For sale is an original 1908 URBANA WINE COMPANY BUSINESS LETTER & STAMPED ENVELOPE. The business letter is from the Urbana Wine Company, in Urbana, NY and is dated September 23, 1908 and is typed on the company letterhead. The letter was mailed to Mr. D.O. Trimmer, Plankington House, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mr. Trimmer may have been a salesmen for Urbana who due to his occupation lived in hotel rooms. The letter notes Mr. Trimmer’s request for the company to send trays, match stands, and other supplies. The company also updated the salesman on the status of the vineyards which are terribly dry and the grapes were ripening too fast. The company noted that they were about out of the Delawares but will not take on any Concords or black grapes. The vintage envelope includes an embossed red oval two cent George Washington Stamp. The letter was postmarked in Urbana, NY on September 23, 1908, the same day the letter was written.
In 1865, John W. Davis, H.H. Cook, and A.J. Startzer established the Urbana Wine Company. In 1881, the winery was reorganized under the name of “New Urbana Wine Company”. The company was among the earliest and most successful wineries in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Urbana’s claim to fame was its widely popular Gold Seal Champagne and other sparkling wines. They dominated regional wine production during the Gilded Age. On 1896, the company was renamed the “Urbana Wine Company”. The company had to reorganize again after the Volstead Act was ratified which outlawed the drinking of alcohol. The winery survived passage of Prohibition and both World Wars closed in 1984.
