VTG 1891 A R Cason Jewells Georgia Clothing Groceries Hardware Furniture Receipt

Description

A.R. Cason
Receipt
Dry Goods, Clothing, Groceries, Hardware, Drugs, Furniture, Guanos Etc.
they sold Goodrich sewing machines.
Jewells, Georgia
July 1891
good condition
it has wear to the edges
Original, VTG paper receipts. Not Reproductions
information taken from the internet
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In the 19th century attachments were almost as large a business in their own right as sewing machines, especially after the end of the Sewing Machine Combination monopoly in 1877 with the establishment of many new sewing machine manufacturers, a decrease in prices and increased demands of customers.
By 1881 H C Goodrich owned the largest manufactory of attachments in the world.
It was established in 1867 with a starting capital of , needed to purchase materials for manufacturing. In the 1880s Goodrich was purchasing fifty tons of sheet brass and wire each year.
H C Goodrich's principal invention and highest earning attachment was the Tuckmarker. By the end of 1868 Goodrich was selling up to 10,000 tuckmarkers and by 1881 he was selling 300,000 tuckmarkers.
Hemmers and binders were attachments of less value at that time. In 1881 the combined total of hemmers & binders that H C Goodrich manufactured was an astonishing 2,000,000+.
This article deals with the history of the two brothers, Harry Clinton Goodrich and Herman Barnum Goodrich, and their companies.
Business-wise they went their separate ways, H B primarily into sewing machines and supplies, while H C appears to have been more successful and is better known for attachments but with a string of differing patents to his name, and went on to be a shoe sole manufacturer.
Information concerning Frank L Goodrich, will be found in the National Sewing Machine History Album and in the extensive topic covering National's History in the NeedleBar Forum. F L Goodrich was the son of H C Goodrich. He was an inventor and patentee in his own right and worked as Assistant Manager and Secretary for the Goodrich Manufacturing Company of Chicago, before becoming Purchasing Agent for National in Belvidere, Ill. The National Sewing Machine Company, under the leadership of Barnabas Eldredge, manufactured his Goodrich attachments. Yet before then, in 1879, the case of H C Goodrich vs Barnabas Eldredge was heard by Judge Drummond, for infringement of his tucker patents by the use of the Johnston tuckers. An injunction was denied, but the defendants, Johnston Ruffler Company, were required to make monthly reports of sales to the court, under bonds, pending the hearing of the case.
The Goodrich Family History
Levi Goodrich was the father of H B & H C Goodrich and moved his family out west from Potsdam, NY to Chicago in 1837.
Although H B Goodrich was young he remembered Chicago of that time as a miserable collection of shanties, a small outpost on the North Side. The steamer arrived off the mouth of the river, anchored in the lake, and passengers were taken ashore in a scow, as there were no docks in the harbor, and no larger vessel could pass over the bar into the river.
Levi Goodrich was so disappointed with the place that he decided to buy a wagon and team of oxen and drive across the prairie to the more promising town of St. Charles.
Here he bought land and built a small house. Unfortunately, his health suffered from the climate and within 18 months he died. This was a severe blow to his wife (née Hortense Barnum), who was alone in a new area with her two little boys. Her health suffered also, compounded by the loss of her husband and trying to cope on her own. Within a short time of Levi's death she too died.
A few months before she died, some friends had placed her sons with two different families, as their mother was no longer well enough to look after them. Having to give them up was hard on her by all accounts. Both sons were some twenty miles away from her and never saw her again after they were re-homed.
After a while H B Goodrich was bound apprentice to a man who lived on what was then known as Dunlap's Prairie, a few miles west of the city. Not satisfied with his life, H B ran away and went to the city on foot, via the track of the old Galana railroad.
With only .50 in his pocket, H B Goodrich decided to learn the carpenter's trade, and began by sawing hard wood at a cord, for which price he had also to split and pile it up.
He next worked as a driver on the Illinois and Michigan Canal, this was before railroads, and the travel to all the Southwestern river towns was by packet steamboat. Goodrich continued this occupation for four months and finally quit it in disgust; but the memories of that short period gave him many stories with which to entertain his friends.
Harry (H C Goodrich) was about six miles away from his brother, but rarely got to see his brother for months at a time. The family Harry was with treated him badly. He worked hard for his keep, was punished frequently and had little freedom or spare time. After six years, at the age of 13, he ran away and made a home with a relative who had since moved into the area.
That winter he was able to attend the country school and did chores around the house for his board. Although he was keen to learn at school, he was very much behind the other boys in his class and knew he would never make a scholar.
His saving grace was that he was mechanically minded; making models, watching how things worked, discovering different ways of making them work. He was said to take his jack-knife with him everywhere.
By spring, when school closed, he got a job paying with a nearby farmer for seven months. He was now 14. In this family he found the warmth, kindness and stability he had been lacking. The farmer and his wife were aware of his history and made him one of their family. Harry later said this was the happiest time of his life.
The following winter he was back at school and it was the school exhibitions at the end of term that stood out in his memory. The recitations gave him the opportunity of listening to the lives, deeds and characters of famous people. He said it was these that inspired him more than any other learning.
When he was nineteen, although unskilled, he decided to go to Chicago to pursue a trade in mechanics. His natural ability with woodwork secured him a position at full journeyman's wages. He made many sketches of various agricultural, mechanical and engineering applications, rather crude, and considered worthless by others. Years later, of course, he could see his ideas incorporated in many new inventions.
In 1864 H B Goodrich's attention was first called to sewing machines by the advertisement selling the "Common Sense" hand machine. The brothers bought a dozen of them and set out on their first trip.
Their route was down the Illinois Central Railroad to Tolono, then on the Wabash Road to Danville and Covington, Ind. They met with the usual mixed success, but on the whole the trip was profitable. They continued sales in central Illinois and expanded into other makes, including Willcox & Gibbs.
In 1867 Harry C Goodrich's tuckmarker was patented and both brothers started manufacturing them. Although it was not the earliest patent, it was the first practical tuckmarker on the market with an easy to use shape and was originally designed for use with Willcox & Gibbs machines. Making tucks in clothing became far quicker, easier and affordable for everyone.