The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
CredoResearch digital collections in Credo

Collecting area: Mercantile

Mercantile House (Portland, Me.)

Mercantile House Ledger

1792-1804
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 285

Firm based in Portland, Maine, that supplied “merchandize” to local merchants in Maine, as well as in several locations in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and northeastern Massachusetts. Firm undertook international “adventures” as well. Ledger includes general accounts for merchandise, bills receivable and payable, cash, profit and loss, storage, and truckage, as well as accounts generated with certain ships.

Subjects

Maine--Commerce--18th centuryMaine--Commerce--Massachusetts--18th centuryMaine--Commerce--New Hampshire--18th centuryMassachusetts--Commerce--Maine--18th centuryMerchants--Maine--Portland--18th centuryNew Hampshire--Commerce--Maine--18th centuryPortland (Me.)--Commerce--18th centuryShipping--Accounting--18th centuryStorage and moving trade--Maine--18th century

Types of material

Account books
Middleborough (Mass.) country store

Middleborough (Mass.) Country Store Daybook

1825-1827
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 221

Country store in the village of Titicut in Middleborough, Massachusetts, owned by members of either the Clark or Pratt families of the village. Includes goods for sale (groceries, cloth, hardware, and liquor), the method and form of payment (cash, rags, straw, wood, brick, and produce), customers’ names, and ways that families and women earned credit (producing braid or carting goods for the owners).

Subjects

Barter--Massachusetts--Middleborough--19th centuryBraid--MassachusettsFreight and freightage--MassachusettsGeneral stores--Massachusetts--MiddleboroughMiddleborough (Mass.)--Commerce--19th centuryTiticut (Middleborough Mass.)--Commerce--19th century

Types of material

Daybooks
Murdock, Charles N., 1835-1904

Charles N. Murdock Ledger

1866-1869
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 251

A grocer from Stow, Massachusetts, Charles N. Murdock catered principally to farmers and the country trade.

The accounts of Murdock’s store include mention of products sold (groceries and other items) and payment received, usually in kind (lard, eggs, fruit, butter, potatoes, cigars, beans, cash, and labor).

Subjects

Barter--Massachusetts--Stow--History--19th centuryDerby, ReubenGrocers--Massachusetts--Stow--Economic conditions--19th centuryGrocery trade--Massachusetts--Stow--History--19th centuryStow (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryStow (Mass.)--Rural conditions--19th centuryTemple, RufusWages-in-kind--Massachusetts--Stow--History--19th century

Contributors

Murdock, Charles N., 1836-

Types of material

Account books
New Salem (Mass.)

New Salem (Mass.) General Store Daybook

1841 June-1845 Aug.
1 vol. 0.2 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1090 bd

A town at the eastern periphery of Franklin County, Mass., New Salem was incorporated in 1753 and has never strayed far from its rural roots. In the 1840s, agriculture supplied much of the town’s work, supplemented by lumbering, hide tanning, and a cottage industry in palm-leaf hats, of which over 79,000 were manufactured in 1837 alone.

Although this daybook covers only a brief span of four years, it offers a fascinating glimpse into the vibrancy of a country store in antebellum Western Massachusetts. The store’s owner is not recorded, however the names of dozens of men and women from New Salem appear as purchasers of small quantities of consumable goods and the occasional luxury items like peppermint and candy. The last several pages of the ledger include accounts for particularly active customers, including several who supplied the store with large numbers of palm-leaf hats, which the store’s owner may have exported, and records of receipt for various kinds of paper, almanacs, toy books, and textbooks in mathematics and spelling.

Acquired from M&S Rare Books, May 2006

Subjects

Country stores--Massachusetts--New SalemGeneral stores--Massachusetts--New SalemNew Salem (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryPalm-leaf hats--Massachusetts--New Salem

Types of material

Account booksDaybooks
Nichols, Reuben

Reuben Nichols, The adventures and ramblings of a sailor

1840
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 901 bd

The son of a Revolutionary War veteran from Fairfield County, Conn., Reuben Nichols went to sea as teenager and spent a quarter of a century sailing the Atlantic aboard merchant ships and privateers. After rising to become master of the New York and Savannah packets Exact and Angelique in the 1830s, he retired to a life on shore near Bridgeport.

This vigorous account of a life on the antebellum seas runs Nichols’ childhood hardships through a series of adventures at sea in war and peace. An observant and effective writer, Nichols describes voyages to western and northern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and South America during and after the War of 1812. During a colorful career, he took part in the operations of warships and privateers, witnessed attempted mutinies and desertions, rescued the abolitionist John Hopper from a mob in Georgia, and was drawn into the struggles for colonial liberation. His experiences aboard the privateer Kemp and descriptions of Haiti, Cape Verde, Spain, Gibraltar, Turkey, and Argentina are particularly evocative.

Acquired from William Reese, Mar. 2016

Subjects

Abolitionists--GeorgiaArgentina--Description and travel--19th centuryAruba--Description and travel--19th centuryGibraltar--Description and travel--19th centuryHaiti--Description and travel--19th centuryHopper, John, 1815-1865Merchant ships--ConnecticutMutinyPrivateeringSailors--ConnecticutSpain--Description and travel--19th centuryStratford (Conn.)--HistoryTurkey--Description and travel--19th centuryUnited States--History--War of 1812--Naval operations

Types of material

AutobiographiesMemoirs
Norton (Mass.) & Mansfield (Mass.)

Norton (Mass.) Merchant's Daybook

1828-1839
1 vol. 0.15 linear feet
Call no.: MS 203 bd

Norton, Mass., was a manufacturing center during the early days of the industrial revolution. During the 1830s and 1840s, its mills turned out sheet copper, cotton goods, boots and shoes, leather goods, iron castings, ploughs, and baskets.

The unidentified owner of this daybook was a general provisioner in the Bristol County, Massachusetts, towns of Norton and Mansfield. This daybook records a relatively brisk trade in relatively small quantities of food, cloth, fuel, wood, shoes, paper goods, glassware, and iron. While the Norton Manufacturing Company (a textile manufacturer) was among the steady customers, the storekeeper also dealt extensively with individuals.

Subjects

General stores--Massachusetts--MansfieldGeneral stores--Massachusetts--NortonMansfield (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryNorton (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryNorton Manufacturing Company

Types of material

Daybooks
Norwich (Conn.) Ironmonger

Norwich (Conn.) Ironmonger's Account book

1844-1847
1 vol., 270p. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 540 bd

Straddling three rivers with easy access to Long Island Sound and the Atlantic, Norwich, Conn., was an important center during the mid-nineteenth century for the shipment of goods manufactured throughout eastern Connecticut.

Despite covering a limited period of time, primarily 1844 and 1845, the account book of an unidentified iron monger from Norwich (Conn.) provides insight into the activities of a highly active purveyor of domestic metal goods. The unidentified business carried a heavy trade in the sale or repair of iron goods, as well as items manufactured from tin, copper, and zinc, including stoves of several sorts (e.g., cooking, bricking, coal), ovens, pipes, kettles and coffee pots, ice cream freezers, lamps and lamp stands, reflectors, and more. The firm did business with individual clients as well as mercantile firms, corporations such as the Mill Furnace Co., organizations such as the Methodist Society, the city of Norwich and County of New London, and with local hotels.

Subjects

Hardware industry--ConnecticutIron industry and trade--ConnecticutNorwich (Conn.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryStoves

Types of material

Account books
Parker, Alfred A.

Alfred A. Parker Daybooks

1877-1889
4 vols. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 235

In the years following the Civil War, Alfred A. Parker operated a stove and tinware shop in Orange, Mass., trading with individuals and business in the nearby towns of New Salem and Erving. A native of New Hampshire and resident of Missouri in the years prior to the war, Parker had four children with his wife Frances (Whipple), two of whom survived him at his death in 1907.

Alfred Parker’s daybooks document his business transactions with local residents and firms, including the Gold Medal Sewing Machine Co., the Orange Manufacturing Co., and the Rodney Hunt Machine Co. The entries note charges for labor (especially soldering), the cost of stoves, pipe, kettles of various sorts, roofing material, and information about shipping costs.

Subjects

Freight and freightage--Rates--Massachusetts--19th centuryGold Medal Sewing Machine CompanyKettles--Prices--Massachusetts--Orange--19th centuryNew Salem (Mass.)--HistoryOrange (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryOrange Manufacturing Company (Orange, Mass.)Pipe--Prices--Massachusetts--Orange--19th centuryRodney Hunt Machine CompanyRoofing--Prices--Massachusetts--Orange--19th centurySolder and soldering--Costs--19th centuryStove industry and trade--Massachusetts--Orange--19th centuryStoves--Prices--Massachusetts--Orange--19th centuryTinsmithing--Massachusetts--Orange--19th centuryTinsmiths--Massachusetts--Orange--Economic conditions--19th century

Contributors

Parker, Alfred A.

Types of material

Account booksDaybooks
Parker, Amos, b. 1792

Amos Parker Account Book

1827-1863
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 211

The son of Stephen and Abigail (Bailey) Parker, Amos Parker was born in Bradford, Mass., on Jan. 2, 1792, but lived most of his adult like in neighboring Groveland. Although his father died when he was young, Parker came from a family that had been settled in the region for at least a century, and enjoyed some success as a trader and proprietor of a general store.

Parker’s accounts include goods for sale (such as lumber and hardware) and the methods and form of payment (principally cash but also in exchange for labor or commodities like butter or eggs). The volume also documents Parker’s role in the burgeoning shoe industry exchanging and receiving shipments of shoes, and supplying local shoemakers with tools..

Acquired from Charles Apfelbaum, 1987

Subjects

Aaron P. Emerson Co. (Orland, Me.)Barter--Massachusetts--Essex County--History--19th centuryGeneral stores--Massachusetts--GrovelandHardware--Massachusetts--Essex County--History--19th centuryLumber trade--Massachusetts--Essex County--History--19th centuryMerchants--Massachusetts--Essex County--Economic conditions--19th centuryShoe industry--Massachusetts--Essex County--History--19th century

Contributors

Parker, Amos, b. 1792

Types of material

Account books
Port of Dennis (Mass.)

Port of Dennis Enrollment Bonds Collection

1889-1894
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 290 bd

Bonds entered in application for a Certificate of Enrollment for commerce vessels at the port of Dennis in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Volume contains 200 bonds (80 of which are completed), that provide names of the managing owner(s), the name and weight of the vessel, the sum of the bond, and the master of the vessel, and document the commercial activities of some residents in the towns of Dennis, Yarmouth, and Harwich.

Acquired from Charles Apfelbaum, 1987

Subjects

Barnstable County (Mass.)--Commerce--History--19th centuryBarnstable County (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryDennis (Mass. : Town)--Economic conditions--19th centuryDennis (Mass.)--Commerce--History--19th centuryEnrollmentsHarwich (Mass.)--Commerce--History--19th centuryHarwich (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryShip registers--Massachusetts--Barnstable County--HistoryShipping--Massachusetts--Barnstable County--History--19th centuryYarmouth (Mass.)--Commerce--History--19th centuryYarmouth (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th century