Trade Token Help

[cambria09]

Hello All. I found this token at an 1880's home site and it defies description. I dug it yesterday near Clermont, FL. A couple of hours of internet searching has yielded almost no info. I did find a picture of a 50-cent version on an internet token data base but no additional info was provided.

LMK if you can enlighten me on this trade token's origin and vintage. Thanks very much and HH. C9

 

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[Mackaydon]

Another one, similar to yours but 50 cents instead of $1.00 was found by a man named Andrew Sexton while MD-ing in central Florida--possibly near Clermont Florida, the same area as where you are. Perhaps you might try to find him--or--are you the same person?
Don.....
PS: In 1894, a lawsuit was filed (as shown in 'The Southeastern Reports' for that year) against this same name in Sumter Co., So. Carolina regarding stolen farm crops etc. Perhaps the token came from that area.
D.

 

[Bramblefind]

This is an interesting find I think it could be company script for a Naval Store / Turpentine farm.

See this link:

A Sticky Situation: The Turpentine Industry in North Florida

If they were paid (which would not include the leased convicts), usually they would receive their pay in the form of company script or coin. This could only be used at the company commissary, where they could also purchase items on credit.

Then a comment below:

I realize this blog is a year old, but I hope you receive this message. I wonder if you could point me in the direction of any information on a Naval Store operating in Lynne, FL in 1899. It would have been run (and owned?) by Daniel Graham Crenshaw, my great great grandfather, and I believe my great grandfather Edward Herndon McNeill may have worked for him. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

In the 1900 census Daniel Crenshaw is shown in Grahamville, Marion, Florida as having a Naval Store. His birthplace is South Carolina so that could also be connected to Don's reference from there.

I found a reference in the Tampa Tribune 12/17/1905 that says "Mr. Musselwhite has sold to Mr. D.G. Crenshaw a turpentine farm near Sanford for $42,250."

 

[ModernMiner]

Here is the one Mackaydon mentioned I believe:

D.G. CRENSHAW & CO. / NOT / TRANSFERABLE / BY CONSENT (TC-312307) Unknown, U.S.A.

Nice find.
-MM-

 

[cambria09]

This is an interesting find I think it could be company script for a Naval Store / Turpentine farm.

See this link:

A Sticky Situation: The Turpentine Industry in North Florida


Hello Bramblefind. Nice! I think you nailed it! I have been researching this as a Clermont, FL merchantile token and not so much by the name "D. G. Crenshaw" no wonder I was not finding a lot of info. It is not really a trade token at all and is more like a commissary note in lieu of or instead of pay, hence (as wife points out) the "By Consent" bit.

Your post tip has opened up a whole new arena of extremely interesting historical significance to this piece. Thank you!!!

I have found a double-combined $#!+ load of data regarding post Cival War indigents, convicts, immigrants, and poor blacks and whites basically being conscripted into questionable, to put it mildly, hard labor.

In days of sailing ships, turpentine "farms" provided the base for resins, paints, and chemicals used to preserve rope, timber, sails and etc. employed in the maritime industrial biz...and it looks like business was good...especially if you could trap your "staff" into services and merchandise instead of fair hourly pay. It also spawned another whole industry of equipment needed to collect, store, and process the commodity...pine tree sap. Then there were the narrow gauge railways contructed and maitained to transport the stuff.

I have heard of this part of Florida's history but never found much significantly connected with it. I often find pieces of clay turpentine pots and I do have a complete pot in my coolection. The owner of a Central FL farmsite where I used to detect gave it to me. He said he had 100's of them and found them all time as a kid. Back in the day workers would hang these from nails on pine trees to collect the sap after chipping the bark away. See pic.



Anyway sorry for the long reply, but this piece, if authentic as described, will go in my top (25) special finds...maybe my top (10). Being worth a buck of merchandise in 1890's, it must have been valued highly, that explains the small hole the piece for safe keeping on a string around the short-time owner's neck. To know that a conscipt, convict, former slave, or indentured immigrant may have owned this thing is over the top.

Thanks again and may the finds be with you.
Sincerely, C9

 

[cudamark]

Cool find and an interesting story from the research!

 

[idahotokens]

Nice token! And great research. Would you be willing to post (or have posted) your pics to TokenCatalog.com
John in the Great 208

 

[vic910]

Nice find! Love learning the history behind the finds!

 

[PearlieMae]

Cambria09 do you still have this? Daniel G Crenshaw was my great great grandfather, and I'm the person quoted in the Bramblefind's comment below! It makes sense you found it in Clermont, that was the last place he lived, at the turn of the century. He was a very prominent man. I would pay you for this! It would mean so much to our family. From the Ocala Evening Star

 

[PearlieMae]

Mackaydon do you know how to contact this man Andrew Sexton? See my message to cambria09.
P.S. I would also like to hear more about the SC incident!
I sure hope everyone will see my posts! It's been over 4 years.

 

[BigWaveDave]

Chris, AKA Cambria09, is a good guy, and he will see this post prolly tonight or tomorrow....
Hope he still has the token.....
This is exciting!

 

[Mackaydon]

PearlieMae,
The source for my reference to Andrew Sexton was found here: D.G. CRENSHAW & CO. / NOT / TRANSFERABLE / BY CONSENT (TC-312307) Unknown, U.S.A.
You may wish to contact 'tokencatalog.com' for information regarding how to locate Mr. Sexton.
Don.......

 

[PearlieMae]

Ah yes Don, of course I see it now! I did go to your link, but I didn't read closely enough. I'll try that, thanks! Wish me luck.
~Lyn

 

[PearlieMae]

Thanks BigWaveDave I am really excited too!
~Lyn

 

[Davers]

Good Luck
PearlieMae..

 

[PearlieMae]

Here is a picture of Daniel Graham Crenshaw, circa 1900.