Enos Brown & Co. Records

Collection

Identifier: Midwest-MS-153

Staff Only

Scope and Content of the Collection

Records consist of letters, orders, personal drafts and receipts kept by Enos Brown & Co., early Chicago firm dealing in manufacturing supplies for woolen mills. Most of the items were sent from companies in the Utah Territory, including the Brigham City Cooperative, Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution in Salt Lake City, and Ogden, Provo, and Beaver City. Some typical supplies ordered or sold are different dyes, warps, springs, spindles and spoolers, pickers and grinders, and other parts for looms. Also, a few business items addressed to the Bowen Bros., and one 1894 letter to George S. Bowen, by now Mayor of Elgin, Illinois, and a successful railroad and real estate mogul, demanding repayment for an old debt.

Dates

Creation: 1867-1894
Creation: Majority of material found within 1867 - 1876

Creator

Enos Brown & Co. (Organization)

Language

Materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

The Enos Brown & Co. Records are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room (Priority III).

Ownership and Literary Rights

The Enos Brown & Co. Records are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.

History of Enos Brown & Co.

Chicago dealer in supplies for woolen mills.

Enos Brown & Co. and Bowen Bros. first advertised in Chicago in 1869, as cotton and woolen manufacturing suppliers. By 1876, Enos Brown & Co. was still listed in the Chicago Business Directory, “wool, woolen machinery; mnfg. supplies; dyestuffs; 19-21 Randolph”. Although several of the Bowen brothers still appeared to be associated with the firm, they also had gone into real estate and financial activities in the city.

Extent

0.2 Linear Feet (5 folders)

Additional Description

Abstract

Collection formerly called Bowen Bros. Records, consists mainly of letters, orders and receipts generated by Enos Brown & Co., a Chicago firm selling machinery parts, warps, dyes and other manufacturing supplies to woolen mills in Utah in the 1870s. Bowen Bros., a dry goods firm associated with Enos Brown & Co., is briefly represented in the collection, and there is one letter to George S. Bowen, mayor of Elgin, Illinois and organizer of the Chicago & Pacific Railroad, demanding payment of an old debt.