Excerpts from minutes of "the regular monthly meeting held in their hall July 4, 1887" concern the election of J. Powell Reid as treasurer of the Mechanics' Union No. 1. The Mechnic's Union No. 1 was a trade union organized in Charelston in 1869.
Records consist of letters containing daily reports submitted by Assistant Engineer F.M. Hall at Fort Sumter to Major W.H. Echols, "Chief Engineer, S.C." at Charleston, South Carolina.Reports (Dec. 17-Dec. 23) concern work on fortifications being done by slaves and soldiers as well as small administrative and military matters.
Receipt book kept by Eliza L. Pinckney includes formulas for making medicines to treat croup, fever, dropsy, and other conditions; recipes for cheese cake, puddings, currant wine, orange marmalade, jelly, oyster soup, and other foods; instructions for preparing meats and rice, and preserving and pickling foods; and a formula "To make the hair grow."
An account of the "Sales of twenty-five whole and seven half tierces of rice imported in the brig Hawke...on account and risque of Mr. Anthony Clarkson of Charles Town South Carolina."
Letter signed by Governor Benjamin Guerard from his home in Charleston (S.C.) is addressed to Mr. Charles K. Chitty and announces that any plantation owner who has not contributed one third of his rice crop as forage for the Army must contribute an equal amount of corn instead.
Volume (gathering of ten sheets) entitled "Observations on the Culture of Rice" is a copy of writings by "Mr. Butler of Santee in the year 1786" attributed to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. Loose sheets bearing the same title give instructions and advice concerning the planting and growing of rice crops in South Carolina.
Papers consist of technical and mechanical drawings, formulae and notes, and other items. Drawings in pencil and ink (some hand-colored) depict a marsh plow, a windmill, a canal, Dutch yachts, an Amsterdam canoe (pontoon?), a trunk (irrigation device), a chakram (water-raising machine of India), a "double canoe" of Polynesia, a Venetian well (or cistern), a rice mill, a horse hoe, a gunpowder mill, a Welsh carr (carriage), the "bear" (plowing device?), and other devices. Some of these drawings may have been sent to Thomas Pinckney by William Vans Murray (U.S. foreign minister at The Hague in the 1790's). Several drawings (of the double canoe, Venetian well, chakram, the bear, and Amsterdam canoe) are accompanied by notes and descriptions. Formulae and instructions are for making cement for china, cottonseed oil, paints, oil compost, milk paint, and other products. Other items include a printed description of "Goodsell's Patent Hemp and Flax Dresser, & Grain Thrasher," a printed description of Benjamin B. Bernard's threshing machine (ca. 1808), a print depicting three bridges (bears the printed signature of Lewis Wernwag), a printed article entitled "Remarks on the Culture of Barrilla," a copy of a letter (1802) to Henry Laurens from N. & D. (Nathan and David) Sellers concerning a rolling screen for cleaning rice, and newspaper clippings.
Samuel Stent Miller apprenticed himself to Gabriel Manigault Bounetheau, a Charleston (S.C.) printer, for a period of five years. Gabriel Manigault Bounetheau was a Justice of the Peace, Clerk of Council, and a printer with an office at 3 Broad Street, according to the Charleston City Directory of 1806.
Printed broadside includes description of curriculum, rules of conduct, tuition and refereces. Madame Rosalie Acelie Togno opened her french and english boarding school for young ladies in Charleston under the patronage of James Louis Petigru in 1854. Initially located on Tradd Street, the school and dormitory for students was relocated to Meeting Street soon after. Togno was a fluent speaker of french and arrived in Charleston by way of New York. Her strict teaching style set new standards for education in antebellum Charleston and students were instructed in science, history, geograph and writing . Madame Togno's students included such notable women as Adele Allston Vanderhorst and Elizabeth Allston Waties Pringle. During the Civil War, Togno relocated her school to Barhamville, South Carolina but was forced to flee South Carolina soon after.
Records chiefly consist of membership rolls for volunteer fire companies of Charleston (S.C.) including the Eagle Fire Engine Company, the Charleston Fire Engine Co., the Vigilant Fire Engine Co., Marion Fire Co., Aetna Fire Co., Washington Fire Co., Hope Fire Co., Charleston Fire Company of Axemen, Palmetto Fire Co., German Fire Co., and the Phoenix Fire Company. Also included is a printed blank form that certifies the bearer is an active firefighter and therefore exempt from Confederate military service. Printed on the certificate are two images of fire engines.
Certificate of citizenship for John McCormick, a "laborer" from Ireland. McCormick lived in Charleston from 1871 until at least 1894. Initially he is listed as a "seaman" in Charleston City Directories. By 1882, McCormick is listed as the captain of the Rattlesnake Shoals light ship. A light ship is a vessel which acts as a lighthouse for locations that are too deep or otherwise unsuitable for lighthouse construction and many were operated under the auspices of the U.S. Lighthouse Service, later the U.S. Coast Guard. John McCormick served as captain of the Rattlesnake Shoals light ship until at least 1894 when his name disappears from the City Directories. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the Rattlesnake Shoal Light Ship was blown off station by a hurricane on August 27/28, 1892. It was then driven ashore at Long Island Beach (SC), 40 feet above low water mark. While beached, the light ship was damaged by a second hurricane in October. It was hauled off in 1894 and brought to Charleston for repairs. McCormick changed residences frequently during the 1880s living at 129 Coming St., 6 Thomas St., 17 Thomas St., and 55 Chapel St. By 1892, McCormick had settled in at 62 Cannon St., a residence he shared with a Miss Lillie McCormick, who is listed as a teacher at Courtenay School, according to City Directories.
Papers include vouchers, receipts, and business letters (1884-1921) of Riley's foundry and machine works, political letters (1895-1903), and letters concerning the Hibernian Society (1896). Also includes a copy of the specifications (1894) of labor and material to be used in repairs to the U.S. Custom House, Charleston, S.C.
Two letters (Feb. 1887) to R.P. Hamer at Little Rock (S.C.) from E.T. Elliott of J.W. Holliday & Son (Marion, S.C.) concern the delivery of a mare. A third letter (April 1887) from Richard Jordan of Jordan & Evans (Marion, S.C.) concerns a reaping and binding machine.
Records include correspondence, lists of dues-paying members, and receipts. The names of Carl Metz, R. Emmett Vaughan, and Charles F. Hencken, president, secretary, and treasurer of Local No. 502, figure prominently in the records. "Musicians' Protective Association" appears as part of the name of the local in many records.
The bulk of the material relates to the payment of dues to the union, and some records concern the rental of the German Artillery Hall for the organization's meeting and for concerts by the Metz Band.
Typescript text of an address delivered at the Charleston (S.C.) Rotary Club on December 22, 1953 by D. A. Amme, Vice President, Board of Firemasters. Speech traces the history of firefighting in Charleston from the 18th century until the 1950s. Also notes the affliation of the police department and lists "Notable Conflagrations."
Volume contains a chronological record (1855-1856) of the number of bushels, tolls, vessels on which the rice arrived, names of individuals (plantation owners), where the rice was stored (floor and "binn") and the marks used, the names of factors, the vessels on which rice was shipped, and other data. Mill accounts contain expenses for rice, drayage, coopers, carpenters, watchman, Negroes (hire), labor, salaries of various individuals, repairs, baskets and brooms, rice, cords of wood, poles, barrels, mill stones, wharf building, cart license, a butcher's bill, horses, insurance on rice, discount on a note, sales of rice, ironwork, sweep chimney, blacksmith work, and other expenses. Income is from cash received at mill, from various individuals for rice flour and rice, from freight and tolls on rice, from notes, and from other items. The Cannonsborough Mills, begun in 1825 by former Governor Thomas Bennett, included twenty-two pestles driven by steam and fourteen pestles run by tide power. Its property fronted Ashley River a third of a mile. In 1847 Bennett deeded the property to his son-in-law, Jonathan Lucas, III. The larger of the Cannonsborough mills burnt in February of 1860.
![Letter from N[athan] and D[avid] Sellers (brothers) to Henry Laurens, Jr.](https://rspace.library.cofc.edu/iiif/image/45436/full/200,/0/default.jpg)
![Chakram- Indian Machine for raising water, [Francis] Buchanan's Mysore](https://rspace.library.cofc.edu/iiif/image/45438/full/200,/0/default.jpg)
