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Jay Cooke Letter and Receipt

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Title	Jay Cooke Letter and Receipt
Subject	Science and Technology Daily Life Cholera Communicable diseases Medicine
Place	Sandusky (Ohio) Erie County (Ohio)
Description	Financier Jay Cooke (1821-1905) wrote this one-page, 7.7" x 6" (19.56 x 15.24 cm) letter to "Uncle Hank" Caswell offering bottles of wine and brandy to help fight the Sandusky cholera epidemic of 1852. Also included is the 7.7" x 5.31" (19.56 x 13.5 cm) shipping receipt for the goods. Cholera was a major threat in the 19th century. Due to poor sanitation and ignorance of the causes of disease, Sandusky suffered several cholera outbreaks in the 1840s and 1850s. The most devastating outbreak occurred in the summer of 1849, when 400 people died and many more fled the city in fear. The city's population before the outbreak was about 5,000; it is estimated that fewer than 1,000 remained in the city during the cholera. The 1882 History of Sandusky County reported that "medical men [were] taxed to their utmost to stem the tide of disease and death." The devastation caused by cholera and other epidemics helped to inspire improvements in medical care, research, and sanitation practices such as water treatment. Born in Sandusky, Ohio, Jay Cooke was the son of Congressman Eleutheros Cooke. Cooke entered the E.W. Clarke banking house at the age of eighteen. He formed the Jay Cooke and Company banking house in Philadelphia soon after the Civil War began in 1861 and began working to raise money for the war effort. Cooke developed a system in which bonds could be redeemed in between five and 20 years and investors could buy bonds in low denominations or through installment plans. By the end of the war in 1865 Cooke had made it possible for three million people to buy in excess of a billion dollars in bonds. Cooke's strategies were used in subsequent wars as well. The fortune that Cooke made in the banking business allowed him to purchase Gibraltar Island in 1864. Located in the Put-in -Bay harbor in Lake Erie, the island became a retreat for the Cooke family and their wealthy guests.
Creator	Cooke, Jay
Date of Original	1852
Collection	Cholera Collection
Source	Unpublished material (archives/manuscripts) 31:1091
Submitting Institution	Sandusky Library/Follett House Museum
Rights	For rights and reproduction requests, go to the Ohio Historical Society's Audiovisual and Graphic Reproduction Services page at http://www.ohiohistory.org/resource/audiovis/photodup.html
Type	Text
Format	manuscripts

Title	Om229_805303_067
Rights	For rights and reproduction requests, go to the Ohio Historical Society's Audiovisual and Graphic Reproduction Services page at http://www.ohiohistory.org/resource/audiovis/photodup.html; Online access is provided for research purposes only. For rights and reproduction requests or more information, go to http://www.ohiohistory.org/images/information
File Name	Om229_805303_067.tif
Image Height	3183
Image Width	4608
File Size	2080.346 KB
Full Text	[receipt]

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Jay Cooke Letter and Receipt

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Jay Cooke Letter and Receipt

Jay Cooke Letter and Receipt

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