Gloucester MA Samuel E. Sawyer maritime Alabama Cla (03/23/2011)...

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Gloucester MA Samuel E. Sawyer maritime Alabama Claims

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Gloucester MA Samuel E. Sawyer maritime Alabama Claims

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Sold Date: 03/23/2011
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Transportation and Vehicles

Gloucester MA Samuel E. Sawyer maritime Alabama Claims Oriental Rug Review/Asian Trade is pleased to offer a small group of items, c. 1860s-80s, having to do the North Shore town of Gloucester in Massachusetts, its major 19th century personality Samuel E. Sawyer, The Lane family and the Low Family. Sawyer was a merchant and ship owner whose ships were a major component in the China Trade. He lived on his "Brookbank" estate in Gloucester, but maintained offices in Boston and New York City from which he managed his ships and captains. Gloucester's Sawyer Free Library is named in his honor. This group of Sawyer/Gloucester documents include:

(1.) Letter to Sawyer from a Boston law firm working on his behalf during the Alabama Claims litigation, 1882. It bears a wonderful, and to a shipowner, scary letterhead.

(2.) Form letter from a Boston law firm informing Samuel Sawyer that it had located Ins. policies he bought during the Civil War years. The Confederate Raider Alabama and other ships were very successful against Union shipping and created an environment that saw marineins. rates to soar (see Alabama Claims, below). Sawyer and other shipowners sought restitution after the war from England, from whose shipyards most of the raiders came, 1882.

(3.) Letter from a Boston Marine Attorney, Samuel Stevans, informing Sawyer that he was receiving a payment due to restitution from England and France for "war risk" caused by their facilitation of Confederate marine raiders. Sawyer was so thankful for Steven's Sucess on his behalf that he gave him a wonderful painting by famed Gloucester Marine artist Fits Hugh Lane, "Castine Bay."

(4.)Another from Marine Attorney Stevens to Sawyer, "Your case as it now stands is in the hands of U. S. Council to be submitted on brief(?) the first favorable opportunity," 1882.

(5.) Letter to Sawyer from a marine attorney in Washington, DC, advising the receipt of the payment above in (3.).

Samuel Elwell Sawyer was born in Gloucester on Nov. 25, 1815 and he died 73 years later in Gloucester on Dec. 15, 1889. He was perhaps the greatest single benefactor in all of Gloucester history. He loved and remained thoroughly dedicated to the community. He was a diligent and hard worker. Born to a working class family he began his business career working as a clerk in a dry goods store in his early teens. After a few years, still in his teens, he worked his way into a position as a salesman with a Boston firm. He was bold and forward in his thinking; not afraid to try new things. In Boston, he associated himself with a larger company as manager and then part owner in a company that bought and sold materials and goods around the world. Later he bought several ships that traded around the world and he was a major player in the "China Trade." Some of the ships that flew his flag were the "Jewess," "Prima Donna," Annie M. Kelley," and the Sarah L. Bryant"

On February 15, 1830 nearly 100 Gloucester residents met and formed the Gloucester Lyceum. The purpose of the organization was to bring community members together to participate in lectures and debates which fostered ideas and information. Among the many intellectual luminaries of the day who appeared were Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. The Lyceum inevitably led to the formation of a library. In 1850, a local businessman and philanthropist, Samuel E. Sawyer, offered the Lyceum $100 if additional funds could be raised to develop a library collection. With additional support from Mr. Sawyer and funds donated by the public, a library collection of 1,400 volumes was established by 1854. When all but 300 of its 3,000 volumes were lost in a major downtown fire in 1864, Mr. Sawyer stepped in and added $500 to the ins. settlement to rebuild the collection. Again, in 1871 he made another gift of $10,000. Membership fees were suspended and the library was officially named The Sawyer Free Library. The library did not yet have a permanent home. Several different locations and another major fire followed in the course...