Last fall I got a call from a man in Illinois who said he had bought three 19th-century letters on e-Bay related to the Watkinson family, and did we want them? I admitted we were interested, since we are the main repository of Watkinson family papers, asked for a few details, which he provided, and then I asked what he wanted for them.  “I want to give them to you,” he said, and continued, “I like to buy historical letters and documents like this, and if I find a place were they belong, I like to give them away.”

I was both astounded and pleased, of course, and I wish there were a thousand more like him.

The letter shown here was written March 18 & 19, 1827 by our founder, David Watkinson, to his brother, John R. Watkinson, asking the latter to represent David’s interest in an insurance claim.  “I am requested by the Hartford Fire Insurance Company to . . . persuade you to accompany one of our Directors to Jewit [sic] City to appraise the damage . . .”  A fire broke out in Jewett City, and the claimants estimated $20,000 in damages, to which David comments, “probably their property destroyed was not worth more than half the amount.”