Deane, Charles (10 November 1813–13 November 1886), antiquarian and historian, was born in Biddeford, Maine (then part of Mass.), the son of Ezra Deane, a physician. Charles Deane’s mother (given name unknown) was the daughter of Reverend Silas Moody of Kennebunkport. His father had practiced medicine in several different towns in Maine before settling in Biddeford. There Deane attended the public school and a classical school led by Phineas Pratt. The family intended for him to attend Bowdoin College, but this was prevented by the death of his older brother. He worked in two stores, one in Kennebunkport and one in Saco, before he went to Boston at the age of nineteen....
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Deane, Charles (1813-1886), antiquarian and historian
Samuel Willard Crompton
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Dow, George Francis (1868-1936), antiquarian, editor, and museum curator
Morey Rothberg
Dow, George Francis (07 January 1868–05 June 1936), antiquarian, editor, and museum curator, was born in Wakefield, New Hampshire, the son of George Prince and Ada Bingham Tappan. He grew up in Topsfield, Massachusetts, and lived there most of his life. After attending a commercial school in Boston, Dow entered the wholesale metal business, in which he was engaged from 1885 to 1898. During this time he became increasingly interested in local history and material culture. In 1893 Dow began to publish a local newspaper, the ...
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Drake, Francis Samuel (1828-1885), historian, author, and antiquarian
Robert L. Gale
Drake, Francis Samuel (22 February 1828–22 February 1885), historian, author, and antiquarian, was born in Northwood, New Hampshire, the son of Samuel Gardner Drake and Louisa M. Elmes. His family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where his father became the proprietor of a popular antiquarian bookstore, wrote books concerning American history and Indians and edited other such books. Drake was educated in the Boston public schools, mainly at the Mayhew School, after which he worked in his father’s store and then as an accountant for a Boston company....
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Farmer, John (1789-1838), antiquary and genealogist
Ralph J. Crandall
Farmer, John (12 June 1789–13 August 1838), antiquary and genealogist, was born in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, the son of John Farmer and Lydia Richardson. A sickly youth, he studied under Reverend Hezekiah Packard and clerked for five years (1805–1810) in a store at Amherst, New Hampshire. From 1810 to 1813 he taught school and was the leading supporter of a literary association for mutual improvement in Amherst. In 1813 he was elected a corresponding member of the Massachusetts Historical Society and became a contributor to its ...
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Grim, David (1737-1826), tavern keeper, merchant, and antiquarian
Philander D. Chase
Grim, David (28 August 1737–26 March 1826), tavern keeper, merchant, and antiquarian, was born in Stauderheim in the Palatinate, the son of Philip Grimm, a tanner and farmer, and Marguerite Dâher. He and his brothers Peter and Jacob dropped the second m from the family name. Grim immigrated to New York City with his parents and four older siblings in 1739. When Grim was about twelve, a painful lameness in his right leg, which he attributed to rheumatism, threw a hip out of joint and left him with one leg shorter than the other. He nevertheless served aboard two privateers during the French and Indian War. In the summer of 1757 he sailed under Captain Thomas Seymour on the ...
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Gunther, Charles Frederick (1837-1920), Chicago confectioner, politician, and antiquarian collector
Nancy Buenger
Gunther, Charles Frederick (06 March 1837–10 February 1920), Chicago confectioner, politician, and antiquarian collector, was born Carl Friedrich Guenther in Wildberg, Wurttemberg, Germany, the son of Marie and Johann Martin Guenther, a candle and soap maker. The family immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1842, and at age ten Gunther began work as a government mail carrier, traveling forty miles daily by horseback. In 1850 they resettled in Peru, Illinois, an important ice harvesting center on the canal linking Chicago with the Mississippi watershed. Gunther found work as a cashier in a bank, where he came in contact with many of the merchants who shipped 100,000 tons of ice down the southern rivers during prosperous years....
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Gunther, Charles Frederick (1837-1920)
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Charles Frederick Gunther. Courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society (IChi-10584).
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Hazard, Samuel (1784-1870), historical editor and antiquarian
Roland M. Baumann
Hazard, Samuel (26 May 1784–22 May 1870), historical editor and antiquarian, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Ebenezer Hazard, then postmaster general of the United States, and Abigail Arthur. He received his early education at the Second Presbyterian Church school in Philadelphia and, from 1793 to 1796, at an academy in Woodbury, New Jersey. He then spent two years at Princeton College but left in 1799 because of illness. Like his father, Hazard became a merchant and an editor of historical records. He took his apprenticeship in the prominent Philadelphia countinghouse of Robert Ralston, a family friend and a fellow “Old Light” Presbyterian. As a young man Hazard was involved in the formation of the American Literary Association in 1805 and the Phoenix Social Club in 1809. He also became a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in 1812 and the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture in 1814....
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Jordan, John Woolf (1840-1921), editor and antiquary
Martin J. Manning
Jordan, John Woolf (14 September 1840–11 June 1921), editor and antiquary, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Francis Jordan, a grocery and chemical merchant, and Emily Woolf. His uncle, John Jordan, a Philadelphia antiquarian and an active member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, was an important influence on his nephew’s life and career. Jordan was educated in Philadelphia private schools and then at Nazareth Hall Military Academy near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1856 and went to work with his father in the family business. When Pennsylvania was invaded by the Confederate army in 1863, Jordan served as quartermaster sergeant in Starr’s Battery, Thirty-second Regular Pennsylvania Militia. After his military service he married Ann Page in 1883; they had three children. He became assistant librarian of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1885 under Frederick D. Stone, first editor of the society’s quarterly, ...
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Sachse, Julius Friedrich (1842-1919), antiquarian, historian, and photographer
Donald F. Durnbaugh
Sachse, Julius Friedrich (22 November 1842–14 November 1919), antiquarian, historian, and photographer, was born in Philadelphia, the son of Johann Heinrich Friedrich Sachse, an artist and designer, and Julianna D. W. Bühler. Julius F. Sachse attended public schools and the Lutheran Academy but had no university education; he was largely a self-educated man. Sachse’s early business career was as a merchant of men’s clothing accessories and a manufacturer of men’s silk shirts. His achievements in shirtmaking were recognized at international trade fairs....
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Whitmore, William Henry (1836-1900), antiquary, Boston historian, and genealogist
Ralph Crandall
Whitmore, William Henry (06 September 1836–14 June 1900), antiquary, Boston historian, and genealogist, was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, the son of Charles Octavius Whitmore, a businessman, and Lovice Ayers. Whitmore studied at the Boston Latin and English High Schools. He then joined C. O. Whitman and Sons, his father’s commission merchant business....
