Correspondence,, 1861-1915

Summary: Correspondence of Ferdinand W. Roebling with friends, family members and with other personnel at John A. Roebling's Sons Company.

Subjects covered include Ferdinand W.'s involvement with the family-owned and operated wire rope business in Trenton, New Jersey, including initial plans for its expansion; Ferdinand W.'s involvement with local politics, organizations and charities; real estate and other investments; and his personal interests in hunting, farming, and horse breeding. Included in the correspondence are incoming and outgoing letters, telegrams, memoranda and circular flyers. Featured are letters from John A. Roebling, Wilhelm A. Roebling, and John A. Roebling's Sons Company associates Edwin L. Alexander and William H. Hildenbrand. Includes a few letters from Washington at the front during the Civil War which appear to not have been included in the transcript books. Correspondence from other family members includes letters from Charles Gustavus Roebling; Anton Gottlieb Methfessel; Laura Roebling Methfessel; Elvira Roebling; Josephine Roebling Jarvis; cousins J. Meissner and E. Meissner; and a single letter from Ferdinand W.'s father-in-law, Thomas S. Allison.

Correspondence from John A. Roebling, dated 1863-1869, discusses work on the Cincinnati-Covington Bridge (completed in 1867), the family's wire rope business in Trenton, and other family business as well as tax concerns. There are also a number of letters from John A. written from Brooklyn between January and July 1869, including 9 written after the June 28 accident which led to his death on July 22. There letters are overwhelmingly concerned with the wire rope business in Trenton.

Correspondence from Washington A. Roebling includes 14 letters written while serving as a Union officer during the Civil War, addressed from Harper's Ferry, and from the Headquarters of the Second and the Fifth Army Corps. Of special interest are letters written by Washington A. and later by Emily Warren from the bridge sites in Cincinnati (1865-1867) and then in Brooklyn. This is the most significant assembly of personal letters written by Washington A. during this period. These letters, in addition to normal business and personal affairs, comment on the progress of the bridge projects, including the building of the towers, cable making, political, financial, and labor issues. Included in this group are the telegrams informing Ferdinand W. of John A's accident and subsequent illness. Washington A. also writes of other construction accidents on the Brooklyn site: for example, October 23, 1870, in which he reports an accident at the building site in which three men were killed. He also reports a personal accident in an underwater caisson in a letter dated January 9, 1871.

Letters beginning from May 1872 start to complain about sickness from working underwater. The following year, 1873, Washington A., together with his wife and youngest brother, Edmund, traveled to Europe (London, Paris and Germany) in search of a cure. His correspondence from there remarks on cable manufacture in London and Europe, art in France, money, the Brooklyn Bridge, his health and the generally dissolute character of his brother, Edmund.

Letters from business associates include correspondence from such long-time family friends as advisor and co-investor Augustus A. Richey. There are also a series of letters written by John A. Roebling's Sons company assistant Edwin L. Alexander. These deal with a number of mundane issues (delivery of paintings and furniture, the purchase of horses, etc.) as well as company business. They also include a series written from Washington, D.C. in March-May 1872, describing Senate negotiations over the steel tariff.

Other business correspondence refers to mining in the Rocky Mountains and South America, as well as company expansion to the West Coast. There is also some minor correspondence concerning railroad investment.

On the personal level there is a single letter from Washington A. 's childhood tutor and long-time family friend, Julius Riedel, discussing the sale of a rifle to Ferdinand W.; and letters from relatives, often asking for financial advice. Some letters from Anton Methfessel (those dated 1865) mention the schooling of Ferdinand W.'s younger brothers, Charles G. and Edmund.

One curious item is an envelope addressed to "Mrs. Felicia Overman," with instructions from John A. Roebling to send her $20 per month in Philadelphia for her rent. Ferdinand W. continued to receive irregular correspondence from Overman throughout the 1870s, the letters addressed from Germany.