US Salem MA 18 NOV 1853 to Canton Mills ME. 3c PAID in cash (1851 rate). Red Salem Mass NOV 18 3 PAID integral-rate CDS, red PAID. Stampless Env, embossed Holyoke Mutual Fire Insurance Co. corner card. Treasurer to John M. Deshon. Premium note assessment.

Summary

• Date sent: 18 November 1853 (from the postmark; the letter is dated 17 November 1853)
• Country of origin: United States
• Sent from: Salem, Massachusetts (Essex County)
• Sent to: Canton Mills, Maine (Oxford County)
• Distance: about 140 miles in a straight line, roughly 170 miles by rail and road
• Philatelic details:
  • Red circular datestamp “SALEM MASS NOV 18 3 PAID,” with the rate built into the postmark (an integral-rate CDS).
  • Red straightline “PAID.”
  • The 3-cent rate for a prepaid single letter under 3,000 miles (1851 rate), paid in cash.
  • Embossed corner card on the front and back flap: “HOLYOKE M. FIRE INS. CO. SALEM MASS INC. 1843.” Smaller embossed lines list the classes of property insured, including first-class dwellings and second-class houses and contents. They are partly illegible.
  • Manuscript “Ch Box 50” (reading tentative) at the lower left, probably an office or filing note.
  • Embossed stationer’s mark on the letter sheet.
  • Stampless Env, with the original letter enclosed.
• Sender: the Treasurer of the Holyoke Mutual Fire Insurance Company, Salem. The signature is not fully legible; it begins with “A.” and ends “Treas.”
• Receiver: John M. Deshon Esquire of Canton Mills, Maine, a policyholder of the company.
• Historical interest:
  • The Holyoke Mutual Fire Insurance Company was founded at Salem in 1843 and was named after Dr. Edward Augustus Holyoke, Salem’s famous physician, who lived to be 100. It became one of the longest-lasting Salem insurance companies.
  • In a mutual fire insurance company, each policyholder signed a “premium note” promising to pay a share of the company’s losses. The company then collected periodic “assessments” against those notes. The letter shows this system at work: Deshon’s assessment of $5.85 should have been reduced by an overpayment of $2.75 made in April 1852.
  • The treasurer explains that the error happened because the company’s “note book” had been recopied since then, and the note of the overpayment was left out. This is an unusual glimpse of clerical record-keeping in an 1850s office.
  • It also shows that a Salem company insured property as far away as rural Maine.
• Genealogical interest: The letter places John M. Deshon at Canton Mills, Maine, in November 1853, as a property owner insured by a Salem company.

Transcription

Abbreviations are written out, and uncertain readings are marked.

Inside letter:

J. M. Deshon Esquire
Dear Sir
You were right as to the $2.75 to be deducted from the $5.85. The deduction would have been made but since your payment in April 1852 the note book has been copied & the minute made on the original book of the overpayment of $2.75 was not copied & therefore I did not observe the fact when making the assessment.

Yours Respectfully
A. ... Treasurer (surname not legible)

Salem Nov. 17/53

Front of Env:

PAID
John M. Deshon Esquire
Canton Mills
Maine
Ch Box 50 (reading tentative)

Embossed corner card:

HOLYOKE M. FIRE INS. CO.
SALEM MASS
INC. 1843
(smaller lines naming the classes of property insured, partly illegible)

Notes on terms:

• “Minute” means a written note or record.
• “Assessment” was the share of losses charged to each member of a mutual insurance company.