Help Sought For American Postmarks.

Hi all,

Can anyone help with the marks on the attached scan of a letter from
Edinburgh Scotland to North America.

The red circular date stamp at the top right could be Boston but the B looks
more like an R and we cannot find any reference to a Roston.

No problems with the red postmark at bottom right which is
Paid at Edinbr 1828 Jun 20 E

The red charge mark at the top right is 2/5 (two shillings and fivepence)
though there is no sign of an additional halfpenny charge which should have
applied.

We cannot decipher the black charge mark(?) at top right so if anyone can
identify that we would be most grateful.

The address reads
Mr Robert Long,
Morris-town,
County of St Laurance
State of New York N America

Can anyone pinpoint Morris-town for us? The only one in our atlas is in the
middle of Dakota or somewhere, certainly not in New York.
All help gratefully received.

Ron and Eunice.

Morristown, NY is opposite side of the St. Lawrence from Brockville, ON in Canada.

Nice to see you back Ron

for what its worth, I can read Boston OK,
going by the double ring at the bottom, the clerk
has whacked the hammer hard, and its jumped,
the missing bottom of the "B" may have been a result,
or it may have been damaged or not taken the ink.

Any idea what 2s5d in 1828 would be worth today?
that seems an astonishing price to travel the pond.

Just thinking aloud, would the black scribble be
someones indication of weight? ounce or part thereof?
Cheers

Is this perhaps the Morristown in question?
3 map levels
http://www.fallingrain.com/world/US..._Center.html


An English settler "Robert Long" of Morristown is mentioned here :

http://history.rays-place.com/ny/morristown-ny.htm

Hope that helps :)

I just finished an archaeology project in Morris Town, NY last month. There's Hopewell mounds there. Sullivan and his crew slash and burned many of the Indians out of there in the late 18th Century. Morris Town is now part of Livingston County, NY.
Will

Nice collaboration here!

Warrehouse -

Thanks for the pointer to Morristown, appreciated.....


Will -

I dig you..... And that shows my age doesn't it?
Thanks for the update on Morris Town and for the information.
I must confess ignorance about Hopewell Mounds - what exactly are they?
We do not have a lot of contact with N.A. so are pretty dumb about the
area.<grin>


Rod -

Thanks for the input. and the welcome!

I take the point about the Boston datestamp and no doubt you are right.

Not sure about the 'current worth' of 2/5d but there is a site somewhere
which does that sort of calculation but cannot remember where. Will have to
have a trawl and see if I can find it.
But this was the correct charge at the time, as it was 1/3d for the
shipping charge and the 1/2d was for the inland charge from the origin
Edinburgh to Falmouth where it was shipped.

We thought that the black scribble was some sort of N.A. charge mark but can
make no sense of it.


Many thanks for the web site for rays-place and the Robert Long mention.
We will be passing that on to the lady concerned and she will be chuffed!

Beesee - Yes, it is great to have this kind of feedback on this discussion
board, it was exactly the exchange of knowledge we were hoping for when we
joined this community.


Regards to all
Ron and Eunice.

About 90 british pounds today, give or take (using avg weekly earnings)

Can we read the missive anywhere Ron?

Hopewell culture is group of Native Americans residing over much of central North America around 200BC-500AD. They were a mound building society used for burials.
They were also a trading society that traded throughout North America.
They are known for their pottery work. The area noted above would have been within the most NE corner of that culture range.

We were near Squawkie Hill where William Ritchie excavated in the 1930's. It was just a survey project for the Army Corps, but we found some points (arrowheads) and I found piece of a steatite (soapstone) vessel with the lug handle. We didn't actually excavated into the mounds themselves as they need to be protected, but they were mapped with ground penatrating radar.
Will

Will, I live in Saint Paul, MN adjacent to (Indian) Mounds Park overlooking the Mississippi, fo the 25 mounds once there is down to 3 but are now protected.

Mike

Hi Rod,

Sounds a lot of money but of course all things are relative (as they say in
genealogical circles)

Watch this space.

...........


Warrehouse -

Thanks for that information,

Another bit of data to go in the memory bank - the trouble is at my age
something else gets deleted.

Were the other 22 mounds you mentioned to Will vandalised?

.............

Will -

Sounds interesting and is great to be able to find a few artefacts for
yourself.
Can understand for the need for the mounds to be protected of course but
accredited archaelogists should be able to access them to some degree.



Regards.
Ron and Eunice.

darn it Warrehouse..i thought I could help a couple of penquins out..but you were your usual speedy self..i could not find it on Google but an old Atlas I have shows it up there near Ogdensburg N.Y. as you say accross from Brockville..no hyphen of course !

Some of those mound builders were real ambitious - here's a mound in Ohio that's a quarter of a mile long. That's a lot of dirt to move around!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_Mound




Newark, OH has a golf course running through the middle of some mounds. I've been told by locals that this was preferable to the idea of digging them up completely to build houses. Unfortunately, leaving them alone altogether isn't an option when enough people are intent on making money.

The circle in this photo is a mound - at least some of it has been left behind.

Ryan

I'm a fan of those types of sites - here's a good compendium.

http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/RDavie...howmuch.html

Ryan

Two interesting posts Ryan. Thanks.

The mounds were destroyed by development & urban expansion as affluent people built homes overlooking the Mississippi, there was of course vandalism over the years(1850-1910). Now the bluff has been reclaimed by the city park system, the last house was removed 1985. The remaining mounds are now enclosed by decorative fencing.

Mike