Pigue, Manier, Hall & Co., Nashville TN 1874

Here's a neat piece of business ephemera from Nashville, TN dated Dec. 2, 1874, from the Office of Pigue, Manier, Hall & Co."  A quick search told me that they were "manufacturer's and wholesale dealers of boots and shoes.  The search also produced an introducing result from "The People's Paper" of Huntingdon, Tennessee dated September 1, 1874:  "John C. Ezzell with Pigue, Manier, Hall, & Co. manufacturers and wholesale dealers in boots and shoes."

Being no stranger to the Ezzell name since Fannie Moran married James B. Ezzell, I immediately checked the family tree and found a John Chambers Ezzell. If my research is correct he was the son of Benjamin Gilbert Ezzell and Elizabeth Jetta Allen.  Benjamin G. Ezzell was a brother of Mason Ezzell, the father of James Ezzell making John C. and James B. first cousins.  It's just supposition on my part but it seems very possible that it's the same John C. Ezzell.

Dresden Dry Goods

After he served in the U.S. Civil War but before he was a bank president, J.W. Moran was busy selling goods to save up enough money to open his own business in Dresden, TN.  Going through the paperwork I've found purchase after purchase where he was buying goods to stock his store which was called Dresden Dry Goods.  He was purchasing from a variety of cities including Nashville, Cincinnati, Louisville, Philadelphia, and New York.  I'll be posting more of these documents but for now here are two I pulled at random from one of the boxes.

J. & S.B. Sachs were boot and shoe sellers out of Cincinnati, Ohio.  Per The Northeastern Reporter "the firm of J. & S.B. Sachs failed, and made a voluntary assignment of all their assets for the benefit of their creditors, and ceased to do business thereafter". 

In a book about Prominent Kentuckians author Benjamin LaBree has this to say about Josiah Baker Gathright: "In the Civil War (he) commanded company of cavalry under Gen. Morgan.  Was for a time on the Mall" and as quartermaster organized factories and re-quipped the command after the disastrous Ohio raid. After the Civil War, in 1866, Mr. Gathright founded the saddlery and harness business of J.B. Gathright in Louisville, and later took in John J. Harbison under firm name of Harbison & Gathright". Below is a receipt dated Oct 6, 1880 to J.W. Moran from Harbison & Gathright for payment received.