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Thomas Forster papers
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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts [Contact Us]3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Thomas Forster was born on May 5, 1762, near Harrisburg, PA to John Forster and Catherine Dickey. He married Sarah Pettit Montgomery on October 5, 1786 and together they had at least eleven children.
Forster was an agent of the Harrisburgh & Presque Isle Company and, in 1796 or 1797, came to Erie, PA to inspect the company's Walnut Creek holdings. By 1799, Forster permanently relocated to Erie to manage the Walnut Creek holdings.
The Harrisburgh & Presque Isle Company was created by Richard Swan, Thomas Forster, John Kean, Alexander Berryhill, Samuel Laird, John A. Hanna, Robert Harris, Richard Dermond, William Kelso and Samuel Ainsworth for the purpose of "settling, improving and populating the country near and adjoining to Lake Erie." (pagenweb) In August of 1796, the company acquired 430 acres on Walnut Creek and at Waterford. By the fall of 1797, a sawmill was constructed on the Walnut Creek property and, by 1799, a grist mill was constructed.
Forster also served as the Collector of Customs for the Port of Presque Isle from 1799 until his death in 1836. The Collector of Customs was a presidential appointment formed after the Revolutionary War by the 1789 Tariff Act that involved assessing and collecting import duties and taxes, enforcing trade laws, issuing permits and licenses, and facilitating trade.
While serving as Collector, Forster also served as the president of the Erie & Waterford Turnpike Road Company. The Erie & Waterford Turnpike Road Company was formed in 1805 with the goal of replacing the damaged Old French Road along French Creek between Erie and Waterford, PA. Work on the road began in 1806 and ended in 1809. The road had tolls every five to ten miles and paid its stockholders until 1845 when it became a township road.
The road also helped facilitate the salt trade, which dominated the greater Erie, PA region between 1800 and 1819. The salt was purchased in Salina, NY; brought to Buffalo, NY; transported via Lake Erie to Erie, PA; unloaded at Mill Creek; transported to Waterford, PA via the Erie-Waterford Turnpike; and, finally, floated down French Creek to Allegheny and Pittsburgh, PA.
Forster additionally served as Superintendent of Lighthouses for Erie, PA and helped establish the first library, Erie Academy, and St. Paul's Episcopal Church.
He died on June 6, 1836, in Erie, PA.
Sources:
Bates, Samuel P. "Erie County, Pennsylvania." Erie County, www.pagenweb.org/~erie/bates/batesXI.htm. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.
Dilts, Kyle. "Salt and Mud: Early Roads and the First Turnpike in Western Pennsylvania." Crawford Messenger, 2017, crawfordpahistory.blogspot.com/2017/06/western-pa-turnpike-history.html.
Freeman, Sabina Shields. "Thomas Forster." Hi Flight Press, 13 Mar. 2015, hiflightpress.com/thomas-forster/. "Thomas Forster (1762-1836)." Find a Grave, www.findagrave.com/memorial/7217680/thomas-forster. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.
Warner, KayAnn. "Found in the Archives!" Hagen History Center, 5 Nov. 2021, www.eriehistory.org/blog/found-in-the-archives-2.
The Thomas Forster papers measure 4.6 linear feet, date from 1793 through 1837, with transcriptions from 1941, and provide documentation of Forster's financial and business dealings in Erie and Presque Isle, PA.
The papers include accounts, financial records, and some business documents and letters reflecting Forster's roles with the Harrisburgh & Presque Isle Land Company (1796-1799), as the Collector of Customs of the Port of Presque Isle (1799-1836), the president of the Erie & Waterford Turnpike Road Company (1805-1815), and, to a lesser extent, his work as Superintendent of Lighthouses and other community-focused endeavors in Erie, PA. Arranged chronologically, they offer insight into the happenings of Erie's early land and business development, salt industry, shipping industry and connection to other Lake Erie cities including Detroit, MI and Buffalo, NY.
Series I. "Account books" is arranged chronologically and includes general accounts with alphabetical indexes, accounts relating to the salt trade, and accounts relating to the trade of gun powder and ammunition. Most of the books represent accounts with numerous individuals, but some books document the accounts of just a single individual, including D. Moorey, Ashbel Kellogg, and Pierre Simon Vincent Hamot.
Series II. "Chronological business and financial material, contracts, agreements, and letters" is arranged chronologically and contains financial documents, such as bills, receipts, invoices, accounts, and payment promises relating to Forster's work and, to a lesser extent, personal finances. There are also letters, agreements, and contracts relating to business matters across Forster's positions.
Much of the material between 1793 and 1803 is either directly or presumably related to his work with the Harrisburgh & Presque Isle Company; a significant amount of the material between 1806 and 1815 is either directly or presumably related to his work with the Erie & Waterford Turnpike Road Company; and a significant amount of the material between 1799 and 1836 is related to his work as the Collector of Customs of the Port of Presque Isle. There are references to the salt trade – mostly accounts, receipts, bills, and shipping and delivery information – dispersed throughout the earlier portion of the collection, approximately 1800 through 1819.
While this material is seemingly connected to all areas of Forster's career and personal finances, much of the unidentified material is presumably related to his role as the Collector of Customs. While much of this material is not clearly identified, there are some businesses and individuals that appear more significantly within certain eras of the chronology. They are as follows: Harrisburgh & Presque Isle Co. (1793-1803); Forster & Wallace (1804-1806); Erie & Waterford Turnpike Road Co. (1806-1815, 1819-1821); Major Abram Edwards (A. Edwards & Co. Detroit) (1816-1817, 1820); Major A.R. Woolley (1817-1819); Sill Thompson & Co. at Black Rock (1817-1825); Stephen Woolverton (1821, 1825-1826, 1830); Benjamin Wolcott keeper of Sandusky Lighthouse (1826-1829); Catherine, Theodore, and Sarah Bailey (1831-1836); Beacon Light House at Erie Harbor (1831, 1836); George Kellogg (1833-1835); W. Leander Woodruff (1835-1836); and material relating to Forster's death and the succession of his role as Collector (1836-1837).
There is material related to various official offices of the United States government, including the War Department, Treasury, and Revenue Cutter Service and to sailing master and U.S. Navy Captain Daniel Dobbins interspersed throughout series II. The following names also appear frequently: Robert Brown, William Brown, Robert McColloch, Rufus Reed, Edwin Forbes, Ashbell Kellogg, Josiah Kellogg, I. Kellogg, William Kirkpatrick, and Edwin Kelso (Forster's successor as collector of the Port of Presque Isle). In addition to the salt trade, there are financial documents relating to the whiskey, jewelry, tobacco, and ammunition trades in the area.
The material in series II most notably documents the early land deals in Erie, PA; the salt trade; and the shipping and delivery industry on Lake Erie in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Researchers can expect to find material documenting who was sending and receiving certain goods, what boats they were transported on, and who was captaining those boats. There is also documentation of the United States government's financial support of the land deals and maritime industry in the region.
Series III. Erie Bank and Presque Isle Harbor cashier's checks and reciepts contains miscellaneous reciepts and cashiers checks arranged by date.
Series IV. Transcriptions contains a series of transcriptions of Forster's documents done by someone likely affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania in 1941, long after the collection was donated to Penn. The transcriber arranged these transcriptions into "bundles" identified by a letter. Each of these bundles is accompanied by a checklist that details the original documents being transcribed in the bundle. For example, if the transcribed document is a letter, the checklist includes the sender, recipient, and original date. Checklists for bundles N-W and AA-AG are lost and only the checklists for bundles A-M and X-Z remain.
A knowledge of the history of Erie, PA and the timeline of its business and development will be helpful to approaching this collection. Prior to processing, the material was arranged chronologically, and that order has been maintained. With that in mind, material will most easily be found according to the timeline of business and development in the Erie region. Primary subjects for each folder have been included in the inventory, but researchers should note that these subjects may also appear in folders where they are not expressly mentioned. The majority of the material dates between 1806 and 1826, but the amount of material before and after those dates is not negligible.
While most of the material in this collection is legible, there is a significant amount of water damage and torn documents that render some of the material unusable. Researchers may wish to use gloves when handling this material due to years of dust and dirt accumulation.
Gift of Francis Newton Thorpe, 1888.
People
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
- Finding Aid Author
- Kelin Baldridge Smallwood
- Finding Aid Date
- 2024 October 4
- Access Restrictions
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This collection is open for research use.
- Use Restrictions
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Copyright restrictions may exist. For most library holdings, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania do not hold copyright. It is the responsibility of the requester to seek permission from the holder of the copyright to reproduce material from the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.