[Letters and telegrams to Robert Valentine concerning Shaker finances]. 1885-1904.

ArchivalResource

Smith, Thomas S. [Letters and telegrams to Robert Valentine concerning Shaker finances]. 1885-1904.

[Letters and telegrams to Robert Valentine concerning Shaker finances]. 1885-1904.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/441863434

These letters provide a tantalizing glimpse into what were probably among the most significant income-producing activities of the Shakers during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries--real-estate transactions and investments. The writer of these letters, Thomas S. Smith, was a New York City attorney who seems to have had responsibility for helping manage Shaker finances. Smith's letters lead the reader to believe that the Shakers, through Robert Valentine, a New Lebanon, N.Y., resident, held or wished to hold an interest in farmland in upstate New York, timber acreage in Arkansas and Mississippi, houses in New York City and Boston, a boat slip in New York harbor, and the Hotel Sweeney on Park Row, in New York City. At times Smith's letters provide vivid detail, and they include examples of the writer's strong opinions (referring to realtors, Smith wrote in 1889: "I am afraid this world, or life, is too short to handle real estate in. All men connected with it seem to forget bargains, promises and everything else except to call for their interest"). But it is not always clear from the letters whether the Shakers' or Smith's own financial activities are being discussed. Smith apparently considered Valentine a confidant and thus wrote to him about his personal business affairs. These included a quite successful gas-lighting business with outlets in New York City, Buffalo, N.Y., Cincinnati, Ohio, and Washington, D.C., and a quite disastrous investment in some sort of carving machine. It is unfortunate that Valentine's letters to Smith are not a part of this group. Their contents would doubtless clear up any questions and corroborate the transactions detailed by Smith.

70 items ; 13-32 cm.

Winterthur Library