the writing on this letter reads:
john f, eagan & co.
manufacturers of the
empire pantaloon overall
sack coat and mechanic's jacket
wappingers falls, n.y., aug 14, 1884
a.w. humphreys pres't.(president of the sterling mountain railway company)
dear sir
your favors of 16 and a few days ago were rec'd. our mr. deville, being about to take a trip through n.j. the next day after receiving your first letter, we handed the letter to him to answer in person. he has evidently forgotten about it, and we enclose our price list and quote you best discts (discounts) 20% 30 days or 2 off 10 days. hoping we may be favored with your orders and asking pardon for our seeming neglect in answering your first letter we remain
yours truly
john f. eagan & co.
john f. eagan founded his company in wappingers falls, new york sometime in the early 1880s, but the earliest reference to "empire pantaloon overalls" that i have found is from a newspaper dated 1883. eagan's partners were mrs. luke hunt and mrs. john eagan (that is how their names were recorded), and at the time of the company's failure in late 1889 they had about 100 employees. officially, the business failed because it had an over-supply of cold weather garments and no market in which to sell them.
although it looks like the company's failure had to do with poor salesmanship, bad luck played a role as well. apparently there was an arsonist on the loose in wappingers falls in the 1880's. he had it in for eagan and lit up his factory up a handful of times. there was also the goliath of sweet, orr & co., whose original factory was founded in wappingers falls in 1871. i guess eagan was either full of moxie or naivete to think that he could compete with that giant.
it took a couple of years to sort out the financial end of the company's failure, and in 1892 eagan and his family moved down the hudson river to manage the overall shop at sing sing correctional facility. it looks like the "empire" brand continued in some way, but i'm having a difficult time verifying wether the brand continued after eagan or if an entirely different concern used "empire" to brand their products. i found one reference to a company in auburn, new york that used "empire" to label their overalls, but that was from the early 1900's, so i am thinking that it was a different company all together.
i would like to thank andrea from unsung sewing patterns for helping me decipher the script and archaic abbreviations in this letter.
