James W. Hayward collection, 1844-1857 (majority within 1846-1857)
0.5 linear feet
This collection contains 548 receipts, bills, and related financial records pertaining to James Wood Hayward's dairy distribution business in Worcester and Middlesex counties, Massachusetts, between 1845 and 1857.
The first item is a receipt for a payment Hayward made to Hariet [sic] and James Fletcher for 8 weeks' tuition at a local school in November 1844. The rest of the material concerns his purchase of milk from numerous venders in and around Acton, Harvard, Boxborough, and Littleton, Massachusetts. The majority of the items are receipts and, to a lesser extent, lists of purchases, all of which document the cost of the large quantities of milk Hayward bought, often by the can. A few documents record the amount of milk he and his brother, Stevens Hayward, collected from various vendors over the course of a month. Several providers, including Benjamin Houghton and Ira Banfield, appear frequently throughout the collection, though Hayward dealt with a large number of dairy farmers throughout the region.