CAPT. GEORGE H. STARR, 104TH NY VOLUNTEERS was 22 years old when he enlisted

on 11/23/'61 at Geneseo, NY as a private. He rose through the ranks, being promoted to Sergeant in Nov. of '1, to 2nd Lieut. in March of '62, and to Captain in Sept. of '62.

He was taken prisoner at GETTYSBURG and confined at Libby Prison in Richmond from which he escaped on 2/9/'64. He was recaptured and confined at Macon, GA, from which he escaped in 8/'64 and was again recaptured and confined at Camp Sorghum, Columbia, SC. He escaped for the 3rd time in Oct. of 1864. This time he was able to make his way to Union lines.

"THE SUREST WAY TO GET YOUR SON (CAPT. STARR) EXCHANGED..." (2 LETTERS) The first is dated March 20, 1864, from the Capt. Starr Archive written by Dr. Theodore Dimon, Exchange Agent for the State of NY stationed in Norfolk, VA. No addressee, but obviously to Fred'k. Starr, Capt. Starr's father, who left no stone unturned in trying to get his son released from Rebel prisons. Excellent Content.

"Dear Sir:

The surest way to get your son, the Captain, exchanged is for you to write to Gov. Seward, asking him to obtain an order from the Sec'y. of War directed to Gen'l. Butler, that Capt. Starr be exchanged for a Confederate Officer of equal rank if such an exchange can be obtained.

Your claim is, in addition to the ordinary, that your son did his best to save paying a Confederate prisoner for him and that such enterprise is not to be discouraged, especially when the consequences of failure is he increased severity towards him.

I suggest you should make the application to Gov. Seward for 2 reasons: He knows your son from Dr. Mills' son-in-law and would be pleased to have, not only you and your relatives know that he would favor them, but he would also be pleased to do any kindness to the friends of the venerable old Dr. Mills who stood at the Governor's gate to give him a neighbor's Christian and honorable old servant of God's welcome and assurance of his indignation at the injustice to the Governor when he returned from Europe in 1860 at the malice of political opponents during his absence from his home.

The Governor never forgets such things. The 2nd reason is that it is more pleasant to anyone to confer a favor directly than through 2nd parties.

However, if you prefer it, I will write to Gov. Seward and ask for you what I know he will be gratified to know to do for you. I am personally well known to Gov. Seward, and he has never refused me a favor that I have asked, nor have any of his generous blood relatives.

I only suggest your own application instead of mine to give the Governor the increased pleasure of doing directly for you what you desire and of doing it in so every way a proper case.

Respectfully, Your Obt. Serv't.

Theodore Dimon Agt. S.N.Y."

COMES WITH LETTER FROM CAPT. J.R. SHAFFER (BUTLER'S ADC) from the Office Commissioner for Exchange on March 17, 1864. Letter is addressed to Mr. Frederick Starr and reads:

"Sir:

The Commanding general directs me to inform you, in answer to your letter of the 12th inst. that your son's name will be submitted to Major Mulford in charge of Flag of Truce, and if any special agreement can be made with the Confederate authorities in regards to him, it will be cheerfully done.

I am, Sir,

Very Respectfully, Your Obd't. Servant

J.R. Shaffer Capt. And A.D.C."  Excellent condition. 

$195

Extraordinary autograph letter of content, 3pp, 9" x 11", regarding the infamous Pine Barrens Scandal, an incredible land swindle carried on by Georgia state government officials and legislators. Attorney and land agent William Primrose, whose work is documented in a book (see research below), writes to James Dundas of Philadelphia on March 28th, 1839, Savannah, Georgia, integral address leaf addressed to Dundas with red Savanah postmark. Folds reinforced with archival tape. Paragraph designation added, punctuation corrected.

In this letter, Primrose talks of threats, death and destruction and the need for President Martin Van Buren to call out the Army to protect process servers who are trying to restore land to its proper owners. Primrose's involvement is detailed in "Georgia Land Surveying History & Law" by Farris W. Cadle. He was ultimately run out of town. Here's some background on the scandal.

From the early days of America -- 1789 to 1796 -- Georgia governors George Walton, Edward Telfair and George Mathews, while in office made gifts of land grants covering more than three times as much land as Georgia then contained -- 29,097,866 acres in counties that consisted of only 8,717,960 acres.

In 1794, four new companies: the Georgia Company, the Georgia-Mississippi Company, the Upper Mississippi Company, and the new Tennessee Company, persuaded the Georgia state assembly to sell more than 40,000,000 acres of land for $500,000. Many Georgia officials and legislators were to be stockholders in these companies. On January 7, 1795, Governor George Mathews signed into law a bill authorizing the sale of the 40,000,000 acres, known as the Yazoo Act.

When the details were revealed, public outrage was widespread, and people protested to the U.S. capital. Jared Irwin and U.S. Senator James Jackson led the reform efforts: Irwin was elected Governor of Georgia and, less than two months after taking office, signed a bill on February 13, 1796 nullifying the Yazoo Act. The state burned all copies of the bill except for one that had been sent to President George Washington. Jackson resigned as Senator to run for office as next Governor of Georgia. He was elected and took office two years later.

But the matter was not over. The state refunded money to persons who had purchased land, but some refused the money, preferring to keep the land. The state did not recognize their claims, and the matter was to wind through courts for the next decade. However, in 1803 the state ceded to the U.S. all claim to lands west of its present border, along with the legal disputes.

The matter reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1810. In the landmark Fletcher v. Peck decision, one of the first times the Court overturned a state law, the Court ruled that the land sales were binding contracts and could not be retroactively invalidated by the state by passage of superseding law.

During the same period, in what was called the Pine Barrens speculation, the governors and legislature made overlapping land grants, effectively granting three times more land than existed in the state. Although land grants were supposed to be limited to 1,000 acres per individual, the state awarded multiple grants of 1,000 acres to certain persons. Some historians have given up on trying to unravel the complicated scandal.

As mentioned above, the involvement of Primrose, the author of this letter, is detailed in "Georgia Land Surveying History & Law." Author Farris W. Cadle writes: "One of the more determined efforts at establishing actual claims to grants growing out of the Pine Barrens Fraud came in the late 1830s. Certain Philadelphia magnates who held large blocks of the grants and owned stock in companies that held such grants sent William Primrose south to 'recover' the lands from the 'squatters' who occupied them. Primrose spent a year and a half in Georgia compiling a substantial array of title abstracts, information and retaining John M. Berrier, former attorney general of the United States, to prosecute the claims. These actions aroused considerable excitement among local settlers. A battle of letters raged in the newspapers for several weeks. Public meetings were held in which the inhabitants denounced Primrose and threatened to wage 'war' on his sponsors if necessary to protect their titles. Berrier withdrew and Primrose was run out of the state. Nearly twenty years later, Primrose's sponsors attempted to have the sheriff of Bulloch County to serve a writ of mandamus on the clerk and compel him to record certain of the land grants. Riots broke out and, rather than comply with the order, both the sheriff and the clerk resigned. The courthouse door was nailed shut to prevent anyone from going inside to record the documents. Ultimately, the legislature passed an act prohibiting clerks of the superior courts from recording deeds from the 'Primrose Grants' or any other 'such grant.'"

Now for the Primrose letter offered here. "...The writs altho issued have not been served, the Marshals have been repulsed, the settlers are up in arms and threaten death and destruction to all who may go on the ground. I looked for abusive treatment from some, but had no anticipation of the formidable resistance that has been made to the officers of the United States in the discharge of their official duties. The question will now be to test the supremacy of the Laws which I have no doubt will ultimately prevail. I shall not wonder if some blood be shed in the first instance, there are a few principal movers in this business, who themselves stand behind the curtain who are largely interested by speculating on these lands and are too unprincipled...

"They have gone about privately excited public feeling to a pitted against to that on the North Eastern Boundary & it has hitherto baffled every effort of mine to make the ignorant understand what is their real situation. At this moment no man of them would stand to be reasoned with, that this excitement will be followed by a reaction I have no doubt but the strong arm of the Law will first have to exert its diplomacy. This can only be done legally by the marshals establishing the fact of their being resisted at the May court. The Judges will then apply to the President, who will direct the Governor of Georgia to protect the United States Officers in the discharge of their duties. Should he refuse, (which is not likely), then the President will be requested to order out a suitable number of the U.S. Army. Matters may not go all this length but it is certain we cannot get through or even a beginning without the aid of the government...

"Some think the government will take up the matter in behalf of citizens & try to affect a Compromise. This would be the best & most desirable for both parties. The claims I represent united with the North American Land Company are over five million acres or one sixth part of the state. It is therefore a matter not unworthy the attention of the government. Indeed it will be impossible to settle but under the power or through the influence of the government. My council says that the nature & extent of these claims are without precedent in this state and these will of course be uncommon difficulties to combat but they think they are not insurmountable and are using all exertions to place the matter so that we may avail ourselves of the aid of the government.

I have secured certified copies of all documents relating to the several claims as well as those of the North American Land Company in the offices of the middle & lower counties of the state and am about proceeding to the Up[per] counties, Franklin, etc., to do the same thing. I am a little apprehensive that the settlers may burn some of these offices. If they could have destroyed one claim, they would have done so already.

It will be unnecessary for your title paper to be here in May, for even if we shall succeed in serving the writs, there can be no trial had at the next court. It will be time enough for me to get them when I come North in September next.

"The deed from George Simpson to Henry Pratt & others is not recorded but I have superseded the necessity of its production by laying to dismiss in the declaration first...

"I have got Mr. Thomas, the Surveyor, who I employed last season. He is a man of high character & an extraordinary degree of moral carings. We have been out several weeks & are going out once more to attempt to reason with the people on the folly of their proceedings & we are trying every means to get a few men to accompany the marshal & if we do not accomplish service of the writs, which I fear we shall not, we will at least be able more affectively to prove the resistance & if possible try to fix the opposition upon some leading character that we may be able to bind over to the keep the peace.

"Mr. Thomas is the only man I have yet got that has stood firmly by me or who is of sufficient nerve to superintendent of the surveys of those lands...I think he will execute the duties required or die in the attempt...

"My situation & the circumstances in which I am placed bringing me in cohesion with the feelings of the whole community is by no means desirable. Moreover the numerous threats that have been made by letters, a sample of which I sent you of this date, render prudence & caution necessary but the Trustees may rest assured that I will not fail in my duty to the best of my ability. So long as I continue their agent, these demonstrations do not alarm me, but convince me of the utter hopelessness of any legal design that the settlers have or can set up & therefore I am encouraged to pursue my course with firmness and judgment, feeling assured that we must prevail...William Primrose"

$295

Pine Barrens Land Fraud 

51 years after it was founded by John Allison and just a little more than a quarter of a century before the beginning of the Civil War, which he adamantly supported, contributing $500 for the raising of troops in Franklin County. In 1833, he purchased an interest in the general store of Stonebreaker & Miller, located at the northeast corner of the public square in Greencastle. He was an ardent abolitionist, a Whig turned Republican and one of the incorporators and directors of the Greencastle-Mercersburg Turnpike. As a delegate to the 1856 Republican Convention, he helped nominate John C. Freemont for President. John Brown, the radical abolitionist, was also present.

Zieger was named President (for a day-August 4th, 1885) for the unveiling of a monument over the grave of Enoch Brown and ten scholars, who were slaughtered by Indians. Here's a brief sample speech (also included with this lot): "On the 26th day of July, A.D. 1764, a small squad of hostile and treacherous Indians made their appearance upon these grounds, and with revenge and murder in their hearts, they stealthily stole their way to the southeastern declivity of this hill, where then stood an humble pioneer school house, occupied by teacher Enoch Brown and eleven of his scholars...They fiercely rushed in, and with glaring eyes and upraised bludgeons...they at once commenced to slaughter the master and children and in cold blood massacred the whole school..."

Ziegler's portrait, painted by well known portrait artist William D. Lechler, hangs in the Allison-Antrim Museum. (An internet print of the portrait along with research is included in this lot.)

In 1842, Ziegler married Catharine Fatzinger. The couple had three children. When Confederate troops crossed the Mason-Dixon Line, just five miles south of Greencastle, Ziegler sent his only daughter, Maria, to Philadelphia for safety. While there, she contracted pneumonia and died at age 17.

His son, George Frederick, started college but left to serve in the Civil War, Company K, 126th PA Volunteer Infantry. The 126th arrived too late to participate in the Battle of Antietam, but while encamped near the battlefield in the weeks afterward, the regiment received its regimental flags and was reviewed by President Abraham Lincoln. The regiment's first battle came three months later at Fredericksburg, where it lost 27, saw 50 wounded, and 3 missing. Following the battle, the 126th served as part of the rearguard while the rest of the Army retreated across the river. The regiment also fought at the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863. On May 3rd, the regiment was moved to the right flank, where it came under attack. After two hours of fighting and subsequently running out of ammunition, the 126th was forced to retreat to the protection of artillery. Its losses were 9 killed, 49 wounded, and 11 captured.

Upon discharge, George Frederick resumed his education and graduated from Amherst College and Princeton Theological Seminary.

Offered here is an archive of four letters, 61 pp, from George W. to his son, George F., who was traveling abroad. Letters three and four contain extraordinary content on the Reconstruction era, regarding passage of the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Negro voting and white prejudice, President Grant and radical abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner. Ziegler's advice to his son is laced with his political knowledge and opinions while providing ample discussion of local events in Greencastle. Here is a sampling:

1) June 12th, 1870, Greencastle, 8" x 5 �", 20 pp: In small part, "...It must be rather warm in Rome...for these priests and bishops who are attending the Ecumenical Counsel...It would seem that the Counsel was about declaring Pope Pius infallible. The decree, in my opinion, will utterly fail to sub serve the end it is intended to accomplish and instead of increasing the Pope's power and influence of the Catholic Church-will weaken and diminish them. The evident intent and design of the Pope is not only the destruction of religious freedom and tolerance-but the utter...annihilation of civil liberty...Pope Pius-his cardinals, bishops and priests-will be about as successful in establishing his supremacy in Church and state as Jeff Davis and his followers were extending human slavery...Cousin Maggie & Col. B.F. Winger were married last Thursday. (Winger entered the military service in August 1862 as First Lieutenant in the second Regiment of Pennsylvania Artillery. After the war, he engaged in business and politics. After Lee's surrender, Col. Winger was commandant of the city of Petersburg and of several military sub-districts, an evidence of the consideration in which he was held by his superiors.) Much more about the wedding, the bride and groom's clothing, the carriage ride.

2) July 3rd, 1870, Greencastle, 8" x 5 �", 19 pp: "This day seven years ago, the great conflict, between freedom and slavery on the battlefield of Gettysburg was virtually decided in the glorious triumph of Meade and Lee-and...Gettysburg like the famous battlefield of Belgium to which you are about to make a pilgrimage...I was glad to hear that you were going to Waterloo for I knew you will be greatly interested - engaging on the spot where the lines of Europe for a century at least were decided between Napoleon & Wellington, the field where the greatest Captain of the world was defeated, could not fail to be a history in itself to you...Buchanan, Senle and Saunders rendered themselves infamous at the first while John Q. Adams, Clay, Bayard...did themselves and their country at the latter..." Referring to a neighbor: "...He is now happy and content as the day is long-was at church this morning...is no Republican, don't like Negroes... but says he is no party man and does not like either of them. Aunt Cassie would like to convert him to Republicanism but hardly succeeded..."

3) October 13th, 1870, Greencastle, 8" x 5 �", 7pp: "...Well the Election is over and everything passed...There was no disturbance at the polls and the dusky 15th Amendment (which prohibits the government from denying citizens the right to vote because of race or color; the amendment, passed as part of the reconstruction effort after the Civil War but was thought of as inadequate as many citizens weren't allowed to vote because of their race and color.) Voters were all permitted to put their votes into the ballot box without hindrances...All that were cast went in solid Republican. The only bitter word I heard uttered concerning the colored voters during the day was as I walked with Col. Lewis to polls was by some hard talking...democrat who stepped up very imprudently-and with a series of oaths and vulgar expressions exclaimed - 'I want to see him add Nigger votes - If he lives to be an old man and continues to attend the polls, he will have a chance to enjoy the same sight from year to year for the balance of his life...I am glad & thankful that I have been around to see this day when the Negro has been permitted to exercise the political right - which I, in my humble way - have earnestly...struggled to confer upon him for at least thirty years of my life...We have a good many weak kneed Republicans lauding Negro equality of political rights who, on that account, remained at home...The 15th Amendment [is] a fixed Constitutional fact and a White Man's Party will soon become a Myth. Our colored people behaved themselves admirably on Election Day. They [were] quite sober. I did not see a drunken man among them on the street and I am glad it was so. It will have a good affect..."

4) December 25th, 1870, Greencastle, 8" x 5 �", 15 pp: "...The French in their day have been great vandals and the nation is suffering no doubt for its part in misdeeds. Still I am for the Republic and wish her success. I feel for her as the enthusiastic line in the old ballad did-guard the beautiful but guilty Maiden-'I ask not I can if guilt in thy heart, I know that I love thee, whatever thou art.' It seems almost miraculous that France-after the loss of her...army...and the 170,000 soldiers captured as prisoners at the surrounding Metz that France could...open her soil. This must be attributable to the spirit of Republicanism-I cannot otherwise account for the...resistance of the people...I agree with you on all you say of Gen. Butler. He is unquestionably a demagogue and a dangerous leader. The idea of going to war to give new life and vitality to party is, in my opinion, an atrocious crime and Butler would do it if he had the power...General Grant, in my opinion, has but little sympathy with Butler...You remember the stigma cast on Butler by Grant in his general report of the war after being made Lieut. General. He will not play into Butler's hands. (Regarded by many as an unprincipled demagogue of great ability, Butler aroused intense antagonisms and was nearly always in controversy.)...He (Grant) seems [determined] as you will see on the acquisition of Santo Domingo. Sumner made a hotbed speech in the senate a few days ago (Charles Sumner was an avid abolitionist.) against the course of Grant on this subject and they now stand in direct antagonism against each other. Sumner and (Carl) Schurz - I think are looking...to form a New Party or mean to make an effort to remodel the Democratic Party and modify its crude or perhaps desire and mean to make General Grant an impossible candidate for reelection."

(One of Grant's failed initiatives in foreign policy involved the Caribbean nation of Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic). Santo Domingo had a suitable bay for the U.S. Navy to house operations. Grant was interested in having the United States annex the country. The President was also interested in the island nation because it presented black Americans with an alternative to staying in the South and facing discrimination and violence. He believed that blacks would be in a better position to negotiate with Southern whites about improving working conditions if they could choose to leave the South and immigrate to Santo Domingo.)

$175   

Abolitionist George Ziegler 

Colonial New York. Title: South West View of Fort George with the City of New York. Wonderful period engraving, 5 �" high x 8 �" wide, uncolored. Even toning, but very good condition for its age, c. 1778. Matted and framed. A great view of New York from the southwest, focusing on one of the most venerable forts in the northeast colonies. Fort George was located on the site originally occupied by Fort Amsterdam, erected by the Dutch West India Company in 1625-26 as the administrative and military hub for their New Netherlands colony. The Fort changed hands twice between 1664 and 1674, but from then on was held by the British until they surrendered New York at the end of the Revolution. The Americans demolished it in 1788 and used its rubble for landfill that became Battery Park.

This view is based on the A view of Fort George with the City of New York from the SW, drawn by John Carwitham and issued by Carington Bowles some time after 1764. Stokes and Haskell write of this prototype that it is "the earliest view of the city from the west" and "one of the most important, interesting, and sought-after prints of old New York, and rare in all states." They argue that "the date depicted by the view is between 1724, when Trinity Church was extended to the eastward, which enlargement distinctly shows in the view, and March, 1741, when the church in the Fort, which also appears, was destroyed by fire."

The engraving has no information regarding the engraver, publisher or work in which it was issued, but Stokes', in his Iconography, refers to "a very good reduction, with slight variations, engraved on copper, 8 3/8 x 5 5/8 inches, ... in Russel[l]'s History of America, London, 1779 [but actually 1778]." (Vol. I p. 269)

References: Stokes, Iconography of Manhattan Island, vol. I p. 269. Shadwell, American Printmaking: The First 150 Years, #29; Stokes and Haskell, American Historical Prints, p. 13; and Stokes, Iconography, pp. 267-269 all describe the Carwitham-Bowles prototype. No edition listed in Cresswell, The American Revolution in Drawings and Prints.

$995

become the ship's last survivor. She was only nine weeks old when the Titanic hit an iceberg in waters off Newfoundland on the night of April 4, 1912, setting off what was then considered the greatest maritime disaster in history.

As an infant passenger, she was lowered into a lifeboat in a canvas mail sack.

5"x3" card signed and inscribed in black felt pen, "To Serena, with best wishes from Millvina Dean, Youngest Titanic Survivor." Comes with an internet print of Ms. Dean.

$95

contemporary American literature. He was a leading member of the "Beat Movement" and helped lead the revolt against "academic poetry" and the cultural and political establishment of the mid-20th century.

As a student at Columbia University in New York in the 1950s, he fell in with rebel writers such as Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. Ginsberg traveled to San Francisco, where his 1955 public reading of his ground-breaking poem "Howl," a denunciation of the failings of American society, became the most famous poem of the Beat movement.

During the 1960s Ginsberg became one of the more prominent figures in the American anti-war movement; he joined love-ins, took LSD, and generally grabbed every opportunity to harass the authorities. Still, his anger and rebellion were perceived as generally good natured, and in 1974 he won the National Book Award for "The Fall of America: Poems of These States, 1965-1971."

In his later years he served as a kind of Grand Old Man of pop counter-culture, even appearing in a video for MTV in 1996.

Ginsberg signs on a postcard requesting his autograph. He adds his "daisy" and the date "May 3, 1971." Excellent condition. Much more attractive the scan shows.

$85

Allen Ginsberg 

William Farnum was born in Boston on July 4, 1876 and died in Hollywood on June 5, 1953. Farnum became a major movie actor, having grown up in a family of actors. He made his acting debut at age ten in a production of Julius Caesar with Edwin Booth playing the title character. "Ben-Hur" was his first major success in 1900. His later plays included The Prince of India, The White Sister, The Littlest Rebel.

From 1915 to 1925, Farnum devoted his life to motion pictures. When becoming one of the biggest sensations in Hollywood, he also became one of the highest-paid actors, earning $10,000 a week. Farnum's silent pictures the western Drag Harlan (1920) and the drama-adventure If I Were King (1921) survive from his years contracted to Fox Films.

Farnum has a "Star" on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

8" x 10" sepia toned, full-length autographed in blue ink photograph of Farnum in Cowboy outfit on card stock with Witzel Photographer studio stamp. Erosion to the "S" in Sincerely and light erosion to the "W" in William. Soiling on verso and in the border and a small chip in the top right border. Still a great period photograph and would frame beautifully.

$49.95

Actor William Farnum 

Cammie King was born in 1934. As a child star, she is best remembered for her role as

Bonnie Blue Butler in the classic 1939 movie "Gone with the Wind." She was also the voice of Faline in the 1942 Disney cartoon "Bambi." 8" x 10" reproduction photo from "Gone with the Wind," signed in blue sharpie, Cammie King "Bonnie Blue." Photo is a little grainy, which often happens during production; otherwise, excellent condition.

$75

Actress Cammie King