby." 

Cancel for December 15: Smith Brothers Cough Drops

The famous Smith Brothers trademark logo. 



S.B

12/15/1900

manuscript cancel

Smith Brothers trademark from bank check upper left

The complete check

You can still buy Smith Brothers Cough Drops by visiting the website for The Victory Old Time Candy Store.

RB20 1/8ct proprietary attached to Smith Brothers packaging.

Sente scan

From the current Wikipedia entry for Smith Brothers: 

William Wallace Smith I (1830-1913) and Andrew Smith (1836-1895) were the sons of James Smith (c1800-1866) of Poughkeepsie, New York. James' family had emigrated from Fife, Scotland, in 1831, and James had emigrated from St. Armand, Quebec in 1847. In New York, he opened a small restaurant, ice-cream parlor, and candy business, called "James Smith and Son". James Smith bought a cough drop recipe from a peddler named Sly Hawkins. In 1852, James developed lozenges and advertised them in the Poughkeepsie paper selling them to those "afflicted with hoarseness, cough or colds". William and Andrew inherited the business after their father died in 1866. The brand was then named "Smith Brothers Cough Drop". In 1872, to prevent drug stores from selling generic lozenges, they developed one of the first factory filled packages with trademark branding. On the packaging the word "Trade" appeared under the picture of William and the word "Mark" under that of Andrew, they were then incorrectly referred to as Trade Smith and Mark Smith. Andrew died in 1895, and William continued as president of the company almost up to his death in 1913. William was succeeded by his son, Arthur G. Smith (c1875-1936), who continued to expand the company by adding menthol drops (1922), cough syrup (1926) and wild cherry drops (1948). Arthur G. Smith had two sons: William Wallace Smith II (1888-1955) and Robert Lansing Smith (1891-1962). The trust funds that owned Smith Brothers stock in 1963 merged their company with Warner-Lambert. The last Smith Brothers Cough Drop manufactured in Poughkeepsie was made in 1972. They were thereafter manufactured by F & F Foods in Chicago, Illinois.

Cancel for December 14: C. P. Company

C.  P. CO.,

DEC

14

1900

SO.  OMAHA,  NEB.

Its been a several day hiatus for us at 1898 Revenues.  Happy holidays and Merry Christmas as we make our way into the festive season.  Our posts might be a bit sporadic through this period.  Bear with us!

Cancel for December 10: S. C. Smith Insurance

S.  C.  SMITH

DEC  10  1898

INSURANCE

A Pair of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & Saint Louis Parlor Car Tickets

Several days ago Frank Sente and I bid on the same lot on eBay - a parlor car ticket with a battleship revenue paying the required tax. I came out the winner by a few dollars, and Frank expressed the hope that I would blog on it some day. I will when I receive it.

This reminded me that I do have a pair of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & Saint Louis Railway parlor or chair car checks, each with a one-cent battleship on the back. These appeared on eBay around nine years ago, when I was putting together my very first exhibit (imprinted parlor car tickets), and I badly wanted them for the first page to show how companies that didn't use imprints paid the tax. I set a high snipe, and got up in the middle of the night to go see if I had won them. Indeed, I had.

Interestingly enough, the tickets were used in December of 1901, after many of the Spanish American War taxes had been repealed.

The CCC & StL Railway operated from June of 1889 until it was folded into the New York Central in 1930.

Cancel for December 7: H. K. F.

H.  K.  F.

DEC    7    1898

Who or what was HKF?

The Shift Hunter Letters

David Thompson did us a favor by looking for the double transfer in today's previous post in the The Shift Hunter Letters, to no avail.  Dan Harding maintains a pdf version of this document on his website.  In my earlier reviews of battleship related shift and double transfer material I did not include this reference.  While most of the work in these "letters" involves first issue material, there is a fair amount of treatment of battleships at the back.  Thanks to Dan for keeping this pdf up at his site and for Dave for checking it out for us.

R164 Double Transfer

Here is an interesting pair of stamps with the same double transfer.  The arrows in the margins of the quadrille paper point to clear westward shifts on the rouletted stamp immediately below and the hyphen holed stamp that follows.  These stamps were likely printed months apart yet they show the same error.  A limited number of plates were used for both the roulette and hyphen hole stamps.  Can anyone tell me which plate this double transfer comes from?

Roulette

Hyphen hole

Triply Taxed Bills of Exchange

One of the joys of blogging about the taxed documents of the Spanish American War era has been corresponding and trading notes with other collectors. In the course of blogging about bills of exchange, Bob Patetta and I discovered we both possessed bills of exchange that had been taxed in three countries: The United States, Great Britain, and Switzerland. As "philatelic hat tricks" so-to-speak, they hold prized status in our respective collections.

Bob's is in the form of a Customer's Bank Draft; mine was written as a Sight Draft. Initially I thought it would be fun to include both in the same blog, but decided instead they deserved separate attention. Here's Bob's example.

To accomodate all the transit endorsements plus an explanatory note, a piece was added, (at right on front view), so the document is elongated to the degree that it's hard to show in its entirety. I've done so, for the record, in the first two illustrations below, and will discuss the draft from the next set of four detail scans.

The First National Bank of Wallace, Idaho

Customer Draft of John Ritz

August 3, 1898

Patetta scan

Reverse of Ritz Draft

Showing Swiss Revenues and Transit Endorsements

Patetta scan

Detail view of Ritz Draft

Showing US and GB Revenues

Patetta scan

The draft was written by John Ritz, Wallace, Idaho to Fredrik Ritz, Buren an der Aare, Canton Bern, Switzerland. As best I can determine, 5,260 Swiss Francs equated to slightly more than US$1,000. At 4-cents per $100 in value or fraction thereof, the proper tax rate for singly written bills of exchange, the US tax was 44 cents (11 x $.04), so Ritz overpaid the tax by 1-cent. The US stamps are pencancelled "J R" with a further date stamp of "AUG 3 1898" added by the Wallace Bank. Also note what appears to be an internal bank tracking number, 9909, within the the oval cancel at upper right:

The First Bank of Wallace

No. 9909

Wallace, Idaho.

As the endorsements on the reverse will show, the draft passed through the Hanover National Bank in New York to the Union Bank of London which taxed the draft One Penny atop the US stamps. Cancelled:

UNION BANK OF LONDON

19 AUG 1898

LIMITED

Detail of Top Portion of Reverse of Ritz Draft

Showing Swiss Revenues and Two Endorsements

Patetta scan

Incredibly the draft apparently reached Bern the next day, August 20, the date of the Marcuard & Co. cancel shown below. Marcuard & Co. added the Bern Canton revenues, shown above, totaling 41 centimes. We'd appreciate receiving comment at 1898revenues@gmail.com from anyone able to explain the Swiss tax rates.

If you look closely at the Pay Hanover National Bank Or Order endorsement of the First Natl Bank of Wallace, you'll note it has been overprinted with a three-tiered boxed ENDORSEMENT ERASED cancellation with wavy lines in the top and bottom tiers. Again, we'd appreciate comment from anyone who could explain which party may have added that cancel and why.

Detail of Middle Portion of Ritz Draft

Showing Three Endorsements
Patetta Scan

The above middle portion of the draft shows the tranmittal endorsement from the Union Bank of London to Marcuard & Co. in Bern as well as Marcaurd's subsequent endorsement to an unknown entity in Buren:

Payez a l' ordre de la

???????? der ???????? Buren

Valeur en compte

Berne, le 20 Aout 1898

The final endorsement is important as that's the party that ultimately would have communicated with Fredrik Ritz. Again, we seek comment about that unknown party.

Detail of Bottom of Ritz Draft

Showing an Explanatory Note
Patetta Scan

Finally, we'd appreciate hearing from anyone who could translate the text of the note written at the bottom of the draft.

Despite the questions raised it is a wonderful piece demonstrating taxation in three political realms and our thanks go to Bob Patteta for providing the scans.

A Bankers Life Association Insurance Policy

This Bankers Life Association policy was issued for $2,000 on the life of Peter A. Hinners of Beardstown, Illinois in December of 1900. The tax on life insurance policies at that time was eight cents per hundred dollars or fraction thereof of indemnity, and in this case was paid using two eighty-cent battleship revenues.

The policy included membership in the Association, involving a $43 deposit, payable in four equal installments at 4% interest. The promissory note in the policy was not taxed as such, or at least, no tax was paid on it. Perhaps if anyone had called the IRS's attention to it, the result would have been different.

The Bankers Life Association was founded July 1, 1879 and became a mutual company in 1909. In 1985 it changed its name to Principal Financial Group and it currently is one of the Fortune 500 companies.

Cancel for December 3: M. A. & C. Railway

M.  A.  &  C.  RY.

DEC

3

CANCELLED

On September 19 last year a cancel by the same railway appeared on this site.  Since that time I have failed to identify the MA&C Railway, which is odd, since with the vast resources now available online regarding railroads the process of identification is usually short and simple.  Again, if anybody might know the full name of the railroad behind these initials, please let me know at 1898revenues@gmail.com.

Meanwhile, the best online resource I've ever found for researching railroads is Railroadiana.  A screen shot of the names database search page is included below.  The site is maintained by collectors and experts of railroad collectables, and they maintain a search engine in which one can search by railroad initials.  This has been quite useful for me, though the Railroadiana database still produces a blank for the MA&C.  Since the search engine did not help, I also posted the stamps with the MA&C initials on the question page of the Railroadiana site to see if any of those that follow the site could help provide an answer.  Nobody could.  So I am still stuck!

Screen capture of Railroadiana railroad names database.

Cancel for December 2: W. T. Durand

W.  T.  DURAND

DEC

2

1898

MILWAUKEE, WIS

W. T. Durand ran a Milwaukee insurance company.

Cancel for December 1: Lincoln County Bank

Lincoln Co. Bank,

DEC    1   1899

Merrill,   Wis.

This bank still exists today.  Find their website here.  The bank was founded in 1897 as a private bank and became state chartered in 1903.  The bank changed its name to Lincoln Community Bank in 2007.

An Incoming Bill of Exchange

When I saw this rather bedraggled first of exchange, directed to a U.S. company from Mexico City, at a stamp show my heart beat a bit faster due to its date - July 1, 1898. That feeling quickly dissipated when I saw that the Mexican revenue was canceled on that date, but the U.S. revenue not until July 6. I bought it anyway.

The dating formed a logical sequence, as the bill was issued in Mexico City and sent to New York for payment. The U.S. stamp was added by a representative of the Hidalgo Mining Company, possibly in Pittsburgh on the 6th of July, as there is an undated handstamp on back indicating payment from the Lincoln National Bank of Pittsburgh to the Seaboard National Bank of New York. The Seaboard National marked the instrument as paid on July 7th.

All well and good, but the tax paid was not sufficient. In the Compilation of Decisions Rendered by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, January 1899 it was clearly stated, "Checks drawn in a foreign country, but payable in the United States, taxable 2 cents on each $100 or fraction thereof." The tax on this $996.65 bill of exchange would have been 20 cents. But at least one bank found it necessary to ask the IRS for that ruling.

It really isn't clear from reading the War Revenue Act what the proper tax should have been - two cents like a check cashed in the United States or twenty cents like a bill of exchange written in the United States - so the Hildago Mining Rep can be excused for adopting the cheaper view. If only the timing had been such that he had added the stamp on July 1.....