\nJoseph Roy of Hallowell Street, Winslow, has let me examine some interesting papers connected with one of New England’s most famous food distributors, S. S. Pierce Co. How those papers ever came to Waterville is a mystery, for Silas Pierce founded that company in Boston in the early 1820’s soon after Maine became a state. The oldest of these papers is a shipping invoice in 1822, directed to Silas Pierce & Co., Boston, from Robert Buck, New York, for freight on Schooner Victory of 50 barrels of liquor at 15 cents per barrel. On the outside is written, “50 barrels gin”, showing the kind of liquor in that shipment.<\/p>\n
Three years later, in 1825, John Gardner of Portland sent the following letter to Silas Pierce in Boston. “You remark on deficiencies, and I will see you about them when I visit Boston. The balance of our account was promptly paid to Greeley. This letter is to inform you that the mustard which I have been selling for your account here in Portland is well liked. I have sold half of the No.1 kegs, all the No.2 kegs, and the No.3 canisters. Have left half the No. 1 kegs, a few No.3 canisters, and some No.3 kegs. I have daily calls for this mustard and I think, if you should keep me supplied, the sales could greatly increase, because there is no one else here with such a supply. I have sold all at the invoice price. If you can send me more immediately, I want it as low as possible, and let the quantities of the three numbers be various.”<\/p>\n
In 1835 Silas Pierce got a big order from Edmund Dana in Wiscasset. It asked for shipment via Capt. Thomas Cunningham’s schooner. The order consisted of 28 items, among which were a cask of raisins, a cask of Madera wine, several boxes of spices, 500 Spanish cigars, 2 dozen pints of cold pressed castor oil, 4 dozen boxes of shoe blacking, a tub of sulphur, two drums of fresh figs, and 6 pounds of liquorice paste. Mr. I. L. White, who I suppose is in Boston, will hand you $100 on this account as soon as he sells his cargo of wood.”<\/p>\n
In the same year a Bangor merchant asked Pierce to send him a tub of ground peppers, a bag of San Domingo coffee, and a ream of large wrapping paper.<\/p>\n
From Edward Young at Bath, Pierce got this letter in 1842: “Enclosed please find check on Atlas Bank of Boston for $150. Place same to my credit on the note you hold against me and send me a receipt. I am now well supplied with tobacco and do not wish any more of the Indian Chief at present. Did you not charge me more for that Madiera wine than your salesman named to me? I am under the impression that he named a lower price than you charged me on the bill.”<\/p>\n
In 1849 Pierce got the following letter from Bucksport. “We are in want of some white or pale brandy, the more white the better. We want such as Mr. Perham got at your place the last he had. Make it so as to cost 81 or 82 cents a gallon in quarter casks. You reduce it with 20 per cent pure spirit, we think. Be sure to send something good for the price, as we want it for a good customer who is a particular old fellow. We forward you 8 barrels of those apples I spoke of when at your place, via railroad this day. I wish you to dispose of them as best you can. Be sure to send the brandy immediately, as I have already sold some of it. You still owe me $3.35 on that old rum hogshead. J. J. Bancroft.”<\/p>\n
H. B. Hall of Bangor wrote to Pierce in 1831: “Being in haste when I wrote you for teas, I did not inquire what kinds were saleable. Hyson tea I find is very unsaleable here. As I expect to sell but little of any kind will you give me the privilege of returning that chest of Hyson you sent us? If you insist on my taking some Hyson, you may send a small chest if you will accept return of this big one .”<\/p>\n
In 1835 a Camden merchant wanted half a barrel of saleratus, and he added: “If raisins and figs are at a tolerable price, you may send me two boxes of raisins and two drums of figs. If you have confectionery in your store, you may send 15 to 20 pounds, about three pounds of each kind. Send me also 1000 long cigars and four boxes of Spanish half cigars.”<\/p>\n
By this time you realize that, from the beginning of his business, Silas Pierce was a wholesaler, supplying merchants allover New England. Very early he began to deal in what grocers called fancy goods, and soon after the Civil War the Pierce line of high quality canned and bottled foods became famous. By 1900 Pierce had several direct retail outlets in Boston, one of the best known being on Huntington Avenue.<\/p>\n
The Pierce papers in Mr. Roy’s possession include bills to Pierce as well as orders from him. In 1855 he was billed by W. L. Robinson for 12 dozen 2 ounce bottles of lemon extract, and 4 dozen vanilla. The bill came to $38.60 for which Robinson allowed one percent discount for cash. The receipted bill shows that Pierce took that discount.<\/p>\n
In 1858 Pierce received from Hall and Ruckel in New York five bales of cloves, amounting to 661 pounds at 37 cents a pound. In the same year he bought of another New York firm, to be shipped via the Schooner Champion, ten cases of Canton ginger. To the price was added 25 cents for cartage to the ship.<\/p>\n
The year after the war was over, in 1866, Pierce got 88 cases of Bourbon Whiskey at $9 a case from Adolpho Wolfe of New York, and the cartage on that load came to $2.25. In the same year Pierce got from a Boston importer 619 pounds of Navy Tobacco at 38 cents a pound, and a few weeks later came 50 dozen bottles of Plantation Bitters at $9.50 a dozen. From another Boston dealer came three barrels of brandy and one of gin, for which the cost was $530, plus 60 cents for carting.<\/p>\n
Pierce handled a lot of sugar. In 1867 he bought, on one order, from Camp, Brunser & Sherry Steam Sugar Refiners, 50 barrels of granulated and 15 barrels of powdered sugar. Along with sugar went a lot of molasses in 10 hogshead totaling 1400 gallons. From Prince Edward Island Pierce got 172 bags of malt.<\/p>\n
One of Pierce’s regular accounts was with another Boston firm as old as his own, Walter Baker and Company, the famous maker of chocolate and cocoa. An 1868 bill from Baker to Pierce included 2 fifty pound boxes of chocolate at 12 cents a pound, 7 bags of cracked cocoa, and two boxes of powdered cocoa.<\/p>\n
As late as 1865 New England people were using snuff in considerable quantity. A. R. Mitchell of Boston, agent for the well-known tobacco dealer, P. Lorillard, sold Pierce 92 pounds of snuff at a dollar a pound. An odd item in the Pierce accounts was his purchase of a dozen sides of raw hide lace – 173 feet at 17 cents a foot.<\/p>\n
In the late 1860’s coal oils and petroleum oils were beginning to displace the older whale oil. From Samuel Walker and Company, Illuminating and Lubricating Coal Oils, Pierce got in 1866 a barrel of oil at 91 cents a gallon. The next year from Ansel G. Foss, Manufacturer of Aurora Burning Fluid and Dealer in Petroleum Oils and Downe’s Kerosene, Pierce got 10 barrels of Mann’s Oil, totaling 420 gallons at 84 cents a gallon. When you consider that the usual price for kerosene oil in our Bridgton store in 1910 was 10 cents a gallon, you can see what progress John D. Rockefeller and others had made with their oil wells in fifty years, reducing the price from 84 cents a gallon to wholesalers like Silas Pierce to 10 cents a gallon at retail.<\/p>\n
In the early years not all of Pierce’s goods were of the highest quality. One of his accounts in 1867 reads: “Bought of H. Harris & Co., at auction, 50 half boxes of Crown Raisins, damaged.”<\/p>\n
Pierce handled a lot of soap. In great quantities he bought Castile soap at 18 cents a pound. As late as 1910, in the Bridgton store, we were still selling Castile soap by the pound, cutting it in pieces, as customers wanted, from 18 inch bars.<\/p>\n
In the late 1860’s dairy products were cheap. Bought in tubs, Pierce paid 9 cents a pound for butter, and he got cheese for 15 cents.<\/p>\n
As I have often mentioned on this program, the most expensive spice a hundred years ago was nutmeg. Ground nutmeg was then unknown, and housewives bought whole nutmegs. Even at wholesale they cost Pierce $1.15 a pound, equivalent to more than 7 cents an ounce. You can then understand why, a century ago, housewives often bought one nutmeg at a time.<\/p>\n
In these old papers there is just one order to Silas Pierce from Waterville. It was in the form of a telegram sent Pierce in 1866 by Hamblen, Farr & Co. of Waterville. The wire said, “Send sure first express two boxes premium starch.”<\/p>\n
In Mr. Roy’s collection are other interesting papers besides those connected with S. S. Pierce.<\/p>\n
One is for a store license only 40 years ago in 1933. It says: “James Cohen is authorized to operate a grocery at 28 Clinton Avenue, Winslow.”<\/p>\n
Other papers are records of retail sales by some unknown country store in the 1830’s. The items include raisins, figs, ground pimento, hard shell almonds. Ground pimento, by the way, was ground sweet pepper.<\/p>\n
The S. S. Pierce firm, all through the 19th century and well into the 20th, was celebrated for its distribution of quality liquors. Before Maine adopted prohibition in 1851, our merchants did a big business in New England and Jamaica rums, but all the old account books of Maine general stores in the first half of the 19th century reveal numerous purchases of wine. Some brandy and gin was sold, but at that time very little whiskey. As for wine, typical is a letter received by Pierce in 1834 from a merchant in Hallowell. It said: “I would thank you to send me one cask of best Madeira wine, if you have the same as good as you sent me last, which was Woodburn brand. If you have none as good, you will not send any. If you have no whole casks, send two halves. L. B. Merrick.”<\/p>\n
The containers that Pierce used were numerous and various; casks, tuns, pipes, hogsheads, barrels, drums, frails, kegs, tubs, firkins, boxes, crates, and hampers.<\/p>\n
Let us close with a letter written to Pierce in 1841 by one of his larger New York dealers. It said: “Yours of the 7th is at hand with draft for $350, amount of which is to your credit. We cannot as yet get 9 cents for the figs, but shall try to obtain that price before long. We sold all the almonds. The oil we mentioned as having arrived is in glass and hampers, and we think the quality would not suit you. There is none such as you desire on the market. Today Hogan and Miles offered for bid at auction St. Lucas wine, and it stopped at 48 cents. They are holding out for 50 cents, with only five barrels sold. It is about the same color as Allingham, but we think is better flavored. We can do no better for prunes than the price we last gave you. The cigars have arrived, and we have purchased them at $7.25 less 3 per cent, and shall ship them when they are landed.”<\/p>\n
Year: 1973<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #983, Broadcast on October 14, 1973<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35313,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}