History of Jeremiah Smith & Sons
Jeremiah Smith started his the oyster business in 1850 as a grower, purchasing seed oysters from southern waters and planting them along the coastal shallow water around New Haven. His sons, Elwood H. and William H. Smith, joined him (Elwood in 1872, William in 1883), and upon his retirement in 1900, took over the running of the firm, seeding, harvesting and sending shelled and shucked oysters throughout North America from West Virginia and the South to Vancouver and Spokane in the West. The firm sold primarily to wholesale oyster houses such as A. Booth & Company in the United States and P. Burns & Company, Ltd. in Canada. Elwood’s son, Elmer, became the Secretary-Treasurer of the firm, which also carried on a coal business locally.
The firm owned five steamers; DAISY E. SMITH, JEREMIAH SMITH, OLD COLONY, OWL, and MIKADO (rebuilt in 1907 and renamed CITY POINT), besides chartering several other vessels. As the fourth largest owner of oyster grounds in Connecticut in 1909, they also owned beds in Mt. Hope Bay, Massachusetts; Bristol Ferry, Rhode Island; and Sag Harbor, Greenport and Shelter Island, New York.
Problems of packing, icing, refrigeration and loss of oysters were ever present. Thanksgiving and Christmas were the popular seasons for oysters. The selling season began in early September (if it was not too warm) and lasted until about the middle of April. The late Spring and Summer was spent preparing beds, seeding, moving oysters sets and repairing their steamers.
By 1911 orders for oysters were declining; the weather stayed so warm in the late Fall and Winter that the retail customer was not buying; A. Booth & Company was bankrupt and in the hands of the receivers. Henry C. Rowe, owner of the largest oystering house in Connecticut, heard a rumor that Jeremiah Smith & Sons was thinking of selling the business and offered to buy them out. The papers in the collection give no hint of what happened, but the 1912 report of Connecticut Shellfish Commission indicates that Jeremiah Smith & Sons no longer owned oyster acreage in Connecticut.
Scope and Content
Most of the correspondence in the collection has to do with the ordering and shipping of oysters to the wholesale houses and to a few retailers.
The outgoing correspondence found in the letterpress copybooks (vol. 1-13) detail the business activity of Jeremiah Smith & Sons from 1900 through 1911. The advertising, selling, and delivery of oysters were major concerns, as was the companies desire for good customer relations. There are several letters relative to the maintenance and repair of the companies oystering vessels, particularly their steamers.
Restrictions
Restrictions on Access
Available for use in the Manuscripts Division.
Restrictions on Use
Various copying restriction apply. Guidelines are available from the Manuscripts Division.
Index Terms
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the G. W. Blunt White Library. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.
Corporate Bodies (Including Vessels):
Jeremiah Smith (Steamboat)
Mikado (Steamboat)
Old Colony (Steamboat)
Subjects:
Oyster industry–Connecticut–New Haven
Document Types:
Letterpress copybooks
Telegrams
Return to the Table of Contents
Administrative Information
Coll. 185, Manuscripts Collection, G. W. Blunt White Library, Mystic Seaport Museum, Inc.
Indexes
Detailed Description of the Records
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.
Business correspondence (primarily incoming); 1903-1911 | |||||||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||||
1 | 1 | Correspondence; 1903 | |||||||||||
2 | Correspondence; 1904 | ||||||||||||
3 | Correspondence; 1905 Jan-Sep | ||||||||||||
4 | Correspondence; 1905 Oct-Dec | ||||||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||||
2 | 1 | Correspondence; 1906 Jan-May | |||||||||||
2 | Correspondence; 1906 Jun-Aug | ||||||||||||
3 | Correspondence; 1906 Sep | ||||||||||||
4 | Correspondence; 1906 Oct | ||||||||||||
5 | Correspondence; 1906 Nov-Dec | ||||||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||||
3 | 1 | Correspondence; 1907 Jan | |||||||||||
2 | Correspondence; 1907 Feb | ||||||||||||
3 | Correspondence; 1907 Mar | ||||||||||||
4 | Correspondence; 1907 Apr | ||||||||||||
5 | Correspondence; 1907 May | ||||||||||||
6 | Correspondence; 1907 Jun | ||||||||||||
7 | Correspondence; 1907 Jul | ||||||||||||
8 | Correspondence; 1907 Aug | ||||||||||||
9 | Correspondence; 1907 Sep | ||||||||||||
10 | Correspondence; 1907 Oct | ||||||||||||
11 | Correspondence; 1907 Nov | ||||||||||||
12 | Correspondence; 1907 Dec | ||||||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||||
4 | 1 | Correspondence; 1908 Jan-Mar | |||||||||||
2 | Correspondence; 1908 Apr-Jul | ||||||||||||
3 | Correspondence; 1908 Aug-Oct | ||||||||||||
4 | Correspondence; 1908 Nov-Dec | ||||||||||||
5 | Correspondence; 1909 | ||||||||||||
6 | Correspondence; 1910 | ||||||||||||
7 | Correspondence; 1911 | ||||||||||||
8 | Correspondence; undated | ||||||||||||
Business telegrams and cables received; 1903-1911 | |||||||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||||
5 | 1 | Telegrams and cables; 1903-1905 | |||||||||||
2 | Telegrams and cables; 1906 | ||||||||||||
3 | Telegrams and cables; 1907 Jan | ||||||||||||
4 | Telegrams and cables; 1907 Feb | ||||||||||||
5 | Telegrams and cables; 1907 Mar | ||||||||||||
6 | Telegrams and cables; 1907 Apr-Aug | ||||||||||||
7 | Telegrams and cables; 1907 Sep | ||||||||||||
8 | Telegrams and cables; 1907 Oct | ||||||||||||
9 | Telegrams and cables; 1907 Nov | ||||||||||||
10 | Telegrams and cables; 1907 Dec | ||||||||||||
11 | Telegrams and cables; 1908 | ||||||||||||
12 | Telegrams and cables; 1909 | ||||||||||||
13 | Telegrams and cables; 1910-1911 | ||||||||||||
14 | Telegrams and cables; undated | ||||||||||||
Bills, Accounts, Credit reports, and miscellaneous items; 1903-1911 and undated | |||||||||||||
Box | Folder | ||||||||||||
6 | 1 | Stmr. DAISY/Motorboat EDNA, bills; 1907 | |||||||||||
2 | Slp. HATTIE J., accounts and bills; 1907 | ||||||||||||
3 | Stmr. JEREMIAH SMITH, accounts and bills; 1907 | ||||||||||||
4 | Stmr. MIKADO, accounts, bills, inspection cerificate; 1907 | ||||||||||||
5 | Stmr. OLD COLONY, accounts, bills; 1907 | ||||||||||||
6 | Sch. R. J. BESWICK, port charges & statements; 1906-1907 | ||||||||||||
7 | General business bills, accounts, receipts, etc.; 1903-1904 | ||||||||||||
8 | General business bills, accounts, receipts, etc.; 1905 | ||||||||||||
9 | General business bills, accounts, receipts, etc.; 1906 | ||||||||||||
10 | General business bills, accounts, receipts, etc.; 1907 Jan-Apr | ||||||||||||
11 | General business bills, accounts, receipts, etc.; 1907 May-Aug | ||||||||||||
12 | General business bills, accounts, receipts, etc.; 1907 Sep-Dec | ||||||||||||
13 | General business bills, accounts, receipts, etc.; 1908 | ||||||||||||
14 | General business bills, accounts, receipts, etc.; 1909-1911 | ||||||||||||
15 | General business bills, accounts, receipts, etc.; undated | ||||||||||||
16 | Credit reports; 1903-1904 | ||||||||||||
17 | Credit reports; 1905 | ||||||||||||
18 | Credit reports; 1906 | ||||||||||||
Volumes; 1883-1911 | |||||||||||||
Volume | |||||||||||||
1 | Letterpress Copybook; 1904 Aug 10-19 | ||||||||||||
2 | Letterpress Copybook; 1900 Feb 7-Mar 24, 1905 Aug 25-Dec 30 | ||||||||||||
3 | Letterpress Copybook; 1906 Jan 1-Sep 17 | ||||||||||||
4 | Letterpress Copybook; 1906 Sep 17-1907 Jan 3 | ||||||||||||
5 | Letterpress Copybook; 1907 Jan 4-Sep 7 | ||||||||||||
6 | Letterpress Copybook; 1907 Sep 9-1908 Feb 21 | ||||||||||||
7 | Letterpress Copybook; 1908 Feb 21-Oct 26 | ||||||||||||
8 | Letterpress Copybook; 1908 Oct 26-1909 Mar 17 | ||||||||||||
9 | Letterpress Copybook; 1909 Mar 17-Sep 28 | ||||||||||||
10 | Letterpress Copybook; 1909 Sep 28-Nov 10 | ||||||||||||
11 | Letterpress Copybook; 1909 Nov 10-1910 Feb 26 | ||||||||||||
12 | Letterpress Copybook; 1910 Feb 26-Sep 29 | ||||||||||||
13 | Letterpress Copybook; 1910 Sep 29-1911 Jan 11 | ||||||||||||
14 | Accounts and records of Jeremiah Smith & Sons Oyster operation; ca. 1883-1890 | ||||||||||||
15 | Records of oysters planted and shipped; ca. 1888-1900 |