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Collection

Culpeper County (Va.) account book, 1859-1864 (majority within 1860-1862)

39 pages (1 volume)

An unidentified farmer in Culpeper County, Virginia, kept this 39-page account book between late 1859 and June 21, 1864. Thirty-four pages of ledger entries show a variety of men and women purchasing farm goods such as corn, meal, flour, beef, bacon, and other products. In return, his customers were credited through unspecified, skilled, and unskilled labor; cash; and goods such as farm implements. Laborers, for example, sowed, thrashed, raked, and stacked wheat; mowed; cut oats; and heeled, capped, halfsoled, pegged, nailed, and vamped shoes and boots. At least one entry for shoe repair appears to be for enslaved persons' shoes. The keeper of the accounts also rented out a house and garden for $25.00 per year, to Miss E. Benear in 1861 and French Martin in 1862.

An unidentified farmer in Culpeper County, Virginia, kept this 39-page account book between December 31, 1860, and June 21, 1864. Thirty-four pages of ledger entries show a variety of men and women purchasing farm goods such as corn, meal, flour, beef, bacon, and other products. In return, his customers were credited through unspecified, skilled, and unskilled labor; cash; and goods such as farm implements. Laborers, for example, sowed, thrashed, raked, and stacked wheat; mowed; cut oats; and heeled, capped, halfsoled, pegged, nailed, and vamped shoes and boots. At least one entry for shoe repair appears to be for enslaved persons' shoes. The keeper of the accounts also rented out a house and garden for $25.00 per year, to Miss E. Benear in 1861 and French Martin in 1862.

Collection

Dennis Skehan tavern account book, 1765-1772

1 volume

This account book contains financial records for customers' purchases from Dennis Skehan's tavern from 1767 to 1772, principally of alcoholic beverages though he also sold other items. Entries that note fees for boarding and food indicate that the tavern may also have functioned as an inn. A number of entries reflect the making or repair of clothing and shoes, suggesting some tailoring work may have also been happening in the family. In addition to cash, patrons also payed via goods and labor, indicating a barter system was operating. The exchange documented throughout for grains may relate to ingredients used for the production of alcohol.

This account book contains financial records for customers' purchases from Dennis Skehan's tavern from 1767 to 1772, principally of alcoholic beverages like flip or philip, toddy, beer, milk punch, various types of rum, as well as spirits or liquor. Entries also include the amount of alcohol purchased, providing insight into how the beverages were served and consumed, using measurements such as bowls, mugs, glasses, gills, drams, nips, and others. Accounts specifying fees for boarding and food suggest that the tavern may also have been functioning as an inn. Beyond alcohol, purchases for tobacco, paper, tea, and other items are also recorded, indicating other forms of goods were on offer. A number of entries pertain to the making or repair of clothing and shoes, suggesting some tailoring work may have been happening in the family.

In addition to cash, patrons also payed via goods like fabric, corn, wheat, eggs, butter, and deerskins, or exchanged labor like a day's work, plowing, or spinning flax, indicating a barter system was operating. An account on the first page includes payments on a barrel of Rum as well as schipples (a measurement used for dry goods) of Rye "Male" and Indian "Male," likely phonetic spellings for "meal." The exchange documented throughout for grains may relate to ingredients used for the production of alcohol.

At least two entries were made out to Mary Skehan, dating after Dennis Skehan's death, suggesting she may have continued the business following his passing.

The account book includes an inscription, "Dennis Skehan's Book," dated 1765, as well as a note recording Dennis Skehan's death on October 14, 1771. Later entries dated August 1772 include copies of receipts for payments John Flynn made in New York currency to two men, suggesting he may have come into possession of the volume following Skehan's death.

Collection

Duncan Evans and J. J. Evans daybook and account book, 1852-1872

1 volume

Duncan Evans and J. J. Evans maintained this volume between 1852 and 1872 to document financial accounts for the sale of whiskey and cobbling work. The first portion of the volume is a daybook recording goods purchased from Duncan Evans, primarily for whiskey by the quart, gallon, and half-gallon. Beginning in 1866, the volume shifts to an account book primarily documenting services provided by J. J. Evans, such as making various types of shoes and boots, soling and repairing foot ware, and other types of cobbler work. The final page includes an entry for "making negro girl pr shoes," indicating at least one African American customer. It also includes a few accounts for materials purchased from others, like butter and meal, and a recipe for making shoe blacking.

Duncan Evans and J. J. Evans maintained this volume between the years of 1852 and 1872 to document the financial accounts for the sale of whiskey and cobbling work. The first portion of the volume is a daybook recording goods purchased from Duncan Evans, primarily for whiskey by the quart, gallon, and half-gallon. Beginning in 1866, the volume shifts to an account book primarily documenting services provided by J. J. Evans, such as making various types of shoes and boots, soling and repairing foot ware, and other types of cobbler work. The final page includes an entry for "making negro girl pr shoes," indicating at least one African American customer. It also includes a few accounts for materials purchased from others, like butter and meal, and a recipe for making shoe blacking. The volume has a paste-paper cover and evidence of pest damage on the spine.

Collection

Fernando C. Jacobs account books, 1844-1861

2 volumes

This collection includes two daybooks kept by Fernando C. Jacobs of Canaan, Vermont, between 1844 and 1861. These overlapping volumes contain accounts of tanners and cobblers Jacobs & Fletcher, with a record of daily sales of tanning and footwear making, mending, tapping, and binding services. They sold horsehides, calf skins, kipskins, sheepskins, leather, moose hair, leather, straps, buckles, shoes, boots, moccasins, slippers, cows, butter, and meats (such as moose and beef). By the mid-1850s, the accounts show increasing sales of medicines (pills, liniments, etc.), tobacco, cigars, foodstuffs such as flour, mackerel, oysters, rum, and gin. Consumers paid with cash, hay, wheat, cash, corn, turnips, supplies, and labor.

This collection includes two daybooks kept by Fernando C. Jacobs of Canaan, Vermont, between 1844 and 1861. These overlapping volumes contain accounts of tanners and cobblers Jacobs & Fletcher, with a record of daily sales of tanning and footwear making, mending, tapping, and binding services. They sold horsehides, calf skins, kipskins, sheepskins, leather, moose hair, leather, straps, buckles, shoes, boots, moccasins, slippers, cows, butter, and meats (such as moose and beef). By the mid-1850s, the accounts show increasing sales of medicines (pills, liniments, etc.), tobacco, cigars, foodstuffs such as flour, mackerel, oysters, rum, and gin. Consumers paid with cash, hay, wheat, cash, corn, turnips, supplies, and labor.

Collection

Josiah Morse account book, 1846-1856, 1876

152 pages (1 volume)

Reverend and physician Josiah Morse of Stewartstown, New Hampshire, kept this account ledger between 1846 and 1854. The entries are largely for medical services, treatments, and medicines for clientele in Stewartstown and other nearby locations. In addition, Morse occasionally took in boarders, rented out his cutter and gig, and received subscription payments for his services as a Congregational minister. Clients paid with cash, skilled services, labor, foodstuffs, and other goods. Laid into the volume are two pages of accounts for travel, room, board, medicine, washing, postage, life insurance, and sundries for the period of June 1, 1850, to June 5, 1851, paid by the Marquette Iron Company for Dr. Morse's year of service as physician and minister at Marquette, Michigan.

Reverend and physician Josiah Morse of Stewartstown, New Hampshire, kept this account ledger between April 22, 1846, and 1854. The entries are largely for medical services, treatments, and medicines for clientele in Stewartstown and other nearby locations. In addition, Morse occasionally took in boarders, rented out his cutter and gig, and received subscription payments for his services as a Congregational minister. Clients paid with cash, skilled services, labor, foodstuffs, and other goods.

Josiah Morse's accounts include a wide range of medicinal treatments, such as valerian, opium, morphine, paregoric, "powders", various compounds and liniments, pills, pulmonary elixirs, emetics, salts, bitters, "Indian Hemp", potash, squills, iodide, fetid gum, soda, tart acid, gum arabic, cough drops, "Scotch Emp", calomel, pink root and senna, seneka, quinine digitalis, cream tartar, rosemary, asafoetida, anodyne elixir, Irish moss, licorice, cathartic, cough syrup, and camphor.

Among the procedures utilized by Dr. Morse were cupping, dressing, vaccinating, setting limbs, lancing, extracting teeth, bleeding, applying liniments, and addressing a leg bitten by a dog (page 70).

Josiah Morse's customers were largely Stewartstown area residents, but he also treated people from nearby Canaan (Vt.), Clarksville (N.H.), Pittsburg (N.H.), Columbia (N.H.), Concord (Vt.), and Lemington (Vt.). Dr. Morse received payment in cash, foodstuffs, manufactured goods, and skilled labor. Patients supplied him with carpentry and wheelwright labor (page 14), the use of an oxen wagon and team (page 35), wood chopping, cutter repair, mason work (page 46), cheese, strawberries, oats, hay, attendance on his pig (page 36), pumpkins (page 38), house cleaning, maple sugar, blankets, baskets, quicksilver, milk, cloth, ginger, ribbon, lamp oil, tea, thread, nails, alcohol, "goods at Cooley's Store", and sundry articles.

Dr. Morse paid weekly board for his daughter Fanny between July 1847 and October 1849 (see pages 54, 63, 85, 93, for example). One lengthy account is with the "Meeting House Company," for planning, framing, squaring timber, shingling, labor, laying chimney, lime mortar, and boarding (page 77).

Laid into the volume are two pages of accounts for travel, room, board, medicine, washing, postage, life insurance, and sundries for the period of June 1, 1850, to June 5, 1851, paid by Amos Harlow of the Marquette Iron Company for Dr. Morse's services as physician and minister at Marquette, Michigan. Other laid-in items include a partially printed summons for an unpaid debtor, a signed subscribers' petition to hire Josiah Morse as preacher in Stewartstown, May 13, 1846; and a letter from A. Smalley of the State Medical Society, March 27, 1854, requesting information on any form of medical schools in Morse's town/county.

Collection

Lemuel Cotton daybooks, 1889-1894

2 volumes

Lemuel Cotton of Hiram, Maine, kept these daybooks to record the financial transactions associated with what appears to be a general goods store. Entries are made by individual days and list out customer names, purchases, and amounts owed and paid. Types of goods sold include food stuffs and spices, coffee and tea, candy, tobacco, medicine, household goods, tools, shoes, seeds, fertilizers, among other items. Some entries reveal additional elements of life in Hiram, such as charges for the use of a team at a funeral, sale of a suit of clothes and a casket, or sales of firecrackers near the Fourth of July. In addition to cash payments, some bartering appears to have been occurring, as lines of credit are noted for goods like butter, fruits and vegetables, meat, or for services like painting jobs, "picking chickens," butchering, and other day work.

Lemuel Cotton of Hiram, Maine, kept these daybooks to record the financial transactions associated with what appears to be a general goods store. The first volume spans from 1889 to 1890 and the second from 1892 to 1894. Entries are made by individual days and list out customer names, purchases, and amounts owed and paid. Types of goods sold include food stuffs and spices, coffee and tea, candy, tobacco, medicine, household goods, tools, shoes, seeds, fertilizers, among other items. Some entries reveal additional elements of life in Hiram, such as charges for the use of a team at a funeral (vol. 1, p. 39), sale of a suit of clothes and a casket (vol. 1, p. 54), or sales of firecrackers near the Fourth of July (vol. 1, p. 147). In addition to cash payments, some bartering appears to have been occurring, as lines of credit are noted for goods like butter, fruits and vegetables, meat, or for services like painting jobs, "picking chickens," butchering, and other day work.

Collection

True family account book and family history, 1761-1771, 1848-1863

1 volume

This account book kept largely by Jacob, Anne, and Anna True consists of records relating to their family business in Salisbury, Massachusetts. The True family ran a multi-purpose organization and operated it as a tavern, inn, bank, and store for foodstuffs and other goods. The volume also contains a narration and history of the extended True family, a study of the Webster family, and a 16-page recounting of the American Revolutionary War naval battle between the Bonhomme Richard and the HMS Serapis.

This account book kept largely by Jacob, Anne, and Anna True consists of records relating to their family business in Salisbury, Massachusetts. The True family ran a multi-purpose organization and operated it as a tavern, inn, bank, and store for foodstuffs and other goods. The volume also contains a narration and history of the extended True family, a study of with the Webster family, and a 16-page recounting of the American Revolutionary War naval battle between the Bonhomme Richard and the HMS Serapis.

The volume's double-entry bookkeeping includes the name of the client, with running lists of the costs and dates of purchases of goods and services, as well as records of account credits. Sales of alcoholic beverages include rum (occasionally identified as New England or West Indies), toddies, and brandy. Rum seems to be the most frequent item offered by the Trues; at times the drink is not listed by measurement, but instead as variants of "Rum and Drink at Time Taken from the Score." They sold foods, including veal, salt, sugar, molasses, turnips, pork, fish, and more. They sold cloth, linens, and clothing, such as handkerchiefs, swanskin, sheeting, silks, thread, oznabriggs, buttons, blankets, muslin, bearskin, ribbon, "ferrit," combs, sole leather, and more. The Trues also offered services, such as augur maintenance, chair repair, clothing and shoe mending, and more.

One atypical entry is an account for debtors William Temple and Capt. Edward Emerson in 1761, pertinent to expenses for the wreck of a brig, including costs associated with ballast, clearing lumber and pumping out the ship, moving the ship to Newbury, "a Treat to the people that went Down in ye Ship," temporarily storing Naval stores, taking care and sending on the ship three weeks later, and other itemizations.

Clients paid by cash, labor, or barter. Services rendered include ship work such as planking, boring holes, and caulking, raising, and framing; a "day's work," butchering. Goods offered in trade include timber, codfish, corn, silver shoe buckles, lamb, cider, charcoal, and more. Many transactions conclude with a "Settlement" statement and the signature of Jacob, Anne, or Anna True, with the purchaser's sign-off.

The volume includes a list of the crew on board the Bonhomme Richard, including Jacob and Anne's son Jacob, along with a recounting of the engagement of the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis. A few printed newspaper illustrations were pasted into the volume, including an engraving showing the battle and framed by snakes and a "Don't Tread on Me" banner. Another shows "The Emperor Napoleon in his Coffin."

The final pages of the volume contain genealogical information respecting the Webster family.

Collection

Windsor (Vt.) barter records, 1846-1848

1 volume

This volume is made up of barter records kept by "G.W." for a store in the Windsor, Vermont, area. The writer recorded the names of people, the goods they received from the store, and the goods they used to trade for them. The store sold dishes, looking glasses, foodstuffs (molasses, salt, sugar, tea, ginger, crackers, fish, rum, rice, candy, saleratus, raisins, etc.), opium, cloth, clothing, tobacco, snuff, oil, combs, ink, writing utensils, paper, and other goods. In return, customers traded butter, eggs, rags, wood, corn, apples, chickens, cheese, maple sugar, oats, and other items.

This volume is made up of barter records kept by "G.W." for a store in the Windsor, Vermont, area. The writer recorded the names of people, the goods they received from the store, and the goods they used to trade for them. The store sold dishes, looking glasses, foodstuffs (molasses, salt, sugar, tea, ginger, crackers, fish, rum, rice, candy, saleratus, raisins, etc.), opium, cloth, clothing, tobacco, snuff, oil, combs, ink, writing utensils, paper, and other goods. In return, customers traded butter, eggs, rags, wood, corn, apples, chickens, cheese, maple sugar, oats, and other items.