1895 M.c. Lilley & Co. Advertising Cover

I'm not one who purposely collects advertising covers but I recently bought this one because it was franked with an 1894 10c special delivery stamp (Scott E4) -- a stamp that I didn't have on cover.

There is no question that the cover has "issues," but the added bonus of original content was enough to make me forgive its blemishes.

The markings on the cover indicate that it took 3-1/2 hours to make the roughly 26 mile journey from Columbus to Circleville.





As you can see from the cover's reverse, M.C. Lilley & Co., which began its existence in 1864 as a publishing and bookbinding company, flourished after the Civil War selling regalia, clothing and equipment for an array of fraternal and military organizations.

The cover's content included a letter, written on company stationary, and a quad-fold advertising brochure.

That is one fantastic cover tomiseksj

A nice fancy advert and a piece of history to boot. The Special Delivery stamp sure adds to it all as well.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Thanks Bujutsu.

I haven't been able to find much on the addressee but the letter's writer, Charles M. Siebert. led an interesting life. The son of German immigrants, he was born in Columbus on September 25, 1839, the youngest of ten children born to Henry and Susan Siebert.

In May 1864, he left his job at the U.S. arsenal in St. Louis, MO and enlisted in the 133rd Regiment of Ohio Volunteers. From that time, he participated in all the major engagements occurring in the Virginia and West Virginia area. When his enlistment ended in 1866, he returned to Columbus, married, and then moved to Circleville and established himself as a gunsmith.

Charles' older brother John was a founding partner with M.C. Lilley of the bookbinding and publishing firm that eventually became M.C. Lilley & Co. At some point, Charles returned to Columbus and took a job with that firm.

Long Street and East Avenue is long since demolished, and now is a transitional area between the north edge of downtown and the Convention Center (Columbus-area resident since 1964). Judging from the letterhead (which sometimes take liberties), this must have been one of the major manufacturing complexes of its time, although the address was "in the way" of further railroad expansion around Union Station, so that may have contributed to its demise by World War I. Just a guess.

doug2222,

An article by Craig Lovelace for Columbus Business First titled "Shaping Columbus: M.C. Lilley, partner in M.C. Lilley Co. contained the following:




The complete article is at http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus...tml?page=all

I see what the problem is -- with regard to East Avenue mentioned on the letterhead:

On north campus, East Avenue is the second street east of High Street. Downtown, it is about the tenth street east of High. That is a much different location than I had thought, nearly a mile farther east. And, as well, a more typical area for large-scale 19th Century manufacturing. Thanks for the article.

Nice cover especially with the enclosures. The cancel was from a International Postal Supply Co. model D21.

Later Lilley was a user of perfins. The example below is from their Cleveland office. The Columbus perfin has one less hole in the horizontal leg of "L"

If this information is accurate, the 1895 cover shown would have been addressed to Alfred Pedrick when he was approximately 68 years of age.

Here's an excerpt from the 1900 US Census for the family of Alfred Pedrick, who by that time was age 73 (born September 1826), a widower who lived with his four daughters at 314 East Mound Street, Circleville, Ohio:



(An earlier US Census (from 1860) showed him being married to his wife, Hannah, and his occupation was a Master Carpenter.)

I just had to add this. It's a little later but still applies. I love that cover!