$20.00 CAD
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1851 letter from husband in Albany NY to his wife back in Turin Lewis Co. Talk of employment, expansion of John Taylor & Sons, the state's largest brewery, and info on his Sunday School.
Mailed to
Miss M Whitehead
Turin
Lewis Co.
City of Albany Feb 8th 1851
Miss Margaret Whitehead
Dear Wife,
Improvement being the order of the day I again require of you a letter stating the particulars of all the people on the Hill a few of them I will name Wm Roberts the preacher John – Roberts Robs – Roberts Master Chester Spencer Mr & Mrs bickers John R Roberts Wm Tailing Richard David – and Junior Hiram Mil—Mr Prichard and the Radleys and Mr Wayne Collins and Mr Holden and anything more you may please mention and especially if Charles has received his English letter and if you will please send us how to direct to Margaret’s sister Ann at York as I wish to write for a few English papers or rather York papers.
We hope this will find you and your Mother well as I am at present as Margaret’s health is very poor. We have experienced severe cold weather this winter which makes business very dull although we expect great doings in our neighborhood on account of building and other improvement in short the largest Brewery in the State of New York is to be built right opposite our house next summer the workmen have already commenced
We have a very pleasant location and has our lease expired on the first of May I have (renewed) again for three years at sixty per year a very cheap location we have. We shall be very glad to see you here any time you can make it make it convenient ands I hope you will write us and let us have all particulars. I have sent the Programms of our Sunday School Exhibitions I will assure you it was a grand affair. Margaret was much pleased with the exhibition and so was every one else. I have the pleasure to inform you that I hold the honorable office of Librarian in said School and a good library we have and our and our school is in a flourishing condition the number a hundred schollars and about two hundred volumes in our library.
Give our respects to all enquiring friends and you and your mother will accept the same So no more at present from your affectionate best wishes
S. Calverly
124 South ---(Broadway?)
--- Albany
PS. Write soon if you please as I hope you will not make that general complaint that writing is a burdensome job
Last page has some names written on it
Faint red ALBANY NY postmark
Evidence from historical brewing research shows that John Taylor, an English-born brewer who settled in Albany, built and expanded a major brewery complex beginning in the 1820s and continuing throuh the 1840s–1850s. By mid‑century, his operation dominated New York’s beer production.
- John Taylor opened his brewery in 1822, later renamed John Taylor & Sons.
- By the 1840s–1850s, it had grown into the largest brewery in New York State and one of the largest in America.
- Albany at this time was the largest brewing hub in the country, producing “Albany Ale” exported widely along the Hudson and beyond
