Research Catalog

Title

Adam W. Spies real estate and genealogy scrapbook, 1828-1930 (bulk 1828-1887).

Author

Spies, Adam W. (Adam William), 1800-1891.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

.25 linear foot (1 box)

Summary

• Adam W. Spies (1800-1891), the son of Mary Bergh and John Spies, was a hardware and military goods merchant in New York City. He was employed by the firm of C. & J. D. Wolfe, and was their agent in England in the 1820s. In 1834 he established A. W. Spies & Company, later Spies, Kissam & Company, retiring in 1866. He acquired extensive landholdings in New York City, upstate New York, and numerous other states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, among others. In 1832 he married Sarah Ann Morrison (d. 1883), daughter of John C. Morrison of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Spies was a founding member of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor.
• The Adam W. Spies real estate and genealogy scrapbook is primarily a record of his real estate transactions, containing numerous manuscript plat maps, many in watercolor with extensive annotations; a few printed maps; listings of properties, taxes and assessments; and legal notes. Holdings in Manhattan and Williamsburg, Brooklyn are especially well documented. Genealogical materials include charts and notes concerning the Spies, Morrison, and Bergh families, and autobiographical accounts, with advice to grandchildren, recalling his career, his service as a volunteer fireman, and life in Manhattan prior to the building of the Erie Canal and Croton Aqueduct. The volume also contains pasted clippings, certificates and receipts, cut silhouettes of Spies, and a few sketches, notably a watercolor street view by Spies of his father's place of business in Manhattan as depicted in 1808. There are some miscellaneous letters and notes relating to family and real estate matters, some loose, including a genealogical inquiry to his son-in-law John W. Cochrane dated 1907. A few of Spies's genealogical entries are updated to 1930.
• The scrapbook has multiple and duplicate paginations, with gaps: Index, p. 1-48, 50-58, [3 p.]; property maps with index, p. 0-100; and additional genealogical and autobiographical material, p. 133-143; 137-138, 139 (2 leaves), 142-155. Text and maps are separately indexed.

Subject

• Spies, Adam W. 1800-1891
• Berg family
• Morrison family
• Spies family
• New York (N.Y.). Fire Department
• Real estate management > United States
• Real property > United States
• Manhattan (New York, N.Y.)
• New York (N.Y.) > Social life and customs > 19th century
• New York (State) > Genealogy
• Williamsburg (New York, N.Y.)

Genre/Form

• Cadastral maps.
• Clippings.
• Drawings.
• Manuscript maps.
• Memoirs.
• Scrapbooks.
• Silhouettes.
• Watercolors.

Access (note)

• Advance notice required. Apply at http://www.nypl.org/mssref.

Source (note)

• Purchased from Antipodean Books, 2013

Call Number

MssCol 22287

OCLC

881462381

Author

Spies, Adam W. (Adam William), 1800-1891.

Title

Adam W. Spies real estate and genealogy scrapbook, 1828-1930 (bulk 1828-1887).

Restricted Access

Advance notice required. Apply at http://www.nypl.org/mssref.

Source

Purchased from Antipodean Books, 2013

Occupation

Fire fighters.

Landowners.

Merchants.

Philanthropists.

Research Call Number

MssCol 22287