I recently picked up an 1863 C Doscher, 241 Washington St. N. Y. "Not One Cent" with an Indian Head obverse. The seller ID'ed it as Fuld #630v-2a1. I'm trying to find some more information about who C Doscher was and what type of business he had on Washington St back in 1863. Anyone have a suggestion where I might be able to find that info?
I've seen his tokens for sale from time to time, and some sellers have described him as a grocer and liquor seller. I have no idea where that information comes from.
Here one on the *bay in Singapore with a buy it now of $150! That's what he's wantin' fer it, anyway.
I have access to NY City directories of the day, George. I'll be glad to see what I can find out about him. I'll try to get something to you by tomorrow. Bruce
I didn't look through all these references to get Doscher details, but there's plenty of info available: http://www.tokenarchive.com/?q=doscher
Here's what i have on Doscher, George. As John Anthony said, he was both a grocer and liquor seller. Claus Doscher appeared in the 1862 New York City directory as a grocer. It's a bit confusing why he used 241 Washington St. on his card. This was actually his home address, his business being located at 305 Washington. It's hard to tell when he first went into the grocery business, as neither of these two addresses appeared in earlier directories connected to him. That and the fact that there were a number of Claus or Charles Doschers listed, some also liquor or grocery sellers, makes it even more confusing. By 1863 he had become a liquor dealer, and in 1864 listed his business locations as both 241 and 305 Washington St. Believe it or not, by 1866 there were three different C. Doschers in the liquor trade. A Claus at 204 Fulton, "your" Claus still at the same two locations, and a wine dealer named C. Doscher at the corner of E. 46th St. and 2nd Ave. Talk about confusion. I traced him until 1870, but didn't think it was necessary to go any further. Hope this helps. Bruce
Bruce > That's amazing! Also, not so surprising that there were numerous people (possibly in the same family) all involved in the liquor trade in that time period. During the time between the Civil War and Temperance, it would be hard to find 3 merchants *not* involved in the liquor trade in some way.
Maybe it's just my browser, but that site ( http://www.tokenarchive.com/?q=doscher ) Doesn't seem to load properly. Is it supposed to be something other than a set of links to current auctions with the keyword "Doscher" in them? I mean, it doesn't seem like anyone would try and post an auction aggregator link on these forums, so I'm trying to assume good will and figure out what I'm missing.
When it's nothing but a way to search eBay (and gets the website revenue for referring traffic) it doesn't really add anything to a research effort. Not sure, but I wonder how the mods feel?