{"value"=>"<p>Mostly related to business interests, but also contains references to the issues of the day and to family and personal matters. Incoming correspondence predominates; some outgoing correspondence can be found in the Letterbooks (1806-1825; 1832-1841).</p> <p>General business correspondence relates to orders for manufacture of parts, accounts, and purchase and sale of iron. The Townsends conducted their business primarily in upstate New York and New York City, but also in Philadelphia, New England and other parts of the United States. Their clients included railroads, paper makers, woolen mills, machine shops and other merchants. Letters requesting parts from the Townsends' furnace often include sketches and detailed descriptions.</p> <p>As family members were often business associates as well, the correspondence reflects both of these relationships. Henry, Peter, Solomon, Robert, Samuel, William and Noah Townsend all wrote to Isaiah and John regarding business and family matters. There is little, if any, totally personal correspondence, and virtually no letters written by the women in the family. Letters from the 1840s onwards tend to be more strictly business letters. There are some letters regarding political issues, especially as they affected the family's interests. Information on the Townsends' shares in the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad, the Saratoga & Schenectady Railroad, the Utica & Schenectady Railroad among others, can also be found in the correspondence. Notable correspondents include Ambrose Spencer and John C. Spencer, the father-in-law and brother-in-law, respectively, of John Townsend, Henry Burden, Horatio Allen, Robert L. Livingston, Edward P. Livingston and Le Ray de Chaumont. Allen Munroe, the son-in-law of John Townsend, was a frequent correspondent on business matters. A letter from Samuel Townsend (July 10, 1825) gives an account of a balloon flight witnessed from Castle Garden in New York City. Among the com- panies represented in the correspondence are: Blackwell and McFarlan (New York City), Emlen & Howell (Philadelphia), Corning & Winslow (Albany) and the Seneca Knitting Mills.</p> <p>Correspondence regarding the North River Steamboat Company (primarily 1816-1827) is of particular interest and contains information on legislation affecting steamboats, mail contracts for the captains of the boats, cost of wood and coal, fares, condition of the boats, scheduling, accidents, and the purchase and sale of boats. Correspondents on these matters include D. Lynch, a treasurer of the Company, Robert L. Livingston and Edward P. Livingston, shareholders, Charles Rhind and Samuel Townsend, employees, and James Wiswall, a boat captain. Robert L. Livingston (17751843) was the son-in-law of Robert R. Livingston (1746-1813), the partner of Robert Fulton. Boats owned by the Company included the Chancellor Livingston, the Paragon and the Clermont. Additional correspondence of a somewhat later period relates to the Lake Champlain Steamboat Company and the Lake Champlain Ferry Company.</p> <p>Also of interest are items of correspondence, often with Lemuel Pomeroy, found in the War of 1812 period, referring to arms sales and supplies of wheat and flour. In the 1830s the the Townsends manufactured wheels for the South Carolina Railroad and the collection contains correspondence with Horatio Allen (1802-1890), the well known civil engineer and the chief engineer for the South Carolina Railroad. There is also correspondence (1860s) with Walter A. Wood (1815-1892), inventor of harvesting machines, mowers and reapers.</p> <p>Isaiah and John Townsend were in frequent contact with their businesses outside of Albany. These included the Troy Iron and Nail Company, Cornwall Cotton Factory, operated by Samuel Townsend, and the Greenbush Mill. Letters from Henry Burden at Troy report on operations there, including the manufacture of railroad spikes. Burden also wrote to the brothers from Washington, D. C. in 1834, regarding the political situation, and in 1836 from England, where he was purchasing iron. Business at the Monroe Iron Works was managed at times by Roger Parmele and Peter Townsend. Sales of flour and grains were managed at Syracuse by M. D. Burnet.</p> <p>The letters of Isaiah Townsend, Jr. were received separately and have been kept together at the end of the correspondence series. They include letters from Townsend to his mother describing the funeral of Lafayette in Paris (1834), notes on the civil war in Spain (1837), and his plea to President Jackson for the re- instatement of David Bailie Warden, U. S. Consul at Paris.</p>"}