Item #66830 REQUESTING A CATALOGUE AND PLACING AN ORDER FOR GRAPE VINES FROM PRINCE & CO. OF FLUSHING, NEW YORK, IN TWO AUTOGRAPH LETTERS, SIGNED BY AMOS KENDALL, WASHINGTON [DC], APRIL 1863. Amos KENDALL.
REQUESTING A CATALOGUE AND PLACING AN ORDER FOR GRAPE VINES FROM PRINCE & CO. OF FLUSHING, NEW YORK, IN TWO AUTOGRAPH LETTERS, SIGNED BY AMOS KENDALL, WASHINGTON [DC], APRIL 1863

REQUESTING A CATALOGUE AND PLACING AN ORDER FOR GRAPE VINES FROM PRINCE & CO. OF FLUSHING, NEW YORK, IN TWO AUTOGRAPH LETTERS, SIGNED BY AMOS KENDALL, WASHINGTON [DC], APRIL 1863

Washington [DC]: April 6 & 21, 1863. Two letters, in ink, signed by Amos Kendall, and addressed to Prince & Co. of Flushing, New York. One is on plain paper, 1 p., approx. 45 words; the other on lined paper, 1 p., approx. 112 words, both tipped on to a larger sheet at their left margins. Kendall, in a somewhat shaky but legible hand, first requests a catalogue of grape vines from Prince & Co., and more specifically mentions his interest in "five or six well advance choice varieties of foreign vines for a cold grapery." His second letter acknowledges receipt of the price catalogue, but laments that the more descriptive catalogue must have been sent by mistake to his son "now deceased, and I know not what has become of it." From the list Kendall orders "two Black Hamburg, one Chasselas de F., one Muscat August..." [etc.] "I want none of the experimental varieties, but only such as have already a settled reputation." Item #66830

Amos Kendall was a journalist, postmaster-general, a member of Pres. Jackson's "kitchen cabinet," and a co-founder of Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. Born into a farming family in Massachusetts, he graduated from Dartmouth College in 1811 at the head of his class. He studied law but began his career as a tutor for the children of Henry Clay in Kentucky. He practiced law there, edited a couple of small newspapers, and eventually became part owner of the "Argus of Western America." In a split from Clay, Kendall became a strong supporter of Andrew Jackson when he ran for President and soon followed him to Washington. Kendall spent time in the adminstrations of both Jackson and Van Buren before turning once again to the law. His work on behalf of Samuel F.B. Morse made him wealthy and his later philanthropic efforts included the establishment of the Columbia Institute for the Deaf and Dumb (now Gallaudet College). [see his biography in the DAB]
A copy of the Prince Co. catalogue of grape vines from ca. 1861 shows that the company offered both foreign and American Indigenous grape vines for sale. John Adlum, considered the father of American viticulture had been an active promoter of native grape vine cultivation in Washington, DC in the first half of the 19th century. Kendall, from these letters, seems to have preferred foreign varieties.

Price: $375.00

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