Thursday, December 24, 2020

1866 Letter from Dwight Francis Faulkner (1803-1885) of Boston, Massachusetts, to his son Francis T. Faulkner (1834-1905) in Turner, Maine

1866 letter from Boston merchant and manufacturer Dwight Foster Faulkner (1803-1885) to his son Francis Thomas Faulkner (1834-1905), "Frank", in Turner, Maine. 

Sadly, Frank would die in his mill office in 1905 in a suspicious fire.  Hopefully a reader will have information to share.

Father and son were members of the influential Faulkner family of eastern Massachusetts.  Read more about the family in this history of Faulkner Hospital, now Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital. Francis Faulkner, father of Dwight, set up in Action, Massachusetts, what is thought to be the first woolen mill in the United States. His descendants would include statesmen, judges, manufacturers, mill owners, physicians, druggists, authors, educators, and philanthropists.

In the letter, Dwight, who was living at 48 West Cedar Street in 1861, tells his son to expect 20 barrels of Cambridge Extra Soap and reminds him to take extra care to protect the bales [presumably wool shorn from sheep in the Turner, Maine, area], by wrapping them in paper against moths and by spreading them around in area barns so that one fire would not take them all.  

Dwight Foster Faulkner (1803-1885) was born in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1803, son of Francis Faulkner and Ann (Robbins) Faulkner. Dwight married Elizabeth Cole and had several children with her, the middle one being Francis Thomas Faulkner (1834-1905), "Frank".

Son Frank married twice:
  1. Frances Ann Wedgewood, with whom he had daughter Anna Theresa Faulkner (1857-1920), who married Aquila Montrose Chase; and son Thomas C. Wedgewood (1858-1893)
  2. Mary Ann Eaton (1836-1919)

Please let me know of any corrections to the transcription below.

Transcription

Invoice of Soap Sent to Turner Mill by D. F. Faulkner February 5, 1866

20 bbls Cambridge Extra Soap
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Tare 18# each

Son Francis     Boston, February 9, 1866
Above I hand you Invoice of 20 bbl more of the cambridge Soap Sent you ___ Steamer a few days since. I thought I would keep pretty good Stock of this Soap on hand as I believe you like it very well.
All the goods now made hereafter for the present I want you take an account of the them every Wednesday. weigh them off - Send me the Invoice as usual & then instead of letting Bailey's team take them have them removed from the Factory. You may begin by putting a few invoices into the Bradford Barn. Then we will hunt up some other place. I don't want to put many in any one place on account of the risk of Fire -
The reason for my making this move is that we have got a good many goods on hand here (over 300 bales, considerably & and moths [underlined] are playing the duce [deuce ?] with them, eating them all up here in the Store - I want you to be particular in baling up the goods to have the papers to Put over Some 6 or 8 inches, so that the moths cannot get around into the bales. You will have to pack away the bales in the barn so that you can get at any Invoiced as I may order them Sent to Boston - you will have to Send word to Bailey that you are not going to Send any more going to market.
Yours,
D. F. Faulkner
The next move that I shall make & that I am afraid will be Soon is to stop one day in the week Say Saturdays.


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