73
Copy Book of Colonel Isaac Craig, Fort Pitt, 1801-1811,
Currency:USD
Category:Collectibles / Historical Memorabilia
Start Price:7,000.00 USD
Estimated At:10,000.00 - 15,000.00 USD
Auction Date:2009 Jun 24 @ 10:00 (UTC-04:00 : AST/EDT)
Location:6270 Este Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio, 45232, United States
377pp.
Isaac Craig arrived in Pittsburgh with the Army at about the time of the American Revolution and at different points, he served as commandant at Fort Pitt and Deputy to Quartermaster General James O'Hara (1792-1796). From their positions of influence, Craig and O'Hara became active speculators, most famously founding the Pittsburgh Glass Works in 1797 (also called the O'Hara Glass Works), the first glass firm in a region that became nationally famous for glass manufacture. Surviving for more than eighty years, the PGW made bottles and window glass.
Isaac Craig's letterbook has survived remarkably, including retained copies of outgoing business correspondence relating to Craig's work for the military and to the early years of operation of the Pittsburgh Glass Works. The letterbook contains important information on military procurement and work of the quartermaster's office, and it includes correspondence addressed to a number of high-placed military figures, such as James Wilkinson, Henry Dearborn, Caleb Swan, William Irvine, and John Hamtramck. The reach of the letterbook is impressive: because of its strategic location, Pittsburgh provided material to Army posts stretching from Detroit to Presque Isle to Mobile.
A number of letters relate to setting and managing contracts to supply the Army. From the look of things, it appears that contractors in 1805 weren't much better than those in 2005. One letter, for example, relates to a quantity of iron being destined for Niagara for Carriages of Mortars and Howitzers &c at that post, that had been rejected as unfit: The rejected Bars are here subject to your order, Craig wrote, being in a state very little different from Pig Iron -- indeed the whole of the Iron comes far short of the quality expressed in my contract with Mr. Meason... Other letters are more matter of fact, include setting a contract with John Probst of Westmorland Furnace for the manufacture of three set of gun carriage trucks, and to 600 3lb and 5600 four lb shot, which together with 200 of the 24 lb, 200 of the 12 lb and 200 of 9 lb shot contracted for to be delivered at Le Boeuf... Other letters concern the transport of two Keel Boats loaded with Indian goods to the Mobile River cantonment. Craig was regularly occupied with contracts for providing clothing and other accoutrements.
Interspersed with the military correspondence, and quite often interrelated, is a smaller number of letters that maps out the early industrial history of one of the nation's most industrialized cities, with a focus on the early years of operation of the Pittsburgh Glass Works. In one of the earliest letters in the book, addressed to Edward Edsall, April 18, 1801, Craig wrote: our glass works are now on blast but that our engagement with the glass makers will expire on the first of June next and that from that time we wish to change the mode of carrying on that business. Edsall, an experienced glass worker, was an attractive target for Craig: The character given of you by Mr. Wrenshall induces me to believe that you would be a proper person to have the superintendance of that manufactory.... I believe the present glass blowers can be retained at least four of them, who are good industrious men -- Materials of almost all kinds are very conveniently procured and the Glass Works situate on the banks of a fine navigable river so near an excellent coal mine that one old Horse is able to haul more than one hundred bushels of coal per day from the Coal pit to the Glass house....
Using their military connections, O'Hara and Craig shipped glass to military posts in the interior, but their connections extended to the east as well. On Dec. 11, 1802, for example, he asked George Cochran to visit the Kensington Glass Works in Philadelphia and Call upon Christian Hartmann or the principal manager to know if he or they will be so obliging as to spare a few Barrels of Burdentown Pot Clay... Our Glass works are a going on well & a great demand for Glass but we are apprehensive that we have not a sufficiency of clay to keep the Furnace in blast during the winter... Clearly, not everything was smooth sailing. Eight months later, Craig complained: With respect to our Glass Manufactory the establishment of it has been attained with much greater expence than we had estimated. This has been occasioned partly by very extensive buildings necessaryly erected to accommodate a number of people employed on the manufactory together with their families & partly by the ignorance of some people in whose skill of that business we reposed too much confidence. A scarcity of some of the materials at the commencement of the manufactory was also attended with considerable expence...
The letterbook touches on a variety of other significant issues. As the Louisiana Purchase was being debated in Congress, for example, Craig passed along a rumor he had heard: The people of this Country are in Gineral Clamerous against Congress on account of their indecision on the New Orleans Business. An association it is said is talked in Kentucky for raising Forces together with French sufficient for taking Possession of & holding Orleans should Congress neglect a prompt decision... To Edward Turner, April 17, 1803: he wrote: Your negro man Toby was brought to me in consequence of your advertisement and agreeable thereto I paid the man that brought him, 15 dols. the reward and 5 dols. his expences in bringing him from the East side of the mountains & place him in charge of Andrew Robinson in jail where he continues waiting for an opportunity of sending him to you… I furnished the negro with two blankets and am obliged to pay two dollars a week for his board… Capt Stoddard is preparing to embark with his company for Kaskaskia it is possible that I may prevail on him to take the Negro to Massac there to await the arrival of Capt. Mulingburgh.
Finally, given that this is a piece of early western Americana, there had to be a place for sharpers and cheats. One letter concerns Craig's effort to track down a Dr. Cornwell: It appears that the Doctor after resigning proceed to New Orleans and there opened a Coffee house and which he improved into a Gaming house, in which he had such success that in a few months he amassed upwards of six thousand dollars -- being then it is said apprehensive, fortune might jilt him, sold off his effects and returned to Virginia… and as his conduct towards me has much the appearance of swindling, I have to beg of you to endeavor to find him and treat him in the manner his conduct merits... Craig eventually did manage to get a stop placed on payment to Cornwell for money owed him by the government.
Fascinating and important documentation of the early relationship between military procurement and industrialization. Bound volume with stenciled covers, split along spine into separate signatures, but all parts present.
Condition: Some foxing throughout and minor erosion at edge of some pages, but good condition overall.
Auction Location:
6270 Este Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio, 45232, United States
Previewing Details:
Tuesday, June 23, 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday, June 24 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Taxes:
| Tax | Rate | Desc. |
| Ohio |
5.5% |
Ohio State Tax |
Buyer's Premiums:
| From (Incl.) | To (Excl.) | Premium |
| 0.00 |
Infinite |
17.5% |
Additional Fees:
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