Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America
Archives related to: Kennedy, John S. (John Stewart), 1830-1909
| title | Robert Lenox Belknap Papers, 1872-1895. | repository | Hagley Museum and Library |
| description | The Robert Lenox Belknap papers are a fragment saved by his descendants. The papers include Belknap's private letterbooks for the final years of his career (1892-1895), although 33 earlier volumes have been lost. They include both business and personal correspondence and give a good picture of the life of a New York financier of the second rank. Belknap travelled extensively until the last year of his life managing his various enterprises. Many of the letters are written to and from the field between Belknap and W. P. Stevenson, who appears to have been his confidential secretary. The letters cover Belknap's activities in the West Superior enterprises and the street railways in Asbury Park and Indianapolis, as well as his later work on behalf of the National Guard, the Presbyterian Church, and several social clubs. There are several letters concerning his summer homes at Sea Bright, N.J., and Huntington, Long Island. There is also a separate inventory of Mr. and Mrs. Belknap's assets and liabilities in 1872, when he was just starting his business career. The largest part of the papers concerns the Kesler Mining Company, a silver-mining venture at Big Cottonwood, Utah, about 23 miles from Salt Lake. This firm was organized in June 1879 after New York investors purchased a bankrupt mine and claim. It was one of Belknap's early ventures and not particularly successful. The papers cover the organization of the firm in the 1878-1881 period, with scattered materials down to 1895. Of particular interest are a series of detailed reports and statements sent by Ellsworth Daggett, the company's agent and superintendent. They describe the difficulties in operating a small western metal mine under absentee ownership. Other correspondence is between Belknap and the firm's Utah bankers and with members of the New York law firm of De Forest & Weeks, who were associated with Belknap as stockholders and officers. There are maps and sections showing the mine workings, payrolls giving names, occupations and wages of people employed at the mine, legal papers concerning disputes over claims, and a geologist's report. Bio/History: Capitalist and financier of New York City. |
| extent | 1.2 linear ft. |
| formats | Correspondence Business Papers Personal Papers Financial Records Legal Papers |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record source | http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/ |
| finding aid | Unpublished finding aid available at the repository. |
| updated | 03/16/2023 10:29:52 |
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| title | Central Railroad Company of New Jersey Records, 1839-1973. | repository | Hagley Museum and Library |
| description | The surviving records of the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey are a series of fragments that had come into the possession of Conrail. The greater part of the company's records were destroyed during the 1967-1979 trusteeship. There are copies of many important CNJ documents in the records of the Reading Company at Hagley and in the records of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company at the Pennsylvania State Archives. Minutes of the parent company are incomplete. The oldest are minute books from the 1886-1888 receivership of John S. Kennedy and Joseph S. Harris which describe the rehabilitation of the property. The remaining minutes (1913-1917, 1933-1950) generally contain a perfunctory list of improvements, betterments, and retirements to property. The miscellany includes a copy of the 1947 reorganization plan, a report to the state on the preservation of essential services (1972), a report on the obstruction to navigation posed by the company's Newark Bay Bridge (1971), and a 1965 employees' timetable. The maps include a complete set of the original ICC valuation maps showing all railroad track, structures and property as of 1916. There are also a series of system schematic maps, key maps, and profiles prepared for the valuation, including a map showing the complex conflicting land claims on the Jersey City waterfront. There is also an incomplete set of track and property maps for the Lehigh & Susquehann Division ca. 1899-1900, along with town maps of Nesquehoning and South Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and a plan of the Ashley Shops. Minutes are also available for most of the predecessor and subsidiary companies, although some of the oldest were lost at an early date. The oldest and perhaps most interesting minutes to survive are those of the Elizabethport & New York Ferry Company of 1839. These give some account of the activities of New Yorkers, including Cornelius Vanderbilt, to develop Elizabethport and aid the struggling Elizabethtown & Somerville Railroad. There is also a copy of Jay Gould's plan for the reorganization of the New Jersey Southern Railroad Company (1873). Bio/History: The Central Railroad Company of New Jersey operated a main line between New York and Scranton with numerous branches within the state of New Jersey. It was one of the more important anthracite-carrying railroads, with important commuter and terminal facilities in the New York area. It was an important ally of the Philadelphia & Reading and the Baltimore & Ohio, with which it formed serveral important through routes, particularly between New York and Philadelphia and New York and Harrisburg, Pa. The Reading operated it outright under lease in 1883-1886 and 1892 and controlled it by majority stock ownership after 1901. Coal mines acquired in 1872-1873 were surrendered under antitrust prosecution in 1923. The Central Railroad Company of New Jersey was incorporated on February 26, 1847 as the Somerville and Easton Railroad Company. It was renamed on April 23, 1849 upon purchasing the property of the Elizabethtown and Somerville Railroad. The railroad was completed from Elizabethport to Easton on July 2, 1852. At first, the CNJ acted as the New York outlet for both the Lehigh Valley and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroads, but they acquired their own outlets to tidewater in 1871 and 1868, respectively. To compensate for the loss of coal tonnage, the CNJ leased the Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad from the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company in 1871. Like the other anthracite railroads, the CNJ also acquired coal mines, which were vested in the subsidiary Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company in 1873. The Central could not long survive the collapse of the anthracite industry or the burden of high taxes and terminal and commuter service costs in the inflationary post-Depression environment. It entered its fourth and final bankruptcy on March 22, 1967. State subsidies kept the most essential commuter services running, while the lease of the Pennsylvania lines was surrendered in 1972. The viable portions of the line, mostly trackage serving industries in the Newark-Perth Amboy area, were sold to Conrail in 1976, and the commuter main lines eventually passed into the hands of New Jersey Transit. The company then disposed of its remaining real estate and was reorganized as Central Jersey Industries, Inc. on September 14, 1979. Its successor was merged into the Pechiney Corporation on January 13, 1989. |
| extent | 27 linear ft. |
| formats | Business Papers Administrative Records Correspondence Legal Papers Financial Records |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record source | http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/ |
| finding aid | Unpublished finding aid available at the repository. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:57 |
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| title | George Smith Houston Papers, 1831-1899. | repository | Duke University Library |
| description | Correspondence and account books. The correspondence pertains to Alabama politics (especially 1845-1850), Texas lands, and other matters. Includes letters of condolence on the deaths of Houston and other members of the family. Correspondents include J.A.S. Acklen, O.H. Bynum, Reuben Chapman, C.C. Clay, Jr., C.C. Clay, Sr., Jeremiah Clemens, Jefferson Davis, M.C. Gallaway, David Hubbard, J.S. Kennedy, A.C. Mathews, F.G. Norman, F.A. O'Neal, and J.E. Saunders. Biographical notes: U.S. Representative and Senator from Alabama, and Governor of Alabama; from Athens (Limestone Co.), Ala. |
| extent | 475 items. |
| formats | Correspondence Financial Records |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record source | http://library.duke.edu/ |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:57 |
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