I like the trade card for Coleman Thacher's West Dennis business: groceries and undertaking supplies under one roof, definitely one-stop shopping.
Coleman's dad, Joseph Freeman Thacher started a wheelwright business in West Dennis in 1864, adding painters' supplies and an undertaking business in 1870. He died in 1880, leaving a wife and two sons, one 8, the other 22. The older son, Coleman Nickerson Thacher, took over the business when Joseph died.
Three years later, in 1883, Coleman married Annie Maria Crowell, James Crowell's daughter. The older Crowell had been a ship captain, but from 1880 operated a grain and and coal business in West Dennis. So the 1883 marriage created a link between two West Dennis business families.
In addition to the paint and undertaking businesses, the card says Coleman expanded into other lines including groceries, hardware, seeds, wheat, and grains.
Since Deyo's 1890 tour guide and history of the Cape mentions Coleman's business, I assume it was still active just before 1890. Coleman's activity comes into view in the Barnstable Patriot occasionally: in 1883, he has a new order cart on the road; in 1887, Mr. Perry of East Dennis is leasing part of the wheelwright shed to operate a blacksmith shop; in 1893, William Brooks and Coleman are preparing to build an ice house near Fresh Pond; and in 1900, "Capt. Coleman N. Thacher of the trim little schooner, "Annie Louise, " has been spending a few days with his family…." The Annie Louise was James Crowell's schooner, named after his two daughters.
Coleman died in 1901, at 43. He left Annie with two young daughters, 12 and 16. Annie survived until 1925. Coleman's father-in-law, James Crowell, died only shortly before this, in 1898. The two deaths in three years must have been a heavy blow to the two businesses.
So, I have some questions….
After his father died, was Coleman responsible for the support of his mother and younger brother?
Deyo says Joseph Thacher was an undertaker and the card suggests that Coleman Thacher continued the undertaking business. But advertising "undertakers' supplies" is not the same thing as advertising "undertaking". Are these supplies coffins?
How does undertaking or the sale of undertaking supplies relate to the other activities? Coleman's Dad was a wheelwright, and the woodworking and joining skills that that required could be used for coffin-making. The card doesn't say anything about wheelwright services; had this business been dropped at some point? Is that what the leasing of the wheelwright shed to the blacksmith means?
Did the undertaking item in the list of goods and services appear inconguous to him, or not? Was he making a small joke by advertising this service this way? Stories in the Barnstable Patriot suggest that he was gregarious and not overly serious – in 1880, a young Coleman Thacher was supposed to argue against the proposition, "Resolved: That close attention to dress is commendable in both sexes," in a debate at the South Dennis Lyceum (but ended by agreeing with all the arguments of his opponent, Miss Emily Small). In 1882, he played Scrooge's nephew in Dicken's Christmas Carol at Liberty Hall in South Dennis.
The card says "C.N. Thacher & Co." Who was included in the "& Co."? Why did he choose that picture for the card from among many available to him? Was he thinking about his two young daughters? That would place the card between 1889 and 1901 if true.
Where did Coleman and Annie live? Was the place of business on Main Street? Did Annie run the business while he was at sea? Was Thacher in business until 1901? If he was, what happened to the business after he died? Did Annie inherit the store and stock; if so, did she sell it, or continue to operate it?
Sources: Deyo, History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts. 1890. Deyo's chapter on Dennis is available on David Kew's Cape Cod history website. Personal details about Joseph, Coleman, and Annie Thacher are from the Thacher genealogy website and from the on-line archive of the Barnstable Patriot, maintained by the Sturgis Library (search on "James Crowell," "Coleman Thacher," "Coleman N. Thacher," or "Annie Thacher"). Thanks to Cathy Muse for talking this through with me and suggesting several relationships and questions.
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