Business and Transportation

Samuel Morse’s first backer, Francis O. J. Smith, proposes to trade his rights to build a telegraph to California to Amos Kendall in exchange for a claim against the New York & Erie (Western Union)

(Early Telegraphy) Francis Ormond Jonathan SMITH (1806-1876) Three-term United States Congressman from Maine 1833 to 1839 who assisted Samuel Morse in promoting the electric telegraph and became a quarter interest owner in the patent.

Excellent content Autograph Letter Signed “F.O.J. Smith”, 1 page, 253 x 203 mm. (10 x 8 in.), “Irving House” New York, 4 February [18]52, to his rival Amos Kendall (1789-1869), concerning an exchange of construction rights in New York for a telegraph route to California:

“Your note of yesterday respecting California came to hand. In reply, I suppose my former note on the subject of my proposal (Jan[uar]y 31, [18]52) of April 1850 was sufficiently fluent, that such proposal, settlement[?] unanswered[?], was no longer an open one. This, however, I will do— accepting such line or lines extending into California as Congress should aid in contracting. I will take your principals’ claim upon the NY & E line in exchange for my interest in California, in lieu of each. The N.Y. & E. have for which payment should have been made by the contractor is 330 miles— that is deducting loss in crossing Hudson River, & deducting Binghamton line, & at $37.50 per mile, amounts to $12,375. To wait[?] on other appropriations to a settlement, I will draft an offer you made (March 24, 1850) on— take your stock in the line from Boston to the British Provinces for an equal amount of stock— N Orleans & Ohio line.”

Only twelve years after Samuel Morse first publicly demonstrated the electromagnetic telegraph, the nation was gripped with a massive (and often anarchic) building boom of lines from New England to New Orleans — not unlike the internet frenzy of the 1990s. Francis O. J. Smith was the first to financially back Morse in 1838 and served as his business manager until the mid 1840s. After a falling out with Smith over financing, Morse retained Amos Kendall to act as his agent and attorney. Smith still retained rights to the patent, which set the stage for conflict. In 1847 Kendall and Smith agreed to divide the nation into exclusive territories in a bid for coopeation. However, the two were soon at odds when Smith constructed a telegraph trunk line from Lake Erie to New York City in violation of an agreement that gave control of main-line telegraph service in the State of New York to Kendall. Smith’s competing line, The New York & Erie, managed by Ezra Cornell and Joshua Speed, proved ultimately unsuccessful and went bankrupt in the early 1850s. On 15 January 1852, only two weeks before Smith wrote this letter, Cornell purchased the defunct line and reorganized it as the New York & Western Union Telegraph Company—shortened later to Western Union after a merger in 1855. Smith, who was losing his grip on future profits in telegraphy, attempted to exchange his rights to build a line to California, as well as his interest in the valuable line from Boston to Nova Scotia, in exchange for a claim against his old company. Whether this deal transpired is unknown, but It would require another decade for telegraph service to reach the West Coast. In 1860, The Federal Government awarded Western Union with the contract for the first transcontinental telegraph. It is unknown whether Smith appreciated the irony.

Toned with some paper loss at left margin, typical folds and other minor wear, else very good condition overall.

(EXA 5209) SOLD.

Pittsburgh Farmers’ and Mechanics’ Turnpike Company Broadside

(Turnpikes and Toll Roads) Broadside, “RATES OF TOLLS. PITTSBURGH FARMERS’ AND MECHANICS’ TURNPIKE COMPANY. 560 x 405 mm. (22 x 16 in).

The broadside lists rates for nearly every conceivable vehicle and animal that used the road including pigs, sheep, and cattle (charged 6 1/4 cents by the dozen) as well a variety of horse-drawn vehicles charged on basis of size of wheels as well as number of axles. Also, two oxen were considered equivalent to one horse for toll-taking purposes. (And you thought tolls at the Lincoln Tunnel were complicated.)

The Farmers’ and Mechanics’ Turnpike Company was established around 1829 and had completed a road on the outskirts of Pittsburg around 1837. The road continued in operation for several decades until it was sold to the City of Pittsburgh in 1871 after years of falling tolls and growing indebtedness.^* The road roughly followed the course of modern-day Fifth Avenue.

Light foxing and soiling, some light edge wear, contemporary ink marks at margin, folds, separated vertical fold repaired on verso with archival tape, else very good.

(EXA 5363) $475
___________
^* Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1837), 322; [Advertisement] The Daily Pittsburgh Gazette (1 Apr. 1836) calling for proposals for “grading, stoning, and erecting the necessary Bridges and Culverts of the first two miles…commencing at the city line”; Pennsylvania Session Laws (1863), 431-433; Laws of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1871), 579-580.

1880 Boston and Hingham Steam Boat Company broadside

(Steam Boats) Broadside, “BOSTON AND HINGHAM STEAM BOAT CO. ON AND AFTER MONDAY OCTOBER 11th, 1880 STEAMER GOV. ANDREW WILL LEAVE ROWE’S WHARF, BOSTON…” (Boston: F. A. Searle, Printer, [1880]) 496 x 370 mm. (19 1/2 x 14 1/2 in.). For only a quarter you could get a one-way ticket from Boston to either Hull, Downer Landing or Hingham. The same ride today would set you back $8.00 ($16.00 if you’re going to Logan Airport). The steamer Gov. Andrew was built in 1874 and plied the Boston/Hingham/Hull route well into the 1880s.^*

Laid onto a larger linen sheet, light dampstain at top left corner, looses affect some text which has been filled in, overall very good.

(EXA 5364) $350

___________
^* Thomas Tracy Bouvé et al, History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts, (1893) Vol. 1, 250-251.

A superb Robert Fulton portrait on a snuff box after Benjamin West

(Robert FULTON) Papier-mâché snuff box, 82 mm. (3 3/4 in.) diam. 26 mm. (1 in.) high, bearing a finely painted portrait of Fulton accomplished on the lid after Benjamin West’s 1806 portrait. In the background is a faint depection of Fulton’s 1804 torpedo in action againt Boulogne Harbor in France. (Fulton would offer a public demonstartion of his invention in New York Harbor in 1807 destroying a derelect brig.) Identified on the interior of the lid in yellow paint, “Robert Fulton”.

Rare. An attractive piece celebrating one of the great inventors of the industrial revolution. We have encountered only one other example of this portrait accomplished on a snuff box.

Small chip on interior lip of box as shown, some spotting and typical to lid and some crazing and surface wear as expected.

(EXA 5093) $1,450

Andrew Jackson signed four-language ship’s paper

Andrew JACKSON (1767 – 1845) President. Partly-printed Document Signed “Andrew Jackson” as President, 1p. 16 1/4 x 20 in. Boston, 1 July 1836, a four-language ship’s paperfor the Brig Congress, commanded by J. G. Town “lying at present in the port of Boston bound for Calcutta and laden with Merchandize…” The document printed in Spanish, French, English, and Dutch is countersigned by Secretary of State John FORSYTH (1780 – 1841) and bears very clean paper seals of the United States.

Matted and framed with a portrait of Jackson.

A few minor separations on expected folds and a few minor holes not affecting text, else fine condition.

(EXA 4052) $2,250

John Nicholson ALS attempting to account for his labor on the Delaware and Schuylkill Canal

(Robert Morris and the Delaware and Schuylkill Canal  Navigation) John NICHOLSON (1757-1800) Good content Autograph Letter Signed, 1p. 230 x 185 mm. [Philadelphia] 18 July 1798 to “The Com[mittee of the] D[elware] & S[chuylkill] Canal”. With integral transmittal leaf addressed in his hand.

Robert Morris chartered the Delaware and Schuylkill Canal Navigation Company in 1792 for the dual purpose of augmenting Philadelphia’s water supply and to provide a navigable route around the falls of the Schuylkill River. Like Morris, and Nicholson, the company eventually went bankrupt with only part of the canal dug. The abandoned right of way eventually used by the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad in the 1830s.

Up to his ears in debt, Nicholson jots a hurried letter concerning accounting for his work with the canal construction earlier in the decade: “Gentlemen, A letter of the 8th Instant from Wm Weston Esq. has the following on the subject of my and with D&S Canal ‘The Charges of pum [?] if omitted out to be added’ & ‘Allowance were are ought to have been made for the puddle[?] carried up in The embankment and for any extra work in [?] the Ropes’ the original of this letter may be seen if desired – In 1793 & in 1794 my team and workmen were employed hauling brick, stone, gravel sand & lime at several of the Culverts – of which no acct. hath yet been rendered – I am endeavoring to get it stated with more precision than at present I am able to do – To be carried father to my credit as the former…” Within a year and half, Nicholson would find himself in the debtor’s apartments and died on 5 December 1800.

Usual folds, else very good condition.

(EXA 3378) SOLD.

His Excellency Levi Lincoln inscribes and signs an imprint of his address on railway transport in Massachusetts, 1830

(Railroads) Message of His Excellency Levi Lincoln, communicated to the two branches of the Legislature, January 6, 1830. (Boston: Dutton and Wentworth, Printers to the State. 1830) 40pp. 9 1/2 x 6 1/4 in. (240 x 160 mm.)string-bound in titled wraps, pages uncut. Inscribed and signed by Lincoln on the front wrap to the “Hon Nathl. Lilsbee with the respects of L Lincoln”.

Massachusetts shifts its transportation policy in favor of railroads. An important address to the Massachusetts Legislature in which Governor Levi Lincoln offers significant state support for railroad construction. “… Of the matters of prominent concern, that of the Railways will press with almost engrossing interest … I continue, confidently to entertain, of the interest of those enterprises which are adapted to facilitate intercommunication, and relieve the community from the excessive expense and tedious labor of the present mode of land transportation, I beg leave to repeat the recommendation, that some decisive measures should promptly be taken to give to the Country, at no distant day, such improvement … The astonishing results of recent scientific experiments in Europe, in the application of Steam to produce a moving power, by which time, and distance, and weight are alike overcome, to a degree almost incredible, may well inspire a confidence in this manner of conveyance, which neither the incredulity of the timid, nor the obstinacy of the prejudiced, can longer resist. It has been said, with probably correctness, that the newly invented Steam Carriages, which are designed for use between Manchester and Liverpool, will bring those places, though more than thirty miles remote from each other, nearer together, in a social and commercial point of view, than the extremes of London now are… In relation to a Rail Road from Boston to the Hudson River, it is truly a work of great National importance; and whenever it shall be determined upon, the aid of the General Government may reasonably and confidently solicited. There is wanting but this single link to complete the long chain of inland communication form our Eastern Atlantic Seaboard to the Western Lakes…” When Lincoln addressed the legislature there were only 40 miles of railway in the nation, 30 of which were in New England. By the end of the decade, total railway mileage in the nation would top 2,700 miles (500 of those miles were in New England).

Rare. We have sourced no editions of this imprint offered or in auction records. OCLC 31203064, Thomson, Check List of American Railroads before 1841, 415. In total, only ten institutional copies have been identified. One edition is listed as part of the Streeter Collection.

Some edge wear and light toning, light creases, else very good condition.

(EXA 4066) $600

Scarce John Vaughn ALS concerning a wine shipment

John VAUGHN (1756 – 1841) English-born wine merchant. Vaughn met Benjamin Franklin in Paris in 1778 and emigrated to Philadelphia in 1782 where be established himself as a successful wine merchant. Among Vaughn’s regular clients were Thomas Jefferson and Eleuthère Irénée Du Pont. Although not a scholar himself, The American Philosophical Society chose him as its treasurer. During his lengthy tenure in that capacity, Vaughn was instrumental in building the Society’s library collections. Vaughn also used the Society’s cellar to store his vast inventory of wines and later lived in the building, residing in the painter Thomas Sully’s former studio. His reputation for generosity and kindness was overshadowed soon after his death after it was discovered he was co-mingling his personal finances with that of the Society.

Scarce Autograph Letter Signed “Jn Vaughan”, 1p. quarto, Philadelphia, 1 Nov. 1819 to William Kemble in New York concerning a shipment of wine. Remarking that he has received Kemble’s “favor of 30th,” Vaughn instructs Kemble: “When the wine arrives it shall be forwarded to Mess E I Du Pont &c: — I hope you have send Certificates – If not, please send them — If you have done it— no reply is wanted to this Letter” Addressed in his hand to Kemble on the integral transmittal leaf (on verso). A good, wine-related letter by one of America’s early prominent importers.

Minor loss at bottom from seal tear, usual folds, else fine condition.

(EXA 3400) $1,500

1 2