Growing up in Minneapolis, my maternal grandparents had a curious picture on their powder room wall. It was the popular nineteenth century, "I Sold On Credit!" lithograph. The poor skinny guy in tatters with worthless bills of credit in his old cabinet next to the plump rich guy with pork chop sideburns, cigar in hand, admiring his cash in his fancy safe. It reminds me of my latest chapter on the Huntingtons of Norwich, CT: the incredible risks of nineteenth-century mercantile capitalism and how it affected their whole family group.
Both born during the Revolutionary War, C.P. and Maria were married for 44 years. They had seven children: six boys and one girl. Raised in Norwich, they all survived childhood diseases.
Each parent would live to be 71 while only one of their seven children made it past 65. Why is this?
Charles Phelps Huntington (1779-1850) and Maria Perit Huntington (1783-1854) first three sons died in young adulthood: Samuel Andrew (1812-1834) at 22, John Perit (1807-1849) at 42, and Charles Webster (1808-1853) at 45.
All tried their hand at being New York City merchants. But, between 1834 and 1853 all three died bankrupt. The stress and heartbreak must have been dehabilitating for Maria and Charles as they saw their sons decline, their own savings depleted, and some of their grandchildren also dead or living with them. This was the new world of American capitalism.
The first to die was 22-year-old Samuel Andrew. Working and living in NYC with his two older brothers, Samuel died of "varioloid" or smallpox in the spring of 1834. He died bankrupt and Charles spent the next year paying off part or all of these debts.
Charles took meticulous notes in an account book/journal during that terrible year as he tried to remedy the situation. As a co-signer and guaranteer of his sons, he had to pay off their debts as part of Mssrs Huntington and Campbell.
For example, Charles spent 10 days in New York City in the fall of 1834 trying to settle Samuel's estate by selling land.
His other two sons, John and Charles continued to work in NYC, for Huntington and Campbell, with many trips home via steamboat up the Thames.
Then, the Panic of 1837 occurred, with its ensuing financial depression and hardships. Based on my first round of research, I do not think either John or Charles ever recovered from these years, familywise or financially.
In May 1837, at the beginning of the panic, the next family crisis occured. Only daughter Ruth's husband, merchant James Ripley of Norwich (and New York) lost everything! That awful year, Ripley tried frantically to try and sell all sorts of items like his horse and buggy. Eventually he and Ruth started over in New York City.
Then, while Charles son-in-law was trying to sell things off to stave off creditors, his beloved half-brother Joseph died, aged 68. He too was close to insolvency and his wife Eunice perhaps had to sell their home. Charles was surrounded by disaster and his own shrewd business mind and investments were surely tested.
A few years later, first son John Perit died in 1849 from unknown circumstances. He was also insolvent and one by one he had witnessed six of his eight infant/toddler children die with his Norwich-born wife Sarah Coit Perkins Huntington. She herself died in 1843 right after her last infant died. Incredibly tragic.
All deaths were probably due to disease and/or weakend immune systems from living in rough and tumble New York. Charles and Maria took in the surviving children: Mary Perit Huntington (1831-1923) and Charles Phelps Huntington (1836-1906).
There was still one more surprise that Charles and Maria family had to bear after the disasterous and deadly 1840s: adultery! Charles' Webster's wife Sarah Fellows Spear (not from his kin group) apparently had an affair and Charles helped son Charles' sue her for divorce. It is a quiet little note, barely legible, in his ledger of 1850. His sons had not practiced steady habits.
Charles would not live long after this final insult. Although still active in business, moving about Norwich in September of 1850 he caught a cold and died from pneumonia a few weeks later on his seventy-first birthday eve. It was immediately reported in the Norwich Courier.
Maria, now a wealthy widow, started keeping her own account book with her shaky script. Monroe managed her money, B.F. was working hard as a farmer in Franklin, and youngest, William Henry was likely living with her, or in Boston, trying to make it as a druggist.
By 1853 she was paying for Charles Webster's medical care including doctor visits and medicines. Yet another son, sick and probably insolvent. He was probably living with her, he died that year at age 45.
Thus, living in New York City was truly "perilous." One's chances of bankruptcy, alchoholism, catching a deadly disease, and/or watching babies die was significant. It is observable in C.P.'s Account Book (s) from the years 1834-1840. And, in former merchant Asa Greene's entertaining romp into this perilous minefield of New York City of the 1830s: The Perils of Pearl Street: A Taste of the Dangers of Wall Street By a Late Merchant.
SOURCES
Asa Green, The Perils of Pearl Street, New York: Betts and Anstice and Peter Hill, 1824
Charles Phelps Huntington (1779-1850), Account Book, Journal, and Ledger, Connecticut Museum of Culture and History.
Maria Perit Huntington (1783-1854), Account Book, Connecticut Museum of Culture and History.
Mary Perkins, The Old Houses of the Ancient Town of Norwich,
Stephen Campbell, "The Panic of 1837," The Economic Historian website accessed October 29, 2024.
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