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

Collecting area: Business & industry

Comstock, Perry G.

Perry G. Comstock Account Book

1862-1880
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 480 bd

After witnessing the woolen mill he had built in West Stockbridge go up in flames, Peregrine Green Comstock (1808-1892) rebuilt his operation on the Williams River as a paper mill. For decades thereafter, he prospered as a paper manufacturer, raising a large family with his wife Elizabeth. Comstock died of gastroenteritis on Aug. 6, 1892 at the age of 84.

Comstock’s account book, 197pp., includes records of transactions of a Berkshire County paper manufacturer in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. Among Comstocks’s clients are Monument Mills, M.S. Hovey and Co., Smith Paper Co., Berkshire Woolen Co., Owen Paper Co., and Kniffin and Bro., and the book includes records of labor, rents, cash, board, and the exchange of goods, along with entries for calendar rolls, paper, wrap, weaving yards, sacks, dyestuffs, and lumber.

Subjects

Great Barrington (Mass.)--History--19th centuryPaper industry--Massachusetts--Great Barrington

Types of material

Account books
Conor, V.

V. Conor Account Book

1887-1891
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 620 bd

Little is known about V. Conor, other than he traveled on unspecified business up and down the Connecticut River Valley during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

From the sketchy details surrounding this book of personal accounts, it appears that the author, identified tentatively by a name written on the front fly leaf, was based in Hartford, Conn., and traveled throughout western New England, often to Greenfield and Millers Falls, Mass. Dated between August 1887 and May 1891, the accounts are surprisingly detailed, recording the record keeper’s fondness for doughnuts, seasonal fruits, and the Opera House and Allyn Hall, and they record the range of foods and incidentals, daily trips, subscription to the Hartford Journal, piano rental, and visits to the Knights of Pythias and Red Men (presumably the Independent Order of Red Men or similar organization).

Subjects

Finance, Personal--ConnecticutHartford (Conn.)--Economic conditions--19th century

Contributors

Conor, V

Types of material

Account books
Cook Borden & Co.

Cook Borden and Co. Account Books

1863-1914
3 vols. 1.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 288 bd

Cook Borden (a great uncle of Lizzie Borden) and his sons were prosperous lumber dealers from Fall River, Massachusetts who supplied large mills and transportation companies in the region. Three volumes include lists of customers and building contractors, company and personal profits and losses, accounts for expenses, horses, harnesses, lumber, and the planing mill, as well as accounts indicating the cost of rent, labor (with the “teamers”), insurance, interest, and other items.

Subjects

Callahan, Daley & CoConstruction industry--Massachusetts--HistoryContractors--Massachusetts--HistoryCratesLumberLumber trade--Massachusetts--Fall River--Accounting--HistoryTextile factories--Massachusetts--HistoryTextile industry--MassachusettsTransportation--Massachusetts--HistoryWages--Manufacturing industries--Massachusetts

Contributors

Borden, Cook, 1810-Borden, JeromeBorden, Philip HBorden, Theodore WCook Borden & Co

Types of material

Account books
Coon, John H.

John H. Coon Ledger

1862-1873
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 230 bd

Owner of a general store and a farmer in Sheffield, Massachusetts. Ledger includes lists of customers, the goods that they purchased, and how they paid (cash and exchange of goods or services).

Subjects

Arnold, EmmonsCrippen, FrankCroslear, Aaron, MrsCurtiss, IraGeneral stores--Massachusetts--SheffieldNoteware, FrankSheffield (Mass.)--Economic conditionsTuttle, Leonard

Contributors

Coon, John H

Types of material

Account books
Currier, William A.

W.A. Currier Daybooks

1865-1869
2 vols. 0.2 linear feet
Call no.: MS 213

Located at 14 and 16 Main Street in Haverhill, Mass., W.A. Currier dealt in kitchen goods, home furnishings, and stoves around the time of the Civil War. His trade seems to have been diverse and dynamic: in the Haverhill city directory for 1865, he is recorded variously as a furniture seller, junk dealer, and carriage maker, while two years later, he is listed at the same address under stoves and tinware.

Covering the immediate post-Civil War years, Currier’s daybooks document customers, items purchased, prices paid, and transactions relating to the trade in home goods, stoves, and rags.

Acquired from Charles Apfelbaum, 1987

Subjects

Adams, GeorgeDaniels, W. FGildea, PeterGriffin, SamuelHaverhill (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryKimball, OO'Brine, J. WRags--Prices--Massachusetts--Haverhill--19th centuryStacy, W. PStove industry and trade--Massachusetts--Haverhill--19th centuryStoves--Repairing--Massachusetts--Haverhill--19th centuryTinsmiths--Massachusetts--Haverhill--19th century

Contributors

Currier, William A

Types of material

Account booksDaybooks
Cushing, David F., 1814-1899

David F. Cushing Records

1851-1862
3 vols. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 248 bd

Born in Newfane, Vermont in 1814, David F. Cushing journeyed to West Medway, Massachusetts, at the age of sixteen to learn the tailor’s trade. There he met and married Polly Adams (b. 1821), who gave birth to their son, Winfield, in 1843, the first of at least nine children. Shortly after starting his family, Cushing returned home to Vermont, establishing a general store in the village of Cambridgeport, situated on the border of Grafton and Rockingham. He enjoyed considerable success in his work, rising from being listed as a “retail dealer” in the early years to a merchant; by 1860, Cushing owned real estate valued at $4,000 and personal property worth $7,000. A deacon of the Congregational church, his frequent appointment as a postmaster hints at a degree of political connection within the community to accompany his financial and personal success. He remained active in his store for 56 years until his death in 1899.

Cushing’s daybooks (1860) include lists of stock, how he acquired his goods, and the method and form of payment (cash or exchange of goods and services). The receipt book, comprised of printed forms, records freight hauling activities, with records of the freight (usually hay or oxen), weight, and date.

Subjects

Barter--Vermont--Cambridgeport--19th centuryCambridgeport (Vt.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryFreight and freightage--Rates--Vermont--19th centuryGeneral stores--Vermont--Cambridgeport

Contributors

Cushing, David F., 1814-1899

Types of material

Account booksDaybooks
Cushing, Timothy

Timothy Cushing Account Book

1764-1845 Bulk: 1781-1806
2 vols. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 485 bd

A carpenter by trade and a farmer, Timothy Cushing lived in Cohasset, Massachusetts, throughout most of his adult life. Born on Feb 2, 1738, the eighth child of Samuel Cushing, a selectman and Justice of the Peace from the second district in Hingham (now Cohasset), Cushing married Desire Jenkins (b. 1745) on June 4, 1765, and raised a considerable family of eleven children. During the Revolutionary War, he served for a brief period in companies raised in Cohasset, but otherwise remained at home, at work, until his death on December 26, 1806.

Cushing’s accounts offer a fine record of the activities of a workaday carpenter during the first decades of the early American republic, reflecting both his remarkable industry and the flexibility with which he approached earning a living. The work undertaken by Cushing centers on two areas of activity — carpentry and farm work — but within those areas, the range of activities is quite broad. As a carpenter, Cushing set glass in windows, hung shutters, made coffins, hog troughs, and window seats; he worked on horse carts and sleds, barn doors, pulled down houses and framed them, made “a Little chair” and a table, painted sashes, hewed timber, made shingles, and worked on a dam. As a farm worker, he was regularly called upon to butcher calves and bullocks, to garden, mow hay, plow, make cider, and perform many other tasks, including making goose quill pens. The crops he records reflect the near-coastal setting: primarily flax, carrots, turnips, corn, and potatoes, with references throughout to cattle and sheep. During some periods, Cushing records selling fresh fish, including haddock and eels.

Subjects

Agricultural laborers--Massachusetts--Cohasset--18th centuryCarpenters--Massachusetts--Cohasset--18th centuryCohasset (Mass.)--Economic conditions--18th centuryCohasset (Mass.)--Economic conditions--18th century

Contributors

Cushing, Isaac, 1813-1891Cushing, Timothy, 1738-1806

Types of material

Account books
Cushman, Artemas

Artemas Cushman Account Book

1822-1846
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 073 bd

Born in Middleborough, Mass., in 1781, Artemas Cushman relocated to the central Vermont town of Braintree as a young man and spent decades as a carpenter and house joiner. He and his wife Phebe Spear raised a family of nine, one of whom (Artemas’ namesake) rose to local prominence as a officer in the state militia and representative in the state house and senate. Cushman died in Braintree in 1864.

Cushman’s small ledger is a fine record of the day-to-day work of an antebellum carpenter in rural Vermont. Part daybook and part account book, and often lacking in detail, Cushman’s entries document the work of a skilled artisan engaged in constructing or repairing houses, windmills, cider mills, bake houses, sheds, and barns, and at least one school. Occasionally, he applied his skills to smaller projects such as mending a wheel or making a wagon body or coffin, and less frequently he was compensated for manual labor (haying or planting). In a cash-poor economy, Cushman was typically repaid through an exchange of labor, or through commodities such as brandy, grain, or pork.

Subjects

Braintree (Vt.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryCarpenters--Vermont--Braintree

Types of material

Account booksDaybooks
Dall Family

Dall Family Correspondence

1810-1843
2 boxes 2 linear feet
Call no.: MS 282

Chiefly correspondence from various Dall family members in Boston, Massachusetts, particularly father William Dall, Revolutionary War veteran, merchant, businessman and former Yale College writing master, to sons William and James Dall in Baltimore, Maryland. Letters of son James Dall, then a student at Harvard University, provide accounts of Boston political and cultural activities of the time.

The correspondence documents the daily changes in the life of a merchant’s family in the early 19th century, reflecting anxiety over trade restrictions, embargoes, and other economic disruptions resulting from the War of 1812. The elder Dall (William 3rd) and much of his family lived in Boston, but two sons lived in Baltimore. The bulk of the correspondence consists of letters to the younger son, William 4th, who was then apprenticed to a Baltimore merchant. The letters of son James Dall, then a student at Harvard University, provide accounts of Boston political and cultural activities.

Acquired 1989

Subjects

Baltimore (Md.)--BiographyBaltimore (Md.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryBoston (Mass.)--BiographyBoston (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryBoston (Mass.)--Intellectual life--19th centuryBoston (Mass.)--Politics and government--19th centuryDall familyFamily--United States--History--19th centuryHarvard University--StudentsMerchants--Maryland--BaltimoreMerchants--Massachusetts--Boston

Contributors

Dall, James, 1781-1863Dall, John Robert, 1798-1851Dall, John, 1791-1852Dall, Joseph, 1801-1840Dall, Maria, 1783-1836Dall, Rebecca KeenDall, Sarah Keen, 1798-1878Dall, William, 1753-1829Dall, William, 1794 or 5-1875
Dudley, Joseph

Joseph Dudley Memoir and Diary

1866-1893
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 650 bd

Born in Cheshire, Conn., in 1822, Joseph Dudley learned “the marble business” from his father Elias, who had in turn been trained by David Ritter of New Haven. A staunch Methodist swept up in the religious ferment of the Second Great Awakening, Dudley joined his father’s business as a stonecutter in about 1845 and notes that he was among the first to letter tombstones in the rural Ever Green Cemetery in Woodstock, Conn., when it opened in 1848. He later worked in Meriden, Conn.

By generations, this volume has served as an account book, diary and memorandum book, memoir, geneaological record, and scrapbook, with each layer accumulated over all previous. Dudley’s memoir (beginning p. 78) includes a discussion of his upbringing in Cheshire, the tumultuous religious revivals during the 1840s and his reception into the Methodist Church and the Millerites, and much on his introduction to the marble business and work as a stonecutter through about 1853. The diary somewhat erratically covers the years 1873-1893.

Subjects

Marble industry and trade--ConnecticutMillerite movementSepulchral monuments--ConnecticutStonecutters

Contributors

Association for Gravestone StudiesDudley, Joseph

Types of material

DiariesMemoirs