Letters, Travels, Politics and More
from Michael Brown Rare Books
Catalog 37 from Michael Brown Rare Books
By Michael Stillman
Michael Brown Rare Books' latest catalogue of Americana, number 37 to be precise, is filled with the unusual, uncommon, and unique. "Unique" is no exaggeration as there are many manuscript letters and diaries which give us a picture of life in America in the 19th century. In the days before cell phones, email, and instant messaging, people had to place their messages on paper, which made it possible that their thoughts would survive. I don't know whether these letter writers would have wished for this, but we are richer for it, as it affords us an opportunity to better see those times through the eyes of people who actually lived during them.
Item 85 is a fascinating collection of letters received by Beulah Johnson of Columbus, Wisconsin. Miss Johnson, born in 1816 and raised in upstate New York, moved to Columbus in 1842. This is a collection of 20 letters she received over the next 40 years, many from friends and family she left behind. What is interesting is the amount of gossip that fills these letters. We tend to think that ladies were too proper to gossip so much in the 19th century. Not at all. For years Beulah's friends kept her up to date on other people's business. We also hear much about men and a regular stream of comments about marriage, a topic that was evidently on the minds of many single women of the era. One advises, "Beulah John says you had better get married before you are thirty because girls think so much about it after that they entirely lose their minds." This must have been little comfort to Miss Johnson, as she was 29 at the time. The news in these letters of all her old friends who got married must have turned up the pressure on Beulah even more. A Mary Paddock writes her, "Bulah, Sarah Maxfield told me to tell you that you must not get all the old Batchelors for she was a coming out there and she wanted one..." In 1850, when Beulah was now 34, Philema Johnson writes, "When you get married come to Chicopee and make us a visit for I want to see you very much old maids are envious in such matters make a good choice don't be in a hurry take time you are young enough yet the market for old maids is dull here but the young have to take it willing or not..." Evidently Beulah never did marry. According to the 1860 census, she was still single and living with her parents at the age of 43. In the last of these letters, sent in 1882, her last name was still "Johnson." One can only wonder what her responses were to her friends and relatives on this subject, and why she remained single. Priced at $450.
B.J. Milam was an "honest farmer" who went on a long journey around the western United States early in the 20th century, and left us a very rare book about his travels. Its title is The Honest Farmer from Arkansas on a Lark Seein' the West, and it was published around 1905. The book takes the form of letters Milam wrote back home to his wife. Milam originally set out for the Oklahoma territory to claim some land, but wasn't satisfied with what he saw. Instead of returning home, Milam took off on a journey that would take him from southern Texas to northern Washington State and Canada. He tells us about the things he saw, including visits with Native Americans, and includes pictures he likely took himself. I don't know why this honest farmer didn't return quickly home, or whether poor wife Mollie got stuck slopping the hogs back on the Arkansas farm while Burt got to explore the West, but if you buy this book you may find an explanation. Item 110. $2,000.
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Letters, Travels, Politics and More
from Michael Brown Rare Books
Congressional Pugilists: Fight on the House floor.
In 1797, Alexander Hamilton was forced to publish a pamphlet entitled Observations on Certain Documents... It must have been terribly embarrassing for the great statesman. In it, he admits to carrying on an affair with Maria Reynolds, wife of James Reynolds, who must have been a sleazy individual. On discovering the relationship between Hamilton and his wife, Reynolds used the affair to extract money from Hamilton. When word of these payments got out, charges were made that Hamilton was speculating through Reynolds with public money for personal gain. To explain why he was giving this money to Reynolds, Hamilton was forced to lay bare his personal life. "My real crime, " he writes, "is an enormous connection with his wife for a considerable time, with his privity and connivance." While the 1797 printing was done at Hamilton's behest (and most copies later destroyed by his family), this is an 1800 reprint. In 1800, the printing was no longer for the purpose of salvaging Hamilton's reputation. It was published by his enemies to further embarrass him. Item 74. $275.
Here's another writer's two cents worth from this era. The pamphlet is Truth Will Out! The Foul Charges of the Tories Against the Editor of the Aurora Repelled by Positive Truth and Plain Truth and His Base Calumniators Put to Shame. Price - Two Cents. I'm not sure whether it is necessary to read this pamphlet. The title says it all. It's a defense of publisher Benjamin Franklin Bache, possibly written by him, though this isn't clear. Bache was a newspaper publisher who regularly attacked the administrations of Washington and Adams. Here, Bache is defended against attacks of French influence. From 1798. Item 18. $300.
This wasn't the worst political dispute of 1798. Democratic-Republican Congressman Matthew Lyon of Vermont had evidently said some nasty things about his Federalist colleague from Connecticut, Roger Griswold. At one point, he even spat in Griswold's face. Unable to gather the two-thirds majority necessary to expel Lyon, Griswold felt honor bound to take matters into his own hands. On the morning of February 15, Griswold, cane in hand, approached Lyon and proceeded to beat him with the stick. The surprised Lyon was able to back away from his desk and grab a fireplace tongs. Griswold dropped his cane to seize the tongs, and the two fell to the floor grappling for the weapon. Bystanders momentarily separated them, but Lyon was able to grab the tongs a second time and attack Griswold before the fight was finally broken up. The altercation led to a cartoon broadside called Congressional Pugilists, displaying the embarrassing fracas along with a mocking poem. Item 144 is a third strike (believed to be an 1860 re-strike) of this classic broadside. $650.
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Letters, Travels, Politics and More
from Michael Brown Rare Books
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Item 28 is a circa 1910 promotional broadside for Edmonton, Alberta. It states, The Seton Smith Co. Real Estate Brokers and Auctioneers Edmonton, Alberta, Canada...Thousands of Acres from $7.00 to $25.00 per acre...Climate the Finest in Canada. Climate the finest in Canada? It was something like 30 degrees below zero there the other day, which leads to the question: what's the climate like in the rest of Canada? $125.
Louis Tarascon proposed the building of a wagon road from the Missouri to the Pacific in 1824. The road would be built sixty feet wide (to accommodate passing lanes?) and would include bridges and ferries along the way. It was to be built by the Missouri and Columbia Road Company, which would receive 40 miles of land on each side of the highway for its effort. The government would be responsible for dealing with any pesky Indian claims. Of course this road was never built. It must have appeared outrageous at the time, less than two decades after Lewis and Clark returned from their pioneering exploration of the West. It would be over four more decades before the first transcontinental route would be completed, and that would be a railroad not a wagon road. Still, one wonders what the history of the American West would be had this foresighted project come to pass. What if those who risked their lives and all their possessions to make it to Oregon, California, and Utah a couple of decades later had had a superhighway waiting for them? The West would undoubtedly have been "won" much sooner then it was. The pamphlet is Petition of Lewis A. Tarascon, (and others,) Praying the Opening of A Wagon Road, from the River Missouri, North of the River Kansas, to the River Columbia. December 13, 1824. Item 161. $450.
Michael Brown Rare Books may be found on the internet at www.mbamericana.com and reached by phone at 215-387-9808.
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