Autograph Letter Signed of Future President Chester A. Arthur to His Father, with an Amusing Reference to a Woman Concerning a Mortgage

Arthur was admitted to the bar in May 1854, and was invited to join in the law firm as a partner in 1854. When the Civil War broke out, Arthur was appointed quartermaster-general and oversaw the construction of a huge tent city in City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan, where thousands of men gathered, were provisioned, and sent to war. In February 1862, the Governor appointed Arthur inspector-general for the state.

Autograph Letter Signed, 3 pages, letterhead of his New York City law office, May 5, 1863, to his father, Rev. William Arthur, concerning a mortgage. “My dear father. The mortgage held by Mrs. Ten Broeck was paid yesterday. Upon the receipt of your letter of the 29th ult. informing me that she was then in Watervleit & would not return until the 1st of May or day before, my arrangements with regard to paying it were entirely upset as I had intended to send my clerk up to Claverack on the 27th or 28th of April. I moved my law office on the 1st of May & could not spare anyone from the office on that day or the day before or after. The earliest day on which he could go was yesterday. I have sent the satisfaction of the mortgage which Mrs. Ten Broeck executed to the Clerk of Columbia County for his certificate as to the officer taking her acknowledgement; when it is returned I will send it to you with all the other papers which I have, being the original mortgage & bond & the policy of insurance. I will send at the same time the new bond & mortgage for Annie. I understood you to say that the interest on the mortgage to Mrs. Ten Broeck was paid up to the 1st of Nov. & my memorandum of the receipt last taken was to that date. She insisted that it was paid only to the 1st of Oct. & became as enraged as a tigress when he contended that it was paid to the 1st Nov. She admitted there was to be no interest charged for the month of April but would not settle unless the interest for Oct. was paid to her. Send me by return mail the last receipt taken for the interest paid by you. In haste, affectionately yours, C.A. Arthur.”

Rev. William Arthur (1796-1867) was then pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Albany, New York. The Ten Broeck family was prominent in New York.