HIRAM FLEMING'S BANK OF CAIRO NOTE

   

Here at the Cape Girardeau County Archive Center in Jackson, assistant archivist Lyle Johnston often regales me with examples of atrocious spelling and cheap prices in files from the county's probate court, in the 1800s. Most of these are on the inventory and valuation taken for the deceased's estate auction, where "chizzles" and a "fawling leaf table" went for such staggeringly low prices that it's a wonder there were any proceeds to speak of. But these loose papers with their bare facts and scrolled handwriting hold a wealth of information.

Let's take the file for Hiram Fleming. Born in 1804, he was one of nine children of Revolutionary War veteran Mitchell Fleming. Hiram married twice, and had a daughter, Martha, with his second wife, Margaret Stephenson. Martha died at age 3, in 1846. He was only 38 when he died in 1843.

His file is typical in some respects: his heirs are listed; a complete inventory of items sold at his estate sale is included, as is a list of buyers; one page is marred by an inkstain. Overall, for papers that are close to 200 years old, they're in remarkably good shape.

A particularly unusual find in this file, though, is a piece of cash currency. A dollar bill from the Bank of Cairo at Kaskaskia, Illinois, is nestled in among these documents. Neither Lyle nor I had come across this before -- cash money was fairly rare in the 1840s in Southeast Missouri.

To read the complete article, see:
Hiram Fleming's banknote (https://www.semissourian.com/story/2916167.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web