Post # 11 ~ Do You Like Advertisements? I Do!

Cheerfully Tendering His Thanks to Loyal Customers

Well, not really. Not current ones. But old advertisements? You could study the history of the world through that lens.

When I searched for material to understand the experience of the Jeffers family in Hamburg, SC, during the years 1830 to 1860, the vast majority of the puzzle-pieces surfaced as advertisements. The Edgefield Advertiser is a particularly rich source for mining the hundreds of “Cards” placed there by Henry L. Jeffers, an ambitious merchant who earnestly believed in the power of advertising. 

The Edgefield Advertiser, 1845-10-29. LOC.

Jeffers and his various partners advertised relentlessly, week in and week out, for 30 years. If you read these like a book, they tell a tale. [An aside: at first I was a bit puzzled as to how his advertisements were so elegantly written, since I could see in the old letters that his spelling and punctuation were...rough. I figured he must have employed a copy writer. Sure enough, in an article in the Edgefield Advertiser, 1845-10-08, Henry Jeffers  related that his bookkeeper, S. H. Kitchen, wrote copy for him.]

The first ad I spotted was for Henry’s dry goods store in Hamburg, dated 1837. In those early years he touted brown sugar, bacon, white coffee, molasses, wine and spirits, barrels of flour, hemp rope, bagging, Windsor chairs, salt, iron, steel, and such.  

The Edgefield Advertiser, 1838-07-26. LOC

Over the years Henry tried again and again to change his business model from the retail selling of household goods, to working as a cotton factor, on a commission or wholesale model. But he was not able to leave retail selling entirely behind for quite a while (not until the mid 1850s when he moved his firm to the wharves in Charleston). Sometimes the wording in the ads was a bit wistful, as if saying would make it so:

The Edgefield Advertiser, 1840-07-30. LOC

But factorage work was seasonal and unpredictable, so his brick and mortar retail store remained. He soon added a second “Card” to the above advertisement, reminding customers his store was still there in the center of Hamburg, still stocked with sugar, java, molasses, blankets, Osnaburgs, and nails. The wording, however, still hints at his cherished goal: “Having determined not to retail, the above will be sold by the Bale, Piece, or Package, at low prices, as an inducement to Purchasers.”

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A huge factor in the success or failure of Jeffers’ business, and of all rural merchants at that time, was mother nature. Freshets (floods) wreaked havoc on low-lying Hamburg, and occurred regularly every few years. The Great Freshet of the Savannah River in 1840 was particularly destructive. The Edgefield Advertiser of 1840-06-04 tells us it was an “UNPARALLELED DISASTER,” compared to which the Yazoo Flood was nothing. H. L. Jeffers and his new partner H. Boulware were among the big losers in terms of the value of cotton lost: $10,000.

It took the merchants of Hamburg and Augusta several months to sort out the mess left by this impressive flood, and to resurrect the buildings swept away by the current. Boulware did not have the nerves for roller-coaster business swings, and barely a month later he took his leave. 

The Edgefield Advertiser, 1840-06-25. LOC

Henry Langford Jeffers carried on, cheerfully tendering his thanks to loyal customers, and earnestly appealing that they pay their bills as soon as possible.  He had his own debts to pay! In addition to his cheerful advertising, necessity compelled him to post more stern reminders:

The Edgefield Advertiser, 1840-11-19. LOC

The Edgefield Advertiser, 1841-02-04. LOC

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Looked at over time, Jeffers’ advertising “Cards” give a flavor of restlessness. He continually tried new products, new services, and new styles of advertising to show off his wares. At times the ads grew shorter - to my mind this signified that his interest was not held by retail sales.  

The Edgefield Advertiser, 1842-12-21. LOC

He was a loquacious fellow and my mind sees his longer, more wordy ads as a vehicle for expressing himself, for describing his world - almost like a blog :-).

The Edgefield Advertiser, 1844-01-10, LOC. After partnering with Dr. J. F. Griffin.

Henry L. Jeffers had several different partners during his career, and the announcement of new partnerships always coincided with big new plans: water-proof warehouses, free wharfage, steam-boat travel, liberal advances to planters, new stores, fine silks and calicoes, boots, and bonnets.  Most partners lasted only a few years, until Jeffers found one as driven (almost) as he was: Col. Wade S. Cothran.

The Abbeville Press and Banner, 1847-10-27. LOC

The partnership formed in 1847 between Henry L. Jeffers and Wade S. Cothran was a new and much more empowering experience for Jeffers than his earlier ventures. This company was stable and had the purchase to grow in directions Henry had always dreamed of.

Future posts will take a look at the the excitement and the troubles that Henry Jeffers experienced working in the rural backcountry with W. S. Cothran, and then moving his venture from Hamburg to Charleston.

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