ACCOUNTS WITH LEHMAN, DURR, & CO., as recorded in a manuscript notebook, ca. 1881-1901

[Montgomery, AL], 1901. Small notebook, 6 x 3 3/4 inches, containing 75 pages of manuscript financial transactions; ownership stamps of W.O.N. Scott of Washington, D.C., and Owen Scott of Baltimore, Maryland, on upper cover, its verso, and first page. The manuscript entries record taxes paid, the cost of a cotton press, percentage of proceeds from various transactions (leasing of plantation lands and proportional assessments on crops), and New York drafts from Lehman, Durr & Co. in account with Rebecca B. Scott, and later her son W.O.N. Scott; mention is made of the "Plantation Account" and the "Bragg Land Account." All of the transactions are recorded in a neat hand, by W.O.N. Scott; by 1901 he writes that "Mr. Douglass [C. Douglass, manager of Scott property in Alabama] has written informing me that the firm of Lehman, Durr & Co. has closed out their business and has ceased to exist, and, from this time on, my cotton business will be conducted by Marks & Gayle." The defect noted, very good and quite legible. Original paper-backed boards (spine perished). (#6205). Henry Lehman emigrated from Bavaria to Alabama in 1844 and opened a small dry goods and merchandise business in Montgomery; his brothers Emanuel and Mayer later joined him and they began trading goods for cotton with the local plantation owners. By 1858 their business in the commodities trade had grown sufficiently that Emanuel Lehman opened an office in New York City. Near the outset of the Civil War the Lehmans joined business interests with John Wesley Durr who owned a cotton storage warehouse in Montgomery, allowing them to further expand their cotton trading and brokerage business. Though the Civil War affected their business, Lehman, Durr & Co. was able to survive and the Lehman firm in New York was instrumental in the founding of the New York Cotton Exchange in 1870; its close ties with the South gave it a singular advantage during Reconstruction in helping Alabama's government rebuild its financial position. By 1887 Lehman Brothers had become a member of the New York Stock Exchange which marked its transition "from a commodities business to a merchant-banking firm" (see "The History of the Lehman brothers," Harvard Business School, Baker Library). The Montgomery branch of the firm Lehman, Durr & Co. continued in existence, with Durr as president, until his death in 1909. Presumably the note in this account book stating that the firm had "closed out their business" by October, 1901, refers to a transition in the type of business they conducted. The transactions recorded in this notebook are for the affairs of Mrs. Scott (1807-1897); she was the widow of Alfred V. Scott (1803-1860) whose extensive land holdings in Alabama, primarily along the Alabama River and in the city of Montgomery, were inherited from his father General John Scott (1773-1839).