American Historical Ephemera & Photography

Leather wallet featuring embossed eagle and shield patriotic motif, approx. 3 1/2 x 6 1/4 in. closed, 30 1/4 in. x 6 1.4 in. fully open, with 1 1/4 in. leather strip woven through center of wallet creating 11 interior slots to hold documents. Each slot assigned a specific alphabetical grouping from "C D" through "W Y" ("A B" lettering no longer visible.) Leather with wear and a small slit of approx. 1 in. but generally malleable and in good condition.

[With:] A group of approximately 24 documents originally housed in wallet and related to the commercial activity of Joseph King, a blacksmith active near Fletcher, Franklin County, Vermont, and Dundee, Kane County, Illinois. Documents reflect business transactions in Fletcher from 1839-1854, the 1854 purchase of land and a blacksmith shop in Kane County, Illinois, then transactions in Dundee/Carpentersville, Illinois, from 1854 -1863. Documents include a 18 July 1854 "Bond for a Deed" indicating the sale by Joseph Carpenter and Julius A. Carpenter to Joseph King for the sum of $800 "Lots No. Two (2) and Three (3) in Block No. Six (6) with the Buildings hereon and Lot No. One (1) in Block No. Seven (7) with the Blacksmith Shop near it in the village of Carpentersville." -- State of Illinois partially printed tax document indicating money received from King for taxes due for the year 1862. --  Manuscript receipts and promissory notes documenting payment owed to Mr. King and payment made by Mr. King.

Joseph King was born in Vermont where he became a successful blacksmith in the area of Franklin County. Records indicate he served as a representative to the Vermont General Assembly for the town of Fletcher from 1847-1848. For unknown reasons, King relocated to Dundee in Kane County, Illinois, in 1854. The 1860 and 1870 federal censuses list King as a blacksmith, but by the 1880 census indicates that King had returned to Fletcher, Vermont, where he was a farmer and blacksmith. He died there two years later. The St. Albans Weekly Messenger (Saint Albans, VT) obituary for King dated 4 February 1892 states that King "was a quiet man, and commanded the respect of all who knew him."