67 items of David Bingley of Charleston SC

Item Details

various, various, 1835 to 1909

very good

Archive of the Bingley brothers of Charleston SC & the problems of post Civil War commerce: coal and cotton. 67 items, mostly late 1860s, but embracing 1835 to 1909. All the letters and documents are directed at David P. Bingley and about a third are from his brother Charles Bingley. David P. Bingley (1824-1909) was born in Charleston SC. With his first wife, he had a son Nathaniel, and with his second wife Mary L. Caroline Waver a daughter Marion and a son Henry Edward (1859-1910). His father, David P. Bingley Sr., was given the responsibility of enslaved Negroes in the estate of Edward Bingley who died in 1818. David formed a cotton commission sales partnership with John J. Krauss and Henry E. Dibblee (in a New York City Directory of 1866 they are listed at 18 Murray and at 21 Park Place). They went bankrupt in 1875. David’s brother Charles stayed in the South, Charleston and then Richmond VA, and operated a shipping company. In 1846, he arranged for a French-built vessel to be registered in the US. While trying to regularize the family’s stake in coal mines, he blames his own poor judgment but also the politicians taking advantage of the Negro vote. David, buying Southern cotton and selling on commission has an increasingly difficult time collecting accounts in a collapsing economy post Civil War. The archive is organized in 3 sections: pertaining to coal mines in the South; documenting cotton sales; and personal (see list).