This volume, dated 1846 to 1848, contains 15 pages of illustrated instructions for manufacturing brandy, gin, rum, and pure alcohol, kept by Manchester, Michigan, farmer Frederic A. Peck. Thirty-three pages of miscellaneous accounting for goods and labor follow the distilling instructions. Many of the accounts pertain to corn husking, harvesting, haying, threshing, shearing (sheep), and other farm-related work. One account with John S. Barker includes a phrenological bust, a subscription for a phrenological journal, a flute, and a flute book.
The instructional text includes a summary description of the composition and process of making spirituous liquors, step-by-step explanations of ingredients and processes, and recipes for N. E. and Jamaica rum. The illustrations include one of a filtering/rectifying tub and one of a distillation apparatus.
Frederic A. Peck raised corn and performed farm labor on land either in or near Manchester, Michigan, between at least 1846 and 1848. During this time, he kept an account book for goods and labor. He had transactions with John S. Barker, George Barker, Ichabod Freeman, Henry Holloway, and other neighboring Manchester farmers.
One entry in Frederic Peck's accounts is for the acquisition of a phrenological bust and subscription to a phrenological journal. In the 1840s, Manchester, Michigan, attracted many visiting lecturers, including antislavery and phrenology speaker Dr. Buckley A. Parnell who took ill and died in Manchester in 1847.
