General Elihu Geer

General Elihu Geer

• https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/record.php?id=384268218
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/86802875/elihu_geer

General Geer was a printer in Hartford, Connecticut, well known as the publisher of the city directories. This collection contains Geer's militia papers, business and political correspondence, books of Connecticut militia law, as well as account and memorandum books. Geer rose from Captain to Brigadier General with the first brigade Connecticut militia. He took himself very seriously and encountered issues with Colonel Samuel Cooley, a man with a great deal of political influence but who took his military duties lightly. These issues are reflected in the papers. Additionally, there are officer resignations and letters to Geer from young officers. Geer was a Republican and represented Lyme in the State Legislature in 1861 and 1870. Among the political correspondence are two letters from James Dixon

Elihu Geer Military Papers, 1839-1884, MS 65942. Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Connecticut
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Elihu Geer Collection consists of cashbooks, correspondence, daybooks, invoices, journals, ledgers, and other materials, documenting the financial operation of Elihu Geer's printing and stationery businesses in Hartford, Connecticut. The bulk of material dates from 1838, when Geer founded his printing establishment, to 1864. Material relating to the publication of theCongregationalistand theHartford Journal,a pro-Whig daily, is included in the
collection.

The various account books are arranged by record type and detail the growth of Geer's printing business from its beginnings. Daybooks, cashbooks, and journals trace daily income from printing and advertising and expenditures for papers, ink, other supplies, and labor, while ledgers record accounts with individual customers and suppliers. There are job books, which detail printing orders and prices and workmen's books, which detail accounts with journeymen, apprentices, agents, and carriers. There are also three bound volumes of mounted invoices for stock in the printing office and stationery store and regular inventories of store stock and printing supplies. Invoices often are on illustrated letterheads from wholesalers in New York, Boston, and London. Registers of bills payable and receivable record Geer's financial obligations and loans, while the yearly trial balances in folder 20 summarize the progress of business development through profit and indebtedness statements.

The correspondence relates primarily to the establishment and operation of theHartford Journal.Copies of Geer's outgoing letters are in cashbook B (folder 4) and in his letterbook (folder 38). The letterbook copies are in faint handwriting, some are also in Geer's shorthand. (Folder 53 contains a notebook of Geer's shorthand symbols.) For the newspaper and theCongregationalistthere are also lists of subscribers by location and alphabetically arranged accounts. These lists also detail arrangements for the distribution of the papers.

Among the other materials in the collection are a few early items including an unidentified cashbook of the late 1820s (folder 54) and Geer's own notebook from his study of double entry bookkeeping at E. Perkins school (folder 46). Printing samples, such as circulars, letterhead stationery and forms, and catalogs, from Geer's printing office are in folder 47, and a sample book of typeface styles is in folder 52. Materials after 1864 for Geer's business interests are very fragmentary. Folder 48 contains a receipt book for domestic and personal expenses from 1862 to 1875. All receipts are from Hadlyme, Connecticut.

The Elihu Geer Collection in 1985 at Yale University - https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/12/resources/3668