Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="BRandM, post: 3135976, member: 22729"]Joseph and Jacob Stiner became bitter enemies, and at some point...mid 1860s I believe...they dissolved their business relationship, splitting the outlets between them.  They didn't set up territories or divisions. As a matter of fact, "bitter enemies" is putting it mildly. There's a recorded instance of one brother's attempt at stealing a lease opportunity from the other. That wound up in court and became a very messy affair. At other times, they would open rival stores next to or close to each other in direct competition. Later, several family members also became retail tea merchants. Philip, who was Jacob's son, acquired a few stores from Joseph, believe it or not, and a son-in law who had married Joseph's daughter, Esther, also went into the tea business. His name was Moses H. Moses, and would trade under both the M.H.Moses & Co. and the New York & China Tea Co. names. I'm working from memory here as I don't have my notes handy, so I may have the relationship thing a little wrong. The fact of the matter is though, the various Stiner and Moses businesses and relationships were very difficult to track. The letters probably didn't identify individual stores, but who knows for sure, Harley. I never got a sense of that being the case during my research. Bruce[/QUOTE]