The Customs Service Records are comprised of small amounts of several types of records kept by the staff of the U. S. Customs Service in St. Louis. The records include common carrier bonds for two shipping companies, the Kountz Line (1880) and the St. Louis and New Orleans Packet Company (1871), allowing them to carry dutiable merchandise from the port of New Orleans. There are also samples of customs bonds for goods arriving in St. Louis. These goods include art for area museums, tea for industrial use by Monsanto Chemical Works, and manifests (in Spanish) for various commercial goods from Mexico.

Anyone transacting business relating to importing and exporting, or acted for another person participating in the transfer of goods, at a port of entry was required to have a license as a Customhouse Broker. A 1910 Act of Congress gave the collector or chief officer of the customs service at any port of entry the authority to issue a license to “any person of good moral character” who is a citizen of the United States. The license allowed customhouse brokers to act only in the collection district in which license is issued. There is one letter book containing broker licenses and often the letters in which the brokers requested the licenses. In the requests, the brokers often provided their date and place of birth, employment history, and educational background. (The book was dismantled for preservation.)

The U.S. Custom House and Post Office was built in St. Louis between the years of 1878 and 1884. It was built to be a fire proof structure requiring very little wood. There are two contracts for the delivery of construction materials. For $5000, The Hydraulic Press Brick Company (St. Louis) furnished one million quality bricks. And Philip W. Schneider of St. Louis agreed to deliver red granite cut to specifications for the sum of $50,000 in 1873. In 1879, there was an amendment to the contract.

Employees of the U.S. Customs Service were required to sign an oath of office which was also signed by a witness. There is a letter book filled with oaths of office which date from 1893 to 1902 (vol. 3). Volume 1 is a ledger in which employees are listed by location with beginning employment dates that span from 1831 to 1931. Volume 2 is an Employee History ledger dating from 1887 to 1920. The Collector of Customs for District No.45 (St. Louis) corresponded with the Treasury Department and with deputy collectors in other Missouri ports regarding employees, not limited to appointments and retirements (f.12).

There are receipts for “stamps for imported goods” (distilled spirits and wine and malt liquors) which provide date, collection port, company name, country of origin, quantity, name of good (f.16-17). There are more examples of unused stamps for imported goods such as cigars, cigarettes, wine, and reimported American distilled spirits.