Personal finance, 1908-1926

Contents: Correspondence, financial statements, stock certificates, bills and receipts, news clippings.

This subseries deals with the many investments Saulsbury focused his energies on in the years after he left the Senate. Among the interesting things to note is the far greater extent to which Saulsbury's investments became national in scope. To some extent, this reflects the contacts he made in Congress, but equally important was his growing wealth and its appeal to companies needing investors. Saulsbury's investments ranged from companies well recognized today such as Coca-Cola and AT&T to companies with new and unproven ideas such as magnetic wave telegraphy. He continued to invest within the state as well.

By this time in his life, Saulsbury was rich and successful enough so that he could be less closely involved in his investments. It became his practice to "let his money work for him," to simply invest for the amount of his dividend rather than acquire a company and make profits directly from its product or its sale. There are five files in this subseries labeled simply as "Stocks." The content of these files is limited to papers dealing with purchase and/or sale of the stocks, dividend notices, and other information for stockholders, reflecting Saulsbury's limited personal involvement with these investments. Additionally, there are a few files related to his investment firms, which include detailed listings of his transactions.

One file in this subseries documents Saulsbury's practice of giving gifts of buckwheat to his friends and associates over the years. The file is probably included here because of the substantial cost of this practice. Included in the file, however, is his apparently prized family recipe for "Saulsbury Buckwheat Cakes" which he included with every delivery.