H.I.F. Coleman DRY GOODS--Hardware, Clothing, &c--advertising on Cahaba, Alabama double-rated cover to S. O. Wood, Esqr., Hamburg, Perry County, Alabama. Stamps are 3-cent perforated Type II, overlapping, and tied by Cahaba Ala Mar. 23 (1861) CDC.   Rough opened at top, and pieces of backflap missing. Otherwise a nice 1857 double-rated Alabama advertising cover.

H.I.F. Coleman's DRY GOODS store is mentioned by Anna Gayle Fry on page 28 of her book, Memories of Old Cahaba.  That paragraph, which begins on p. 27, is reproduced here:

In 1859 and 1860 Herbert L. Hudson, a young Englishman who settled in Cahaba and married a daughter of Mr. James D. Craig, a wealthy and influential citizen, owned the hadsome drug store on the southeast corner of Second North and Vine Streets, which was formerly Dr. Smith's old stand.  In the same block of buildings at this time were located the large  family grocery store of Thomas L. Craig, the jewelry store of Thom Fellows, the dry goods stores of H.I. F. Coleman, L. Engleman, and of Warford; the harness and saddle shop of Hildebrand, the saloons with their swinging green blind doors, the post office, Bowe's bakery, and the fashionable barber shop in charge of Sam Edwards and "Joe the Barber," as he was generally known.  These were two free negroes of the mulatto type, whose former owners had returned North and left them in Cahaba.  They were well thought of and made many friends among the white people by their good behavior.