F. D. Cossitt, Dealer in Staple & Fancy Dry Goods for the Ladies

From prior stories, we know that Franklin Dwight Cossitt was born on September 9, 1821 in Granby, Connecticut and raised in Tennessee.  We also know that in 1862 he moved to Chicago where he built a very successful wholesale grocery business. 

In 1870 he purchased several hundred acres of farmland in Cook County about 13 miles west of the Chicago Loop.  He then started building the ideal suburban village.  He laid out streets, planted trees, donated property for churches and schools, and built quality homes for sale. He also placed liquor restrictions in the land deeds to prevent the village from becoming a saloon town.  He named his town in honor of La Grange, Tennessee, where he had been raised as a youth on an uncle's cotton farm.

While he lived in Tennessee, he was the proprietor of F. D. Cossitt & Co. a Dealer in Staple & Fancy Dry Goods for the Ladies', Citizens' & Planter's Trade.  From the things that he did later in his life, he must have been a successful merchant, but like all merchants, he sometime sold merchandise and was never paid.

Below is an invoice where he sold various items starting on November 21 of 1859 and concluding on July 31, 1860.  The third page is the Bill of Particulars which he filed with the Circuit Court for Tippah County Mississippi during its September Term of 1867.  We do not know if he was ever able to collect the debt owed to him.

These and other documents were recently acquired by Dr. Perry Wong of Fairfield, Ohio who contacted the Cossitt Family Assn. and graciously offered them to us.  Thank you Dr. Wong.

Additional documents of a similar nature with a date of September, 1867 indicate that he had partners in his dry goods business.  In another suit to collect an unpaid bill, he lists himself along with I. E. Davis as surviving partners of Cossitt, Davis & Bryan.