?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
(FAMILY PAPERS.) Papers of the Macomber family, seed merchants of Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Approximately 800 items neatly sleeved and organized in 15 binders (3.5 linear feet); condition generally strong, many of the letters accompanied by original stamped envelopes. Various places, bulk 1852-1877
Joseph Ellwood Macomber (1822-1906) was raised in Vermont, and taught school in Farmington, NY and Portsmouth RI as a young man. He eventually established a successful strawberry farm and seed distribution business in Portsmouth, and was an active member of the Society of Friends (Quakers). Offered here are the extensive personal and business papers of Joseph and his sons Isaac Borden Macomber (1852-1938) and William Penn Macomber (1854-1885).
Letters and inventories relating to Macomber's seed business fill three binders, with letters dated from 1854 to 1875. They are arranged by customer, with regular correspondents including seed retailers in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston, and beyond. Produce dealers Sweet & Arnold in Providence were regular buyers of his strawberries in the 1860s. Also included are 3 broadside advertisements for Macomber's Fertilizer Distributor, developed by son Ellwood Gassett Macomber.
Personal letters to Joseph Ellwood Macomber span from 1852 to 1876 in 3 binders. A letter to his wife is on the elaborate letterhead of the Elmira Water Cure while he was under treatment there in 1854. The family as Quakers did not fight in the Civil War, but certainly grappled with the issues of the day. Brother William Macomber (1832-1918) wrote in 6th Month 1863 "I have one scholar who lost an arm in the battles under Gen. Pope in Virginia. . . . There may be a draft, but I do not now feel as tho' I could consistently take up arms to destroy that which God has created on purpose for his own glory."
Letters addressed to Isaac Borden Macomber dated 1868 to 1877, plus other ephemera, fill 2 binders. He attended the Friends School in Providence, and then received a business degree at the Mowry & Goff School in Providence, before returning to farm in his home town of Portsmouth. Among his correspondents were brother William, a Yale student (see below).
Letters addressed to William Penn Macomber and a handful of other documents fill 4 binders extending from 1870 to 1877, mostly from friends and family while he was enrolled at the Providence Friends School (Moses Brown School) and Yale University, graduating in 1877. Many of the letters are from his sister Lizzie while she was at the Friends School. Highlights include a small manuscript map of the Yale campus, and seven of his juvenile Friends School essays from 1868, including "Base-Ball," describing the rules of the new national game: "Base-ball is a very healthy sport and there are but few who do not like it. It is not only healthy but amusing."
Last are 3 binders of miscellaneous letters and documents, mostly invoices and other business records. A strawberry sales memoranda book from 1863 and 3 bank books are included. William Macomber discusses a grisly murder in his hometown of Chelsea, Michigan in a 16 September 1863 letter. An untitled pencil property map shows a house, grape arbor, barn, well, and dozens of trees. 16 reports from the school districts of Portsmouth are dated 1858-1859. One of the binders consists of estate records from 1917-1919, otherwise the entire collection dates from the narrow window of 1852 to 1877.
