Williamsport Pa. Folded Stampless Letter 1851

As you can tell from the content of the letter, the addressee is, in fact, Caldwell and Ghriskey. They were a long established wholesale hardware merchant in Philadelphia.

Here's some information on the firm. Note that it was only known by the name Caldwell and Ghriskey for 10 years (1849-1859) following which Mr. Charles M. Ghriskey (1821-1901) took over the firm under his own name (presumably after Mr. Caldwell had died).

Oh my thank you wt1! I have been trying to decipher that last name all morning and just couldn't seem to find the right combination. It was that "long S" and the last letter either being a "y" or a "z" and the first two letters "G" or "C"...Thank you so much!

By the way isn't that an interesting merchandise list? Tea kettles, long handled frying pans of assorted sizes & the Rosewood hafts for the files, "spur bits" in ass(orted)sizes...Just fascinating!


Edit:
Just a note: that "censored" icon undoubtedly picked up by the software on the actual & technical name for a certain type of file I wasn't cursing...

By chance, could someone help me with what the postal rates would have been in 1851? It looks to have maybe been pre-paid in Williamsport, PA. (same color of ink used on the PAID strike) 3¢ and it traveled 254 miles!





Here is a satellite and a street view of the of the Caldwell & Ghrisky commerce building. Address listed as 508 Commerce Street, Philadelphia, PA. from the letters' origin of Williamsport, PA. It's a 3 hour and 4 minute drive. I don't see a building matching the dimensions or description written in that paper snippet that wt1 provided.

Check out my webpages on the postal rates. Should answer your question

http://glennestus.com/PHrates.htm

Thank you very much!

Precisely (the link below) explains what I needed to know. Great site great information! Thank you!

http://www.glennestus.com/stampless...1page3c.html

Here's a cropped cover that was offered on ebay recently. Note the return address with the imprinted company name "Charles M. Ghriskey" with postmark dated 1898, well after Mr. Ghriskey operated the hardware firm independently:



Incidentally, it would seem the firm was operated out of 508 Commerce Street, Philadelphia through at least the early 1920s.

That's amazing! Great information for certain; and many many thanks!

Here's a period ad for the firm: