1836 Mobile Shipping and Commercial List [WITH] 1836 letter detailing damage and shortage of Cotton due to heavy rains, the War in Texas, and Indian hostilities in Florida

Mobile, 1836. Paper. Good. Paper. 11" x 9". Folded. 4 pages. Paper has additional folds. Printed "Mobile Shipping and Commercial List" located on page one; blank page two; written letter page three; and an address on page four. Small punctures on the far edge through the paper. A hole from opening the letter with minor loss of letters in one word located on pages three and four. Another small hole on a fold pages 3 and 4 with no loss of letters. Good condition.

Letter written to a presumed customer J. E. Cones, Esq. in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Signed at bottom "McLoskey & Hagan Co." McLoskey and Hagan Company write of this years difficulties (truncated) in the production of Cotton stating that the crop for this year will not match that of previous years. The letter is transcribed below. Several words were difficult to transcribe and as a result some of the meaning is lost in translation:

Mail
Portsmouth
J E Cones Esq

Mobile 2 July 1836

Dear Sir

Complaints from the Interior of this & other Cotton growing Stats (or States) of the Injury done by the heavy rains & f??? continue to reach us

? the waters have ruined whole fields have been ploughed up & planted with Corn The war in Texas & Indian difficulties in Florida have almost entirely prevented planting in those quarters & altho the disturbance in the frontier of our State are nearly at an end The ? has ? during whist? the ? of hostilities most? have benefitted the Planter

From the view we take of the prospects of the growing cotton crops sensible as we are an item from the sources whence a large increase was expected a mention? of the product is now more than probable we have doubts as during ? ? that the crop of the U S in 36/37 will not equal that of 35/36 What with in ? provability each 1330 m Bales

Exch on Ey?????
We are y????

[Signed] McLoskey Hagan Co. From the Mobile Bay Magazine:

In regards to Philip McLoskey: "...By about 1823, Mobile was beginning to make its mark as a major cotton port, and McLoskey was and had been a director of the Bank of Mobile. In 1836, he formed and was president of the Planters and Merchants Bank and built its beautiful building, which burned on October 9, 1839, in the great fire that took 1,300 Mobile buildings. McLoskey’s bank, however, had a fireproof vault. McLoskey and a man named John Hagan then formed a partnership, and according to a contemporary, their “house did the largest business in Mobile in buying cotton, shipping and importing,” and they were “buyers and importers of fine wines.” They traded with Brown Brothers & Company of New York, one of the largest international merchant banking houses in the U.S. in the 19th century. The McLoskey & Hagan buildings were on the north side of Conti and east of Royal Street. Unfortunately, after the fire of 1837 and the panic of 1839, the Planter’s and Merchant’s Bank failed in 1842. A stockholder’s committee listed as causes extravagant loans to individuals, monetary stringency at the time, excessive salaries paid to bank officers, stiff annual fees paid to the state and more..." McLoskey was also involved in a famous scandal involving the widow and family of Captain Duvall, a famous Mobile figure. The legal case concerned large tracts of land in downtown Mobile the rightful heirs to the property.

From wikipedia:

John Hagan (died June 8, 1856) was a well-known[1][2] American interstate slave trader who operated slave jails in both Charleston and New Orleans, as well as maintaining strong business and personal ties to the Richmond slave markets.[3][4] He partnered with his brothers Hugh Hagan and Alexander Hagan, as well as with his maternal uncles, Hugh McDonald and Alexander McDonald.[4] John Hagan was also a cotton factor, meaning he ran a cotton brokerage and de facto private bank and business office for cotton plantation owners.[5]

According to historian Walter Johnson, "John Hagan's yearly routine began in Charleston with slave buying during June and July; he continued in Virginia and then was back in Charleston in September, still buying, before traveling to New Orleans in October."[1] Hagan was both a shipper and consignee (intended recipient) of enslaved people who were on the Creole in 1841.[6] Before he died in 1856 he worked assiduously to manumit a young enslaved woman from Virginia named Lucy Ann Cheatam, and her two children, Frederika Bremer "Dolly" Cheatam and William Lowndes Cheatam.[4] He also provided bequests of cash and real estate for her in two versions of his will.[4] Per historian Alexandra J. Finley, these children, and two others who died young, were almost certainly Hagan's biological offspring.[4]. (Inventory #: 34818)