Overview
Business and legal papers of American entrepreneur, Charles Stillman; with some of his son, James Stillman.
Dates
- Creation: 1847-1884
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English, with some in Spanish.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
A note was found in the original Stillman boxes: "The Stillman papers have been placed in Harvard College Library for the use of Mr. Leroy P. Graf in preparing an historical account of the family's early activities in Texas. While Mr. Graf is at work on this project the papers should be considered private, to be consulted by no one except with his permission. T. Franklin Currier. November, 1939." [LeRoy P. Graf, The Economic History of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, 1820–1875 (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1942)].
Items 1 and 2 (in boxes 1, 11-13) are fragile; consult handling instructions inside the box.
A portion of this collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
3.9 linear feet (13 boxes)Collection consists of the financial and legal papers and records of Charles Stillman's companies [Charles Stillman & Bro. and other Stillman companies] including: letter books of outgoing letters and some incoming transcripts, 1852-1860; letters and telegrams to Charles and James Stillman, 1850-1877; financial records from 1854-1877 comprised of orders and drafts, bills and receipts, account sales, invoices, bills of lading, and statements and accounts; legal documents, 1847-1879; and other miscellaneous papers. The papers relate to the distribution of hides, lead, copper, and cotton from Brownsville, Texas and New York City, and other legal and financial matters concerning Stillman and his various businesses. Some letters include content relating to the Stillman family. The later papers are principally those of James Stillman (1850-1918), Charles Stillman's son.
Biographical / Historical
Charles Stillman (1810-1875) was born in Wethersfield, Connecticut, the son of Capt. Francis Stillman and Harriet Robbins Stillman. In February 1828 he traveled to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico and developed a network of enterprises (Charles Stillman & Bro.) including cotton brokerage and real estate firms, silver mines, merchandise outlets, a shipping company carrying passengers and goods, and an off-loading, warehousing, and transportation company. Stillman was most notable for founding Brownsville, Texas in 1849 and for establishing a successful river boat company on the Rio Grande River (King, Kenedy and Co.) with partners Richard King and Mifflin Kenedy. He married Elizabeth Pamela Goodrich of Wethersfield, Connecticut in 1849. In 1851 Stillman helped bankroll the attempted invasion of Mexico by José Maria Carbajal to set up the Republic of the Sierra Madre. Between 1862 and 1865 his company moved Confederate cotton to Matamoros under contract for payment in gold, sending some of the cotton to his textile complex at Monterrey, and much sold in New York through his mercantile firm, Smith and Dunning. By the end of the Civil War, Stillman was one of the richest men in the United States. After the Civil War, Stillman lived in Brownsville and New York City, but moved to New York permanently in 1866, and died in New York in 1875.
Charles Stillman's son, James Jewett Stillman (1850-1918) was an American businessman who invested in land, banking, and railroads in New York, Texas, and Mexico. He ran his father's business interests beginning in the early 1870s and expanded them to control 16 Texas banks and significant land holdings in the Rio Grande Valley and other areas of Texas. He was chairman of the board of directors of the First National City Bank and when he died in 1918, he was considered to have been one of the 100 wealthiest Americans. James' daughters, Sarah Elizabeth and Isabel Goodrich, married two of William Rockefeller's sons, William Goodsell and Percy Avery Rockefeller.
Source: John Mason Hart, "STILLMAN, CHARLES," Handbook of Texas Online. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
Arrangement
Organized into the following series:
- I. Letter books, 1852-1860
- II. Letters to Charles Stillman and James Stillman from various others, 1850-1877 and undated
- III. Telegrams to Charles Stillman and James Stillman from various others, 1861-1877
- IV. Financial records, 1854-1877
- ___A. Orders and drafts, 1859-1865
- ___B. Bills and receipts, 1854-1877
- ___C. Account sales, 1860-1865
- ___D. Invoices, 1860-1865
- ___E. Bills of lading, 1860-1864
- ___F. Statements and accounts, 1855-1876
- V. Legal documents, 1847-1879
- VI. Other papers
Physical Location
Harvard Depository, b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
No accession number. Gift of Dr. Ernest G. Stillman '08; received: 1937 June 1 - November 5.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
Collection was not finally processed until 2012 and the order already established was retained at that time.
- Title
- Stillman, Charles, 1810-1875. Charles Stillman business papers, 1847-1884: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02358
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
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