The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United StatesDelany, Martin Robison
History
The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States
Delany, Martin Robison
African Americans
In the winter of 1849, these gentlemen had in store, several thousand
bushels of coal, two million two hundred and fifty thousand feet of
lumber; twenty-two of the finest merchantmen cars running on the railway
from Philadelphia to Baltimore; nine thousand dollars' worth of stock in
the Columbia Bridge; eighteen thousand dollars in stock in the Columbia
Bank; and besides this, Mr. Smith was then the reputed owner of
fifty-two good brick houses of various dimensions in the city of
Philadelphia, besides several in the city of Lancaster, and the town of
Columbia. Mr. Smith's paper, or the paper of the firm, is good for any
amount wherever they are known; and we have known gentlemen to present
the paper of some of the best men in the city, which was cashed by him
at sight. The principal active business attended to by Mr. S. in person,
is that of buying good negotiable and other paper, and speculating in
real estate. The business of the firm is attended to by Mr. Whipper, who
is a relative. Take Smith and Whipper from Lancaster and Philadelphia
counties, and the business community will experience a hiatus in its
connexion, that may not be easily filled.
Samuel T. Wilcox, of Cincinnati, Ohio, also stands conspicuously among
the most respectable business men of the day. Being yet a young man,
just scanning forty, he is one among the extraordinary men of the times.
Born, like the most of colored men in this country, in obscurity, of
poor parents, raised without the assistance of a father, and to a
commonplace business, without the advantages of schools, by his own
perseverance, he qualified himself to the extent that gave him an
inclination to traffic, which he did for several years on the
Mississippi and Ohio rivers, investing his gains in real estate, until
he acquired a considerable property. For the purpose of extending his
usefulness, and at the same time pursuing a vocation more in accordance
with his own desires, a few years since, he embarked in the wholesale
and retail Family Grocery business, and now has the best general
assortment and most extensive business house of the kind, in the city of
Cincinnati. The establishment is really beautiful, having the appearance
more of an apothecary store, than a Grocery House. Mr. Wilcox has a
Pickling and Preserving establishment besides, separate from his
business house, owning a great deal of first class real estate. There is
no man in the community in which he lives, that turns money to a greater
advantage than Mr. Wilcox, and none by whom the community is more
benefited for the amount of capital invested. He makes constant and
heavy bills in eastern houses, and there are doubtless now many
merchants in New York, Boston, and Baltimore cities, who have been
dealing with S.T. Wilcox, and never until the reading of this notice of
him, knew that he was a colored man. He has never yet been east after
his goods, but pursuing a policy which he has adopted, orders them; but
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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