@Tom,
That is just super cool! That kind of history is what really jazzes me about cover collecting and stamp collecting. Thanks for sharing, that is just really neat. Sometimes it's surprising how "DEEP" one can go with researching history like this. It can sometimes seem to take on a "life" of its own!
Thanks for sharing!
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@Vince,
I was interested in that detail too. Kind of intriguing.
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JR
Your pond reminds me how odd it is that local features can disappear without a trace.
I once lived near the Rockridge shopping center in Oakland. I remarked to someone who'd been there a bit longer than I that I could not see how the place got that name, as there was no rock ridge in sight.
Turns-out that they blasted & leveled & removed the ridge to build the shopping center.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
"My interest in your cover is the "pull either wire" and pointing hands. I think that is a "patent" envelope."
Here's an interesting cover from my hometown of Hazlet, New Jersey. I have enough Hazlet postmarks of this era already, and I generally don't buy covers with damaged stamps. But the corner card intrigued me and I managed to buy this cover for about a buck.
Doing a bit of internet research I found that Luffburrow & Walling, "Manufacturers of Fine Carriages" existing in Keyport, on the Hazlet border from 1844-1914. The carriage works went through a number of owners, and had up to 40 employees at one point. The immediate area grew with other trades shops and became known as "Mechanicsville" section of town, a name still on maps today.
Looking at old maps, I knew the general area of the old factory and knew it couldn't exist anymore. One of the buildings in this area went from carriages to trucks and was an International Harvester dealership for decades. The building was part of a complex that last housed a Dodge dealership, that was knocked down a dozen years ago. That site now has a CVS pharmacy on it.
The internet also gave me this ancient photograph, that probably dates around the same time as our cover. I wonder if A.M. Walling, who mailed this cover is in this photo.
So I posted my cover and the facts I learned above on the Keyport group page on Facebook. This is a nice page with current town happenings mixed with old history and photos. I immediately got responses, one from the page leader, who is also a town historian. He said the old factory stood on the site of the modern St John's Church, and the pond that fed the sawmill was where the parking lot is today.
As always, Google is my friend. Here is the factory site today. That's the church in the right corner, the building closer to us in the photo is the manger that they set up with real animals for Christmas every year. I can imagine the factory across this whole property. And the four parked cars are where the pond must've been.
So through my collection, I know a bit more of local history and the cover has some significance to me. And I'll never see that intersection the same again!
re: An Interesting Cover and Some Local History
@Tom,
That is just super cool! That kind of history is what really jazzes me about cover collecting and stamp collecting. Thanks for sharing, that is just really neat. Sometimes it's surprising how "DEEP" one can go with researching history like this. It can sometimes seem to take on a "life" of its own!
Thanks for sharing!
--------------
@Vince,
I was interested in that detail too. Kind of intriguing.
-------------------
JR
re: An Interesting Cover and Some Local History
Your pond reminds me how odd it is that local features can disappear without a trace.
I once lived near the Rockridge shopping center in Oakland. I remarked to someone who'd been there a bit longer than I that I could not see how the place got that name, as there was no rock ridge in sight.
Turns-out that they blasted & leveled & removed the ridge to build the shopping center.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
re: An Interesting Cover and Some Local History
"My interest in your cover is the "pull either wire" and pointing hands. I think that is a "patent" envelope."