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Silver Dollars in circulation: a little family history (a bit long)
nwcoast
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The cousins from my fathers side of the family had a gathering a few months ago on the east coast.
Since it had been many years since we'd seen each other, we had a lot of family history and photos we were interested in sharing. Additionally, we were hoping to clarify some chapters in our parents lives that were vague or in question.
I've been wanting to share this story here for awhile though I haven't gotten around to it until now. It does relate to coin collecting as well!
Though I've lived on the west coast most of my life, I was born back east.
Without going into too much detail, I'll try to keep this short and to the point.
For the most part, my great grandparents came to Quebec from France and Wales. The story of how they traded their farm for some land in Canada is hard to imagine. They were swindled out of their farm near the French coast with some fast talking sales and the promise of an easier life with rich fertile soil in Quebec.
Arriving there,with little more than the clothes on their backs and after a long steamship passage, with several children, they discovered, to their dismay, that the land was rocky and heavily wooded, not the paradise they'd been promised. Being determined and hardworking as they were, they set about to clearing the land and trying to make the best of it. After several months of clearing the timber and working the land, they were greeted by a visitor, thrilled and full of praise for their hard work- in their clearing of HIS land!
Homeless, and close to broke, the family called on distant relatives that were living and working in some Textile Mills down in New England. They were invited to come join this branch of the family and to live and work in the Mill Village.
My Great Grandfather fell boarding the train to Connecticut, lost his leg and died a few days later.
I'll spare sharing this story, though very interesting, as it's beyond the scope of this telling.
The large family made the journey to New England and went about living and working in the Mill Village.
This was before child labor laws and the entire family (children and the elderly) worked long hours and six days per week in the factories. The rivers that the factories were build near flowed in the color of the dyes they were using on any given day.
Living conditions were more like something one would read in a Dickens novel than many of us are accustomed to in more prosperous times and places. The brick buildings were unheated, had no toilets, and the chamber pots were used to fertilize the seasonal vegetable garden that the residents shared.
My father (born 1918) and his brothers were born into this hard life. My grandfather, being good in math and business, eventually worked his way up managing the payroll for the Mill Village. My Grandfather ran afoul of the local church when he pulled my father and his brothers out of the factory to attend high school. The Church had a stake in the factory and from my understanding, the rift led to my grandfather eventually breaking away from this Church and any future attendance.
I came to find out that my Grandfather made a significant effort to pay wages to the Mill Village workers in Silver Dollars!
He did this, though it wasn't commonplace at the time, so the local businesses would 'know' where the money was coming from- the money that was being spent in the local establishments.
I came to find out that he was a coin collector as well, though he seems to have only collected from circulation. One of my cousins aquired his Silver Dollar collection and said it was of little value. I aquired a partially filled book of Barber Dimes, most AG to G.
Though my father and his brothers worked their way through college, and in the case of my Dad- Medical School, I come from a family of very modest means.
I've often wondered just how those Silver dollars came to the heavily worn condition some have arrived at. And here's just one example.
(Typed on an i-pad, in the Summer breeze- without spell checking- please forgive the errors)
Since it had been many years since we'd seen each other, we had a lot of family history and photos we were interested in sharing. Additionally, we were hoping to clarify some chapters in our parents lives that were vague or in question.
I've been wanting to share this story here for awhile though I haven't gotten around to it until now. It does relate to coin collecting as well!
Though I've lived on the west coast most of my life, I was born back east.
Without going into too much detail, I'll try to keep this short and to the point.
For the most part, my great grandparents came to Quebec from France and Wales. The story of how they traded their farm for some land in Canada is hard to imagine. They were swindled out of their farm near the French coast with some fast talking sales and the promise of an easier life with rich fertile soil in Quebec.
Arriving there,with little more than the clothes on their backs and after a long steamship passage, with several children, they discovered, to their dismay, that the land was rocky and heavily wooded, not the paradise they'd been promised. Being determined and hardworking as they were, they set about to clearing the land and trying to make the best of it. After several months of clearing the timber and working the land, they were greeted by a visitor, thrilled and full of praise for their hard work- in their clearing of HIS land!
Homeless, and close to broke, the family called on distant relatives that were living and working in some Textile Mills down in New England. They were invited to come join this branch of the family and to live and work in the Mill Village.
My Great Grandfather fell boarding the train to Connecticut, lost his leg and died a few days later.
I'll spare sharing this story, though very interesting, as it's beyond the scope of this telling.
The large family made the journey to New England and went about living and working in the Mill Village.
This was before child labor laws and the entire family (children and the elderly) worked long hours and six days per week in the factories. The rivers that the factories were build near flowed in the color of the dyes they were using on any given day.
Living conditions were more like something one would read in a Dickens novel than many of us are accustomed to in more prosperous times and places. The brick buildings were unheated, had no toilets, and the chamber pots were used to fertilize the seasonal vegetable garden that the residents shared.
My father (born 1918) and his brothers were born into this hard life. My grandfather, being good in math and business, eventually worked his way up managing the payroll for the Mill Village. My Grandfather ran afoul of the local church when he pulled my father and his brothers out of the factory to attend high school. The Church had a stake in the factory and from my understanding, the rift led to my grandfather eventually breaking away from this Church and any future attendance.
I came to find out that my Grandfather made a significant effort to pay wages to the Mill Village workers in Silver Dollars!
He did this, though it wasn't commonplace at the time, so the local businesses would 'know' where the money was coming from- the money that was being spent in the local establishments.
I came to find out that he was a coin collector as well, though he seems to have only collected from circulation. One of my cousins aquired his Silver Dollar collection and said it was of little value. I aquired a partially filled book of Barber Dimes, most AG to G.
Though my father and his brothers worked their way through college, and in the case of my Dad- Medical School, I come from a family of very modest means.
I've often wondered just how those Silver dollars came to the heavily worn condition some have arrived at. And here's just one example.
(Typed on an i-pad, in the Summer breeze- without spell checking- please forgive the errors)
Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014
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I wish I had this kind of detail on my great grandparents etc. Really cool that you have all the info.
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Ricko:
It sounds like my cousin sold off the Silver Dollars many years ago after he aquired them.
Sadly, no way to know what was in there and whether he got a fair price.
I might add to any of the folks out there who still have surviving elders.
Pull them aside sometime and interview them about everything you can imagine relating to their lives and what they know about the family history. I pulled my father aside on a couple of occasions 25 years ago, and I did video interviews- i also video taped a great dinner time gathering with he and his brother talking about growing up in the Mill Village, what the family went through during the great depression and the various jobs they worked as they alternately worked each other through college- one working multiple jobs for a stretch while the other attended school- and alternating this pattern for years! My dad worked in coal mines, was a machinist, worked in the Pratt and Whitney factory, Textile Mills in North Carolina making parashoots.
Back when I did my video interviews, it wasn't so easy. I worked in the visuals so I luckily had, or rented cameras.
Now everyone has the technology at their fingertips!
The recordings I did are priceless and very much enjoyed and appreciated by many of my cousins after all these years. Many questions my cousins had about the past, were answered by just watching and listening to the interviews.
At this point of time, mother is the only one left from that generation and her memory is blown out from the tragic destruction that accompanies dementia.
The technology has never been easier to interview people and to record their histories!
Though people may laugh at you (and think it's a waste of time) as they did me, at some point, those memories and the history will be lost, and unless written or otherwise recorded, LOST forever!
Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014
I picked up about 10 silver dollars in Korea in 1978, stashed away, for a crisp new $20. The ajima would have sold them for $10 paper, but all I had was a $20, and she was more than happy.
The last one I found in the wild was within the last 3 years, at a McDonalds, sitting the coin tray, with an Eisenhower dollar. 2$1 bills and the cashier was happy to get the weird stuff out of the till.
The strangest one I found was cleaning out my dad's home. I found a 1928 Philly Peace dollar that I sold to a coin shop (they gave me strong MS63 money for it, IIRC) that I had "made" into a coaster when I was a kid. It was a glass coaster and there was a hollow spot underneath where the dollar coin went, and then backfilled with plaster of Paris and some green felt. IIRC it was something I made in school for his birthday, as he was born in 1928, probably around 1962.
Thanks for sharing!