NOTE; A lot of Caleb's associates were relatives. You can see their connection on the "Family Connection" page. I have separate pages for them and others that had connections with him.
In 1634 the Rev. Thomas Parker led a group of about 100 pioneers from Wiltshire, England, to America. They sailed from the river Thames aboard the ship Mary and John, first landing in Agawam (now Ipswich, Massachusetts). The next spring they moved north a few miles to the Quascacunquen River, now the Parker River, to a place they named Newbury, after a town in Berkshire, England. The Bartellot family would move north of there a couple miles to the shore of the Merrimack River and settle on what would become known as Bartlett's Cove.
Three generations later, Caleb Bartlett's great-grandfather would join other Massachusetts families and travel up the Merrimack river into present-day New Hampshire. These families would settle in the area around what would become Concord. The Bartlett's helped settle Pembroke just outside of Rumsford (now Concord).
Caleb's grandfather, Richard became a Physician, Justice of the Peace, Taverner and farmer in Pembroke. His father, also named Caleb, was a successful merchant there.
By 1806 the family consisted of four sons (Richard, Samuel, Caleb and John) and five daughters (Ruthy, Phebe, Ann, Abigail and Mary Elizabeth). Two other girls (Catherine and Frances) had already died very young. At this time the oldest son, Richard age 14, was working in nearby Concord in the office of Philip Carrigain, the New Hampshire Secretary of State. By 1809 Richard was sent to attend Phillips Academy in Exeter.
The school (Shown on the left) was established in 1781 for the purpose of promoting Piety and Virtue and for the education of youth in the English, Latin and Greek Languages and in Writing, Arithmetic, Music and the Art of Speaking. Practical Geometry, Logic and Geography and such other of the Liberal Arts and Sciences or Languages were also taught.
Any student who had been a member of the Academy for six months and should appear on examination to have made valuable improvement in the Latin and Greek languages, Arithmetic, practical Geometry, Logic, Geography, Philosophy and Astronomy and had sustained a good moral character would be entitled to a certificate thereof signed by the President and Preceptor with the seal of the Academy affixed thereto. (The school is still in existence and is considered one of the top private boarding schools in America.)
By 1810 the Bartlett family has moved to Charleston, New Hampshire, on the border with Vermont. Richard then begins attending Dartmouth College just 35 miles to the north in 1812. It was the alma mater of his former boss Philip Carrigain.
Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. That charter created a college "for the education and instruction of Youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land in reading, writing & all parts of Learning which shall appear necessary and expedient for civilizing & christianizing Children of Pagans as well as in all liberal Arts and Sciences and also of English Youth and any others". Given the limited success of the school it soon was one primarily for whites.
Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. That charter created a college "for the education and instruction of Youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land in reading, writing & all parts of Learning which shall appear necessary and expedient for civilizing & christianizing Children of Pagans as well as in all liberal Arts and Sciences and also of English Youth and any others". Given the limited success of the school it soon was one primarily for whites.
Dartmouth College
In May 1813 in a letter from Richard to John Langdon he thanked Langdon for the $50 ($1,000 today) donation to him to help him finish his second year at Dartmouth by way of Bartlett's Uncle McClintock. Langdon had just finished his term as Governor of New Hampshire. Richard goes on to write that he will not be able to continue after the second year unless he receives further assistance. Why his father couldn't pay the tuition at this time is not stated.
John Langdon (on the left) was an American politician and Founding Father of New Hampshire. He served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, signed the United States Constitution, and was one of the first two United States senators from New Hampshire. Richard may have know him while working in Phillip Carrigain's office in Concord.
In 1815 Richard Bartlett graduated Dartmouth as valedictorian and a Phi Beta Kappa. He was also a member of The Society of Social Friends. The society was established in 1783 as a literary society whose main purpose was to manage a private student library. These societies would usually have popular collections and liberal lending policies. They would rent their books out to support their collection, which was usually larger than the school library.
Things changed a lot for the Bartletts in 1816. Richard had moved back to Concord to study law after college. Samuel, the second oldest son at twenty-one, for some reason moved the family over two hundred and fifty miles south to New York City and Caleb Sr. moved back to Pembroke near son Richard.
Samuel, Caleb, their five sisters and mother first moved into a place near Hudson and Charlton streets on the west side of town near the river. (The black square) Samuel was listed in a census of people to serve on juries that year as a manufacturer. Of what, is not listed. Maybe his move was for a business opportunity.
The next year he moved the family east to 70 Bowery where he opened a tavern. (Red square) The tavern was located between present-day Hester and Canal Streets and was a regular stop on the stage route to Albany and Boston. It was a good location and time to have a business there.
The Bowery is the oldest thoroughfare on Manhattan Island, preceding European intervention as a Native American footpath, which spanned roughly the entire length of the island, from north to south. When the Dutch settled Manhattan island, they named the path Bouwerie road – "bouwerie" (or later "bouwerij") being an old Dutch word for "farm"– because it connected farmlands and estates on the outskirts to the heart of the city in today's Wall Street/Battery Park area. As the population of New York City continued to grow, its northern boundary continued to shift northward, and by the early 1800s the Bowery was no longer a farming area outside the city. The street gained in respectability and elegance, becoming a broad boulevard, as well-heeled and famous people moved their residences there. The Bowery began to rival Fifth Avenue as an address.
The tavern was apparently successful quickly because Samuel sent the youngest brother John, age fifteen, back north to the Phillips Academy for schooling. Something Samuel and Caleb had missed out on. John very soon finished his schooling there and started attending Bowdoin College in Maine.
Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts but would soon become a state in 1820. From its founding, Bowdoin was known to educate the sons of the political elite and "catered very largely to the wealthy conservative from the state of Maine." During the first half of the 19th century, Bowdoin required of its students a certificate of "good moral character" as well as knowledge of Latin and Ancient Greek, geography, algebra, and the major works of Cicero, Xenophon, Virgil and Homer.
Richard Bartlett was now a lawyer in Concord and was making a lot of important connections at this time. And he would soon become the Deputy Secretary of State Clerk in the New Hampshire Senate. Maybe that also helped John get into Bowdoin.
The tavern was apparently successful quickly because Samuel sent the youngest brother John, age fifteen, back north to the Phillips Academy for schooling. Something Samuel and Caleb had missed out on. John very soon finished his schooling there and started attending Bowdoin College in Maine.
Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts but would soon become a state in 1820. From its founding, Bowdoin was known to educate the sons of the political elite and "catered very largely to the wealthy conservative from the state of Maine." During the first half of the 19th century, Bowdoin required of its students a certificate of "good moral character" as well as knowledge of Latin and Ancient Greek, geography, algebra, and the major works of Cicero, Xenophon, Virgil and Homer.
Richard Bartlett was now a lawyer in Concord and was making a lot of important connections at this time. And he would soon become the Deputy Secretary of State Clerk in the New Hampshire Senate. Maybe that also helped John get into Bowdoin.
Bowdoin College
Caleb's mother and sisters had returned to Pembroke sometime in 1818. Soon after this Caleb's father died and his oldest sister, Ruthy, married and would move to Ohio. Also in 1819 Caleb left the tavern and opened a store nearby at 78 Bowery. There he began operating a circulating library store. James Hardie, an early 1800s prolific writer about New York City life, stated in his "The Description of the City of New York" that Caleb's store was one of the four most distinguished circulating libraries in the city.
Circulating libraries offered an alternative in the 18th and 19th centuries to the large number of readers who could not afford the price of new books but also desired to quench their desire for new material. Many circulating libraries were perceived as the provider of sensational novels to a female clientele but that was not always the case. Many private circulating libraries in Europe were created for scientific and/or literary audiences. Readers in the middle classes depended on these institutions to provide access to the latest novels and scientific books; they usually required a substantial subscription that many lower class readers couldn't afford.
Circulating libraries offered an alternative in the 18th and 19th centuries to the large number of readers who could not afford the price of new books but also desired to quench their desire for new material. Many circulating libraries were perceived as the provider of sensational novels to a female clientele but that was not always the case. Many private circulating libraries in Europe were created for scientific and/or literary audiences. Readers in the middle classes depended on these institutions to provide access to the latest novels and scientific books; they usually required a substantial subscription that many lower class readers couldn't afford.
Samuel sold his tavern to Benedict Burwell and joined Caleb. The store was called S. M. & C. Bartlett's. They soon hired a twelve year old boy named Samuel Raynor. He would go on to great things with what he learned in the store. (Go to his tab on the left to read about his life and accomplishments)
In 1820 they started making their own playing cards and selling them. Not just in New York City but in other towns as shown in this ad from a Buffalo, New York, stationery dealer in January 1821.
Caleb wasn't the first New York City playing card maker, but he was the first longtime successful card maker.
In 1821 he and Samuel travelled to New Orleans to start a store there. Besides stationery and playing cards they also sold clothes and children's books. Samuel stayed to run the store with a new employee named Isaac L. Baker. It was located at 1 Bienville by the Mississippi River front in the French Quarter.
The five decades preceding the Civil War are referred to as “the golden years” of New Orleans or “flush times,” “the glamor period” and “la belle epoch”. New Orleans was referred to as a place of prosperity. At this time, New Orleans had already won the title of being a Primate City where business was booming. It lacked in manufacturing businesses, but had many commercial businesses in the area and “was pulsating with commerce, business, change, and expansion”. After the first bank opened in 1805, four more decided to open in 1827. The city was one of the richest, most dazzling of all places full of Parisian couture, fancy restaurants and shops. Royal Street became the main commercial artery while Bourbon Street was a place for the elite and their residences. Southern cotton was becoming heavy in trade that a new type of transportation needed to become available to transport the bulky materials. Steamboats became the main source of transportation of materials by 1823. There was an astronomical number of 50 steamboats that aided in the commerce of the city. Hundreds of streetlights were put onto the streets along with the first sycamore trees that were planted in Congo Square.
Samuel Bartlett's Store in the French Quarter in New Orleans
Caleb wrote Samuel on August 31 and October 2, 1822 that he should come back home because the store in New Orleans is apparently not working and is hurting the business in New York City. They had invested too much in clothing for the New Orleans store. Caleb wants to keep what they have worked for in NYC going. A lot of bills were coming in that he could not pay.
Caleb's letters to Samuel mention the Yellow Fever epidemic of August 3-October 26, 1822, when many Wall Street-area businesses sought refuge “out of town.” Three hundred and eighty-eight people died in the outbreak. Many of those victims from the lower city were buried beneath Washington Square Park, which was the Potter's field of New York City in the early 1820s. The outbreak was mainly in the Greenwich Village area north of Bartlett. To this day, the remains of more than 20,000 bodies rest under Washington Square Park.
Caleb's letters to Samuel mention the Yellow Fever epidemic of August 3-October 26, 1822, when many Wall Street-area businesses sought refuge “out of town.” Three hundred and eighty-eight people died in the outbreak. Many of those victims from the lower city were buried beneath Washington Square Park, which was the Potter's field of New York City in the early 1820s. The outbreak was mainly in the Greenwich Village area north of Bartlett. To this day, the remains of more than 20,000 bodies rest under Washington Square Park.
In 1965 the New York power company ConEdison uncovered a vault finding 25 skeletons inside while digging in Washington Square Park. Then in 2015 contractors for the city department of design and construction uncovered two more vaults, during excavations to replace a century-old water main on the east side of the park. The opening to one chamber was only 3 1/2 feet beneath the sidewalk. Inside they found an arched brick chamber with skulls, femurs and other bones littered on the dirt floor. The second vault contained about 20 wooden coffins.
Only one letter reached Samuel because he had died in New Orleans on September 23rd from a Yellow Fever outbreak there. When the news finally reached Caleb about his brother's death he sent Ephraim Willard Jr. to New Orleans to be his Power of Attorney and sell off all the inventory. (Ephraim's father had a watch repair business in Caleb's building at 78 Bowery.) After all the paperwork was finished the estate was worth $2,417.46 or about $76,000 today.
About this time Caleb hires Daniel Mann of Dedham, Massachusetts, to teach him how to marble paper. It is becoming popular in New England. He paid him $20 a week for five weeks to train him.
Paper marbling is a method of aqueous surface design, which can produce patterns similar to smooth marble or other kinds of stone. The patterns are the result of color floated on either plain water or a viscous solution known as size, and then carefully transferred to an absorbent surface, such as paper or fabric. It is often employed as a writing surface for calligraphy, and especially book covers and endpapers in bookbinding and stationery. Part of its appeal is that each print is a unique monotype. It has been used since the 1600s.
There is no definitive proof that Caleb made and sold this paper in his store.
(You can read about Daniel Mann on a tab on the left)
1824 and 1825 were better years for the Bartletts. Caleb married a girl across the street from his business on Bowery. Her name was Mary Ann Barnard and she was the daughter of a ship's Captain. Caleb had her widowed mother move in with them. (Mrs. Barnard's maiden name was Bartlett. No close connection to Caleb has been found. Her branch appears to be from Massachusetts) John Bartlett graduated from college and joined his brother Richard to study law in Concord. The next year Richard became the Secretary of State of New Hampshire. Richard also would become a founding member of the new New Hampshire Historical Society.
In 1826 Caleb moved his business next door to 76 Bowery. Then his sister, Mary Elizabeth, sent word she had married a Concord merchant named John D. Abbot. John will join Caleb in a few years. (His life story is told on a tab on the left)
By 1829 Caleb, besides making his playing cards, was doing publishing. In July “The Irish Shield” newspaper published notification stating Caleb has become the proprietor of both, that journal, and the “Monthly Milesian”. This Irish Catholic history and informative newspaper seem a strange choice for Caleb, who was neither Catholic nor Irish. Maybe it was just a good business opportunity.
The editor of the paper was George Pepper who was also the previous owner. He was trying to recover from a libel suit he just lost to the bigger and more powerful local Irish Catholic paper the "New York Truth Teller".
In 1829 George Pepper got into trouble with the New York Truth Teller again and was sued for libel. Caleb gave up the paper and concentrated on books and playing cards. The 1830s had Caleb publishing a lot. During that time Bartlett would grow very successful and center his businesses around education and was known as one of the earliest makers of standardized school books. He would publish over 58 different works and his books were held by some of America’s most prominent families.
Caleb was also hosting a lecture series by the newly formed Mechanics' Institute of New York City at his store. It was created to instruct mechanics and others in the useful branches of arts and science. No politics or religion was to be discussed. Its founder was the Scottish born master printer George Bruce. His nephew was David Bruce Jr. a New York industrialist whose inventions revolutionized the printing industry. (Read William Hagar's story on the left for more about him)
Back in Concord Richard Bartlett had become a representative from Concord to the State legislature in 1830-31. He will for a time be the editor and proprietor of the New Hampshire Journal. In 1833 Richard will join Caleb in New York City and also practice law. Brother John had left the law practice in Concord to be a school teacher in Troy, New York. But he would soon leave that job to move to New Orleans and become a lawyer and then a surveyor. He was the one brother they said that suffered from "wanderlust".
In 1830 Caleb's sister Abigail married a well known New York City chairmaker named Smith Ely. He will soon become connected with Caleb businesswise also. (His story appears on a tab on the left).
In 1831 Caleb hires a fourteen year old for a clerk named Effingham Embree. His father was a merchant nearby. What he learns from working with Bartlett will lead him to advance paper making in the 1860s. His story appears on a tab on the left.
In 1832 the city has another major cholera outbreak. This map on the left shows the locations of reported deaths. Caleb's store (the yellow star) was on the edge of the worst area.
Newspapers reported the roads were lined with filled stage coaches, livery coaches, private vehicles, all panic stricken, fleeing from the city. Oceans of pedestrians trudged outward with packs on backs. Steamboats bore refugees up the Hudson. Every farmhouse and country home within a thirty-mile radius was soon filled with lodgers. By the end of the first week in July, almost all who could afford to flee had fled; the estimate by August 6th was that of 100,000 had left. The reported death toll would be over 3,500.
Newspapers reported the roads were lined with filled stage coaches, livery coaches, private vehicles, all panic stricken, fleeing from the city. Oceans of pedestrians trudged outward with packs on backs. Steamboats bore refugees up the Hudson. Every farmhouse and country home within a thirty-mile radius was soon filled with lodgers. By the end of the first week in July, almost all who could afford to flee had fled; the estimate by August 6th was that of 100,000 had left. The reported death toll would be over 3,500.
By 1833 Richard was working part-time with Samuel Raynor selling books while Caleb was making the playing cards. At this time Caleb created a new pictorial deck. It was what is known as a transformation deck and was one of the most interesting decks produced by Bartlett. The plates used in this deck were very expensive to make and were based on the identical patterns first used by the Ackermann Repository of Arts, in London, in late 1818. It was not a success and he would make a cheaper version. This deck will be covered in more detail in the tab called "Bartlett's Playing Cards" on the left.
The next year Caleb became more active in the businesses on Bowery Street. In 1834 the Bowery Savings Bank opened at the site of what is now 128-130 Bowery. Caleb was an incorporator with other local business men. They received $2,020 ($71,000) from fifty customers on its first day. The site had been occupied by the Butchers' and Drovers' Bank; at first, the two banks shared the building, operating at different times of day. By 1836, the Butchers' and Drovers' Bank relocated next door to 124 Bowery. The Bowery bank would have $3 million ($119 million today) in deposits by 1850, when the bank hired its first paid employees.
In 1834 brother-in-law Smith Ely purchased a building at 71 Fulton with a home on the same property. He then goes into business with Caleb and he relocates part of his business there. Their new business is listed as a Commission Paper Warehouse and Playing Card, Glass and Paper Manufactory. Richard Bartlett and Samuel Raynor stay at Bowery.
The new business soon escaped a major disaster; The Great Fire of 1835. The fire was one of three fires that rendered extensive damage to New York City in the 18th and 19th centuries. It occurred in the middle of an economic boom, covering seventeen city blocks, killing two people, and destroying hundreds of buildings, with an estimated $20 million of property damage (equivalent to $700 million today).
Twenty-three of New York's twenty-six insurance companies went out of business paying off claims. In the wake of the Great Fire many new insurance companies were founded in New York City between 1836 and 1838 because of the growing demand for fire coverage. With the loss of so many companies the city needed more insurance capital. In a business move Caleb became a director of the newly formed New York Fire Insurance Company.
Caleb now also became a director of The Mechanic’s Institute, which had given lectures in his store previously. The Institute was also a great place to make business connections in his field.
Then the Economic Panic of 1837 struck. Approximately ten percent of the workers in the city became unemployed at any one time. Speculators, driven by the promise of quick profits, heavily over-invested in northeastern forests and western territories. This inflated land prices far beyond their actual value, sowing the seeds for a dramatic economic recession. It was this overvaluation that became one of the critical panic of 1837 triggers.
Also numerous southern merchants had defaulted on payments owed to their Manhattan creditors and quickly caused 93 firms to collapse by April 8th. The number rose to 128 three days later and totaled more than 250 by month’s end.
A domino effect was felt all over the city. Mobs in New York City raided warehouses to secure food to eat.
Construction projects in all sectors were halted, including transportation initiatives like the Long Island Railroad. Housing demands could not meet the supply. The stock market crumbled, causing even more businesses to fold. Virtually all of New York’s major clothing firms floundered in 1837. Banks and lending firms halted lending, including loans to the city’s richest citizens like the Astor family.
As the banks started to demand payment for outstanding loans, the city’s “poor and laboring classes” demanded the return of their deposits. On May 10th, all twenty-three of Manhattan’s banks announced that they would henceforth refuse to exchange specie for paper … Within 24 hours, most banks in the Northeast had stopped gold and silver payments.
By the end of May, New York City was becoming a ghost town. The currency shortage shut everything down. "No goods were selling, no business stirring, no boxes encumber the sidewalks of Pearl Street,” wrote former mayor Philip Hone. No one and no thing was exempt from this new economic depression.
The concept of public housing was born from this crisis as was today’s credit ratings industry.
At this time there was also an internal case revolving around a bank securities fraud investigation by the Bank of Brooklyn. They had made accusations against Peter Poillon Jr.. (Poillon had a Paper Store at 306 Pearl and his father had a well known chocolate factory on Bowery) Peter had taken a loan, and was indebted. At the time he was trying to leverage a number of the securities he owned to satisfy the bank, Caleb had taken loans from Poillon in the amount of $ 10,000 (over $325,000 today), so his IOU’s became a part of the settlement. Bartlett was noted as having always paid his debts and was almost finished with the loan at the time the case was filed.
Caleb seems to have survived the Panic in good shape. What may have helped were his real estate investments. Since 1822, at age 25, Bartlett had been buying and selling real estate. He owned at least twenty properties by the Panic. Afterwards he bought fewer and sold more over the years.
Caleb did suffer a loss in 1837. His brother Richard died on October 23rd from an osteo sarcoma. A sarcoma is a rare type of cancer that develops in connective tissues such as bone, cartilage, fat, blood vessels, muscles, nerves, and skin. Sarcomas can develop anywhere in the body, but are most common in the arms and legs.
Richard left in his Will $70 ($2,200) per year to his sister Mary Elizabeth. She was married to John D. Abbot back in Concord. It was to help her because of her husband’s “pecuniary embarassment”, or the shame you feel when your financial inadequacy or guilt is made public. The executors would pay this out until John had a profitable occupation/business. He also left his Society of Social Friends gold medal from Dartmouth to his sister Ruthy's son and his Phi Beta Kappa key to his nephew Edward Abbot. To his sister Abigail Ely he left his gold pen and a painting called The Alchemist (Artist unknown). He also directed that $1 be deducted from his brother John's part for what he owed him for paying for his schooling. Richard's books and original letters by George Washington and some of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were to go to the New Hampshire Historical Society.
Richard's mother and two unmarried sisters (Phebe and Ann) also got his pew at the Second Congregational Unitarian Church at Prince and Mercer streets. (On the right)
Caleb sent his brother John his inheritance in New Orleans. John had recently given up a good law office job and had done some surveying but was now an Impost Clerk at the port of New Orleans collecting taxes for the U. S. Government.
One of Caleb's inheritances was a portrait of Richard done by a painter named Samuel Finley Breese Morse. (On the left)
Morse and Richard were classmates at Phillips Academy and fellow members of Phi Beta Kappa and had known each other in Concord later. This was when the portrait was painted. You probably have heard of Morse after he established his reputation as a famous portrait painter. In his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system based on European telegraphs. He was a co-developer of Morse code in 1837 and helped to develop the commercial use of telegraphy.
Caleb was now advertising his pictorial cards again and a deck with a marbled back. Was this his only attempt at using his training in marbling? Samuel Raynor took over the business at 76 Bowery after Richard's death. He will bring in his brother Hiram and soon expand the business.
In 1838 Caleb became a School Trustee in his neighborhood. He served for thirteen years helping the community. He also became a director of the Butchers & Drovers Bank and the Mutual Safety Insurance Company for fire and marine Insurance.
Tragedy again struck that year when Caleb's mother died just two days after Christmas. She was buried in the Marble Cemetery along side her son Richard. The cemetery is located at Second Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Streets.
The cemetery was founded as a commercial undertaking of Perkins Nichols, who hired two lawyers, Anthony Dey and George W. Strong, to serve as organizing trustees. Recent outbreaks of yellow fever led city residents to fear burying their dead in coffins just a few feet below ground, and public health legislation had outlawed earthen burials. Nichols intended to appeal to this market by providing underground vaults for burial. (In 1851 traditional earthen burials were banned below 86th Street.)
Dey and Strong purchased the property on Nichols's behalf, on what was then the northern edge of residential development, on July 13, 1830, and Nichols had the 156 underground family vaults, each the size of a small room, constructed from Tuckahoe marble and laid out in a grid of six columns by 26 rows. He was then reimbursed from the sale of the vaults.
Access to each pair of barrel vaults is by the removal of a stone slab set well below the grade of the lawn, which has no monuments or markers. Marble tablets mounted in the long north and south walls give the names of the original vault owners – though not the names of burials – and indicate the precise location of each corresponding underground vault. By 1997, parts of the North Wall had collapsed and other portions required steel buttresses. The weakened sections were dismantled and rebuilt to an eight-foot height. Access to the cemetery now is every fourth Sunday during the summer.
Dey and Strong purchased the property on Nichols's behalf, on what was then the northern edge of residential development, on July 13, 1830, and Nichols had the 156 underground family vaults, each the size of a small room, constructed from Tuckahoe marble and laid out in a grid of six columns by 26 rows. He was then reimbursed from the sale of the vaults.
Access to each pair of barrel vaults is by the removal of a stone slab set well below the grade of the lawn, which has no monuments or markers. Marble tablets mounted in the long north and south walls give the names of the original vault owners – though not the names of burials – and indicate the precise location of each corresponding underground vault. By 1997, parts of the North Wall had collapsed and other portions required steel buttresses. The weakened sections were dismantled and rebuilt to an eight-foot height. Access to the cemetery now is every fourth Sunday during the summer.
Although mother and son were placed in the same vault they are not there now. At some time about 1864 the remains were removed for interment somewhere else. The records did not give that location.
Faro, Pharaoh, Pharao, or Farobank was a late 17th-century French gambling game using cards. It is descended from Basset, and belongs to the Lansquenet and Monte Bank family of games due to the use of a banker and several players. Winning or losing occurs when cards turned up by the banker match those already exposed. It is not a direct relative of poker, but Faro was often just as popular due to its fast action, easy-to-learn rules, and better odds than most games of chance. The game of Faro is played with only one deck of cards and admits any number of players. Faro was eventually overtaken by poker as the preferred card game of gamblers. In 1838 Caleb produced a Faro/Pharo deck of cards and advertised it in New Orleans. "Up North" the game was considered a sin at that time and needed to be gotten rid of.
1838 New Orleans Advertisement
45 Custom House was his brother John's address
45 Custom House was his brother John's address
Philadelphia Newspaper Article From 1837
By 1839 Caleb was leaving his playing card business. Eugene Ely and George Cook now became involved in their making. (Read their stories on the left) Even Caleb's unsuccessful brother-in-law from Concord, John D. Abbot, had moved to the city and became involved in paper manufacturing at 71 Fulton. Did Richard Bartlett's executor then stop paying him?
Caleb had found a new interest, or business venture, to get into called type founding. A type foundry was an organization that published typefaces and released fonts. Enter William Hagar. After leaving the business for a few years in 1835 Hagar returned to type founding to buy an interest in the foundry of his old employer, Elihu White. This became White & Hagar. When White died in 1836 Hagar continued under his name until 1839. By 1840 he moved to 74 Fulton, just a couple doors away from Caleb. In 1842 the type foundry of James Conner went into debt with his banker. It was one of the best equipped in the country and Hagar could use the equipment. He induced his friend Caleb to buy the equipment for the sum of $10,000 ($368,000 today) which was less than one fourth of its actual value. Hagar became a full partner with Bartlett under the firm name of William Hagar & Co at 74 Fulton. By 1845 he purchased Caleb's interest and he continued alone until 1852. (Hagar's story appears on the left)
Fonts Produced By Hagar and Bartlett
While working with Hagar, Caleb went back into his stationery and publishing business. Then his brother John wandered back to New York City to clerk for him for about five years. In 1845 John decided the sea was calling him. He became a clerk or supercargo (a representative of the ship's owner on board a merchant ship, responsible for overseeing the cargo and its sale) and made several long voyages. He died in Gibraltar from a disease in 1849 at age forty- six.
1842 Caleb published the "Cobb’s Spelling Book". In the book there appears an engraving of Baseball being played outside of a school building. This is considered one the earliest images of American Baseball in existence.
1842 Caleb published the "Cobb’s Spelling Book". In the book there appears an engraving of Baseball being played outside of a school building. This is considered one the earliest images of American Baseball in existence.
Caleb's new location was at 7 Nassau for a few months, but relocated to 225 Pearl. By 1850 he retired and he, his wife, mother-in-law and adopted teenage niece Ann moved to Stapleton on Staten Island close to his sister Phebe. His unmarried sister Phebe had a place called "The Bay House" there. Living with her had been her unmarried sister Ann but she had just recently married. Forty year old Ann had just married the widower Dr. John Taylor Gilman Leach. The doctor was a well known surgeon in New York City and Boston. His testimony later at the trial of Caleb's second wife will be of importance.
Phebe's home was easy to find because of her neighbor. He was "The Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt spent $27,000 ($1 million today) on his showpiece mansion in the 1830s. It was 40-feet tall, the ceilings on each floor were 12-feet tall, and the rooms "very large". The architect combined a "modified Gothic" style with a Grecian portico and "six enormous fluted columns". (On the left)
The Commodore had grown up on Staten Island and though he was not a millionaire in the 1830s, but he was already a very wealthy man and felt confident enough to make a display of his prosperity. The site on which he chose to build his new home was situated on the northeast corner of his father's farm and just a three minute walk from his mother's house.
Except for some of the interior features, it was constructed almost entirely of yellow Virginia pine and "the main timbers were massive". The rosewood doors in the parlor were fitted with silver knobs and handmade steel locks. Almost all of the materials used were imported: the heavy mantels were of Egyptian marble; the balustrades, South American mahogany; the glass was French plate; the stained glass, English; and, carpenters were shipped over from England to install the feature spiral staircase that ran in an oval well to the top of the house. From there, stained glass skylights drew in extra light to the wide halls that ran through the center of each of its three floors. Over the front door was a picture in stained glass made in England of the Commodore's favorite ship, Cleopatra.
After two years Caleb decided to open a real estate office at 166 Broadway. He had still been buying and selling properties since the Panic of 1837. The land records that still exist show that he had purchased 20 and sold 29 since then. That should still have left him with almost 26 other properties he had purchased over the years.
In 1854 he had a dressmaker move into one of his properties on Staten Island and rent a room. Her name was Selina Barker and she had a young daughter Elizabeth. Things would soon change.
The next year Caleb, his wife, mother-in-law and adopted niece moved in with Phebe and her maid. In August Caleb's mother-in-law and his wife, who has been an invalid for a while, both pass away. His adopted niece married in 1856 and moved out. Caleb then just kept an office and bedroom in his sister's house and commuted back and forth to the city everyday.
In 1854 he had a dressmaker move into one of his properties on Staten Island and rent a room. Her name was Selina Barker and she had a young daughter Elizabeth. Things would soon change.
The next year Caleb, his wife, mother-in-law and adopted niece moved in with Phebe and her maid. In August Caleb's mother-in-law and his wife, who has been an invalid for a while, both pass away. His adopted niece married in 1856 and moved out. Caleb then just kept an office and bedroom in his sister's house and commuted back and forth to the city everyday.
Phebe's house was large and she rented out several rooms. Staying with them at that time was Joseph Seligman (Shown on the left) and his family. He had been an importer in New York City known as J. Seligman and Brothers. In 1850 four of his brothers, William, Jesse, Henry and Leopold moved to San Francisco, where they set up a store in 1851. In 1858 Jesse and William returned to New York and opened a dry goods store in the city. Through William's efforts, the store received government contracts to supply soldier's uniforms for the Union Army in the American Civil War. These contracts amounted to several millions of dollars. A portion of the payment for the uniforms was in the form of federally issued government debt which the Seligmans had to find buyers for to get immediate cash for operations.
After the American Civil War ended, the eight Seligman brothers decided to go into the banking business.
President Ulysses S. Grant, who befriended Jesse Seligman when he was a First Lieutenant near Watertown, New York, offered Joseph Seligman the post of United States Secretary of the Treasury, which he declined, possibly due to shyness.
In 1866 Jesse Seligman went to Frankfurt, Hesse-Nassau, to open a bank, where they were the first American banking firm to sell United States Government bonds in Europe. The firm became fiscal agent for the conversion of existing war bonds to new ones and acted for years as fiscal agents for the Department of State and Department of the Navy. Soon after, Abraham Seligman opened a bank in New York City, followed by the London branch, established by Isaac and Leopold Seligman, and the Paris branch, established by William Seligman.
In the post-Civil War robber baron era, the firm invested heavily in railroad finance, in particular acting as broker of transactions engineered by Jay Gould. Among the companies in the Seligman portfolio were The Missouri Pacific, the Atlantic and Pacific, the South Pacific, and the Missouri–Kansas–Texas railroad companies. Later, in 1876, the Seligmans joined forces with the Vanderbilt family to create public utilities in New York.
In 1877, Judge Henry Hilton, the owner of the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga Springs, New York, denied entry to Joseph Seligman and his family because they were Jews, creating a nationwide controversy. It was the first antisemitic incident of its kind in the United States to achieve widespread publicity.
Phebe's house was large and she rented out several rooms. Staying with them at that time was Joseph Seligman (Shown on the left) and his family. He had been an importer in New York City known as J. Seligman and Brothers. In 1850 four of his brothers, William, Jesse, Henry and Leopold moved to San Francisco, where they set up a store in 1851. In 1858 Jesse and William returned to New York and opened a dry goods store in the city. Through William's efforts, the store received government contracts to supply soldier's uniforms for the Union Army in the American Civil War. These contracts amounted to several millions of dollars. A portion of the payment for the uniforms was in the form of federally issued government debt which the Seligmans had to find buyers for to get immediate cash for operations.
After the American Civil War ended, the eight Seligman brothers decided to go into the banking business.
President Ulysses S. Grant, who befriended Jesse Seligman when he was a First Lieutenant near Watertown, New York, offered Joseph Seligman the post of United States Secretary of the Treasury, which he declined, possibly due to shyness.
In 1866 Jesse Seligman went to Frankfurt, Hesse-Nassau, to open a bank, where they were the first American banking firm to sell United States Government bonds in Europe. The firm became fiscal agent for the conversion of existing war bonds to new ones and acted for years as fiscal agents for the Department of State and Department of the Navy. Soon after, Abraham Seligman opened a bank in New York City, followed by the London branch, established by Isaac and Leopold Seligman, and the Paris branch, established by William Seligman.
In the post-Civil War robber baron era, the firm invested heavily in railroad finance, in particular acting as broker of transactions engineered by Jay Gould. Among the companies in the Seligman portfolio were The Missouri Pacific, the Atlantic and Pacific, the South Pacific, and the Missouri–Kansas–Texas railroad companies. Later, in 1876, the Seligmans joined forces with the Vanderbilt family to create public utilities in New York.
In 1877, Judge Henry Hilton, the owner of the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga Springs, New York, denied entry to Joseph Seligman and his family because they were Jews, creating a nationwide controversy. It was the first antisemitic incident of its kind in the United States to achieve widespread publicity.
In 1857 Caleb starts advertising a lot of properties for sale. Was he downsizing or needing the money?
On Easter Sunday, April 4th, 1858 Caleb (61) married Selina Barker (34) the dressmaker who had been renting a room from him on Staten Island. He tells several friends not to let his sister Phebe know he married a dressmaker. The newlyweds lived in New York City at his 166 Broadway address. The next year Caleb's son, Frank, was born and soon after Caleb would suffer his first stroke and had to use a cane to walk.
Still active business-wise Caleb became a broker. Then in 1861 his daughter Comet was born, but only lived a few months. His daughter was named for the Great Comet of 1861, (July – September). It was a long-period comet that was visible to the naked eye for approximately 3 months. It was categorized as a great comet—one of the eight greatest comets of the 19th century.
The Great Comet of 1861
Shortly after he lost his daughter, he moved into his sister Phebe's house. Then in 1864 he has a second stroke that left him unable to use his legs and he also suffered from incontinence. His wife was living in the city with the children and Phebe was not happy. She said "He has a wife, let her take care of him!" His longtime friend and brother-in-law Dr. John T. G. Leach had him admitted to the Charity Hospital on Blackwell Island on August 5th, 1864. Caleb died there on November 3rd with his adopted niece by his side.
Blackwell Island, now called Roosevelt Island, is located in the middle of the East River, between Manhattan Island to the west and Long Island to the east. In 1832, the city erected a penitentiary on the island. Within four years of the prison's opening, there were proposals to cut a canal through the island so male and female prisoners could have their own islands. Although the canal was not built, an unknown architect did build a separate building for female prisoners. By 1839, the New York City Lunatic Asylum opened there. The asylum at one point held 1,700 inmates, twice its designed capacity. In 1861, prisoners completed construction of Renwick's City Hospital (renamed Charity Hospital), which served both prisoners and New York City's poorer population.
Blackwell Island, now called Roosevelt Island, is located in the middle of the East River, between Manhattan Island to the west and Long Island to the east. In 1832, the city erected a penitentiary on the island. Within four years of the prison's opening, there were proposals to cut a canal through the island so male and female prisoners could have their own islands. Although the canal was not built, an unknown architect did build a separate building for female prisoners. By 1839, the New York City Lunatic Asylum opened there. The asylum at one point held 1,700 inmates, twice its designed capacity. In 1861, prisoners completed construction of Renwick's City Hospital (renamed Charity Hospital), which served both prisoners and New York City's poorer population.
Why was Caleb taken there and not a better hospital? Was his money gone? Possibly. The year before his second stroke a friend asked him for a loan. He told her he could only after he collected some rental property money coming due. No Will or Probate for Caleb has been found to help answer this question. But, information revealed in the second Mrs. Bartlett's court case indicated he probably was not doing well financially.
In the court case of Mrs. Selina Bartlett in 1880 several family members would state that Caleb's remains were returned to Staten Island and buried in the Woodland Cemetery where they even visited his grave later. The hospital record stated his body was to be sent to the Green-Wood cemetery in Brooklyn. There are 143 Bartletts known to be buried in the Green-Wood Cemetery and neither Caleb or any of his family members are listed.
Established in 1854 Staten Island's Woodland Cemetery is located at the intersection of Victory Boulevard and Highland Avenue, and is one of the oldest cemeteries on the Island. The 10 acre cemetery has not been officially declared “abandoned”, but has remained “active” by having a few burials each year. The Woodland Cemetery is currently cared for by a non-profit group of volunteers trying to maintain and clean it up. I spoke with Holly J. Burke who has access to the burial records. She told me the records were in very good shape but there were no Bartlett burials listed.
Caleb's sister Phebe had been a long time Staten Island resident and lived just a few miles from the cemetery. She died in 1882 at age eighty-eight. His brother Richard and his mother were removed from the Marble Cemetery about the time Caleb died and relocated somewhere. The Woodlands seems like the logical place for all their burials. Where have all the Bartletts gone?
You should now go to the story tab about Mrs. Selina Bartlett and read about more of the story
Woodland Cemetery