Post # 4 ~ Hamburg Rising

Hamburg's Day in the Sun

This post looks at Hamburg itself, a place we might describe today as a boom town, built to ship cotton on the Savannah River.

Shipping cotton, from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 1862. LOC.

In my last, I introduced Henry Schultz, the colorful, self-promoting merchant who vowed revenge on his enemies in Augusta, Georgia, and set out to build a rival market-town that would pull in all the trade of back-country SC, GA, TN, and NC. Shultz named his new place after his hometown of Hamburg, Germany. His town grew rapidly for about three decades. An 1891 article in The Atlanta Journal recorded the memories of elderly Augusta merchant William C. Sibley, a contemporary of Henry L. Jeffers. 

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.

Post # 12 ~ Shipping Bat Guano

Jeffers' Factorage and Commission Business

~ Shipping All Kinds of Merchandize and Produce ~

Henry Langford Jeffers enjoyed placing long, wordy advertisements in the newspapers. Even better if he could advertise in other states; in those distant locations he had no need to tout the molasses and nails stocked in his retail store. Instead he presented his heart's desire: commission work, cotton factorage, and the shipping of goods. 

The Asheville Messenger, Asheville, NC, 1842-01-07. LOC

Post # 13 ~ Delivering the Mail

Care of Cothran and Jeffers

Speaking of transportation and delivery services: as well as moving steam-ship passengers and bat guano, Henry L. Jeffers delivered the mail - even in times of war. 

In the Jeffers brothers’ 1860s Civil War letters, I see frequent requests that their father send boxes of supplies to their camps via “Adams Express.” Adams Express was the big nation-wide shipping company, the FedEX of the day. But in the up-country of South Carolina, H. L. Jeffers maintained his own recognized place in the transportation of goods and mail. 

This line of business continued from Jeffers’ solo ventures in the 1830’s, through the years of partnership with Wade S. Cothran, and right through the Civil War years. 

I instantly recognized a reference I ran across in the intriguing book of Civil War letters written by the Boyd brothers of Abbeville. In 1861, Robert P. Boyd wrote to his father requesting letters from home, and telling him how to mail them: “back yor letters RP Boyd, Barnwell Dis, Woodward post offis, car of Cathern and Jeffers.” (The Boys of Diamond Hill: the Lives and Civil War Letters of the Boyd Family of Abbeville County, South Carolina. Edited by J. Keith Jones, 2011.) 

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Post # 24 ~ A Partner and a Friend

Jeffers & Cothrans
~ Factors and Commission Merchants ~

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.

The Edgefield Advertiser, 1844-01-03. LOC. After partnering with Dr. J. F. Griffin.

Most partners lasted only a few years, until Jeffers found one as driven as he was: Col. Wade S. Cothran.