My earliest Medford MA ancestor John Fulton, was a distiller and an accountant for a distillery (Not sure which yet) in Medford MA up until his death in 1790. For some time now I've kept an eye open for an old Medford Rum bottle. They don't come around often. One finally came up on Ebay, so I grabbed it, and was pleased to get it for twenty bucks. I know this bottle does not date to the time of my ancestor, but I would like to try to dial its approximate age.
Here's what I know:
Medford rum was a celebrated rum, which was produced in Medford for nearly 200 years, from about 1715 or 1720 until 1905. 1823 is when Daniel Lawrence came to Medford and went to work at John Hall's distillery, bought Hall out and produced rum under his own name and label.
http://www.medfordhistorical.org/rum.phpStreet names of Sullivan and Main are still used in Boston MA in the Charlestown neighborhood. Charleston became "annexed" (became part of Boston) in 1878.
http://www.bostonhistory.org/?s=librarymuseum&p=researchguide#becomeSo this Daniel Lawrence bottle has to date to sometime between 1823 and 1878.
I tried to find info on T.F. Freeman & Co Grocers, and the address given, but wasn't able to find anything. Although T.F. Freeman seems to have become involved in the banking business in Charlstown MA in 1910:
http://books.google.com/books?id=jo9KAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA434&lpg=PA434&dq=%22T.F.+Freeman%22+charlestown&source=bl&ots=smIUYl5FCW&sig=In8mTNfzMUqS3Ac390qHes3t32c&hl=en&ei=dvbeS7KQAYTYtgPZ15zdBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CA8Q6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=%22T.F.%20Freeman%22%20charlestown&f=falseThe bottle itself looks quite old. The glass has bubbles in it and you can see a large one in the photo of the back side. Lots of little flaws and imperfections. There is a mold mark on the bottom, I'll get a picture of it this afternoon. The label is very different from modern labels. It doesn't feel like paper. Maybe there is some linen content in the label? I'm just guessing on this.
On the label it says "Bottled for family and medicinal use" (Gotta love that!) At what point did rum cease to be considered medicinal? I know that patent medicines flourished in the 19th century, but I'm not sure when something clearly labeled as rum, would have still been considered for medical use. (Let the joking begin! LOL!)
Here are the photos: