Gray, Russell and Anny Heard 1860-1929 1860-1949 3/26/2020 Augustine Heard & Co.: Building a Family Business HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS EXHIBIT Related Sites: MORE EXHIBITS A Chronicle of the China Trade Introduction Doing Business with China Augustine Heard & Co. The Canton Trade Commodities & Currencies Treaty Ports & Compradors Clippers & Steamships Exploring Trade Links Chinese Competition Expatriate Traders Influence of the China Trade Bibliography Manuscript Collections Related Collections Site Credits When the proposition was first made of my going to China with Uncle Augustine I jumped at it. I knew it involved a question of years, but there was a romantic side to it which appealed to my imagination. I thought, too, that under his protection I had a much greater chance of success than at home. - John Heard reflecting on his first trip to China in 1841, from his diary, 1891 4 Augustine Heard & Co. : Building a Family Business Augustine Heard grew up in Ipswich, Massachusetts, surrounded by ships and sailors and the success of his 3/26/2020 Augustine Heard & Co.: Building a Family Business Hampshire, but never graduated. At at young age Heard became captain of his own brig. He traveled to ports as far-flung as Rio de Janeiro, Liverpool, and Canton, battling weather, disease, and pirates, and soon earned a reputation as a skilled navigator and merchant. Augustine gave up his seafaring ways and joined Russell & Co. when he was 45, and in 1840 he started his own concern with his partners Joseph Coolidge and George Basil Dixwell. In 1841, Augustine invited John Heard, his eldest nephew, to accompany him to China. Childless and never married, Augustine remained devoted to his nephews, the four sons of his brother George Heard. John's brothers-Augustine Heard II, Albert Farley Heard, and George Washington Heard (who eventually changed his name to George Farley Heard)- would also serve respective terms in China. "American boys of college age came to China to seek their fortunes, and they expected opportunities there to equal, if not surpass, those available to the enterprising in a rapidly expanding America," historian Stephen Lockwood explains. 5 John wrote that Augustine advised him, "I could make money enough to get away as quickly as possible, and that he had no doubt that I could do better here. "6 "For all of [the trading companies] which became well established the principle of continuity was invariably kinship," Jacques Downs, a scholar on American trade in China, writes. "[A] firm had generally become identified with a stem family or families and its dynastic alliances." "7 While Augustine Heard & Co. had many partners over the years, these close familial relations were critical to the running of the company. John and his brothers benefitted from the wisdom of their uncle and each other's counsel. John, for example, noted his uncle Augustine's immediate attentiveness to him upon his arrival in China. "Uncle Augustine is very kind to me When he is not busy he always seems very glad to converse with me and manifested a mostly friendly interest in my well doing. "8 Over the years John and his brothers quickly came to learn the family business. Arriving in Canton in 1855 after graduating from Yale, Albert Heard described his own transformation in only a year: "Then a boy with anxious and aspiring hopes now as it were a man, doing a man's part and a serious sober part, responsible too, then looking forward to unknown duties & strange scenes, now those duties are familiar. Then not even a clerk now a merchant & a head man of a firm. Truly I am changed. "9 3/26/2020 Augustine Heard & Co.: Building a Family Business 4. John Heard, Diary, 1891. HC: FP-4, p. 21. 5. Lockwood, p. 51. 6 John Heard to Elizabeth Heard, November 6, 1841. EH. 7 Jacques M. Downs, The Golden Ghetto: The American Commercial Community at Canton and the ILL Shaping of American China Policy, 1784-1844. Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Press, 1997, p. 219. 8. John Heard to Elizabeth Heard, November 6, 1841. EH. 9. Albert Farley Heard, January 16, 1855. HC: HP-1, p. 31. Contact Digital Accessibility Baker Library Historical Collections Baker Library I Bloomberg Center Harvard Business School Soldiers Field Boston, MA 02163 Phone: 617.495.6411 Email: histcollref@hbs.edu Map/Directions 2020 Family Russell Gray / Amy Heard (F19695): Stedman Family Genealogies First Name: StedmanFamiliesResearchCenter Last Name: One Name Study of the Stedman/Steadman/Steedman Families Advanced Search [Surnames] In Home Search 8 Login Find Media Info You are currently anonymous Share B Print Bookmark Family: Russell Gray / Amy Heard (F19695) Family Chart Group Sheet Suggest Family Chart PDF Judge Horace Gray Sarah Russell Gardner d' (1806-1873) F (1807-1893) John Chipman Gray Amy Hea 07 (1839-1915) (1860-1949 ) Horace Gray Russell Gray R (1887-1965) a A (1850-1929) isle.us/genealogy/familychart.php?familylD=F19695&tree=stedman_mai 1/2 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS - Joseph Corpurell + Daniel Treadecell non p4 By THOMAS FRANKLIN WATERS AUGUSTINE HEARD 1785-1868 1916 From a painting by William Morris Hunt ih Ith , Published by 1823- pi-73 1815- 920 The Ihourch Hesterical driver W331 allaes. price $2.00 4/14/2020 39 Marlborough I Back Bay Houses Back Bay Houses Genealogies of Back Bay Houses 39 Marlborough 39 Ma rlboro ugh is locate d on I the north side of Marlb oroug Lot 19' X 112' (2,128 s sf) h, between Arlington and Berkeley, with 37 Marlborough to the east and 301 Berkeley to the west 39 Marlborough (2013) 39 Marlborough was built ca. 1869, one of three contiguous houses (35-37-39 Marlborough) designed by Emerson and Fehmer, architects, and built by I. & H. M. Harmon, masons, at about the same time. 37 and 39 Marlborough are mirror opposite buildings, with a shared central entrance porch which creates a symmetrical entryway. Bainbridge Bunting's Houses of Boston's Back Bay does not attribute 35-37-39 Marlborough to a specific architect. However, a March 8, 1869, article on in the Boston Traveller on "Real Estate Movements" included the following: "On 4/14/2020 39 Marlborough I Back Bay Houses Marlboro" street, one each for H. C. Dodge, C. W. Freeland, and G.A. Newell. I & H. M. Harmon are the builders. Emerson & Fehmer are the architects." Photographs from about 1900 show that the bay of 37 Marlborough stopped at the cornice line and there was a dormer in the mansard roof, whereas the bay of 39 Marlborough extended to the top floor. This may have been the original design, or the top floor bay at 37 Marlborough may have been removed and replaced by the dormer. The land on which 39 Marlborough was built was part of a larger parcel of land originally purchased from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on November 6, 1858, by George Goss. He and his partner, Norman Carmine Munson, were the contractors responsible for filling the Commonwealth's Back Bay lands. The original parcel ran from where 9 Marlborough would be built west to Berkeley Street, comprising 17 lots with either 24 foot or 25 foot frontages. On the same day he purchased the land, George Goss sold the lots to nine different buyers, who then resold them to others. Between July and October of 1865, Charles William Freeland made a series of purchases from those who had bought land originally part of George Goss's tract. He assembled a parcel with a frontage of 248 feet where 21-39 Marlborough would be built. Charles Freeland was a merchant, cotton manufacturer, and real estate developer. He and his wife, Sarah Ward (Harrington) Freeland, lived at 117 Beacon. He built the houses at 21-23-25-27 Marlborough for sale to others, and sold the land where 29-31-33-35 Marlborough would be built. In the case of 37-39 Marlborough, he sold the land for 39 Marlborough, but retained the land for 37 Marlborough until after the house had been built. Click here for an index to the deeds for 39 Marlborough, and click here for further information about the land on the north side of Marlborough from Arlington to Berkeley, south of Alley 421. 4/14/2020 39 Marlborough I Back Bay Houses On October 13, 1868, the land for 39 Marlboro ugh was purchase d from Charles Freeland by Alice Almia (Almira) (Lamb) Dodge, 35-41 Marlborough and 301 Berkeley, detail from photograph looking north on Berkeley (ca. 1900); courtesy of the Print Department, Boston Public the wife Library of dry goods merchant Henry Cleaves Dodge. They previously had lived at the Hotel Pelham (southwest corner of Tremont and Boylston). When 41 Marlborough was built in 1865 by Charles Minot and his wife, Maria Josephine (Grafton) Minot, the party wall between 39 and 41 Marlborough had not been built precisely on the boundary line between the two lots, with half the wall on either side, but rather was fractionally further to the west. On March 1, 1869, Almira Dodge purchased a small strip of land from the Minots so that she would own half of the party wall. In the fall of 1871, the Dodges traveled to Europe. They appear to have divorced sometime after mid-1877 and never resumed living at 39 Marlborough. By about 1880, Henry Dodge made his home in Europe, and in April of 1888 he remarried in Nice, France, to Rosalie Cox. They continued to live there until their deaths, he in August of 1913 and she in November of 1920. 39 Marlborough remained the property of Almira Dodge and, after her death, He died in 4/14/2020 39 Marlborough I Back Bay Houses October of 1936, and the property was inherited by his widow, Agnes Page (Brown) Dodge, and his daughter, Alice Lamb Cleaves Dodge, who was by his first marriage, to Margaret Riché (Adams) Dodge. By 1872, 39 Marlborough was the home of James Haughton, a wholesale dry goods dealer, and his wife, Eliza (Richards) Haughton. They previously had lived in Brookline. By 1875, they had moved to 91 Boylston. By November of 1873 (when their daughter Mabel was born), 39 Marlborough was the home of James Dillon and his wife, Emma (Atkins) Dillon. He was a commission merchant. They continued to live there in 1878, but had moved to Dorchester by 1879 (when their daughter Ruth was born). By 1879, 39 Marlborough was the home of Rev. William Wilberforce Newton and his wife, Emily Stevenson (Cooke) Newton. They previously had lived in Newark, New Jersey, where he was rector of Trinity Church (Episcopal) until October of 1876, when he resigned to accept the position of rector of St. Paul's Church in Boston. The Newtons continued to live at 39 Marlborough during the 1879-1880 winter season, but moved thereafter. In 1882, he was named rector of St. Stephen's Church in Pittsfield. By the 1880-1881 winter season, 39 Marlborough was the home of paper manufacturer Mortimer Blake Mason and his wife Mary Emma (Phillips) Mason. They had married in October of 1880, and 39 Marlborough probably was their first home together. They continued to live there during the 1882-1883 winter season. By the 1883-1884 season, they had moved to 190 Commonwealth. By the 1883-1884 winter season, 39 Marlborough was the home of Dr. Buckminster Brown, an orthopedic surgeon, and his wife, Sarah Alvord (Newcomb) Brown. He also maintained his medical office there. In 1883, they had lived (and he had maintained his office) at 59 Bowdoin. They continued to live at 39 Marlborough during the 1885-1886 season, but moved thereafter to 19 Marlborough. 4/14/2020 39 Marlborough I Back Bay Houses By the 1886-1887 winter season, 39 Marlborough was the home of attorney Russell Gray and his wife, Amy (Heard) Gray. They had married in November of 1886, and 39 Marlborough probably was their first home together. Prior to their marriage, he had lived t 143 Beacon with his mother, Sarah Russell (Gardner) Gray, the widow of Horace Gray. Russell and Amy Gray also maintained a home in Nahant. Their two sons, Horace Gray and 37-39 Marlborough (2013) Augustine Heard Gray, lived with them, Horace Gray married in October of 1915 to Katharine Meeker and they moved to 290 Commonwealth. He was a physician. Russell Gray died in 1929. Amy Gray continued to live at 39 Marlborough. Augustine Gray, a career Naval officer, continued to live with her. He married in about 1933 to Elizabeth DuBois Jordan. They lived at 39 Marlborough with his mother until about 1936, when they moved to Long Beach, California. 39 Marlborough had remained the property of the Dodge family, and on December 26, 1946, it was acquired by Amy Gray from Henry Percival Dodge's widow, Agnes Page (Brown) Dodge, and his daughter, Alice Lamb Cleaves Dodge. Amy Gray continued to live at 39 Marlborough until her death in 1949. On September 30, 1949, 39 Marlborough was purchased from the estate of Amy Gray by Dr. Francis Licata, a physician. He converted it into two apartments and a medical office, leasing the apartments to others and using the office for his medical practice. He and his wife, Angelina (Mirabella) Licata, lived in Revere. He maintained his medical office at 39 Marlborough until his death in December of OVER THE COUNTER THE HEARD COLLECTION AND ITS STORY ROBERT W. LOVETT Curator of Manuscripts, Baker Library Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration This is the story of a collection of family business records, its assem- bling, handling, and use by scholars.¹ As background, a summary account of the business represented by the records and of the family members who carried that business on will be helpful, but the emphasis will be on the collection itself. The Heard Collection, as it is called, is one of the largest in the Manu- script Division of Baker Library at the Harvard Business School It is probably the most extensive collection of business records relating to the China Trade of the nineteenth century now extant in this country The records, as will be explained later, came to the Library in two parts; together they number some 800 volumes, 272 boxes, and 103 cases. Augustine Heard, who founded the business in China, to say nothing of old John Heard, of Ipswich, Massachusetts, would have been surprised to learn what steps have been taken to preserve these records and how useful they have already proved to scholars. Thomas Franklin Waters, who used the records now in Part I of the Collection, aptly characterized them in his volume, Augustine Heard and His Friends: It rarely happens that in a single family the account books, memoranda of passing events, personal and business correspondence of a hundred years are preserved, and it is yet more rare that such a long and continuous record happens in the case of lives that are in themselves noteworthy. 1 This write-up is based on a talk delivered before the Ipswich Historical Society on Jan. 26, 1961. 2 A box in this instance measures 11" X 15" X 21/4"; a case measures 12" X 15" X 12", and holds about a third of a file drawer. Business History Review 35,#4 (1961) 567-573. I would begin by introducing the members of the family, at the same time indicating the scope of the collection. The earliest records are those of old John Heard (1744-1834); they date from before the Revolution. There are accounts of John's business as a merchant, and especially of his distillery business. There are records of ships in which he was in- terested, including privateers during the Revolution. The earliest record consists of accounts of the Schooner, Jolly Robin (1754-1757), of which John's father-in-law, Daniel Staniford, was Master. There is material of local interest, for he was a kind of Squire, concerned in the building of Chebaceo/Bridge, with the Jeffries Neck Division, and with many Ips- wich school and town affairs. There is even a Catalogue of Books in the Ipswich Social Library of 1804, illustrating an early attachment of the family to libraries, which was to come to fruition with Augustine's gift of the town library in 1868. It was John's son, Augustine (1785-1868), who founded the business in China, and who is the hero, if we are looking for a hero, of this story. he (1805) Frencis Beginning as a supercargo for Ebenezer Francis when only twenty, soon advanced to being a much sought-after ship captain in his own right. His nephew, John, wrote of him later: "He was one of the most re- markable men I ever knew. He had a strong physique and equally strong temper and passions, but under the most perfect control. I do not think he knew the sensation of fear." 3 There are many stories about him in Waters' book, already mentioned, and in R. B. Forbes' Personal Rem- Rober iniscences. In 1830, when forty-five years old, he went out to China as Bennet a partner in the firm of Russell and Company. This was in the early days of the China Trade, when foreigners were confined to the Canton area Forbes, and required to deal with certain specified Chinese merchants. The term Steed, of service for an American merchant in China was generally three to five years, and Augustine returned to Boston in 1834. But friction developed 1892. in 1840 among the Russell and Company partners, and Mr. Heard authorized Joseph Coolidge, who had been one of them, to start a new firm, Augustine Heard and Company. A year later, in 1841, Augustine went out to China again to make sure that the new firm got off to a suc- cessful start. He took with him his nephew, John, the oldest son of his brother, George Washington Heard. One by one, the other sons of George - Augustine, Albert Farley, and George Washington (who later changed his middle name to Farley) - were drawn into the busi- ness, and it is appropriate to consider the contribution which each made. We know rather more about John's experiences in China, since, in 1891, he drew up an autobiography. When he went out with his Uncle Augus- tine he was only seventeen. He remembered his first years in China thus: I went to work and stuck to it for three years! And work there meant work! There were no hours of relaxation - you were expected to be ready night or day, whenever you were wanted, and it was rare that I left my desk before 11 o'clock at night. Mr. Coolidge had a way of working in the evening, and my uncle of getting up early in the morning, so that between the two I got my full share. 3 Quotations from John Heard are from his autobiography, a typed copy of which is numbered FP-4 in the collection. 568 BUSINESS HISTORY REVIEW This was the time of the first English war with China, largely over importation of opium, and there was danger and excitement enough for the young man. He describes an attack made by a Chinese mob on their offices and warehouse. His uncle led a small group in holding off the mob until the buildings were on fire; the next day they were able to salvage much of the firm's treasure. John was pleased with his uncle's statement, in a letter home: "You will be glad to hear that John behaved very well in a time of difficulty and some danger." After he had been three years in China, his uncle called him in and announced that he was admitting him to the firm, and also paying him $6,000, this being at the rate of $2,000 a year. Together with a profit of some $3,000 for a small "adventure," this gave the young man a capital of about $10,000, and all before he was twenty-one. Augustine, Senior, returned to America in 1844, and he never went out to China again. But he looked after the American side of the business, with the help of an agent in Boston. And he of course corresponded with each of the nephews during their stints in China. This correspondence, as well as that of the nephews with their parents in Ipswich, is one of the significant parts of the first Heard Collection. In 1847 George B. Dix- well, another partner, went home for a time, and John took over sole charge of the firm in China. As he wrote of this period later, "I was fast getting to be a man, and to feel myself such." But at this time also he had the help of the first of his brothers to come out to China, for Augus- tine, 2nd, arrived in March, 1847; he became a partner in 1850. All was not work by now, for there were boating races on the river, visits to Macao, and a trip to Bombay, which combined business and pleasure. Young Augustine's health was not good, and he went home in 1850. But by 1852 he had improved sufficiently SO that he could return to China as head of the firm there, allowing John to come home. The latter, under whose guidance the firm was by this time making $50,000 a year, felt that he had earned a leisurely tour of Europe. Young Augustine did even better than John; or perhaps it was the general advance in trade. While John was in Dresden, he received word that the firm had made more than $200,000 in the past year. The treaty of Nanking (1842), ending the war between England and China, had opened up new ports to trade, and the Heards were beginning to branch out. Albert Heard, who went out in 1853, was available to manage one of the branch offices; he became a partner in 1856. That same year, following further disorders in Canton, the head office was transferred to Hong Kong. The following year (1857) it was decided that Augustine should come home and John go out again. Visiting the branch offices in Foochow and Shanghai with Augustine, John found things considerably changed. He reminisced about this period later: I found the work little less hard than it used to be, but the hours were more regular, and there was little night work except at mail time. There were two or three days in each fortnight when the work of the head of the house was very severe. He had to read his letters, classify the orders in his own mind, and then write his orders to the different ports; beside this, he had to regulate the finances of the different ports. The men managing there never had a care about this - they simply sat down on the head at OVER THE COUNTER 569 Hong-Kong. It was his business to keep their accounts in his head and see that they were supplied with money. At the end of the second English-Chinese war, in 1858 and 1859, further ports were opened, especially on the Yangtze River, and the im- portation of opium was made legal. John was one of the first to see that a profit could be made by steamboats on the rivers, and he sent to America for the Fire Dart. In 1861, while the Chinese rebels were still in the area, he made a trial trip up the Yangtze to Nanking and Hankow. His scheme was justified when the Fire Dart made a profit of $175,000 during its first year. John was also the first American merchant to establish a branch in Japan; he went to Yokohama to look over the ground in 1859, accompanying Mr. Harris, American minister. He accepted an appoint- ment as both Portuguese and Russian Consul at Hong Kong, but he decided later that these jobs were more trouble than they were worth. George, the youngest, who had come out in 1859, served as attaché for which? the American Ward, during the American negotiations at Peking. John went home in December, 1862, leaving Albert in charge. He wrote later that he "left the house firmly established, rich and second to no other American house in China. Indeed, I doubt if many would not have called it the first." He took over the Boston end of the business from Augustine, Senior, who retired to Ipswich, where he died, much re- spected, in 1868. He left a half-million dollars, to be divided among the four nephews, and gave one half of the Ipswich house to John. Albert's first term as head of the China house lasted from 1862 to 1867; George was in the Shanghai office. It was during this period that the lucrative steamboat business on the rivers passed into the hands of Russell and Company. The Heards, and other firms, such as Dent and Jardine Matheson, were unable to raise enough capital to compete suc- cessfully. In 1867 Albert went home, and Augustine came out again. One outline of the firm's activity shows the period from 1857 to 1867 as one of routine commission business, and the period from 1867 to the end as one of a variety of activities. In addition to the usual commission business in tea, china, silks, and similar items, the firm was still engaged in importing opium into China. It was also still concerned with shipping, though now along the coast rather than on the rivers. The Heards acted as agent for a number of insurance companies, and were engaged in various small businesses, such as a Machine Shop, the Novelty Iron Works, and the Wanchi Steam Bakery. In 1867 Augustine replaced Albert as head of the firm in China, serving until 1871. And that year (1871) all four brothers got together in Paris, when it was agreed that Albert would take over the reins again in China. In the early 1870's, John noted some signs that all was not well. There were more claims against the firm: one, a suit brought by Heinemann & Payson for alleged nonexecution of orders sought damages of $80,000. The Heards won, but the other party appealed, and finally the case was compromised. More serious was John's discovery that P. L. Everett, the Boston agent, had misappropriated the firm's bills of exchange in an See articles by K. C. Liu on the Shanghai Steam Navigation Company, The Business History Review, vol. XXVIII (June, 1954), pp. 154-181, and vol. XXIX (June, 1955), pp. 157-188. 570 BUSINESS HISTORY REVIEW amount that eventually reached $245,000 John tried for two years to keep things afloat, but finally, on April 19, 1875, the China house col- lapsed; the failure was for millions of dollars. One of the reasons for the failure, John reported later, was the extravagant way of living in China; the expenses of the house kept going up, and when the time came to retrench it was difficult to do so. There were new factors in China too, such as the rise of banks and the taking over of trade by the Chinese themselves. The foreign firms no longer had things all their own way; the Panic of 1873 in this country must also have been a factor. Some of their friends in China advanced a small amount in an effort to re-establish the business under the name Heard and Company. John and Augustine went back to China, against John's better judgment. And when they arrived there, it was only to find that nothing could be done. So John, Augustine, and Albert set out for home by different routes; George, be- coming ill, had left in 1875 and died on shipboard in the Red Sea. John reported later that he was his favorite brother. What sort of businessmen were the brothers; in what ways did they differ from one another? It is of interest that, as to education, John went only through English High School; Augustine graduated from Harvard in 1847; Albert from Yale in 1853; while George attended Harvard but did not graduate. Instead, he went to Europe and climbed Mont Blanc. Someone has said that John was capable, but lacked daring; that Augus- tine, 2nd, was the most imaginative and the most willing to run a risk; and that Albert had the least business ability. George never was head of the firm in China, but apparently he was more like John than like Augustine. John himself says, in praising Augustine's achievement, "I must say that I doubt if any of us could have done as well. I would not because I am too cautious, and Albert would not because he would have 'bust' before he got there." Looking back, John felt that, when Augustine first came out to China, perhaps they did not do well in putting all their eggs in one basket; that is, that all four should not have been in the same business. No one of them can be blamed for the failure; it was caused by a combination of circumstances. We may trace briefly the subsequent life of the three surviving brothers. John writes with candor that he managed to salvage enough by means Park.St of sale of goods which he had bought in China and monies which he had turned over to his wife to keep them going. But they had to sell the fine house in Park Street, Boston, and would have lost the Ipswich house had it not been for friends, who purchased it and gave it to John. They turned to mining and real estate interests in this country, to sale of guns in Russia, and to an investment business in New York City. Albert be- came interested in the history of the Russian church, publishing a book on the subject; he also served as private secretary to William C. Endi- cott, Secretary of War, and later as librarian for the Army. He died in Washington in 1890. Augustine served as United States Minister to Korea in 1890; he died on shipboard off Gibraltar in 1905. John died in 1894, not long after composing his autobiography. We should now return to the collection of records, which illustrates SO well the business, and to some extent the personal, lives of these men. Carefully preserved in the Ipswich home were all the letters to and OVER THE COUNTER 571 from the brothers and their uncle and their parents, the diaries, and other accounts to which Mr. Waters referred. In 1931 Baker Library purchased all this material, for a nominal sum, from Miss Alice Heard and the Estate of John Heard, son of the John of the autobiography. The collection was added to the growing Division of Manuscripts, where the records of many New England firms and businessmen were being accumu- lated. The unbound material was carefully placed in boxes and a detailed inventory or description drawn up. This lists many of the letter writers by name, but no attempt has been made to index them all; it would be a tremendous task. Brief accounts of the significance of the material were written for the Business Historical Society Bulletin in 1936 and 1938,5 and the collection began to attract scholars. Meanwhile, all the firm's records remaining in China had been stored in a warehouse of Jardine, Matheson, the leading English firm there. These included all the letters back and forth between the various Far Eastern branch offices, detailed accounts of their business, prices current (those printed sheets distributed to their customers), and circulars of many kinds. Sometime in the 1930's, Professor D. E. Owen, then of Yale, came on this material and arranged for its gift to that University. Later, he reported: "The value of the collection lies chiefly in its mass. We have found no single document or group of documents that seem to be of great importance in themselves. But the collection, as a whole, throws a good deal of light on the anatomy and physiology of a large Western firm trading in China." It soon occurred to Arthur H. Cole, Librarian of Baker Library, that a swap might be arranged, whereby Baker would turn over to Yale some Connecticut material and receive in return the Heard Collection. Since an institution cannot give away material, the collection is on permanent loan here. It arrived in 1942 in 50 or SO large wooden crates. The volumes were shelved, but much of the unbound material had to be stored away until the end of the War. Then we went to work on these; for a time we had the help of Miss Ruth Ho, a Chinese girl who was studying in this country. We placed much of the material in cardboard cases, each holding about a third of a file drawer; the folders relating to ships alone fill 28 cases. Again, we could not hope to index every name, but we have provided various lists to ships and key correspondents. One interesting find was two partial sets of the Japan Expedition Press, issued on board Perry's flagship; somehow these found their way into A. Heard & Company's office files. One set was returned to Yale; the other is in the Kress Room, or rare book library, at the Har- vard Business School. 6 What sort of use has been made of this collection at Baker Library? Since 1948 I have kept a record of the use of collections and can answer the question. One of the heaviest users has been Mr. K. C. Liu, a Chinese student now teaching history at Harvard. He has had two articles pub- lished in the Business Historical Society Bulletin on the Shanghai Steam Mary G. Mason, "Aspects of the Trade between China and America, 1840-1870," Bulletin of the Business Historical Society, vol. X (April, 1936), pp. 24-28. Elsie H. Bishop, "The Business Man as a Business Historian," Bulletin of the Business Historical Society, vol. XII (April, 1938), pp. 17-24. R. W. Lovett, "The Japan Expedition Press," The Harvard Library Bulletin (Spring, 1958). 572 BUSINESS HISTORY REVIEW Navigation Company, and is planning others, including one on Houqua, the Chinese merchant. Professor E. K. Haviland, of Johns Hopkins, whose hobby is steamboats, has studied the collection for information about the use of steam on Chinese rivers. Some students have been interested from the point of view of diplomatic history, among them C. J. Savage, of the Fletcher school, and A. C. Cressy, of Oglethorpe University. Some have been interested for personal reasons, such as Mrs. Walter M. White- hill, whose ancestor was Joseph Coolidge; and some from the local point of view, such as two members of the Ipswich Historical Society. One interesting user was Dr. Lindsay Ride, Rector of Hong Kong University, who was making a study of the Protestant Cemetery at Macao. Roland Lambert, of Washington, D. C., and Peter W. Fay, of California, have been studying the opium trade; and J. M. Downs, of Georgetown Uni- versity, was interested in the Canton Community to 1842. It is evident that a variety of interests are represented, and the value to research of a collection such as this can never really be exhausted. The collection is really too large to be encompassed by any one per- son. It is better to study a segment, or to come with some inquiry in mind, and that is what most of these persons have done. First of all, it is an important source for American trade with China from 1840 to 1875. But it is more than that, it is the well-nigh complete record of a most,in- teresting nineteenth-century mercantile family. It is also a source of in- formation about other families, represented by the many persons who worked for the Heards. Finally, it is a source of much local information; in the area of business, for instance, there are records of the Ipswich Manufacturing Company, the Dane Manufacturing Company, and the Ipswich Cotton Mills. One person, surveying the collection, concluded in somewhat flowery terms: "And now they are all dead and gone! No, as long as the letters in their own handwriting to each other - "Dear John," "Lal," "Gus," and "George," signed "yours ever"; their letters to their uncle Augustine and his letters to them; their letters to their parents, remain, telling first- hand stories of business, social and family life of bygone days in China, Europe and America, they still live." 7 For all John Heard's disclaimers in his autobiography, these men were involved in what must now appear to us as significant and remarkable events; they were keen observers and good reporters of what they saw. Though the business in China, on which so many hopes were based, failed, the records of that business, SO revealing of the character of the Heards themselves, will continue to interest scholars for years to come. 7 Unsigned statement in folder in Manuscript Division. OVER THE COUNTER 573 Amy Heard Letters from the Gilded Age Robert M. Gray. (1946- ). See pgs 26, 62, 63, 65, 67-68,69-71. www-ee stanford. edulogray/htmal/amy/ Max & Max -- Preface Page 1 of 3 Preface Preface Augustine Heard served as the U.S. Minister/General Consul to Korea from July 1890 through 1893. He was appointed to the position by James G. Blaine, Benjamin Harrison's Secretary of State. In a letter in 1889 to Russell Gray, AH admits that the appointment almost certainly resulted from Blaine's interest in Amy Heard Gray rather than Blaine's interest in him. Amy's connection with the Blaines goes back at least to 1881, when Mrs. James G. Blaine mentions[1 hearing Amy's sister Max sing at the the Outreys, the family of the French Minister Plenipotentiary (the equivalent of an ambassador to a backwater like the U.S.). The friendship is likely much older, however, as the parents of Mrs. Blaine, the former Harriet Bailey Stanwood, lived in Ipswich, Massachusetts, before moving Augustine Heard to Maine. Hence they likely knew the Heards, one of the most prominent families of Ipswich. Blaine himself was one of the most famous politicians of his day. After marrying Harriet, he moved back to Maine with her and began a career as a newspaper man and politician. He was a founder of the Republican party and served in congress from 1863 through 1876, serving as speaker for much of the time. In 1876 Helen Maxima Heard he was appointed to the senate, where he served until 1881. He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1876, but lost to Rutherford B. Hayes, largely due to the taint of a railroad graft scandal that was to haunt him throughout his career. He tried again in 1880, but lost to James A. Garfield. He became Garfield's secretary of state, but resigned in 1881 when Garfield was shot. Nominated for president in 1884, he lost to Grover Cleaveland. In 1888 he refused candidacy and helped Benjamin Harrison get nominated. When Harrison won, Blaine again became Secretary of State: 1889-1892. In 1889 Amy wrote to her friend Mrs. Blaine asking her to urge her husband to "do something" for AH. Blaine was disposed to help, but wished to know what sort of thing AH had in mind. AH traveled to Washington to discuss the matter, and after being somewhat put off finally spoke with Blaine. What transpired seems to be that AH requested the position of minister to China, but Blaine refused observing that China was the most important position in all of Asia and required a seasoned diplomat. He offerred instead a position as Consul in Hong Kong or China, but AH seemed to think a Consular position beneath him. Given his financial hardship at the time, his failed business, and his complete lack of experience outside the business world, this suggests that AH might not have been an easy personality to deal with. His letters generally indicate constant depression and unhappiness. Blaine then asked AH if http://www-ee.stanford.edu/~gray/html/amykorea/amykorea_1.html 11/4/2007 Max & Max -- Preface Page 2 of 3 he knew anything of "Corea," to which AH replied he did not. Blaine offerred him the position as Minister and General Consul. AH was again reluctant, but after considering and discussing the matter for a few days accepted. His letters thereafter give full and grateful credit for Amy's assistance in gaining the post. AH served in Korea from July 1890 through his resignation in March 1893 during the rule of King Kojong during a time of much intrigue and political maneuvering among China, Japan, the European states, Russia, and the U.S. for influence in Korea. Kojong, also called Li Hsi or Li Hi, came indirectly to the throne at the age of twelve when in 1864 King Ch'olchong died without an heir and his widow adopted the young boy with royal blood, and placed him on the throne. His father, Prince Yi Hungson, became regent with the title "Taewongun" or Prince Parent. The Taewongun despised foreigners and would continually cause trouble and foment revolution for the remainder of his life[5]. Kojong assumed real power when he came of age in 1873. He remained King until 1897 when he became emperor until his death in 1907. Kojong proved to be weak and passive, but kind and courteous and deeply religious. In contrast, his wife, Queen Min Myongsong, had a strong personality and assisted her husband in escaping the influence of the Taewongun. She, too, would cause great controversy during her career and would finally die at the hands of Japanese assassins. Her family, the Min, exerted strong influence in the Korean government during Heard's tenure. Korea was then officially newly independent of China, but China viewed her as a "vassle state" while the Western nations tried to encourage her to act independently. In the midst of all of this Japan was preparing an invasion of Korea, which occurred after AH's departure and the occupation lasted until the end of World War II. While in Korea AH's daughter Max wrote Amy regularly, describing the difficulties of life in Seoul. The mail was picked up and received roughly every ten days, SO that many of the letters show the stress of last minute writing to IL Shanghai. catch the mail before it left. Her father wrote the state department often and he is quoted often in Balance of Intrigue: International Rivalry in Maximilian von Brandt Korea and Manchuria 1884-1899, by G. A. Lensen[5]. Max's letters describe ordinary life among the European diplomatic community, as well as visits to meet the royal family and a tour of China. Her romance with Maximillian August von Brandt, the German minister to China, is described in some detail. Brandt was 32 years her senior, but he is transformed from an elegant importunate old man to a gentle and passionate lover as time progresses. They married in Seoul against the Kaiser's wishes, SO Brandt was sacked and recalled to Germany, whither Max went with him. In a long letter in May 1893 from the Oldenburg in the Malacca straits Max described her marriage in detail and lists her wedding presents. When they returned to Germany Brandt wrote books and the two became the equivalent of local nobility. They had one child, Elizabeth, who later married Alexander von Shimpff, a journalist and reservist in the German Army. He was called up and sent to Africa with Rommel, where he was eventually captured and sent to a POW camp in Virginia. I met his son, Peter Alexander von Shimpff in http://www-ee.stanford.edu/~gray/html/amykorea/amykorea_1.html 11/4/2007 Max & Max -- Preface Page 3 of 3 Max Heard in 1908 in Weimar Max, Max, and Elizabeth (age 15) Frankfurt in 1997. The photos of Max and Max were obtained from in Weimar, 1913 him. This is a work in progress, and that progress is slow. I hope to steadily transcribe and translate the letters and provide background information for the intriguing romance portrayed in the letters. Letters in French are transcribed directly, with only obvious (to me) faults corrected. Max's French was not perfect, but it was generally pretty good SO I have usually left it alone. French words interlaced in the English letters have been left alone, and French expressions that are common in English are left alone in the translated French letters. Question marks denote words or phrases I was not able to decipher or about which I had serious doubts. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of this project has been to decipher the handwriting of my great grandfather Augustine Heard, whose handwriting has to be the most illegible I have ever encountered. He admits the problem and blames it on illness, but he seemed to do little to remedy it. Many words are abbreviated and run together, i's are only occasionally dotted and t's crossed, and words are run together. Punctuation is often lacking and entire phrases seem to be only undulating wiggles, with no distinguishible letters within them. Perhaps this provides the primary connection with my profession, which is strongly involved with pattern recognition. I think I can safely say that such transcriptions are well beyond the capabilities of the most powerful modern computers, and that is unlikely to change in the next few decades. Acknowledgements I am indebted to many individuals who have provided me with information, articles, and photographs after they chanced on my Website and contacted me. In particular I gratefully acknowledge the many historical tidbits and photos provided by Robert Neff, who is writing a book on Korean history in the second half of the nineteenth century, John Shufelt, who is writing a book on General LeGendre and who kindly brought to my attention the work of Harold Joyce Noble (1903-1953) and provided me a copy of his own notes on Noble's papers, and Jean Brown, who provided me with information on Clarence Greathouse and his mother Elizabeth. Such new contacts as these have added to the fun of editing these letters and exploring their contents. Preface http://www-ee.stanford.edu/~gray/html/amykorea/amykorea_1.html 11/4/2007 Max & Max -- References Page 1 of 1 References References [1] Mrs. James G. Blaine. The Letters of Mrs. James G. Blaine. Duffield, New York, 1908. Edited by H.S.B. Beale. [2] Jean Brown. private communication. 2002. [3] Harold J.Noble. The former foreign settlements in korea. American Journal of International Law, 28(4), October 1929. [4] Allen Johnson, editor. Dictionary of American Biography, volume 3. Charles Scriner's Sons, New York, 1931. [5] G.A. Lensen. Balance of Intrigue: International Rivalry in Korea and Manchuria 1884-1899, volume I,II. University Presses of Florida, Tallahassee, 1982. [6] Robert Neff. Private communications. 2002. [7] Ameilia Ransome Neville. The Fantastic City: Memoirs of the Social and Romantic Life of Old San Francisco. Houghton Mifflin Company, Riverside Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1932. Edited by Virginia Brastow, http://www.zpub.com/sf50/sf/hbtfcidx.htm [8] Harold Joyce Noble. Korea and her relations with the united states before 1895. PhD Dissertation, U.C. Berkeley, 1931. [9] Sterling Seagrave. Dragon Lady: The life and legend of the last empress of china. Vintage Books, New York, 1992. References http://www-ee.stanford.edu/~gray/html/amykorea/amykorea_7.html 11/4/2007 Amy Heard: Letters from the Gilded Age Introduction Page 1 of 3 Introduction Introduction Amy Heard was born on 7 October 1860 in Paris, the month before the election of Abraham Lincoln and the year before the outbreak of the American Civil War. She was christened Amelia, but never used the name. She was the second child of Augustine Heard, at the time a well known China merchant, and Jane Leaps de Coninck, the daughter of a Belgian Diplomat. Augustine went to China following his graduation from Harvard in 1847 to serve with his uncle and namesake, Augustine Heard, the founder of Augustine Heard and Co. month Amy Heard in 1862, Paris Augustine Heard Jane Leaps Heard Like his brothers John, Albert Farley, and George Farley, young Augustine was a senior partner of the largely family controlled firm and was reputed to be the first American permitted to trade in Siam (1855). Augustine took over leadership of the firm in 1852 from his older brother John, and directed the company until John's return in 1855 or 1857, when Augustine moved to Paris as a representative of AH& Co. He married Jane Leaps de Coninck in April 1858, and they had a reputation for living in grand style. The family still traveled during this time and Amy's younger sister Helen Maxima (Max) was born in 1868 in Hong Kong, then the headquarters of Augustine Heard and Company. Jane's parents were François DeConinck and Amalia Williams Taylor. François served as the Belgian Consul in Havana. Amalia was born in Baltimore in May 1806, the daughter of Lemuel Taylor and Mary Wheatly Williams. Taylor was a Baltimore merchant who lost his fortune in 1816-1818 when he lost several cargoes in his West Indies trade. In 1821 he started fresh and moved to Cuba, where eventually he became owner of Sta Amelia, a sugar plantation in the Cilizo district between Matanzas and Cárdenas. François and Amailia were married at the Sta Amelia plantation on 16 June 1831 and subsequently had four children: François, Jane Leaps, who was born in Cuba in May 1832, Mary Taylor, who was born in 1833 and died in Cuba in 1886, and Amalia, born in 1835 and died in October 1884. http://www-ee.stanford.edu/~gray/html/amy/amy_3.htm 11/4/2007 Amy Heard: Letters from the Gilded Age Introduction Page 2 of 3 Mary Taylor de Coninck married Thomas Johnson of Baltimore in 1881, as described in the notes herein. Amalia married Francois Pilletur. Amy spent most of her first ten years in Paris and moved with her parents to the U.S. to live in Washington, DC, in 1870. Although centered in Washington, DC, the family still traveled as she had portraits in Brighton in 1876 and in Biarritz in 1877. As recession turned to depression in the early 1870s, Augustine Heard and Company went out of business in 1875 and the family had to learn to live on a much reduced income. Augustine Heard apparently moved to Washington with the hope of gaining a government diplomatic position based on his extensive experience in China. As is told in these pages, he eventually succeeded, but not in the way he wished. In the mean time, the family travels to Europe and to the playgrounds of the wealthy in the U.S. such as Newport and Bar Harbor seemed expressly designed to find good matches for the daughters, Amy and Max. Amy lived with her parents until November 1886, although she often traveled to visit friends or spend summers with her friends. As told in the letters and commentary, she found a husband and in 1886 she married Russell Gray, from Boston, who was ten years her senior. Gray was trained as a lawyer at Harvard, but never practiced law. He was the son of Horace Gray, who founded the Boston Public Gardens with his donation of tulips, and Sarah Russell Gardner, an aunt of John Lowell Amy Heard in 1877, Biaritz "Jack" Gardner, the husband of Isabella Stuart Gardner. During her time in Washington, D.C., Amy was an active participant in the political and diplomatic social scene. During her trips away from Washington and after her move to Boston she carried on an active correspondence with friends and family. Her parents remained in Washington, until 1890 when her father was appointed the U.S. minister (the equivalent of a modern ambassador) to Korea, a story that will be told here. Amy and Russell lived in Boston thereafter. Russell died in 1929 and Amy died in 1949. The letters tell many related stories and form a window into another era. Perhaps the primary story is the Murchison affair, which may have cost an American preisident his reelection and resulted in the British Minister being recalled and a break in relations between the U.S. and Great Britain. The life of Victoria Josephine Sackville-West, who would later become Lady Sackville, is illustrated during her Washington days. She was the mother of the writer Victoria )Sackville-West and she was famous on her own, both because of her fascinating life and her powerful personality. Less well known is her younger sister, Amalia, who in these pages is more real than in any books I have found. Some of the most famous diplomats and politicians of the time appear, including the Spanish novelist, poet, and diplomat Juan Valera. When he announced his impending departure from Washington, Catharine Bayard, the daughter of the US Secretary of State, committed suicide. The attraction of this 60 year old renaissanse man to young women in their twenties is apparent in the letters. Transcriptions of the original French were added in summer 2005 and as a result many errors of translation were corrected. In the future I hope to start adding more letters from others of my grandmother's correspondents who are mentioned here. Robert M. Gray, September 23, 2005 The gentle Americans (1965), PP. 144-150. http://www-ee.stanford.edu/~gray/html/amy/amy_3.html 11/4/2007 4/14/2020 Amy Heard Gray (1860-1949) - Find A Grave Memorial ? Find A GRaVE Amy Heard Gray BIRTH 7 Oct 1860 Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA DEATH 18 May 1949 (aged 88) Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA BURIAL Mount Auburn Cemetery Photo added by Sharon Lavash Hawkins Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA PLOT Hemlock Path, Lot 1087 MEMORIAL ID 137010798 Family Members Parents Spouse ? Augustine Russell Heard Gray 1827-1905 1860-1929 ? Jane Leep Deconinck Heard Note: Amy dined c unknown- Charles and llary Dorr Added by Sharon Lavash Hawkins 1899 and Dr. + Mamie Watson and Mr. + Mrs. Barrett Children Wendell, 12/10/1886. Horace Gray 1887-1965 4/14/2020 Amy Heard Gray (1860-1949) - Find A Grave Memorial Inscription Russell Gray Son of & Ada Gray Born In Boston June 17, 1860 Died At Boston June 7, 1929 And His Wife Amy Heard Added by Sharon Lavash Hawkins Born In Boston October 7, 1860 Died At Boston May 18, 1949 Gravesite Details Interred June 7, 1949 Created by: Sharon Lavash Hawkins Added: 9 Oct 2014 Find a Grave Memorial 137010798 Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 14 April 2020), memorial page for Amy Heard Gray (7 Oct 1860- 18 May 1949), Find a Grave Memorial no. 137010798, citing Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA; Maintained by Sharon Lavash Hawkins (contributor 47124807) Copyright © 2020 Find a Grave 12/7/2020 Xfinity Connect Re_Heard Family Printout Robert M Gray 11/28/2020 5:38 PM Re: Heard Family To RONALD EPP Copy Robert M Gray Hi Ron Very good to hear from you again. I did score a copy of your book. It was not easy. It is in my queue. It looks great I will look at the Heard Letters mention when I get it. I am familiar with several batches of Heard letters, the main collections being the Baker Library at Harvard and a smaller collection at the Ipswich Museum. Sadly, their historian, Pat Tyler, died a few years ago and no one at the Ipswich Museum really has a clue about them anymore. I also have a collection of a couple of hundred or so of a small part of the family, my grandmother Amy Heard, her sister Max, and their parents. So I think I have a good idea of the family if I need to track down any names, my uncle did a thorough genealogy and another descendent wrote a professional quality of the family a few decades ago. We are doing OK so far. cheers, bob On Nov 28, 2020, at 5:01 PM, RONALD EPP < eppster2@comcast.net> wrote: Hi Bob, I ran across a few phrases regarding the Heard family that I cannot situate contextually. The chief executor of the George B. Dorr estate heads a committee charged with creating a Dorr Memorial and distributing Dorr's assets, a process that took Judge John A. Peters of Ellsworth ME more than 3 years, dear friend that he was. I was part of a team that discovered the Peters archive in 2008 in an abandoned attic above the offices of his successors, where it still exists unaltered. We were permitted to copy what was relevant to my biography of Dorr-by the way have you secured a copy of Creating Acadia National Park, if not I will send. https://connect.xfinity.com/appsuite/v=7.10.3-14.20201117.062951/print.html?print_1607348881449 1/2 12/7/2020 Xfinity Connect Re_Heard Family Printout You will see in the following email a 4-page letter from fellow Dorr executor Mary Newbold Hale, wife of the Boston legal titan, references to Heard letters. Can you decipher and contextualize for me? Is this something that you have seen before? This issue I did not pursue more than a decade ago when other matters were more pressing. Stay safe and cozy during the holidays. Hopefully we will be able to see one another in the Spring! Ron Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D. 7 Peachtree Terrace Farmington, CT 06032 717-272-0801 eppster2@comcast.net https://connect.xfinity.com/appsuite/v=7.10.3-14.20201117.062951/print.html?print_1607348881449 2/2 12/7/2020 Xfinity Connect Followup _ Heard Family Printout Robert M Gray 11/29/2020 6:54 PM Followup Re: Heard Family To RONALD EPP Copy Robert M Gray It finally sunk in why the Dorr name was familiar. After sending my earlier email I finally did a search of my own writings on Amy Heard and realized she had stayed at the Dorr household on Commonwealth Ave, and then with the Dorrs in Mt. Desert, and it was there that Russell Gray wooed and then proposed to her during a visit to Mt Desert (according to Amy's Journal) in September 1886. I saw them both on the guest list when I visited the Historical Society. many years ago. I also (re) discovered that Russell Gray was a distant cousin of GBD's mother via Billy Gray, but I suspect we talked about that long ago. Interesting that both the Grays and the Heards were connected to the Dorrs prior to the Gray-Heard marriage. Mrs Endicott I see is also mentioned in the letters you sent me, and she was also a friend of Amy's. bob https://connect.xfinity.com/appsuite/v=7.10.3-14.20201117.062951/print.html?print_1607349162280 1/1 12/7/2020 Xfinity Connect Re_Heard photo Printout Robert M Gray 11/29/2020 12:17 PM Re: Heard photo To RONALD Copy Robert M Gray Hi Ron I printed the letters and spent some time calling on my skills for deciphering handwriting. The missing stuff on the right margins of the right-hand pages lowered my data a bit. My conclusion is that the reference is to "Ward letters" not "Heard letters," Granted it looks a little like "He" in front of "ard" in both occurrences, but only "W" makes sense (and if you stare at it a little you should see it) because 1) there was no "Martha Heard" at the time according to extensive Heard genealogies (including Hanson's and the ones in my family), and, more importantly, 2) "Martha ?ard" is followed by "Mrs. Dorr's sister , G.B.D's aunt" which means it must be Martha Ann Ward who married a guy named Dexter. Of course the latter information came from your book. Hope this helps. Was the stuff you underlined in red stuff you were emphasizing or stuff you wanted me to transcribe? cheers, bobb On Nov 29, 2020, at 10:00 AM, RONALD wrote: Bob, The are the pages. Image 1 starts on right then page 2 follows on left. Image 2 is of pages three and four. R. Sent from Xfinity ConnectApplication https://connect.xfinity.com/appsuite/v=7.10.3-14.20201117.062951/print.html?print_160734911850 1/2