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Collection

David McCreary receipts, 1837-1931 (majority within 1837-1862)

113 items

This collection is made up of 113 receipts for purchases and sales by David McCreary, a New York State mason, carpenter, and construction worker. These receipts are largely from in and near Caledonia, New York. McCreary's records are primarily for carpentry work, such as wheelbarrows, benches, common bedsteads, fancy bedsteads, rocking chairs, tables, Windsor chairs, little chairs, oak chairs, sewing chairs, a hearse body, coffins, and more. Wood, supplies, tools, machines, foodstuffs, cloth, labor, barter, medical care, and many other goods and services are represented in the collection.

This collection is made up of 113 receipts for purchases and sales by David McCreary, a New York State mason, carpenter, and construction worker. These receipts are largely from in and near Caledonia, New York.

David McCreary's receipts include sales and purchases related to his carpentry and cabinet making business. Items include various wood and lumber, such as white wood, beech, maple; and materials such as screws, files, varnish, bolts, rings, handles, nails, turpentine, and linseed oil. Fabrics include black velvet and calico. A variety of foodstuffs include molasses, tea, sugar, candles, soda crackers, eggs, cheese, apples, herring fish, salt, rum, whiskey, and more. Tools and machines include a vegetable boiler, corn sheller, beehive, root puller, pruning scissors, "self acting" cheese press, churn, and plow. A few records pertain to a loan, the purchase of a book, and a subscription to the Buffalo Sentinel.

Products represented include wheelbarrows, benches, common bedsteads, fancy bedsteads, rocking chairs, tables, Windsor chairs, little chairs, oak chairs, sewing chairs, a hearse body, coffins, children's coffins, etc. The receipts also document labor, such as sawing wood, posts, and logs, drawing lumber, digging a well, gluing up a block for a cider mill, filing and setting, painting a set of blinds green, etc.

Payments represented include cash and barter with potatoes, flour, and wheat. The final receipts are a payment to a physician for medicine and addressing a cancer in his cheek (June 11, 1860), and a payment to S. Barrett for assisting Dr. Baker with an unspecified operation (October 23, 1861).

Collection

Nicholas Low collection, 1776-1863 (majority within 1776-1820)

0.5 linear feet

This collection mostly consists of correspondence and documents related to Nicholas Low, a merchant who lived in New York City during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Much of the material concerns Low's financial interests. A small group of letters pertains to General Rufus King.

This collection (199 items) primarily consists of correspondence and documents related to Nicholas Low, a merchant who lived in New York City during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Most of the material concerns Low's financial interests. A small group of letters pertains to General Rufus King.

The Correspondence series (152 items) contains Low's business letters, which concern his relationships with merchants in the United States, the Caribbean, and Europe. Low's correspondents reported on subjects such as local prices, shipments of goods, and trade between Europe and North America. A few writers mentioned political issues, such as Low's participation in the Poughkeepsie Convention to ratify the U.S. Constitution (March 15, 1788), and the Embargo Act (December 28, 1807). Some of the letters are addressed to the firm Low & Wallace. Other letters pertain to Isaac Low's finances, the Society of Useful Manufactures, and Nicholas Low's real property. The series also includes a draft of a letter to the editor of the Commercial Advertiser, written by Nicholas Low in response to an editorial about lottery drawings in Paterson, New Jersey (July 21, 1798). Personal letters include Lewis Littlepage's account of his dispute with John Jay (December 5, 1785) and Henrietta Low's statement of her intention to marry Charles King, written in response to her father's objections [July 1826].

Four letters relate to Rufus King, Henrietta Low's stepson. Willie Fisher, an acquaintance, wrote 2 letters to King about his social life and leisure activities, including a trip to a brothel that resulted in a riot (January 9, 1859). Charles Rebello wrote a personal letter to King in January 1863. Rufus King wrote a letter to an unidentified general in the Union Army about his frustration with a Times article that had criticized officers' conduct during the war (July 22, 1862).

The Documents series (47 items) is comprised of receipts, accounts, contracts, price lists, and other legal and financial records, mainly related to Nicholas Low. Some indentures pertain to land in New York, and at least one legal document concerns the Bank of the United States.

Collection

Tower family papers, 1807-1871 (majority within 1821-1849)

3.5 linear feet

Correspondence and documents relating to the Tower family of upstate New York, primarily relating to business and family affairs.

Most of the letters in this collection pertains to business operations, including incoming and outgoing letters correspondence with bill collectors, shippers, customers, and others. Correspondents frequently commented on the operation of the business and the financial and political climate.

Family correspondence is concentrated in the period between 1821-1848, during which time the Tower children were away at school or college. The collection also includes several account books.

The Tower family papers have multiple important, unprocessed additions, including Civil War correspondence of Charlemagne Tower, of the Pennsylvania 6th Regiment, Company H (the "Tower Guards").