This 339-page account book holds approximately 300 pages of financial records related to a general store in Cummington, Massachusetts, and to the personal finances of a local resident. Pages 1-184 document the general store's financial affairs between 1817 and 1819, and reflect the prices of household supplies and foodstuffs. The accounts are organized chronologically and document individual purchases by date. Several members of the Bryant family, including William Cullen Bryant's brother Austin, purchased goods from the store. One entry reflects a $31.71 credit awarded to Almyra Packard for "Labour in the Factory" (p. 109). Pages 185-297, as well as several pages thereafter, consist of personal accounts kept between 1820 and 1866, many of which concern the costs of boarding horses and other draft animals. Several accounts mention cotton and gingham, and many regard the finances of the local school.
Colonel John Cumming of Worcester, Massachusetts, purchased a plot of land in Western Massachusetts known as township "No. 5" on June 2, 1762; much of this plot was incorporated as the Town of Cummington on June 23, 1779. The poet William Cullen Bryant was born there on November 3, 1794, the son of Peter Bryant, a local physician. In 1850, the population of Cummington was roughly 1,172.
