UnderMiner
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Rare Silver Spoon from NYC's Five Points
(Forgive me for I seem to have written a short history presentation during the making of this post for some reason)
Dug up a rare early American coin silver spoon today at a park in NYC. The spoon is stamped "A.C. Benedict 28 Bowery", from this information I discovered the fascinating history behind it. It was made by Andrew Comstock Benedict between the years 1836 and 1846 at a little jeweler's shop located at 28 Bowery within NYC's 6th Ward. This is interesting because the 6th Ward was also home to the notorious Five Points neighborhood, the Old Brewery tenement, the Bowery Boys, and the Dead Rabbits street gangs.
(This is a little map from 1842 NYC with location information that I placed on it pertaining to this artifact to aid in understanding what it was like to live in the area back then)
According to city records, Andrew Benedict was born on January 25th 1802 in New Canaan, Connecticut and married his wife, Eliza Sloat, on September 12th 1827. In 1828 Benedict and his business partner, Egbert Scudder, opened their jewelry shop at 28 Bowery where they operated as "Scudder and Benedict", these names also appear on the products they produced together until 1836.
In 1836 Scudder parted ways and opened his own shop further uptown at 85 Bowery. His move may have been spurred on in part by the increasing crime as well as the July 1834 Anti-Abolition riots that caused widespread damage to homes and business in the 6th Ward. The 85 Bowery location was in a much safer neighborhood in comparison.
From 1836 onward all products produced by Benedict would be stamped "A.C. Benedict 28 Bowery, N.Y.". Benedict may have felt safe because a few steps away from his shop was the 26 Bowery headquarters of the Bowery Boys, a Nativist anti-catholic anti-Irish gang of young men who sought to preserve the neighborhood from 'the invading Irish hoards'. It is not too hard to imagine Benedict, as a native himself, being connected in some way to the Bowery Boys.
Benedict continued to work at the 28 Bowery location manufacturing jewelry, watches, and silver spoons until he closed the shop in 1846. Benedict died in 1862.
This is Benedict's paper advertisement that he put in the watches he sold.
Benedict may have closed down his shop becasue of the increasing danger of running a jewelry shop at the 28 Bowery location. The Five Points neighborhood, which was soon to be infamous for its crime, had been steadily becoming more and more dangerous and Benedict's shop was right in the thick of it. The crime rate was exploding between 1827 through to the 1860's. This was becasue the Five Points was being inundated with poor immigrants from Ireland as well as recently freed and/or fugitive black slaves.
('Bandit's Roost', within the Five Points)
The most immigrants began arriving after the 1845 Irish Potato Famine struck, leading to hundreds of thousands of Irish immigrants to flood into the city seeking a respite from the famine. This also lead to the Five Points becoming the murder capital of the world with the Old Brewery tenement becoming known as "Murder Ally" and the "Den of Thieves". (According to historian Herbert Asbury, demolition crews found human bones in the cellars and within the walls of the structure during its destruction in 1853).
Anyway, I digress about the history of the area. The spoon itself looks like it was hit by something while it was in the ground or perhaps beforehand (maybe a casualty of the lawlessness and looting of the Draft Riots that befell the city in 1863 perhaps or was just lost during a peaceful summer picnic). I carefully straitened it out, cleaned it, and used it to prepare some tea for the first time in probably over 100 years.
As came out of ground:
After straitening and polishing:
(Forgive me for I seem to have written a short history presentation during the making of this post for some reason)
Dug up a rare early American coin silver spoon today at a park in NYC. The spoon is stamped "A.C. Benedict 28 Bowery", from this information I discovered the fascinating history behind it. It was made by Andrew Comstock Benedict between the years 1836 and 1846 at a little jeweler's shop located at 28 Bowery within NYC's 6th Ward. This is interesting because the 6th Ward was also home to the notorious Five Points neighborhood, the Old Brewery tenement, the Bowery Boys, and the Dead Rabbits street gangs.
(This is a little map from 1842 NYC with location information that I placed on it pertaining to this artifact to aid in understanding what it was like to live in the area back then) According to city records, Andrew Benedict was born on January 25th 1802 in New Canaan, Connecticut and married his wife, Eliza Sloat, on September 12th 1827. In 1828 Benedict and his business partner, Egbert Scudder, opened their jewelry shop at 28 Bowery where they operated as "Scudder and Benedict", these names also appear on the products they produced together until 1836.
In 1836 Scudder parted ways and opened his own shop further uptown at 85 Bowery. His move may have been spurred on in part by the increasing crime as well as the July 1834 Anti-Abolition riots that caused widespread damage to homes and business in the 6th Ward. The 85 Bowery location was in a much safer neighborhood in comparison.
From 1836 onward all products produced by Benedict would be stamped "A.C. Benedict 28 Bowery, N.Y.". Benedict may have felt safe because a few steps away from his shop was the 26 Bowery headquarters of the Bowery Boys, a Nativist anti-catholic anti-Irish gang of young men who sought to preserve the neighborhood from 'the invading Irish hoards'. It is not too hard to imagine Benedict, as a native himself, being connected in some way to the Bowery Boys.
Benedict continued to work at the 28 Bowery location manufacturing jewelry, watches, and silver spoons until he closed the shop in 1846. Benedict died in 1862.
This is Benedict's paper advertisement that he put in the watches he sold. Benedict may have closed down his shop becasue of the increasing danger of running a jewelry shop at the 28 Bowery location. The Five Points neighborhood, which was soon to be infamous for its crime, had been steadily becoming more and more dangerous and Benedict's shop was right in the thick of it. The crime rate was exploding between 1827 through to the 1860's. This was becasue the Five Points was being inundated with poor immigrants from Ireland as well as recently freed and/or fugitive black slaves.
('Bandit's Roost', within the Five Points)The most immigrants began arriving after the 1845 Irish Potato Famine struck, leading to hundreds of thousands of Irish immigrants to flood into the city seeking a respite from the famine. This also lead to the Five Points becoming the murder capital of the world with the Old Brewery tenement becoming known as "Murder Ally" and the "Den of Thieves". (According to historian Herbert Asbury, demolition crews found human bones in the cellars and within the walls of the structure during its destruction in 1853).
Anyway, I digress about the history of the area. The spoon itself looks like it was hit by something while it was in the ground or perhaps beforehand (maybe a casualty of the lawlessness and looting of the Draft Riots that befell the city in 1863 perhaps or was just lost during a peaceful summer picnic). I carefully straitened it out, cleaned it, and used it to prepare some tea for the first time in probably over 100 years.
As came out of ground:
After straitening and polishing:
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