Schwabacher Brothers & Company, a San Francisco general store and wholesale house, expanded into Washington Territory when they opened a store in Walla Walla in 1860. Within a short time, the firm became Puget Sound's major wholesaler of canned goods, dry goods and other materials to the logging camps, mill towns and farming communities. Their first Seattle store opened in 1869, and in 1872 they built Seattle's first brick structure; an advertisement in The Intelligencer on September 25, 1871, claimed the store "sold everything from a needle to an anchor." In March 1906 the company opened a huge new store at First Avenue South and South Jackson Street in Pioneer Square which, as of 2018, still stands, although in 1998 this building was combined with three adjacent buildings. Throughout mergers and diversifications, the Schwabacher Bros. & Co. remained in business in one form or another until 1981.
The letterhead receipt pictured here was issued to J. S. McAllister for several purchases made between November 27 and December 18. The shopper is probably John Smith McCallister (1823-1889), a brickmaker from Illinois who was living with his family in Seattle by 1870. Mr. McAllister paid $4.00 for one box of candles, $2.00 for two hats, and $31.00 total for one new and one used suit of clothes.
Caption information source: "Schwabacher's erects Seattle's first brick building on October 24, 1872," by Greg Lange, HistoryLink.org Essay 1962. Caption information source: "The Schwabacher Family" by Jean Roth, http://www.jgsws.org/schwabacher.php
