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The August 2012 Collector’s Series Sale

A Treasure Trove of Items Relating to General George Armstrong Custer

A young lady walked into our offices on West 57th Street inNew York. She placed a shoe box on the table and she saidthat the contents of the box all related to George Arm-strong Custer, the Civil War hero and legendary Indianfighter who died in the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

She opened the box and began showing me the contents.Two things became crystal clear - she understood the sig-nificance of each item, and she was knowledgeable andpassionate about the life and times of General Custer andhis wife, “Libbie.”

The box contained checks, drafts, military orders, and theCuster’s personal account book. There were several stampedenvelopes that had previously contained personal correspon-dence sent from the General to his wife and from her to him.She showed me a letter written entirely in the General’s hand.

The last items to come out of the box were some medals andbadges. She picked up the final object, placed it in my hand,and said “This just may be Libbie Custer’s own Michigan 7thCavalry Regimental badge, given to her by the General himself.Libbie Custer describes it in her book, Tenting on the Plains,and she is seen wearing it in several photographs.”

My instincts told me that this could well be a very significantitem, but was it really what she thought it might be?

I had to ask the question that was on my mind from the moment the box was opened –“How did you come into pos-session of these items?”

What follows is a condensed version of what she told me:

“Elizabeth Bacon Custer long outlived her husband, GeneralGeorge Armstrong Custer. She made her primary residence at71 Park Avenue in New York City. Elizabeth and the Generalhad no children, and the majority of her family resided in oraround Monroe, Michigan, save for a niece in Brooklyn.

As was customary back in that time, Ms. Custer had a personalassistant (referred to frequently in news articles and other writ-ings as a “companion” or a maid) named Margaret Flood. Mar-garet lived with Elizabeth until Elizabeth’s death at age 91 in1933. When she originally began working for Elizabeth, Mar-garet was single and I'm sure her maiden name is somewherein all of the notes and letters I have. However, she later marriedand her husband, Patrick Flood, moved in with them. I have aletter from Mrs. Custer to Patrick, asking what his intentionsare for Margaret.

Margaret and Elizabeth were extremely close, as evidenced by the many pieces of personal correspondence I have. Mosthelpful are the letters Elizabeth wrote to Margaret while shewas down in Daytona, Florida for a short period, recuperatingfrom an illness.

Margaret was left a number of things upon Elizabeth's death,though I would assume they were nothing thought to be ofparticular value, at least at the time. I have a letter from an at-torney to Margaret which does identify that this occurred. I doknow Elizabeth donated General Custer’s items of significanceto West Point, such as his medal of honor, his sword, etc. Shealso donated other items, such as a desk, to the Custer Museum.

Elizabeth published the many letters she received from Gen-eral Custer during wartime. The book, “The Custer Story: TheLife and Intimate Letters of General George A. Custer and His Wife Elizabeth,” was written by Margeurite Merington at Elizabeth’s urging. It took many years and was finally completed in 1950. The whereabouts of the original letters areunknown. However, the envelopes, along with notebooks,stamps, and photos, were stored in a large cardboard box thatended up in the house in Brooklyn with Margaret and Patrick.Many of the envelopes have Margaret Flood’s handwriting onthem; I would assume she helped Merington over the years insorting through the letters. Likewise, as Merington completedthe book in 1950, many years after Elizabeth's passing, it seemslikely that she would have returned them to Margaret andPatrick. Elizabeth had no heirs, Margaret was still alive, and shewas like family to Elizabeth.

Similar to the Custers, Margaret and Patrick Flood also had nochildren. However, Margaret did have a niece - her sister’sdaughter, Mary - who moved into the Brooklyn house to care

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for them as they grew old. When the Floods died, they left theirhouse and its contents to Mary, who lived there for the rest ofher life. She also had no children.

My family came to know Mary many years ago when I was ayoung child. She was the aunt by marriage of a family friend. Icame to know her as “Aunt Mary” while I was growing up,though she was of no blood relation to me. My parents re-mained close to Aunt Mary and saw her as regularly as if shewere related to us.

As Aunt Mary advanced in age, my mother visited her morefrequently. On one of many visits in the mid 2000s, Aunt Marygave my mother the box containing the envelopes and a box ofElizabeth Custer's personal effects. (She thought I would beinterested in the envelopes and stamps because I liked "oldthings"). In a smaller box were some old war medals. Nothingterribly exciting, at least to any of us. These boxes had sat in herhall closet for many years and I guess Aunt Mary no longerwanted them. In fact, the box containing the envelopes hadlong ago suffered water damage; I still have it in all its glory, asI stored its contents in it for the many years since.

Mary gave us the boxes before she passed away in 2007. Mymother was appointed by Aunt Mary's will as her executor, and she settled Mary's affairs as Aunt Mary had directed her to, in-cluding the sale of the house. I was given a box of “old things”and my mother was given a box of personal effects by my“Aunt” who was of no relation to me by blood but was as closeas family. My parents cared for her in her elder years, just as shehad cared for her elderly aunt and uncle - who just happenedto be the caretakers of Elizabeth Custer in her elder years. In away, the envelopes are of most interest to me, as the letters theyonce contained showed the devotion of a man to his wife, andthey were passed along in a chain of caring over the years.”

As you will see, further investigation by noted Custer Badgeauthority John Beckendorf confirmed that the gold and pearlbadge from the box was Libbie Custer’s personal Michigan 7thCavalry Regimental badge, and that the MOLLUS Medal wasGeneral Custer’s.

Don’t miss this very important opportunity to obtain some ofthe most important Custer items to ever be publicly offered.

Special thanks to John Beckendorf for his invaluable help on the Custer badges and medals.

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