1819 – Reply by two early St. Louis land agents to a man in Ohio searching for a relative who had gone west

St. Louis, Missouri, 1819. Envelope or Cover. Very good. This stampless folded letter measures 7.5” x 12”. It is datelined “St. Louis 14 August 1819” and was sent to Moses Taylor at Mount Vernon, Ohio in care of the towns postmaster, Henry B. Curtis, by Aaron T. Crane and Abraham Beck, early St. Louis land agents, whose business, the Western Land Agency, was located in the rear of the Bank of St. Louis at 58 South Main Street where Crane also served as the St. Louis Postmaster (only the third since the position was established in 1808). The letter’s two-line typeset postmark was the earliest used in St. Louis, and the Spink Shreve Auction #121 reports (truncated) that only four examples are known to have survived.

Taylor, or Curtis for him, apparently had asked Crane and Beck if they knew the whereabouts of a relative, probably a son. It reads in part:

“Yours . . . was duly received [and] we made immediate enquiries . . . to return an answer as [soon as]possible, still owing to the number of strangers who daily arrive & pass through this place, we were unable to discover Mr. Taylor [matching the name you provided]. [However,] a person answering your description by the name Moses Taylor, a carpenter by trade is in this place. He is doing well & has been making some money & has good employment. We said nothing to Mr. Taylor [yet]. Yours Respectfully / Crane & A. Beck” . No online information is available about the Ohio Turners, and little is known about Crane and Beck, other than that Beck was the son of a New York physician, and Crane had served as an army or militia captain during the War of 1812.

(For more information, see Billon’s Annals of St. Louis in its Territorial Days, Heritage Auctions Sale #3547 of 1 November 2017, and Horstman’s “William T. O’Hara Missouri Territorial Banker” in the “Missouri Paper Money Clip File” at Washington University, Volume 1 of the American Stampless Cover Catalog, and on-line genealogical records for Crane, Beck, and Curtis.)

An exceptionally scarce and important letter regarding life in early American St. Louis as the city was growing rapidly. The physical records for the Western Land Agency (which have been microfilmed and digitized) are held by the Library of Congress. At the time of listing, only one other letter from Beck (held by the St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri in St. Louis), and one document signed by Crane (a 6-cent Post Office scrip note) are known to have survived. . (Inventory #: 010456)