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This collection is comprised of 28 incoming letters addressed to Stephen Gore, a grocer and merchant in St. Louis, Missouri, between 1836 and 1844. They include letters from business and family connections, such as John Harris in Boston, Nathaniel Harbach in Newton, Massachusetts, and several writers in New Orleans, Louisiana. They discussed trade in coffee, brandy, gin, flour, candles, oil, and other goods, as well as the business climates, particularly in the Boston area and St. Louis. The health and travel of members of the Gore, Hyde, and Harris families.

This collection is comprised of 28 incoming letters addressed to Stephen Gore, a grocer and merchant in St. Louis, Missouri, between 1836 and 1844. They include letters from business and family connections, such as John S. Harris in Boston, Nathaniel Harbach in Newton, Massachusetts, and writers in New Orleans, Louisiana. They discussed trade in coffee, brandy, gin, flour, candles, oil, and other goods, as well as business climates, particularly in the Boston area and St. Louis. The health and travel of members of the Gore, Hyde, and Harris families.

Gore's correspondents shared information on the trade of coffee (including references to St. Domingo), alcohol, candles, oil, and other products. Several quoted recent prices, and one contains a detailed invoice. In addition to financial matters, Boston merchant John S. Harris, author of 12 letters, occasionally mentioned contemporary political issues, such as tariff legislation, Henry Clay's early presidential nomination by the Whig Party (September 15, 1842), and the economic effects of the temperance movement (August 7, 1843). Harris also provided news of the Gore family in Boston. Three acquaintances from New Orleans, Louisiana, sent business letters, including one from J. H. Lyon, who proposed a partnership (August 19, 1843).

Stephen Gore received four personal/business letters from Nathaniel R. Harbach of Newton, Massachusetts between 1838 and 1843. Harbach updated Gore on the health of his wife, members of they Hyde family, and business contacts. In 1838, Mary Gore, Stephen's wife, was unwell and wanted to travel to St. Louis to be with her husband. According to Harbach, she would not accept his offer to accompany her on the trip because of the "gross impropriety" of traveling with an unmarried man. Harbach's hope was to make money in St. Louis and intended on bringing a good quantity of wild cherries to sell there. He wrote of aging Mother Hyde and of Mrs. John Hyde, who was receiving too few boarders in Newton and planned to move to Boston. Harbach also updated Gore on his travel to New Orleans, and intentions for future travel.

Three acquaintances from New Orleans, Louisiana, sent business letters, including one from J. H. Lyon, who proposed a partnership (August 19, 1843). Stephen Gore's son Stephen D. Gore sent a single letter, dated November 30, 1836. The younger Gore reflected on the poor state of business affairs in Boston (worse than in the past 10 years), suspended business, bank securities, and business "failures." At the time, S. D. Gore worked selling goods for the Belvidere Flannel Company, but he hoped his father would find a different position. He also commented on Horatio Ware, who has the phthisic and could not speak more than a dozen words without taking a breath. Sarah Flint, Gore's sister, wrote one letter from Boston on October 11, 1840, concerning the care of their mother, who boarded with Sarah and her husband, and the impact of her care on the couple's financial situation.