Manuscript Group 435, Alling Brothers Company, Newark, NJ, Records, 1853-1878 (Bulk dates: 1859-1867)

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Manuscript Group 435, Alling
Brothers & Company, Newark, NJ

Records, 1853-1878 (Bulk dates: 1859-1867), 1.6 linear feet / 6 volumes
Call Number: MG 435 + Box number

Summary

• Biographical Note
• Provenance Note
• Scope and Content Note
• Related Collections
• Container List

Summary:

Contains the financial accounts of a Newark, New Jersey jewelry manufacturer and dealer located at 13 Orchard Street, with a name index.

Gift of Miriam Studley and Dr. Julia Sabine, 1962.

Biographical
Note:

In 1850, the jewelry-manufacturing firm of Alling Brothers & Company was started as a partnership between the sons of David Alling (1773-1855): Isaac A. (1814-1890), Joseph C. (1819-1895), and Horace Alling (b. 1822).  The company was located at 13 Orchard Street in Newark with an additional office at 170 Broadway in New York City.  William R. Alling (b. 1831), a cousin from Madison, Indiana was made partner in the firm in 1860. After Horace Alling retired in 1881, William R. Alling brought two of his sons into management and changed the firm’s name to Alling & Company.  The 1915 city directory of Newark is the last one to list the company.

Sources:

Allen, George P. A History and Genealogical Record of the Alling—Allens of New Haven, Conn. (Price, Lee & Adkins Co.: New Haven, Conn. 1899), pgs. 56-102

Alling Family File, The New Jersey Historical Society

Provenance Note:

The volumes were given to The New Jersey Historical Society by Miriam Studley and Dr. Julia Sabine in 1962.

Scope and Content Note:

The six volumes in this collection consist of an Alling Family history written around 1852 by Albert Alling (1805-1868), a payroll book of the Alling Brothers Company dating from 1859-1863, and four daybooks from 1860-1867 and 1877-1878.

The first volume is a Alling Family history and contains:

— A partial Alling family history in Newark from the time of Samuel Alling, Esq. (1668-1732)

— Records of land sales

— Transcriptions of deeds

— Grave stone transcriptions

— Floor plans of a two-story house built at 453 Broad Street, Newark

— A separate map of a six-acre lot bound by Broad, Market, and Washington Streets in Newark

— A map of two lots at 86 Market Street, Newark

— Narrative details of a skirmish between the British and John Alling at the corner of Broad and Market Streets, Newark

— Transcription of the enlistment roll of the Minuteman Company of Newark, dated November 13, 1775

— Loose newspaper clippings including obituaries

— A partial index

The second volume is a payroll book entitled “Hands Ledger of Alling Brothers Co., Manufacturing Jewelers,” and contains the names of workers, their wages, and either the number of products made or the amount of days worked.  On pages 440-441 is a list of wages paid per piece, and on the last page is a wage schedule for male workers between the ages of 16 to 21.  Over the course of the four years covered in this volume, the company employed 147 workers, including members of the Baldwin, Ball, and Crane families.  The volume contains an index.

The daybooks in this collection contain the wholesale transactions of the factory in Newark. Typical products sold were belt buckles, earrings, collar buttons, cameos, and seal rings.  Typical materials the factory worked with were topaz, agate, emeralds, and bloodstone.  The third volume is an untitled daybook of the factory that dates from 1860-1863; the fourth is titled “Daybook B” and dates from  1863-1865; the fifth is titled “Daybook C” and dates from  1865-1867; and the fifth is titled “Daybook M” and dates from 1877-1878.

Related Collections:

Manuscript Group 309, David Alling (1773-1855) Records

Manuscript Group 482, Alling-Campfield Family (Newark, NJ) Papers

See other jewelry manufacturer and dealer records.

See other silversmith records.

Container List:

Processed by Luis Delfino, November 2000 as part of the “Farm to City” project funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.