Fonds MSG 1295 - Henry Watts & Co fonds

6.5 cm of textual records

Purchased in 2020 from Caroliniana Rare Books and Manuscripts.

This fonds consists of professional correspondence and some business documents related to Henry Watts & Co, a company that sold land in Alberta to interested people in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. The correspondence includes both external correspondence with clients and internal communication, between employees of Henry Watts & Co as well as employees of Leighton and Gilbert (agents of the Canadian Pacific Irrigation Colonization Company), to whom they were contracted. The internal correspondence includes lists of potential buyers, discussions of plans to recruit more buyers, organizational details for excursions to Alberta to show buyers available land, sales updates, accounting information, changes in legislation that affect the sale of land, and letters documenting hiring. The external correspondence mostly consists of letters from customers seeking information about purchasing land in Canada (especially Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba) or who were interested in visiting available land for sale, with responses containing information about available land, upcoming excursions and about farming in Alberta at this time, including recommendations of profitable crops and farming methods.

The fonds is described at the file level, and is not divided into series. Files are arranged in chronological order. The fonds consists of handwritten and typed letters, typed copies of letters, and telegrams. It also includes some legal and financial documents.