Silas D. King Calling Card

Calling Card. Circa 1880 – 1900.

Price:  $6.00

A deep blue morning glory flower, some leaves and berries, and a bird carrying “A Token of love” adorn this calling card for Silas D. King. The fringed banner displays the following:

“The cold in clime are cold in blood,

Their love can scarce deserve the name.

But mine is like the lava flood,

That boils in Etna’s breast of flame!”

This is from The Giaour, an epic poem by George Gordon, the 6th Baron of Byron, better known as Lord Byron.

There are a number of potential matches for the original owner of this card. None show in city directories with the middle initial (unexpected) but there are lots without, and then two or three possible matches in census records with the initial, so we’ll skip the major searches and be content, as is. Always interesting though, to track the source for the verse or poem.

Source:  Lord Byron. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron (accessed January 3, 2021).

Alfred J. Hines Calling Card

Calling Card. Circa 1880 – 1900.

Price:  $5.00

Flowers and a feather in orange and peach tones for this calling card…..

There will be multiple possibilities for who this card had belonged to……But wow, as it turns out, not as many as you’d think. City directories for a search anywhere in the U.S., that includes the middle initial, show much later records than this time-frame (1919 at the latest and that person in Saginaw was born too late to fit this card). Many hits that come up under all categories, and without the middle initial, can be eliminated right off the bat – either too young, too old, middle initial not matching, and duplicates – later or earlier records of the same person. We could spend days to really narrow it down, but won’t, believe me, that would be really too much! (But yes, it is always tempting.) So, maybe the three best possibilities are:

Alfred John Hines, born December 17, 1867 in Wolcott, CT. His obituary states he was educated in the schools of Wolcott and Montpelier Seminary and married Agnes Conant in October 1901.

Alfred Joseph Hines, born November 13, 1873, PA. Lived in Cresson, PA, occupation clutchman? for P.R.R. Co. (Pennsylvania Railroad Company) per his WWI Draft Registration Card, in 1918. See if you can figure out what that says there:

An interesting fact on the “Pennsy” Railroad:  By 1882, the company had become the largest corporation in the world, with a budget second only to the U.S. government.

Or had this calling card belonged to the Alfred J. Hines, who was married to Dorothy E., living in Rochester, NY, per the Rochester city directory, occupation engineer (but employer name not listed). We don’t know the age of this Alfred J. Hines. Oddly, no census records were found on him.

Sources:  “Alfred J. Hines.” Hardwick Gazette (Hardwick, VT). January 8, 1942, Thursday, p. 3. (Newspapers.com).

Registration State: Pennsylvania; Registration County: Cambria County. Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918.

Pennsylvania Railroad. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Railroad (accessed January 3, 2021).

Drew Allis’ Rochester Directory, 1919, Vol. 70. p. 518. Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995.

Happy New Year From Stafford Hannah

Calling card. Circa 1880s – 1900.

Price:  $12.00

The holiday cards are scarce right now at my house, for website posting that is. Haven’t gone on any buying binges lately….then again it’s nice to put up ones that have only been languishing in an (acid-free, of course) storage bin, without any attention…..;-). What I like about this one is that second comma. Kind of amusing, maybe a typo? Or maybe it was on purpose – so that Stafford could write a short note under his name, or have a space for a business stamp. Also, love the “face” in semi-profile, top right corner. Like a line drawing, with a little bit of shading, of a benevolent spirit. Of course, the shells and forget-me-nots are lovely….

On to Stafford Hannah…..a nice name, and not too common, for searching purposes:

As it turns out, there’s only one Stafford Hannah that fits the time-frame for this calling card. He was Stafford Cross Hannah, son of Irish immigrants, James and Ann. He was born about 1852 in Manhattan and had older siblings Mary E., Martha J. and younger Ellen, Sarah and William. He worked as a ship carpenter and later as a grocer. His wife was Jennie, and they had two sons, William J. and Alexander. We imagine Stafford having many stories to tell his boys about the ships he worked on, due to the yacht-building mention in the obit, below:

Sources:  Census of the state of New York, for 1855. Microfilm. Various County Clerk Offices, New York. (Ancestry.com).

Year: 1880; Census Place: Brooklyn, Kings, New York; Roll: 846; Page: 679A; Enumeration District: 102. (Ancestry.com).

1892 New York State Census. New York State Education Department, Office of Cultural Education. New York State Library, Albany, NY. (Ancestry.com).

New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1905; Election District: A.D. 07 E.D. 20; City: Brooklyn; County: Kings. (Ancestry.com).

“Stafford Cross Hannah”. The South Brooklyn Home Talk, March 25, 1914. Wednesday, p. 10. (Newspapers.com).