Samuel Pomeroy Colt, entrepreneur, politician, lawyer, gentleman farmer, and philanthropist, was born in Patterson, New Jersey on January 10, 1852. He was the youngest of six children of Christopher and Theodora Goujand DeWolf Colt and the nephew of Samuel Colt, inventor of the Colt revolver. His father was a dry goods merchant in New York City and Connecticut, his mother a descendant of the DeWolf mercantile family of Bristol, Rhode Island.
Young Samuel Pomeroy, known to family and friends as "Pom," attended public schools in New York City, Hartford, and Bristol. After his father's death in 1855, he lived in Hartford for a time with his uncle Samuel Colt. In 1865, Colt moved to Bristol with his mother when she returned to the DeWolf family's ancestral home, now know as Linden Place. He lived in Bristol for the rest of his life. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1870 to 1873, and graduated from Columbia Law School in 1876. The young lawyer was admitted to the New York bar in that same year and to the Rhode Island bar in 1877.
Samuel P. Colt had already begun to make his mark on the Rhode Island political landscape, even before he completed law school. In 1875, at the age of twenty-three, he was appointed aide-de-camp to Rhode Island Governor Henry Lippitt with the honorary rank of "colonel," a title by which he was addressed for the remainder of his life. He served on the Governor's staff until 1877. A year earlier, while still on Lippitt's staff, he was elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives from Bristol. His primary interests while in the Legislature were in the areas of regulating child labor and promoting the right of women to hold and inherit property.
Colt left the Legislature in 1879 to accept an appointment as an Assistant Attorney General under longtime Rhode Island Attorney General Willard Sayles. Upon Sayles retirement in 1882, Colt ran for and was elected to the first of four one year terms as Rhode Island's Attorney General. During his seven year tenure in the Attorney General's Office, he vigorously prosecuted liquor law violations and had a strong interest in murder cases, often leading the prosecution of these cases personally. In contrast, his private legal practice, which he continued to pursue while serving in the Legislature and the Attorney General's Office, focused on probate and estate work. He served as an executor for the estates of Cornelius J. Vanderbilt, the son of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Ambrose Burnside, former Rhode Island governor and Civil War general.
Colt's active public political career waned after he was denied election for a 10th term as Attorney General in 1886. He did stage an unsuccessful campaign for governor in 1903 and made a brief and abortive run for the U.S. Senate in 1907. These campaigns apparently were mounted more out of a sense of obligation to the Republican Party than out of any great desire to reenter elective politics. Both before and after these debates, however, Colt remained a behind-the-scenes power and major financial contributor to the Republican Party in Rhode Island.
His political defeat in 1886 also marked the beginning of a major shift in his professional life. At the age of thirty-three, he ceased his active participation in the legal profession to pursue his interests in the business world. In 1886, Colt founded the Industrial Trust Company, a banking corporation which has grown into today's Fleet/Norstar Corporation. The early incorporators, representing the political, business, and industrial elite of late nineteenth century Rhode Island, included William and Frederic Sayles, Zechariah Chafee, Nelson Aldrich, Lucien Sharpe, and John B. Herreshoff. Within two years of its founding, Industrial Trust was the largest bank in Rhode Island and one of the largest in New England. Colt served as president of the Industrial Trust Company from its founding in 1886 until 1908 and as Chairman of the Board of Trustees from 1908 to his death in 1921.
A year after founding Industrial Trust, Colt was appointed as a receiver for the bankrupt National Rubber Company which was located in his hometown of Bristol. By the spring of 1888, he had succeeded in reorganizing and reopening the factory as the National India Rubber Company which manufactured rubber boots and shoes. In 1892, he merged National India Rubber with a number of other rubber companies to form U.S. Rubber, the forerunner of the present UNIROYAL Corporation. Colt served as president of U.S. Rubber from 1901 to 1918 and oversaw its growth into one of the largest corporations in the world. By 1917, a year before Colt's retirement from the presidency, the company had absorbed more than forty smaller rubber companies and employed more than 20,000 people in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. In addition to Industrial Trust and U.S. Rubber, Colt had a major financial or personal interest in railroads, lumber, public utilities, and publishing. He served on the boards of directors of more than forty companies and was one of the wealthiest men in the country.
His philanthropic interests were nearly as varied as his business interests. In 1908 Colt paid for the construction of a public high school in the town of Bristol as a memorial to his mother. He donated the money to build a stone chapel for St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Bristol. His 400 plus acre waterfront farm, North Farm, at Poppasquash Point in Bristol was open to the public during his lifetime and after his death this farm was left to the state of Rhode Island and represents the bulk of the area now known as Colt State Park.
Colt's personal life was not marked by the same success and happiness that he enjoyed in his professional and business life. His relationship with his mother Theodora was a close but often stormy one, complicated by the fact that both she and Samuel lived at Linden Place at least part of each year until her death in 1901. Colt married Elizabeth Bullock of Bristol in 1881, a marriage marked by tragedy and ultimate failure. They had three sons the first of whom, Samuel Pomeroy Colt, Jr., died of a viral infection in 1890 at the age of nine. The remaining two sons, Russell Griswold (born 1882) and Roswell Christopher (born 1889), survived their father. Russell achieved some notoriety when in 1909 he married noted stage actress Ethel Barrymore. They divorced in 1923 and Russell later married Gwendolyn M. Gray in 1940.
The marriage of Samuel and Elizabeth was an uneasy union, due in large part to the constant criticism and interference of Theodora Colt. It ended in a highly publicized legal separation in 1896 amid charge and countercharge of adultery. Though Colt had a number of relationships in the years after his separation, he never sought a divorce and never remarried. Nor apparently did Elizabeth, who died in Paris in 1935.
Samuel Pomeroy Colt died of complications from a stroke on the afternoon of August 13, 1921, at his beloved Linden Place in Bristol. His passing was front page news in the newspapers of the state and his funeral was attended by major political and business figures from around the country.
Colt's legacy to his family, the state of Rhode Island, and the nation is impressive, if somewhat contradictory. In many ways, he was the quintessential man of his time. He was an entrepreneur, similar to Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, a man who created large corporations in the banking and rubber industries through liberal doses of capital and undercutting of competition. Like Carnegie, and to a lesser extent Rockefeller, he was also a philanthropist who built a $ 300,000 high school and donated it to his home town in his mother's memory. He was determined in his purchase of property in his home town of Bristol to satisfy his urge to be a "gentleman farmer," yet cognizant enough of his obligation to the community to open his waterfront "gentleman's farm" to the public and to leave it in trust for the people of the state to enjoy as the magnificent Colt State Park. In his will, he provided for each of his two surviving sons and their families through trusts established in their names, yet by creating a tontine will he left the bulk of his estate to his last surviving grandchild without knowing who that would be.
Samuel Pomeroy Colt was indeed a man of his era and a study of his and the family's papers reveal much about the political, social, and economic history of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Rhode Island.
Open for research.
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Colt Family Papers, Mss. Gr. 78, University of Rhode Island Library.
The Colt Family papers document the social, political, and economic history of several generations of one of Rhode Island's most prominent families from 1793 to 1961. The bulk of the eighty linear feet of records cover the period from 1865 to 1912. The physical condition of the papers varies with age and previous storage conditions.
The majority of the papers consist of the personal, business, political, and financial records of Samuel Pomeroy Colt (1852-1921), lawyer, politician, businessman, banker and philanthropist. During his varied political career, Colt served Rhode Island as an aide-de-camp to the governor, as a Representative from Bristol in the state's House of Representatives, as an Assistant Attorney General, Attorney General, and as a candidate for both governor and U.S. senator. Each of these facets of his political career is documented to a greater or lesser extent in the appropriate series.
It was in the world of business, however, that Colt had his greatest impact. In 1886, he founded the Industrial Trust Company and, serving as it president, quickly developed it into the largest banking concern in Rhode Island. A year later Colt was appointed receiver for the small and bankrupt National Rubber Company in Bristol. From that inauspicious beginning, he developed the U.S. Rubber Company (UNIROYAL) and served as its president for seventeen years. The papers document his activities in each of these enterprises. Though the records are incomplete, they are fairly comprehensive and allow one to gain some insight into the skill with which Colt operated in the business world.
Colt's private life is also revealed in the material dealing with various family members and his personal financial activities. The personal financial records reveal a man of immense personal wealth who invested heavily in the stock market and real estate. The personal papers, particularly correspondence with other family members, highlight the many strains and tension within the Colt family.
Other members of the family, through several generations, are also represented in the family papers. Personal and business correspondence of Colt's grandfather and father, both named Christopher, reveal much about mid-nineteenth century business practices. There is correspondence between Christopher Colt, Sr. and Samuel Colt, inventor of the Colt revolver and founder of the Colt Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company. The personal and business correspondence of Samuel P. Colt's brothers, Edward and LeBaron, and his son Russell provide insight into the ways in which the family intermingled business and personal affairs. The correspondence of the matriarch of the family, Theodora DeWolf Colt, reveals to some extent the pervasive influence she exercised on her children throughout her long life.
The Colt Family Papers document a fascinating history of a prominent nineteenth and twentieth century Rhode Island family that was active in the social, political, and business environment of the time. The papers also provide research materials on the dynamics of family relationships during this era.
The Colt Family Papers are divided into six sub-groups and twenty-five series.
The Colt Family Papers, donated to the University of Rhode Island by the Colt Estate, were removed from the family's ancestral home of Linden Place in Bristol, Rhode Island in the summer of 1989.
Series 1: Samuel P. Colt Personal Papers, 1865-1921, 5 ft. (10 boxes).
This series consists of the correspondence with various members of Colt's family and with prominent state and local political figures of the day. Among the correspondents represented are members of his immediate family including brothers George, Edward, and LeBaron, sister Isabella, mother Theodora, wife Elizabeth and sons Russell and Roswell. The most prominent political correspondent is Senator Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island. Also included in this series are records of household expenses, copies of insurance policies, certificates of government appointments, records of child support and alimony payments after his legal separation, and the guest register and journal of Camp Colt, his fishing camp in Maine.
Series 2: Christopher Colt, Sr. Business Correspondence, 1828-1847, 1 ft. (2 boxes).
This series contains the correspondence and business records of Samuel P. Colt's grandfather, a businessman and entrepreneur. Among the correspondence are some fifty letters between Christopher and his son Samuel (Samuel P.'s uncle) concerning Samuel's gun inventions and improvements and his attempts to gain government contracts for his fledgling Colt Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company.
Series 3: Christopher Colt, Jr. Business Correspondence/Records, 1831-1854, 1 ft. (2 boxes).
This series contains the correspondence and business records of Christopher Colt, Samuel P.'s father, a silk manufacturer. It includes business correspondence and financial records relating to Christopher Colt, Jr.'s involvement in the silk manufacturing business in New England. Among his correspondents are Arthur and Lewis Tappan, New York dry goods merchants who were later to gain notoriety as activists in the antislavery movement.
Series 4: Theodora DeWolf Colt Papers, 1855-1901, 1 ft. (2 boxes).
This series consists of the correspondence between Samuel P.'s mother Theodora and her children George, Edward, Isabella, and LeBaron. Her correspondence with Samuel is contained in Series 1. Also included in this series is some of Theodora's correspondence with non-relatives, as well as invitations, bills and receipts, and programs for private theatricals, staged at Linden Place. Theodora was a published poet and some samples of her writings and published poems are included in this series.
Series 5: Edward D. Colt Correspondence/Business Records, 1861-1868, 6 ft. (9 boxes).
This series contains the personal correspondence and business records of Samuel's brother, Edward D. Colt. Edward was a stockbroker in Hartford, Connecticut, and the bulk of this series consists of materials relating to his brokerage business. Included are business correspondence, bank statements, cancelled checks, ledgers, and records of stock purchases and sales. Personal correspondence with members of his family is located in the series of the appropriate family member.
Series 6: LeBaron Bradford Colt Personal Papers, 1867-1905, 1.5 ft. (3 boxes).
This series contains the correspondence of LeBaron Bradford Colt (lawyer, judge, politician) with his wife, children and other family members. His extensive correspondence with his brother Samuel P. Colt is located in Series 1. Also included in this series are printed copies of some of LeBaron Colt's speeches and printed copies of briefs in the case of LeBaron B. Colt, et al. vs. Elizabeth H. Colt, et al., an attempt by the Bristol Colts (Theodora, LeBaron, and Samuel) to alter the terms of the will of Samuel Colt of Connecticut (brother-in-law and uncle respectively) to their benefit. There are no records in the collection from LeBaron Colt's thirty year tenure on the federal bench or for his eleven years as a U.S. Senator from Rhode Island.
Series 7: Mary Louise Colt Correspondence, 1865-1900, 1 ft. (2 boxes).
This series consists entirely of correspondence between Mary Louis Colt, wife of LeBaron B., and her parents Elizabeth and G.C. Ledyard. The correspondence spans more than thirty years and deals with the personal and financial problems of the Ledyards.
Series 8: Russell G. Colt Financial Records, 1902-1947, 1.5 ft. (3 boxes).
This series contains some of the business and personal papers of Samuel P. Colt's second son. It consists of personal financial records, including bank statements, cancelled checks, check registers, and quarterly statements of the trust fund established by his father. Correspondence with his father can be found in Series I. Russell G. Colt married noted stage actress Ethel Barrymore in 1909 and was the father of singer Ethel Barrymore Colt.
Series 9: Ethel Colt Miglietta Papers, 1906-1961, 3 ft. (6 boxes).
This series consists of the papers of John Romeo Miglietta (known as Romeo) and his wife Ethel Barrymore Colt, granddaughter of Samuel P. Colt. The series includes some correspondence between Ethel and Romeo, cancelled checks, bank statements, and newspaper clippings. Also included are musical scores, playbills, and broadsides relating to performances of Ethel Barrymore Colt.
Series 10: Colt/DeWolf Family Records, 1793-1935, 1 ft. (2 boxes).
This series contains miscellaneous materials relating to various members of the Colt and DeWolf families. This series includes the earliest item in the collection, the handwritten last will and testament of Mark Anthony DeWolf, dated 1793. Of particular interest is a hand illustrated journal and notebook kept by Sarah Colt between 1819 and 1821. Also contained in this series is correspondence and fragments of letters of various members of the Colt and DeWolf families who visited the family home of Linden Place.
This series consists primarily of Colt's personal correspondence, as opposed to business and legal correspondence which are located in subsequent series. Among his most frequent correspondents were members of his family, including brothers George, Edward, and LeBaron, sister Isabella (Colt DeWolf), brother-in-law Frank DeWolf, mother Theodora, wife Elizabeth, sons Russell and Roswell, and father-in-law. Russell Bullock. There is also scattered correspondence with nieces, nephews, and other relatives. Non-family correspondents include U.S. Senator Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island, Colt's personal secretary, Merton Cheeseman, and Lillian Westby with whom Colt had a romantic relationship in the early 1900's. Also included in this series are copies of insurance policies, certificates of appointment for aide-de-camp and Assistant Attorney General, records of Colt's child support and alimony payments after his separation, receipts for groceries and other regular household expenses, lecture notes from Colt's days as a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and guest registers and journals for Camp Colt, his fishing and hunting camp in Maine.
Subjects discussed in the family correspondence are the health and financial well being of various members of the Colt family, the status of Samuel P. and Elizabeth Colt's marriage, a dispute over the division of some furniture in Linden Place between Samuel P. Colt and his sister Isabella, and problems created by Theodora DeWolf Colt's outspoken nature.
Correspondence with Senator Nelson Aldrich concerns political issues, interests, and candidates in Rhode Island. The Lillian Westby correspondence concerns the personal relationship between Colt and Westby. Subjects include their meetings and separations, and their frequent European trips. Correspondence with Colt's personal secretary, Merton Cheeseman concerns Colt's health, travel plans, family, real estate, and stock investments.
The guest register and daily journals of Colt's "Camp Colt," a hunting and fishing camp in Maine provide a glimpse of the Colt family's leisure activities. The journals describe daily fishing and canoe trips taken by the Colt family and their guests, who signed the guest register at the beginning of each visit. The visitors to Camp Colt represent a broad spectrum of business and political leaders of early twentieth century Rhode Island.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by subject or name of correspondent and chronologically by date within folders. Letters to Colt from non-family members less than five letters and letters bearing only a partial signature are grouped together under the folder title "Correspondence" and arranged alphabetically by name. Unsigned letters are in folders labeled "Correspondence, Miscellaneous" and arranged chronologically by date.
Christopher Colt, Sr. (1780-1850) was the grandfather of Samuel P. Colt and the father of Samuel Colt, inventor of the Colt revolver and founder of the Colt Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company. This series contains correspondence between Christopher and his son Samuel and other officers of the Colt Company. The subject of this correspondence is the development and operation of the Colt Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company.
By far the most significant items in the series are the some fifty letters between Christopher and his son in which they discuss Samuel's attempts to gain government contracts for his fledgling gun company. In one letter dated August 20, 1840, the young Colt described for his father just such an attempt, a demonstration of his "submarine battery" on the Potomac River in Washington. He described a flotilla of boats on the river for the demonstration, including a steamboat "fitted up" for the accommodation of "the President, [Martin Van Buren] with the Cabinet, his corporal's guard and the principal officers of the Army and Navy together with large number of ladies and gentlemen, the elite of the city." The demonstration was apparently a success. Also included is a holograph copy of Christopher Colt's will, dated 1835.
Materials in this series are arranged alphabetically by subject or name of correspondent and chronologically by date within folders.
Christopher Colt, Jr. (1812-1855) was Samuel P. Colt's father. This series contains business correspondence and financial records relating to Christopher Colt's involvement in the silk manufacturing industry in New England. He had interests in two companies, Colt and Company and the New England Silk Manufacturing Company.
This series contains correspondence with jobbers and dry goods merchants in the silk trade, ledgers and receipts relating to the two companies in which Christopher Colt, Jr. had an interest and three years of monthly payroll records for Colt and Company.
The subject of the correspondence relates to the manufacture and sale of silk goods. Typical of the correspondence is that with Arthur Tappan and Company in which Arthur Tappan and Christopher Colt, Jr. discussed quality of silk, cost of silk, shipment and delivery schedules, and routine problems that arose during the normal course of business.
The monthly payroll records for Colt and Company, spanning the years 1836-1838 inclusive, confirm two facts of early New England industrial life: the pay was very low and the workers were all women and young girls.
The materials in this series, particularly the correspondence, are in the poorest physical condition of any in the collection. The letters were bundled and wrapped in paper which was then coated with wax or linseed oil. The substance soaked through to the letters, leaving them with a sticky oil coating and making the paper brittle.
Records in this series are arranged alphabetically by subject or name of correspondent and chronologically by date within folder.
Theodora DeWolf Colt (1824-1901) was the wife of Christopher Colt, Jr. and mother of Samuel P. Colt. She was a published poet and a member of the merchant shipping DeWolf family of Bristol. The bulk of this series contains correspondence between Theodora and her other children, George, Edward, Isabella, and LeBaron. Her correspondence with Samuel is in Series I. This series also includes correspondence with her nieces, nephews, grandchildren, and non-relatives, including her son Samuel's father-in-law, J. Russell Bullock. Other records include invitations, bills, receipts, programs for private theatrical programs which Theodora regularly staged at Linden Place, and some of Theodora's poetry, both printed and holograph. These are filed under the heading of "writings."
The subjects of Theodora's correspondence with family members cover the usual family concerns such as health, grandchildren, family, birthdays and holidays, and finances. Letters from Samuel P. Colt's father-in-law discuss what he considers to be Theodora's verbal abuse of her daughter-in-law and his daughter, Elizabeth Colt, wife of Samuel P. Colt.
Theodora was socially prominent in Bristol and consequently received numerous invitations to weddings and other social events in the community. She also regularly presented what were known as "private theatricals" at Linden Place. Formal programs were printed for these performances and some of these programs are in this series.
The materials in this series are arranged alphabetically by subject or name of correspondent and chronologically by date within folders.
Edward D. Colt (1844-1868), brother of Samuel P. Colt, was a stockbroker in Hartford, Connecticut. He appeared to be on the verge of success when he contracted a viral infection and died at the age of twenty-four in 1868. This series contains materials relating to his brokerage business and various financial transactions. It includes business correspondence, bank statements, cancelled checks, ledgers, and extensive records of stock purchases and sales. Also included are workbooks, notes, and a report card from Edward's years as a student at Eastman National Business College in Poughkeepsie, New York. Personal correspondence with other members of his family can be found in the series of the appropriate family member. Records relating to Edward's financial transactions (i.e. loans and promissory notes) with his brother, LeBaron, and sister, Isabella, document the family involvement in various business affairs.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by subject, name of correspondent, or type of record and chronologically by date within folders.
LeBaron Bradford Colt (1845-1924) was the older brother of Samuel P. Colt and a prominent lawyer and politician. He preceded his brother Samuel as a graduate of Columbia Law School in 1870 and succeeded him as a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives from Bristol when Samuel was appointed Assistant Attorney General in 1879. LeBaron was appointed a federal judge by President William Garfield in 1881 and served on the bench as a District Court and Appeals Court judge until 1912. He won election to the U.S. Senate from Rhode Island in 1912, a position for which his brother Samuel had run unsuccessfully in 1906 and 1907. He was re-elected in 1918. LeBaron Bradford Colt died in 1924. An extensive obituary was written for the (Providence) Evening Bulletin, August 18, 1924. See Printed Material, Series XXV, for a photocopy of that obituary.
This series contains the personal papers and speeches of LeBaron Bradford Colt. Included is correspondence with his wife Mary Louise Colt, his brother George, and his children Beatrice, Primrose, Mary Louise, and LeBaron C. Colt. He and his wife had four daughters and one son (who died in 1916 in an automobile accident). Correspondence with his mother Theodora and brother Samuel is located in Series IV and Series I respectively. Printed copies of some speeches are filed under the heading of "Speeches and Addresses."
Included in this series is printed material relating to a court suit involving the Bristol, Rhode Island, and Hartford, Connecticut, branches of the Colt Family. In LeBaron B. Colt, et al. vs. Elizabeth H. Colt, et al., the Bristol Colts (Theodora, LeBaron, and Samuel) sued Elizabeth H. Colt, the widow of Samuel Colt, seeking to alter the terms of Samuel Colt's will to their benefit. After a protracted case, the courts ruled in favor of the Bristol Colts. As a result of the decision, each of the Bristol Colts was awarded a substantial number of shares of stock in the Colt Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company. The case is documented in several printed court documents including petitions, briefs for complainant, and transcripts of trial testimony.
Also contained in this series is a scrapbook compiled by LeBaron's daughter Beatrice from her early years through her formal debut into society. It documents the personal life and interests of a young woman growing to maturity at the turn of the twentieth century.
The materials in this series are arranged alphabetically by name, subject or type of record and chronologically by date within folders.
Mary Louise Colt (Mamie) (d. 1922) was the wife of LeBaron Bradford Colt. This series contains mostly correspondence between her and her parents, G.C. and Elizabeth Ledyard of Chicago. The majority of the letters are from Mary Louise's mother who invariably focuses on one of three themes: requesting Mary Louise to come back to Chicago, asking Mary Louise for money, and discussing her health and the general state of her existence. The correspondence with her father is not significantly different in content, but substantially less in volume. Routine family matters are also discussed in this correspondence spanning nearly thirty-five years.
The correspondence of each parent is filed by the parent's name and arranged chronologically by date. A few letters from people other than Mary Louise Colt's parents have been placed at the end of the series in a folder labeled "Miscellaneous Correspondence." Correspondence with her husband, LeBaron, is in Series VI filed under her name. This series also includes journals kept by Mary Louise Colt's parents, as well as a Cash Book kept by Mamie.
Russell Griswold Colt (1882-1959), the second son of Samuel P. and Elizabeth Colt, married noted stage actress Ethel Barrymore in 1909 and was the father of Samuel Barrymore Colt, John Drew Colt, and singer Ethel Barrymore Colt (Miglietta). This series consists of the personal financial records of Russell Colt, including bank statements, cancelled checks, check registers, and quarterly statements of the trust fund established for him by his father.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by the type of record and chronologically by date within folders. Russell's correspondence with his father is in Series I.
Ethel Barrymore Colt (Miglietta) and John Romeo Miglietta (known as Romeo) were the daughter and son-in-law of Russell G. Colt and Ethel Barrymore. This series contains records that Ethel and Romeo left at Linden Place during the many summers the two spent there. Ethel Barrymore Colt was a singer and actress and that aspect of her career is reflected in the numerous musical scores, playbills, and broadsides located in this series. Romeo Miglietta was a mining engineer who traveled frequently in his work, a fact reflected in the Italian and South American return addresses on his letters to his wife. Miglietta's letters from British Guiana and Surinam detail his efforts to establish a bauxite mining exploration company in South America. He also describes life in a mining camp in the jungles of Surinam, the customs of the natives, and briefly discusses local politics. See Also John Romeo Miglietta Papers, MsG # 91. In addition to the correspondence and theatrical memorabilia, the series contains cancelled checks, bank statements, appointment calendars, a marriage certificate, an engraving of Ethel Barrymore Colt, correspondence and legal documents relating to the sale of the Colt family's Mamaroneck estate in New York and newspaper clippings. Photographs of Ethel Barrymore Colt and her family may be found in Photographs.
Years later, when the John Romeo Miglietta Papers (MsG # 91) were being processed additional correspondence between Ethel B. C. Miglietta, John, and other family members was given by the Miglietta family. This correspondence was added to the original records that had been located at Linden Place.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by subject and chronologically by date within folders.
The Colt/DeWolf Family Records contains a variety of material relating to several generations of the Colt and DeWolf families. The records are diverse. Included is a 1793 handwritten will of Mark Anthony DeWolf and a beautiful hand illustrated journal and notebook compiled between 1819 and 1821 by Sarah Ann Colt. Also included are correspondence and legal documents relating to the estate of Dorothy Colt, wife of Samuel P. Colt's son Roswell, and the legal guardianship of Roswell's daughter Elizabeth.
The series also includes the will of Elizabeth H. Colt, the widow of Samuel Colt of the Colt Firearms Company, the divorce decree of George DeWolf Colt, Samuel P. Colt's brother, two day books from the late 1870's, miscellaneous correspondence, and fragments of letters of the Colts and DeWolfs.
The materials in this series are arranged alphabetically by name and chronologically by date within folders. Miscellaneous letters and parts of letters are grouped together at the end of the series and arranged chronologically by date.
Series 11: Samuel P. Colt Personal Financial Records, 1873-1907, 8 ft. (16 boxes).
This series contains some of the records that document Colt's personal financial activities. Nearly half of the material in this series consists of correspondence and records of stock transactions with more than a dozen banking and brokerage houses in Rhode Island and New York City. Also included are records of his extensive real estate transactions, cancelled checks, bank statements, annual income and expenditure statements, records of loans and promissory notes, as well as receipts for household repairs and expenses at Linden Place.
Series 12: Colt Memorial School, 1904-1907, 1.5 ft. (3 boxes).
This series contains materials relating to the construction and furnishing of the Colt Memorial School, built by Samuel P. Colt as a memorial to his mother Theodora. Included are correspondence, blueprints, brochures, bids by architects, and catalogues for school furnishings and supplies.
Series 13: George Terry Papers, 1847-1901, 1.5 ft. (3 boxes).
This series contains the business and personal correspondence of George Terry, a business partner of Samuel P. Colt, as well as co-executor with Colt of the estate of Cornelius J. Vanderbilt. Included are Terry's correspondence with Colt relating to a variety of business ventures, including gold and silver mines in Nevada. Correspondence with Colt pertaining to a joint interest in a New Mexico cattle ranch and to the Vanderbilt estate can be found in the New Mexico Ranch Series and the Estate Series respectively. Also included is Terry's correspondence with other business partners and receipts for the many hotels he stayed at while travelling on business or with Cornelius J. Vanderbilt.
Colt invested in real estate and particularly in the stock market. Nearly half the records in this series consist of correspondence and records of stock transactions with more than a dozen banking and brokerage houses in Rhode Island and New York City. These records are grouped together under the general heading of "Banking and Brokerage Houses" and then alphabetically by the name of the firm. Included are correspondence with the brokers, buy orders, sell orders, margin calls, and periodic statements of his accounts with the various banking and brokerage houses.
Colt's real estate investments were primarily in Rhode Island and New York City. In addition to Linden Place, he owned a townhouse in New York City, a hunting and fishing camp in Maine, a 450 acre farm on the Bristol, Rhode Island waterfront, and land on Hogg Island in Narragansett Bay. Included are deeds, title searches, mortgages, and correspondence relating to the various properties which Colt acquired. The records relating to North Farm document the manner in which Colt acquired, over a period of years, the 450 shorefront acres in Bristol. This acquisition became the showcase Poppasquash Point Farm and is now Colt State Park.
Included in this series are annual summaries of income and expenditures which Colt compiled. The statements provide detailed day by day lists of income and expenses, as well as listing investments, loans, household expenses and repairs for Linden Place, the New York townhouse, and his Maine Camp, political contributions ($121,743 in 1906) and miscellaneous expenses. Also included in this series are financial records such as bank statements, pass books, cancelled checks, check registers, and daily deposit and check statements.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by subject or type of record and chronologically by date within folders.
When Theodora DeWolf Colt died in 1901, her son Samuel decided to erect a monument suitable to her memory in the town of Bristol. Samuel Colt decided that the appropriate tribute was a new high school for the town . The school was completed in 1908 at a cost of $ 300,000 and deeded to Bristol. It was at the time, and presumably still is, the only school in the country constructed of bronze and Italian marble.
This series documents the construction of the Colt Memorial School. Included is extensive correspondence between Merton Cheeseman, Colt's personal secretary, and the architects and contractors, Cooper and Bailey of Boston and Norcross Brothers respectively. Through Cheeseman, Colt kept a close eye on the construction and passed on a number of suggestions which were incorporated into the final plans.
Included in the series are blueprints, a photogravure of the completed school showing Linden Place in the background, bids of unsuccessful contractors and architects, and brochures and catalogues from a variety of suppliers of school equipment and furnishings. The catalogues and brochures depict school furnishings and equipment that were considered state of the art for the time.
The materials in this series are arranged alphabetically by subject, type of record, or name and chronologically by date within folders.
Included with this series are photographs of the interior of Colt Memorial School taken May 2001 by David Rooney. These photographs are not part of the Colt Family Papers, but they show the extraordinary attention to detail and aesthetic considerations taken by Colt and the architects in constructing this memorial to Theodora Colt.
George Terry, was a friend and business partner of Samuel P. Colt as well as being co-executor, with Colt, of the Cornelius J. Vanderbilt estate. He was the constant traveling companion of Cornelius J. Vanderbilt for ten years until Vanderbilt's death in 1882. Terry apparently had no permanent address and lived in hotels wherever his business interests and/or travels with Vanderbilt might take him.
This series consists of Terry's correspondence and miscellaneous personal financial records. Included are bank books, cancelled checks, check registers, correspondence with Vanderbilt and Colt, and twenty years of hotel receipts.
The correspondence with Colt is concerned primarily with the business and financial interests which they shared. Correspondence between Terry and Colt concerning the Vanderbilt estate, of which they were executors, and the New Mexico Ranch, in which they shared a financial interest, is located in the Estate Series and the New Mexico Ranch Series respectively.
The letters from Vanderbilt to Terry reveal a close and abiding friendship between the two men. Vanderbilt was an epileptic, subject to frequent seizures. As a result, he apparently asked his friend Terry to assist him and Terry became his constant traveling companion for ten years.
Vanderbilt expressed the true depth of his feelings for Terry in his will. He named Terry an executor of his estate and left him a bequest of $120,000, specifying that Terry's bequest be paid before any other bequests or debts were paid from the estate. He further bequeathed a $50,000 trust fund to Terry. Additional information about Terry's role in the Vanderbilt estate can be found in the Estate Files, Series XXI.
The materials in this series are arranged alphabetically by name of the person or subject and chronologically by date within folders.
Series XIV: U.S. Rubber Company Records, 1886-1921, 12.5 ft.(25 boxes).
This series of records partially documents the rise of U.S. Rubber from the small bankrupt National Rubber Company in Bristol to an industrial giant in less than fifteen years under the leadership of Samuel P. Colt. Included are annual reports, treasurer's reports, audit reports, ledgers, materials relating to subsidiary companies, correspondence, stock certificates, and records of stock transactions. The records are incomplete, but still provide insights into the late nineteenth century business world.
Series XV: Industrial Trust Company Records, 1876-1912, 4.5 ft.(9 boxes).
This series contains Colt's copies of the early records of the Industrial Trust Company, now Fleet/Norstar. Founded by Samuel P. Colt in 1886, the Company rose under his leadership to the position of one of the largest banks in New England. included in this series are a copy of the Company's original Act of Incorporation, organizational charts, annual lists documenting the value of the company's investment securities, profit and loss statements, and materials relating to a struggle between Colt and other members of the Board of Directors for control of the Company.
Series XVI: New Mexico Ranch Records, 1884-1888, 1.5 ft. (3 boxes).
This series documents George Terry's and Samuel Colt's investment in a cattle ranch near Albuquerque, New Mexico in the mid-1880's. The bulk of the series consists of correspondence among Colt, Terry and a third partner, Edward Luxton, regarding the operation of the ranch.
Series XVII: General Business/Investment Records, 1876-1910, 3.5 ft. (7 boxes).
This series contains records that document the varied business interests of Samuel P. Colt. In addition to U.S. Rubber and Industrial Trust, Colt had a major financial interest in and/or served on the Board of Directors of more than forty companies in public utilities, mining, lumber, railroads, and publishing. Included in this series are annual treasurer's and auditor's reports, profit and loss statements, records of stock transactions, and correspondence relating to those companies in which Colt had a significant financial interest or in which he was considering investment.
This series documents the rise of the U.S. Rubber Company (now UNIROYAL) from the small bankrupt National Rubber Company in Bristol, Rhode Island to a major industrial power in less than fifteen years under the leadership of Samuel P. Colt. The records in this series are not the official records of the company, nor are they in any sense complete. They do, however, offer a fairly comprehensive account of Colt's role in the development of U. S. Rubber and a general overview of the company's rise to a position of dominance in the rubber boot and shoe industry.
The records in this series include annual reports, treasurer's reports, audit reports, ledgers, correspondence and financial records relating to subsidiary companies, general correspondence, stock certificates, records of stock transactions, minutes of meetings, and a variety of financial records which document the financial status and activities of the corporation. Subjects of the correspondence include expansion into new markets, costs of production, and locating new sources of crude rubber.
In 1887, Colt was appointed receiver for the bankrupt National Rubber Company of Bristol which manufactured a variety of rubber goods, including rubber boots and shoes. Within a year he had succeeded in getting the company out of debt and reorganizing it as the National India Rubber Company. The newly organized company concentrated on the manufacture of rubber boots and shoes, then a highly competitive industry. Colt gradually acquired a controlling interest in a number of smaller companies and in 1892 merged his holdings with the then fledgling U.S. Rubber Company. This conglomerate became the largest manufacturer of rubber goods in the world.
By the turn of the century, U.S. Rubber had over forty subsidiaries. Colt became the president of U.S. Rubber in 1901, an office he held until 1918, when he became Chairman of the Board of Trustees. During Colt's tenure as president, the company continued to expand its markets and sought to gain control of the crude rubber supplies as well by acquiring rubber plantations in the Amazon and in Mexico.
Among the items in this series which document the rise of U.S. Rubber are the Company's printed annual reports and its annual financial statements. The annual reports document the Company's acquisitions from year to year and the financial statements the company's annual profits. The magnitude of the company's finances are detailed in the information contained in the folders labeled "Financial Records" which contain statements of assets, liabilities and expenditures, income and gross sales statements, and sales and net profit statements. There is not a complete run of any of these Financial statements, but sufficient material exists in this series to document the company's financial health and growth.
The minutes of the annual meetings and the president's annual reports, though again incomplete, document how the company's goals and objectives changed to meet anticipated charges in its markets. The scattered records of some twenty of the more than forty U.S. Rubber subsidiaries allow some insights into the reasons behind the corporation's acquisitions of certain companies and the methods by which it acquired those companies.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by name, subject or type of record and chronologically by date within folders.
Samuel P. Colt was the founder and first president of the Industrial Trust Company, a banking and financial organization located in Providence, Rhode Island. The Company's original Act of Incorporation in 1886, a copy of which is in this series, lists among the incorporators many of late nineteenth century Rhode Island's political and business elite. in addition to Colt, they include William and Frederic Sayles, Zechariah Chafee, Nelson Aldrich, Lucian Sharpe, Benjamin B. Knight and John B. Herreshoff.
Included in this series are Colt's copies of the early records of the Industrial Trust Company. He served as president from 1886 to 1908 and as Chairman of the Board of Directors, until his death in 1921. The records in this series include a copy of the Company's original Act of Incorporation, organization charts, annual lists of the Company's investment securities and their estimated value, profit and loss statements, correspondence and documents relating to a contest between Colt and other members of the Board of Directors for control of the Industrial Trust Company. Also of interest in this series are records relating to the subsidiary banks of industrial Trust which include annual reports, auditors' reports and use of officers for each bank. Lists of investment securities document the financial condition of Industrial Trust and indicate the diversity of its stock. These are not the official records of Industrial Trust, nor do they represent a complete record of the company's activities. They are sufficiently comprehensive, however, to present a general view of late nineteenth century banking practices.
The most completely documented event in this series relates to the struggle for control of Industrial Trust Company between Colt and the other officers and members of the Board of Directors. In 1908, Colt had agreed to resign the presidency due to ill health and accepted an appointment as Chairman of the Board with the understanding, at least on his part, that he would be the chief operating officer when his health returned. He regained his health by the fall of 1909, but discovered that the new officers and Board of Industrial Trust considered him a figurehead without any power to guide the fortunes of the company.
After biding his time for nearly two years, a frustrated Colt took his fight to the stockholders and engaged the Board in a bitter and protracted proxy fight for control of the company in the winter of 1911-1912. Colt and the Board exchanged accusatory circular letters to the company's stockholders and each side battled to gain a sufficient number of proxies to control the annual meeting of stockholders in January, 1911 After a long and bitter fight, Colt was able to control the annual meeting and elect a Board of Directors favorable to him. He was elected Chairman of the new Board and controlled the Company until his death in 1921.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by subject or type of record and chronologically by date within folders.
In the mid-1880's, Samuel P. Colt, George Terry, and Edward Luxton decided at Luxton's urging to invest in a cattle ranch near Albuquerque, New Mexico. The three men had been named executors of Cornelius J. Vanderbilt's estate, although Luxton declined the honor, and all three were beneficiaries of the estate. The three determined to invest this largesse from Vanderbilt in a western cattle ranch. This series documents to some extent that investment and its ultimate failure. Apparently, the person the three chose to manage the ranch, one J.B. Bowman, was singularly inept and more concerned with his own welfare than with turning a profit for the investors. Instead of a profitable venture, the ranch turned into a financial quagmire for Colt, Luxton, and Terry who first sued Bowman and then fired him for mismanagement of the operation. Since no mention of the ranch is made after 1888, it is probable, though not certain, the three men disposed of the ranch for whatever it would bring.
Included is correspondence among the three men concerning the purchase and operation of the ranch. Also included are legal documents relating to suits filed by the three and against them as a result of their investment. The bulk of the series consists of letters from Luxton to Colt and Terry describing his efforts to first find a suitable ranch for investment and, once found, the trials and tribulations of attempting to manage it in absentia.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by subject or name and chronologically by date within folders.
Samuel P. Colt had a major financial interest in and/or served on the boards of directors of some forty companies in addition to U.S. Rubber, Industrial Trust Company, and the ill-fated New Mexico ranch. His particular interests were in public utilities, mining, lumber, railroads and publishing.
Included in this series are annual reports, treasurers' and auditors' reports, profit and loss statements, records of stock transactions, correspondence, prospects for companies in the industries, circular letters urging stock purchases, and financial statements relating to those companies in which Colt had a significant financial interest or in which he was considering investment.
There is extensive documentation on Colt's purchase of several gas and electric companies in Rhode Island. In the late 1890's and early 1900's Colt purchased a number of small gas and electric companies in Bristol County and formed the Bristol County Gas and Electric Company which created a monopoly on the gas and electric service in Bristol County. He also had a major interest in the Narragansett Electric Company and the Providence Gas Company.
Also of interest in the series is material relating to the Providence Journal Company. The Providence Journal's newspapers editorially opposed Colt's candidacy for the U.S. Senate in 1906 and 1907. Colt sought to silence the Journal's editors by buying a controlling interest in the Company and turning the newspapers to his support. He very nearly succeeded, falling only a few hundred shares short of control.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by the name of the company or the type of industry and chronologically by date within folders.
Series XVIII: State Legislature, 1875-1882, 1 ft. (2 boxes).
This series documents a portion of Samuel P. Colt's service in the Rhode Island House of Representatives. Included are handwritten and annotated printed copies of bills introduced by Colt, reports of committees on which Colt served and lists of members of the House of Representatives during his years of service. Some of the material in this series postdates Colt's service in the Legislature and is probably from his brother LeBaron's tenure as a member of the House of Representatives from 1879 to 1882.
Series XIX: Assistant Attorney General/Attorney General, 1878-1887, 9 ft. (18 boxes).
This series contains materials relating to Samuel P. Colt's service as Assistant Attorney General from 1879 to 1881 and Attorney General from 1882 to 1886. Included are case files, handwritten drafts of legal briefs, printed court dockets, annual reports of the Attorney General, copies of trial transcripts, correspondence, and memos. As Attorney General, Colt played an active role in handling many of the cases, particularly those involving violent crime. Consequently, many of the cases are well documented and include his handwritten notes.
Series XX: U.S. Senate Candidacy, 1904-1907, 1.5 ft. ( 3 boxes).
This series consists of correspondence, handwritten and printed ballot tabulations, campaign strategy outlines, and Colt's speeches and addresses relating to Colt's candidacy for the U.S. Senate from Rhode Island in the years 1905 to 1907. At that time, senators were not popularly elected, but instead were chosen by members of the State Legislature sitting in grand committee. Colt challenged the incumbent Republican candidate, George P. Wetmore, and there ensued a deadlock in the Legislature which lasted for four months and called for eighty one separate ballots. The stalemate was broken only by Colt's withdrawal from the race in June 1907.
Samuel P. Colt was elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives in 1876 at the age of 24. He served in the Legislature until 1879 when he left to accept an appointment as the State's Attorney General. Colt's service in the House was brief and relatively undistinguished His brother LeBaron was elected to succeed him in 1879 and served in the Legislature until 1881.
This series documents a small segment of that service. Included are handwritten and annotated printed copies of bills introduced by Colt, reports of legislative committees on which Colt served, and lists of the members of the House of Representatives during the years in which he served. Also filed in this series are printed materials which postdate Colt's service in the legislature.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by subject or type of records and chronologically by date within folders.
Samuel P. Colt's brief tenure in the State Legislature ended in 1879 with his appointment to the position of Assistant Attorney General. When Attorney General Willard Sayles retired in 1882, Colt ran for and was elected to the first of four one-year terms. He was defeated for a fifth term in 1886, thus beginning an eighteen-year hiatus from elective politics. The materials in this series document Colt's service in the Attorney General's office between 1879 and 1886 No attempt has been made to distinguish between his service as Assistant Attorney General and Attorney General since the materials overlap and concern the same issues.
Included in the series are case files, hand written drafts of legal briefs, printed court dockets, annual reports of the Attorney General, copies of trial transcripts, correspondence, and memos. The bulk of the series consist of case files relating to cases handled by the Attorney General's Office, particularly "liquor cases" and murder cases. The quality and quantity of material varies from case to case, sometimes consisting only of a page or two of handwritten notes, sometimes a complete printed transcript, printed briefs, appeals, and investigative reports of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, which was apparently used on a regular basis by the Attorney General's Office.
Rhode Island in the 1880's had very strict laws governing the manufacture and sale of liquor. Judging from the number of "liquor cases" represented in this series, it also had a public willing to try to evade the laws. Colt appears to have vigorously prosecuted these cases and achieved a fairly high rate of conviction, at least based on the cases represented in this series.
Colt frequently handled the prosecution of murder cases personally. These cases are the ones that are most extensively documented in this series. The case of the State vs. George Congdon for the murder of Christopher Wilcox in 1883 is fully documented. The case file includes case notes, legal briefs, witness lists, and a printed summary of the case. Other murder cases are similarly if less comprehensively documented.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by subject or type of record and chronologically by date within folders. All of the case files have been grouped together alphabetically under the general heading of "Court Cases". Liquor cases and murder cases respectively have been placed alphabetically by case name following the general listing of Court Cases.
After his defeat at the polls for re-election as Attorney General in 1886, Samuel P. Colt turned his interests from elective politics to the business world, developing U.S. Rubber and the Industrial Trust Company into powerful corporations in their respective spheres of industry and banking. In 1903, after an eighteen year hiatus, Colt ran for governor of Rhode Island on the Republican Party ticket at the request of party leaders. Though defeated, Colt came far closer to winning against the incumbent Democrat than anyone though he would and actually polled more votes for the governor than had any previous Republican candidate for the office.
Buoyed by his showing and under the impression that the incumbent U.S. Senator, George Peabody Wetmore, would not seek reelection, Colt announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate from Rhode Island in 1905. Wetmore did indeed decide to run for reelection, but by the time he made his intentions known, Colt was too deeply committed to withdraw. Thus, there ensued one of the most bitter and divisive contests in Rhode Island's political history.
Included in this series are correspondence, handwritten and printed ballot tabulations, campaign strategy memos, Colt's speeches and addresses, lists of campaign expenditures, reports from his campaign manager, S.E. Hudson, Colt's declaration of candidacy, petitions in support of the Colt candidacy, and newspaper clippings both supporting and opposing his candidacy. Among the most interesting items are the tabulations compiled for each ballot taken during this election process. In 1907 U.S. Senators were not popularly elected, but rather were chosen by a majority vote of members of the State Legislature sitting in Grand Committee. The Republican controlled State Legislature was split between Colt, incumbent Republican Wetmore, and Democrat Robert Goddard. No one candidate was able to gain a majority in eighty-one ballots cast over a four month period. In fact, only one vote changed during that time. The ballot tabulations in this series demonstrate the fierce loyalty of the legislators to their respective candidates. The deadlock was broken only by the withdrawal of Colt, presumably due to ill health, in June 1907.
Also of interest in this series are a number of letters to Colt from State Republican Party leaders substantiating his claim that he agreed to run for the Senate only after receiving assurances that the incumbent George Peabody Wetmore would not seek re-election.
The list of Colt's expenditures on behalf of himself and the Republican Party reveal that between January 1905 and November 1906, Colt contributed nearly $150,000 to the Republican Party, an astounding sum by the standards of the day. His total contributions over the term of the campaign actually exceeded $200,000 according to his income and expenditure statements found in Series XI.
Colt had a floor manager, one S.E. Hudson, running his campaign in the State Legislature. Hudson's weekly reports to Colt are a fascinating mixture of political savvy and gossip, informing Colt who was strongly for him, who was vigorously opposed to him, and who was wavering and needed some words of encouragement from the candidate. The reports provide important insights into senatorial campaigns before the advent of popularly elected senators.
Colt was ultimately denied election to the U.S. Senate and his defeat effectively marked the close of his political career. Ironically, his brother LeBaron was elected to the same seat in the U.S. Senate in 1913. Newspaper clippings relating to S. P. Colt's abortive run for the Senate may also be found in Series XXV, Printed Materials.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by subject or type of record and chronologically by date within folders.
Series 21: Estate Files, 1855-1905, 9 ft. (18 boxes).
This series documents Colt's service as an executor and/or attorney for the estates of Hannah B. Smith, Ambrose E. Burnside, and Cornelius J. Vanderbilt. The bulk of the records relate to the Vanderbilt estate. Included are a variety of legal documents (briefs, transcripts, complaints), copies of wills, lists of heirs, lists of creditors, bills, receipts, correspondence, and memos.
Series 22: Private Legal Practice, 1850-1915, 2.5 ft. (5 boxes).
This series contains the records that remain from Samuel P. Colt's private legal practice. He maintained an active practice from 1877 to 1887 though he continued to do legal work for friends into the early 1900s. His private practice was largely confined to civil cases and probate work. Included are case files, drafts of briefs, copies of wills, correspondence, and memos.
As a highly-respected attorney and businessman, Samuel P. Colt was sometimes called upon to serve as the executor of his late friends' and business colleagues' estates. This series contains the records concerning three such estates; Ambrose E. Burnside, Hanna B Smith and Cornelius J. Vanderbilt. Although little is known about Hanna B. Smith, both Burnside and Vanderbilt were prominent figures of their day. Burnside, whose substantial facial hair gave rise to the term "sideburns", was a Civil War general and then governor of Rhode Island from 1866-1869. Vanderbilt was best known as the wayward son of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. Included in this series are correspondence, wills estate inventories, legal case files, lists of heirs, lists of creditors, transcripts, legal briefs, court complaints, bills and receipts.
The series has been divided into three sub-series, one for each of the three estates. Burnside, though a noted figure in Rhode Island, died impoverished and his estate was relatively easy to settle. He was a native Bristol and Colt knew him well. In fact, he delivered Burnside's eulogy, a holograph copy of which is included in this sub-series. Also included are correspondence, bills and receipts, lists of claims against the estate which were paid or resigned and a fragment of Burnside's will dated October 1880, a few months before his death.
Hannah B. Smith was also a native of Bristol. Hannah and her husband, who died in 1874, had extensive real estate holdings in Cuba and California as well as the family homestead in Bristol. In 1883, Smith established a trust in which she placed all her property and named Colt and a John B. Watson as trustees, (see folder labeled "Trust Deed" for details.) She died in the spring of 1884.
The Smith sub-series consists of correspondence between Colt and various Smith children and grandchildren (Barclays, Caldwells, Doringhs and Smiths) regarding the final disposition of the estate. Also included in this sub-series are several inventories of the estate, correspondence and lists relating to the final disposition of the estate, a copy of the trust deed naming Colt a trustee of the estate, and the wills of Isaac Borden and Richard Smith, respectively Hannah B. Smith's father and husband.
The bulk of the records in this series contains material relating to the estate of Cornelius J. Vanderbilt. The son of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, Cornelius J. killed himself in a New York hotel room in the spring of 1882. He left behind considerable debt. During his lifetime he was apparently able to borrow large sums of money, which he promptly gambled away, on the strength of his family name. After his death, his creditors came looking to the executors of the estate, of whom Colt was one, for payment. Included in this sub-series are case files relating to the many suits filed against the Vanderbilt estate, the wills of Commodore Vanderbilt and Cornelius J. Vanderbilt, the inventory and settlement of the estate, documents relating to the probating of Cornelius J. Vanderbilt's will, claims against the estate, bills, receipts, and correspondence.
Vanderbilt employed Colt to draw up a new will prior to April 1882 which named Colt and George Terry as executors. Both were also named as beneficiaries. Unfortunately for the executors, they discovered after Vanderbilt's death by suicide on April 2, 1882 that his debts exceeded his assets. A trust fund that his father had established for Cornelius J. could not be used to pay his debt. Creditors, who were unaware that his brother William, and not Cornelius J., had inherited the bulk of the Commodore's estate, filed claims against the estate. When they discovered that they would likely recover only a fraction of what was owed them, they turned to the executors, Colt and Terry, for satisfaction. The two men promptly found themselves defendants in a number of lawsuits brought by Vanderbilt's creditors. The details of these suits can be found in folders labeled "Court Cases."
A document entitled "Inventory and Settlement of the Estate," a multi-part form, details the amount beneficiaries and creditors received. It appears that most legacies and claims were paid at the rate of 25 cents on the dollar, with the exception of Vanderbilt's longtime friend George Terry who received $90,000 of the $120,000 bequeathed to him. Other materials relating to the settlement of the estate can be found in folders labeled "Probate of the Will" and "Settlement of the Estate: Petitions and Releases." Other items of interest in the Vanderbilt sub-series include Cornelius J. Vanderbilt's correspondence with his brother William, and William Vanderbilt's correspondence with Colt regarding the payment of his brother's just debts.
The records in each sub-series are arranged alphabetically by name, subject or type of records and chronologically by date within folders.
By education and professional training, Samuel P. Colt was a lawyer. An 1876 graduate of Columbia University Law School, he was admitted to the New York Bar in the same year and to the Rhode Island Bar in 1877. He opened a private law office in Providence in 1877 and also had an office in Bristol. He maintained his law practice while he concurrently served in the Rhode Island House of Representatives and as the State's Assistant Attorney General and Attorney General. The records in the collection indicate that Colt gave up his active private legal practice in the late 1880s.
One of the cases which Colt handled involved defending his mother Theodora against a slander charge. Unfortunately, the outcome of the case is unknown since only the original summons exists in this series. It does indicate, however, that Theodora was extremely outspoken. Colt also handled estate work, divorce cases, and title searches for a variety of people in Bristol, including the estate of his cousin, Abby DeWolf, the divorce of boat designer John Herreshoff, and real estate work for his cousin, Herbert M. Howe.
What records remain of that practice are contained in this series. The records indicate that he confined himself to the probate matters and civil cases in his private practice. Included are case files, drafts of briefs, copies of wills, divorce petitions filed on behalf of clients, printed case studies and court decisions, legal publications, correspondence and memos.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by name, subject, or type of record and chronologically by date within folders.
Series XXIII: Photographs, circa 1880-1940, 9 ft.
This series consists of negative and positive photographs of several generations of the Colt family from the 1880's through the 1940's. A large number of the photographs are of Samuel P. Colt, members of his immediate family, and Colt family real estate holdings. Also included are photographs of Colt's Maine Camp and group picnics at the Colt farm. Many of the photographs are unidentified.
Series XXIV: Graphic Works and Realia, 4.5 ft.
This series contains a collection of greeting cards, calling cards, calendars, catalogs, and artwork from the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, in addition to some miscellaneous artifacts from the Colt Family.
Series XXV: Printed Material, 2.5 ft.
The Colt Family Papers contained many books, pamphlets, and other printed material. Many of these books were accessioned into the holdings of Special Collections. The published material that remain are listed in this series. The items consist mainly of student books, legal works, annual reports, maps, and speeches. They give some indication of topics of interest to the Colt family. This series also includes newspapers clippings that were kept by the Colt family.
This Series consists of hundreds of photographs of several generations of the Colt family, photographs of their friends and acquaintances, and places in the United States and Europe they visited. There are various types and formats of photographs represented, including stereoscopic slides, tintypes, negatives and prints. The prints vary in size from small pocket-size photos to large framed portrait-style photos. Some are in photo albums, but the bulk of the photographs are loose.
The photographs have been divided into five sub-series as follows: Family/Family Related, People: Non-Family, People: Unidentified, Places and Miscellaneous.
The Family/Family Related sub-series contains photographs of several generations of the Colt family, and places associated with the family such as Camp Colt in Maine, Colt Farm, Colt Memorial School and Linden Place in Bristol. Included are photographs of Samuel P Colt, his wife Elizabeth Bullock Colt, his sons, Roswell and Russell Colt, his brother LeBaron Bradford Colt, and his mother Theodora DeWolf Colt. Also included are photographs of Samuel P Colt's daughters-in-law, stage actress Ethel Barrymore and Gwendolyn M. Gray (first and 2nd wives of Russell Colt), grandchildren John Drew Colt, Samuel Barrymore Colt, and Ethel Colt Miglietta, and great-grandson, John Drew Miglietta.
The People: Non-Family, sub-series consists of photographs of people who are not related to the Colt family but whose identity is known. Included are photographs of William Abbott, D.G. Barnes, Frances Bernfor, Nellie Bradley, Marcella Kenay, and Allen McLean. Also included in this sub-series are a number of photographs of people identified only by a first name such as "Billy, "Louise," and "Ted."
The People: Unidentified, sub-series consists of photographs of people whose identity and relationship to the Colt Family is unknown. These photographs have been divided into the broad categories of Children, Females, Males, Male and Female Couples, Males and Females in Groups and Photo Albums of Personages and Friends.
The Places sub-series consists of photographs of miscellaneous places, including the Anawan Club in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, street views of Bristol, Rhode Island, stereoscopic photographs of European landmarks, and a souvenir photo album of the vacation resort of Indian Harbor.
The Miscellaneous sub-series consists of photographs which do not fit into any of the above categories Included are photographs of works of art, sculpture and statutory, a funeral, and industrial machinery.
The photographs in each sub-series are arranged alphabetically by name or the subject of the photograph. Oversize photographs are grouped together at the end of the series.
This series contains a collection of greeting cards, calling cards, calendars, catalogs, and artwork from the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. At that time the United States was experiencing a revolution in mass printing and some beautiful lithographic prints were created. Lithography was the first fundamentally new printing technology since the invention of relief printing in the fifteenth century. Because lithographic reproductions were cheap to produce and provided an excellent vehicle for lively characterization, lithographs gained widespread favor among mid-19th-century newspaper and magazine illustrators. The greeting and social card business was born. This small series gives shows the development of this new field. It also includes some anonymous artwork found in the Colt papers and a collection of architectural blueprints.
A small collection of three dimensional objects, Realia, have also been preserved with the Colt Family Papers. The objects are eclectic and are of varying importance. Of special interest is a lock of hair in an envelope titled, "Governor Bradford's Hair, My Great Grandfather." The Colts were descended from Governor William Bradford of the Plymouth Bay Colony and this may be hair from his head.
The collection also includes two boxes of assorted visiting cards. There is no folder list for these cards.
Oversize items are placed at the end of the series. Some of the material is in brittle condition. This series includes blueprints of various buildings and artwork. Very large blueprints are kept in map cases.
The Colt Family Papers contained many books, pamphlets, and other printed material. Many of these books were accessioned into the holdings of Special Collections, in particular, a series of pamphlets and small magazines published by the Roycroft Press, a noteworthy turn-of-the-century Arts and Crafts movement press which had published Theodora DeWolf Colt's Poems in 1914. Of interest is a small collection of legal briefs which were collected by Samuel Pomeroy or LeBaron Colt. The published material that remains is listed in this series divided by type of publication. They consist mainly of student books, legal works, annual reports, maps, and speeches. They give some indication of topics of interest to the Colt family. LeBaron B. Colt's published speeches are contained in Series VI, LeBaron Bradford Colt. Series XXIV, Graphic Works, also contains some published items, mostly short inspirational and religious books.
The Colt Family Papers also contains a collection of newspaper clippings, most of them from the beginning of the twentieth century when Samuel P. Colt was planning to run for the U. S. Senate. See also Series XX, U.S. Senate Candidacy. The newspapers are in brittle condition and have been photocopied to preserve them. The photocopies were then organized into subjects. If the clippings were from the Providence Journal or (Providence) Evening Journal, the original clippings were discarded after they were photocopied. If they were from another paper, they were photocopied and then retained in no particular order in a document box. The newspaper clippings are found at the end of this series.
The following series is arranged into sub-series by type of publication and then alphabetically within subject. Each entry lists the title of the publication, its place of publication, its publisher, and the number of pages.