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The Elisha Burton ledger records financial transactions for liquor, wood, labor, and other goods and services in and around Norwich, Vermont, throughout the early 19th century.

The Elisha Burton ledger (444 pages) records financial transactions for liquor, wood, labor, and other goods and services in and around Norwich, Vermont, and Upper Alton, Illinois, throughout the early 19th century. The volume, entitled "Elisha Burton Ledger No. 2nd," begins on November 21, 1811, and contains entries for a number of Burton family members and for prominent residents in Norwich and in nearby Hanover. On the first page is a list of subscribers for a new meetinghouse on "Norwich plan," and this is followed by early accounts of figures carried over from the previous ledger. Commodities include whiskey, gin, cider, foodstuffs, bricks, and wood, though many of the later entries pertain to labor, renting carts and draft animals, and room and board. More specific mentions of labor often refer to chopping wood and other work with lumber; on one occasion, a grave was dug for Mary Burton, a widow (p. 134). After the first 337 pages of accounts, a few entries at the back of the volume relate to property held by the Burton family, including an inventory of Julia Ann Burton's possessions (p. 434), and deposits made by John B. C. Burton's siblings Edward and Eliza toward their respective shares of his estate. A late account records Joseph Burton's finances before he left for Illinois on September 24, 1834 (p. 440). Several additional items, primarily recording financial records, are laid into the volume, along with a set of directions for making shoe soles.

This volume contains the constitution and meeting minutes of the Upper Alton Presbyterian Sabbath School Society, recorded between 1842 and 1850. Minutes often included the names of teachers present and the number of students, separated by gender.

This volume (6" x 7.5", about 225 pages) contains the constitution and meeting minutes of the Upper Alton Presbyterian Sabbath School Society, recorded between January 5, 1842, and July 14, 1850. The first 2 pages are comprised of the society's constitution, along with the names of 20 members, followed by around 225 pages of weekly notes. The group's secretaries regularly recorded brief meeting minutes every Sunday with occasional gaps, most notably between April 1846 and June 1848. Meetings generally opened and closed with prayer or singing, and the minutes often include the names of teachers present and the number of students in attendance, separated by gender. Some sets of minutes, especially those composed at the beginning of each calendar year, note additional occurrences, such as officers' resignations and the results of the group's annual elections. On January 19, 1845, the society read a communication about the death of a devout Seneca Indian boy, and on January 21, 1849, the society mourned the loss of a girl who had previously attended Sabbath school meetings. The minutes dated after January 1850 refer to teachers' accounts with the group's library, and the minutes from February [1 or 7], 1850, consist of a list of Sabbath school scholars. The Upper Alton Presbyterian Sabbath School Society's secretaries between 1842 and 1850 included Benjamin Walker, Samuel H. Archer, Moses H. Long, Eliakim Thorp, E. Cunningham, and James Newman.