1837 – Letter from an interstate exporter to his partner in New York discussing the status of their exports to the recently established Wisconsin Territory

Wisconsin Territory via, Juliet [Joliet] Will Co., Illinois. Unbound. Very good. This two-page letter is datelined “Juliet [Joliet] Will Co. Ill Sept 26th 1837.” It was sent by “Ephrm Perkins” to “W. D. Roley,” probably at Utica, New York. In nice shape. A transcript will be included.

In this letter, Perkin reports on the status of the economy of Wisconsin and the health status of their agent in the territory.

It reads in part:

“Mrs P & myself with good landed at Racine 3 weeks ago our passage was tolerable comfortable through rather lengthly 8 Days from Buffaloe – we staid two weeks at Fox river & have been (truncated) here near one week Pliney has not recovered so as to be able to take charge of the stock at Wisconsin - & the present aludation is for him to return with his mother early in Oct I will probably go by land to Toledo.

“The times are getting hard prices keep up & but little sales for any but the indispensables of living provisions groceries (except tea) are high as ever – leather, boots, iron nails, glass are scarce – flannels & sheeps grey homespun cloth socks & leather mittens have quick sales – Wheat is $1.50/100 ats 50 – flour 9 or 10 fresh beef 5. . .. But I think prices will be reduced when grain is much thrashed – I think money will be extremely scarce next year as money is constantly going out & very little coming in Satinetts like ours are retailed $2 pr yard but we can hardly find anyone that will buy any goods may be about as scarce as money by & by. Our cattle 20 in Wisconsin are very fat & the hogs I think will be by Decm but how many we shall loose cannot now be told. I am afraid there will not be money to pay for them there is plenty that want them –

“I see that prices keep up yet in N.Y. but Oct will tell the story The President’s Locofoco message has given no encouragement of better times & what shall come to time will only tell. . ..”

Following his discussion of business in Wisconsin, which also included the possible acquisition of a saw mill on the Fox River, Perkins discusses business in New York including milk cows, steers, a tavern, and an “engine [which must] be turned from time to time & oiled to prevent rust. . ..” . Perkins’ inability to do business because of the lack of money circulating in Wisconsin was real and his fear that soon finished goods will be equally scarce. The problem was not unique to the territory, the economic policies of the Locofocos, i.e. the Andrew Jackson – Martin Van Buren faction of the Democratic Party) had just begun to cripple the American economy and would lead to the Panic of 1837 and a subsequent depression with wide spread unemployment and bankruptcies that would last for nearly a decade until gold was discovered in California.

(For more information, see Timberlake’s “Panic of 1837” in Glasner and Cooley’s Business Cycles and Depressions: an Encyclopedia.)

A wonderful first-hand account of early economic activity in the Wisconsin Territory and the beginning of the depression that followed the Panic of 1837. . (Inventory #: 010462)