MERCHA~T.
WATSON AND GREENLEAF
was the sign over the door of 7 Crane Wharf. taken down, 1792, and amended. And with
WATSON, GREENLEAF AND COTTON
The sign was
on it was over the door refastened. Where is 7 Crane Wharf? It was on East River betwixt Beekman and Peck Slips; Byvanks and Farmer's Wharves were between it and the latter slip. Now beyond these wharves a street and another series of wharves encroach on the river. Mefsrs. Watson and Greenleaf in the fall, 1788, became a firm and began mercantile marine. Mr. Greenleaf at once at Amsterdam took his station to manipulate the foreign connections. Besides in commodities the firm dealt largely in American bonds. Mr. Greenleaf in Holland negotiated loans on the bonds so that only margins were tied up. And besides in a moderate way the firm speculated in lands. In the fall, '793, the firm dissolved. According to Mr. Greenleaf the articles and inventories were exceedingly bulky indicating varied and extended affairs. No mention in the dissolution is made of Mr. Cotton.
During the compilation of the New York city directory of
'795 Mr. Greenleaf resided at 112 Liberty street and Mr.
Watson, 6 State street. Mr. Greenleaf had these neighbors:
Mr. Thomas Law at 47 Broadway; Capt. Wm. M. Duncanson
48 Broad street; James Ray, '34 Greenwich street; and Noah
Webster, 25 Pine street.
LONDON April 6th '794
JAMES GREENLEAF Esq
I have mentioned in my former letters that the establishment of breweries & distilleries upon a large scale in that great grain country could not fail of being vastly advantageous to those who might undertake such with fpirit &
MERcHANT~I46
Capital ;-and I am more and more convinced that I am right in that opinion. But how far the discovering of Sir John Dalrymple with respect to making beer, as stated in my letter to yourself and Mr. D. (if it should turn out to be anything) will effect the present system of brewing, is worth attending to.
Adieu, my dear fir, May you be succefsful-may be happy is the sincere prayer of
Your truly affectionate friend & fervt
TOBIAS LEAR
WASHINGTON BREWERY.
STRONG BEER at 6 dols. TABLE)
do,at 3 dols. Hops, grains and Yeaft, likewife
WHISKEY,
of a ftiperior quality now ready
for fale by
C. CONINGHAM, & Co
Who will give a generous price for
RYE and BARLEY.
City of Washingion, Nov. ~.
In the Waskingto~ Gazdle, 1796, appears the advertisement of Greenleaf's brewery as above. In this plant it is possible Col. Lear and Mr. Dalton were originally concerned.
Greenleaf with Cornelius Coningham under the firm name of Coningham and Company operated a "brewery, distillery and brewhouse "-Washington Brewery. The implements and utensils were the joint property of the partners as was the building. The lot belonged to Greenleaf. The building was of stone, two stories high and located on square 129; now a part of the Potomac flats park.* Greenleaf sold his interest for three thousand dollars to his brother-in-law, John Appleton, May I, '797, subject to the expiration of the partnership. Coningham subsequently moved his kettles to Law's sugar house and brewed there.
John Appleton was both uncle and brother-in-law of Nathaniel Walker Appleton. Green leaf's sister, Priscilla, was his second wife. He was a merchant of Salem. Besides the three thousand
*The first Brewery in the city was established in 1796 by an Englishman named Cornelius Coningham, who afterwards practised medicine and became somewhat known as a physician. The Brewery was erected on the Potomac, where the glass house was afterwards erected and where a wharf called the Commissioners' wharf was previously built.-George watterston's manuscript.
ÿÿåÃ_ _at opinion. 'king beer, to be any
he sincere
LEAR
147-MERCHANT
he invested thirty thousand dollars in Greenleaf lots. He installed his son, John, junior, in Washington to take charge of his purchases. Was reputed a wit. Life dates: born, 1739; died, 1817.
GEORGE TOWN
Oct' 3~at '794 JAMEs GREENLEAF EsQ
N.York
My DEAR SIR,
Accta have been brot up the River that a ship was driven on fhore in the Bay last Sunday & took fire it confumed her to the water, and I am apprehensive, from circumstances that it is the Mary from Newbury Port, with Mr Dalton's furniture & on board and a qty of lime & lumber on acct of the Co-No particulars having yet arrived & and having heard nothing directly on the Subject gives room to hope it is not the Mary, Th' it unfortunately be her, our friend Mr Dalton has informed me that he infured $1500 for the Co & $4GOo for himself, which I hope will nearly cover everything-
'ement ~ssible
name
'tillery ments as the ~ was iow a 'st for ~eton, ship.
sugar
kaniel cond sand
"nelfus
~afcjan.
ed and r5ton's
TOBIAS LEAR
Tobias Lear, Tristram Dalton and James Greenleaf under the firm name of Lear and Company were joint partners in mercantile trade. The firm was engaged in business at the date of Col. Lear's letter. Prior to June 29, 1798, Greenleaf had retired. Its patronage must have been more than local; perhaps it was, or so intended, the supply base of the southern States. The extent of operations is somewhat disclosed by an arrangement to secure creditors and shield themselves, including the retired partner, "from personal arrest and vexation." The arrangement provides for an extension of three years, or until January I, z8oi, and plan of liquidation. It is to Jonathan Hobson of New York, John Coles of New London, and Robert Eaglefield Griffiths of Philadelphia, all merchants, and specifies merchant-creditors and their claims:
Mefsieurs Fludger, Maitland and Company, London
$17,160.03
William and Jan Willink, Amsterdam
13,718.64
~'Milness and Heywood, Wakefield,
'3,355.46
Peel Yates and Company, Manchester,
13,047.29
John Pattison and Company, Glasgow,
2,412.74
John Phillips and Company, Manchester,
I,37~88
Their store and wharf was on Rock Creek at the intersection of G and Twenty-seventh streets. The firm had a block on the Georgetown side bounded by M and Olive, Twenty-seventh and Rock Creek.
ÍÀ_ _MERCHANT- 148
'3
It was at the wharf of Lear and Company the contents of the vessels were unladen and in their stone warehouse a part of the records were stored upon the removal, June, i8oo, of the government from Philadelphia.
The biographical fragments of Col. Lear, if gathered, would make an interesting chapter. He was the protege' of General Lincoln of revolutionary renown, through him, he became the secretary to General Washington. His son, Benjamin Lincoln Lear, was a lawyer with oratorical gift of local celebrity. Col. Lear is the author of O6servah'ons on tke river Polomack, 'he Coufl~ry adjacent, and the City of Washington, 1794. Between Washington and his secretary was unreserved relation; the former to the latter, devised a life estate in the Walnut Tree* farm on the Potomac. Col. Lear was with Washington when he passed away; received his dying directions and administered affectionately the care and comfort he could. Washington gratefully wished : " Well it is a debt we must all pay to each other, and I hope when you want aid of this kind you will find it." But Col. Lear died suddenly October 1!, i8i6. May be censure of diplomatic service played upon his spirit.f
Tristram Dalton:: to attractive appearance and fine figure supplemented character and culture. He was a bon vivant. His hospitality was famous. The celebrities, foreign and homegrown, all that went that way, stopped at Spring Hill, near Newburyport. When Senator at New York he was selected for the social and state occasions. He with Richard Henry Lee and Ralph Izard was the Senate committee to conduct the ceremony of the introduction of his Excellency, George Washington, to the Presidency, the initial inauguration, April 30, 1789. At the President's dinners the "Most Hon." Mr. Dalton and his lady were of the guests. Reduced in means by the mercantile enterprise, and reduced in political prestige, he accepted a city commissionership. Surely once the office was invested with dignity.
*At Station Wellington on the Washington, Alexandria and Mt. Vernon Railway.
f Biographical sketch in the Military and Private Secretaries of George Washington by Mary SIe:,ess Beau-Records of the columbia Historical Society, D. C.
:: Tristram Dalton was born in New bury, Mass. May 28, 1738; died in Boston. Mass. May 30, 1817. Student, Dummer academy, Byfield, Mass. Graduate. Harvard, 1755. Merchant, Newburyport. Representative in Second Provincial Congress. Mass. 1775; delegate for Mass. to con VentiOn of committees of the New England provinces at Providence, R I. Dec.25. 1776; Speaker of the House, and Senator, Mass. legislature; Senator, 1st Congress, April 14, 1789 to March 3, 1791 Commissioner under Sct for establishing permanent seat of government, 1801; posllnaste; Georgetown, 1803; Surveyor of port of Boston, 1815 to death.
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'49-MERcHANT
To President Adams in the House of Representatives, Mr. Dalton presented this address of welcome:*
To THE PRESIDENT OF THB UNITED STATES. SIR,
The inhabitants of the City of Washington rejoice in the opportunity which your presence this day affords them of paying to you their unfeigned respect, and of giving you a welcome to the City, which, by the acts of the Union, has become the Metropolis of the United States.
We have long anticipated this day.-We consider this, your first visit to Columbia, as a high gratification, and look forward, with satisfaction to the period when we shall behold you Sir, opening the Congress in this edifice, the Capitol of our country.
We cannot be insensible to the blessing which Providence has been pleased to bestow in a particular manner, on this situation; in the enjoyment of which, we have the felicity of knowing that our government is on the point of participating.
In offering our gratulations on your arrival we join in wishes that you may spend among us the evening of a long, as you have spent, in other places, the morning of an useful and honorable life.
City of Washingion, June 51h, i8oo.
Mr. Dalton had elegance, education, wealth, ability, honor; and knew
The turnpike road to people's hearts
-hospitality. He made life happier, merrier.
Here is to
Tristram Dalton-the disciple of hospitality!
(August 17, '799.)
DEAR SIR
I shall have fecond rate fish to day for dinner. -and be happy in your taking a Share of it-wishing it of the be£t-If you can, conveniently, spare an hour, Previously, on the fubject we were
discoursing upon yesterday I will be at the Store-otherwise in the Evening as you proposed-Yours truly
T DALTON
J GREENLEAF Esq.Saturday Morng
I
____ I.
Samuel Eliot, junior, was born in Boston, March 8, 1772. He was Greenleaf's nephew; the eldest son of his eldest sister by her elder husband. He came to Washington about the same time Cranch did; was his bookkeeper under the employment of Morris. Then a merchant with Robert Kid of Philadelphia as a firm Kid, Eliot and Co., having its place
*Claypoole's Am~ca,' L)ail~ Advertiser-June 13,1800.
ùÀ_ _MERcHANT-150
of business in the brick store on E street, square 43! lot 12, opposite the Great Hotel, Blodgett's. The firm advertised to sell at Philadelphia prices; its patrons were the choice including the first lady of the land yet insufficient in number; so, on the door, March 23, i8oi, was nailed a sign " To Lett." Eliot assisted Greenleaf as representative of the aggregate fund. He was a member of the Sixth Council, Second Chamber, i8o6. Was Chosen cashier of the Bank of Washington upon its establishment, 1809, and continued to be until June, 1819. In the Capacity of secretary or treasurer he served various corporations. He married Mary Johnson, October 28, i8o6. Owned and occupied the Prospect place, north of the city; and there died, October 17, 1822, survived by widow and four children, Catherine Mary, William Henry, Johnson and Wallace. Prospect place was acquired by the late David Moore and is a part of the subdivision, Bloomingdale.
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