Death And Taxes In Zanesville, Ohio, January 1869

Here is an interesting usage of the 2c orange US Internal Revenue stamp to pay the tax on the sale of a #8 casket from J. Hatcher & Sons, dated January 10, 1869:



RootsWeb provides some information on Johnathan Hatcher and his family business.

In 1869 Jonathan and sons opened the first coffin factory in Zanesville. Perhaps this receipt was saved because it was for the first coffin they sold?! In 1872 the business name was changed to J. Hatcher & Co., and later it became incorporated as The Zanesville Coffin Co. Eventually annual sales reached $50,000 and 7000 coffins were sold each year! The annual sales number seems very low for this number of coffins. Maybe the wholesale price of coffins was just $7 each? In 1881 the Hatchers sold the Zanesville Coffin Co and moved to Columbus to establish The Columbus Casket Works.

On the 1900 Census for Franklin Co., OH, Jonathan gives his age as 87, so he was born in 1812 or 1813. He died in Columbus on June 17, 1904.

very intersting piece of history T360.

You must spend a lot of time researching these.

Dianne

It doesn't seem like a lot of time at all. It's fun to play detective and see how far you can get by piecing together the story behind a cover or document.

Great piece of Postal? history! You've got some super interesting material!

thanks LaSwabbie! It is fun to share it here.

t360:

Beautiful piece... if you ever find another.... let me know!

Cheers!

David

t360 it's interesting that you found and posted that receipt. I used to live in Columbus, Ohio and then in Chillicothe, Ohio. Made several trips to Zanesville while working for a furniture store while in Chillicothe, and then while living in Columbus I worked next door to the old Columbus Casket Works factory. It's always amazing to see things from places we have either been to, lived near to, or have actually worked close to or even in. Thanks for posting.

P.S. Not to mention how cool it is that that receipt was drawn up almost 104 years to the day of my birthday, which is 1-15-1973.

I think I'm gonna ask t360 to adopt me so I can inheret all his cool stuff some day. Of course I think I'm older than him so that plan could backfire.

It such a small world we live in. C/W I was born in Chillicothe and raised in Lancaster Ohio 40 mins south of Col.
Thanks for sharing the story t360.

OH wow Bandicoot. Small world indeed. How did you end up in Australia??