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

Collecting area: Business & industry

Holyoke Co-operative Bank Collection

Holyoke Co-operative Bank Collection

1908-1971 Bulk: 1940-1970
13 9 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1123

Holyoke Co-operative Bank was the third bank organized in Holyoke during the boom years of the 1870s and 80s. It was organized on July 24, 1880 and was the third bank organized there by E. L. Munn. The bank was located at 243 High Street in 1919 and 319 Appleton St. in 1951. In 1971, the bank merged with Community Savings Bank, which was a combination of Chicopee-Falls, Mechanics, and Springfield Five Cent Savings Banks. In 1988, Community merged with Heritage Bank to become the largest bank in Western Massachusetts. Heritage failed in 1992 and was taken over by Fleet Bank.

The collection here, which was acquired from the Holyoke History Room and Archives at the Holyoke Public Library in 2020, consists mostly of cash journals from the late 1920s to the late 1960s. There is also one box of Board of Investment minutes and shareholder lists. The collection originally resided at the Springfield History Library & Archives, who most likely acquired it after the bank had merged with Community Savings Bank in 1971, since the material in the collection ends in 1970.

For more information on the merger see:
Piccin, N. (1992, December 6). Heritage failure brings to close 158 years of WMass banking. Sunday Republican (Springfield, MA), A26.

Inventory

Box #

Description

Dates

Box 1 (record storage box) Record of share withdrawals
Board of Investment minutes
Shareholders
Shareholders
Proof of Certificates
1951-1970
1953-1970
1940-1960
1963-1970
1943-1960
Box 2 (16″x20″ oversize box) Transferred cash journal
Real estate journal
1941-1943
1940-1941
Box 3 (16″x20″ oversize box) Cash journal 1948-1957
Box 4 (16″x20″ oversize box) General ledger 1970-1971
Box 5 (16″x20″ oversize box) Cash journal
Cash journal
1927-1930
1931-1933
Box 6 (16″x20″ oversize box) Cash journal 1935-1937
Box 7 (16″x20″ oversize box) Cash journal 1960-1962
Box 8 (16″x20″ oversize box) Cash journal 1963-1965
Box 9 (16″x20″ oversize box) Cash journal 1965-1968
Box 10 (16″x20″ oversize box) Cash journal 1968-1970
Box 11 (16″x20″ oversize box) Shareholder ledger 1928-1932
Box 12 (16″x20″ oversize box) Transferred cash journal
Cash journal
1937-1941
1958-1959
Box 13 (16″x20″ oversize box) Shareholders ledger
Collateral transfers
1927
1908-1934
Acquired from Eileen Crosby, Holyoke History Room & Archives, December, 2020

Subjects

Banks and banking, CooperativeCommunity banksFinancial executivesFinancial institutions--Holyoke, Mass.

Types of material

cashbooksledgers (account books)minutes (administrative records)
Restrictions: none
Horace Pierce and Son

Horace Pierce & Son Ledger

1828-1857
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 234

Starting out as a blacksmith in Royalston, Mass., in 1828, Horace Pierce established a successful pail manufacturory. Taking his son Milo as a partner, he employed a work force of eight by 1870, selling over $6,000 of pail annually with capital of nearly $3,500. Horace Pierce died in Royalston in 1883 at the age of 78.

This ledger includes records of work performed as a blacksmith (shoeing horses, fixing irons, mending sleighs, shovels, or chains, sharpening tools), records of manufacturing pails, forms of payment received (cash, labor, agricultural produce, wood, shoes, coal, and old iron), lists of customers, accounts of employees (monthly wages, charges for boarding, and days lost to work), and accounts of supplies purchased.

Subjects

Blacksmiths--Massachusetts--RoyalstonPails--Massachusetts--RoyalstonRoyalston (Mass.)--History

Contributors

Pierce, Horace, 1805-1883Pierce, Milo, b. 1829

Types of material

Ledgers
Howe Family

Howe Family Papers

1730-1955
7 boxes 4.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 019

Personal, business, and legal papers of the Howe family of Enfield and Dana, Massachusetts, including correspondence between family members, genealogies, account books and printed materials. Account books record transactions of various family members whose occupations included general storekeeper, minister, printer, postmaster, telephone exchange and gas-station owner, and document the transactions of community businesses and individuals, some of whom were women involved in the beginnings of the local palm leaf hat and mat industry.

Subjects

Bookkeeping--History--SourcesEnfield (Mass.)--BiographyEnfield (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryEnfield (Mass.)--HistoryEnfield (Mass.)--Social life and customsHowe family--GenealogyMoneylenders--Massachusetts--Enfield--HistoryQuabbin Reservoir Region (Mass.)--HistorySwift River Valley (Mass.)--HistorySwift River Valley (Mass.)--Social life and customs

Contributors

Howe, Donald W. (Donald Wiliam), 1982-1977Howe, Edwin H., 1859-1943Howe, Henry Clay Milton, b. 1823Howe, John M.Howe, John, 1783-1845Howe, Theodocia Johnson, 1824-1898

Types of material

Account booksBusiness recordsDeedsGenealogiesScrapbooksWills
Hubbard and Lyman

Hubbard and Lyman Daybook

1844-1847
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 237 bd

Partners who manufactured harnesses, saddles, and trunks in Springfield, Massachusetts. Includes the prices paid for harnesses, whips, trunks, valises, and a variety of repair jobs such as splicing, coupling, and repairing of the hoses of the Springfield Fire Department. Also contains method and form of payment (principally cash, but also wood, leather, and leather thread in exchange) and twenty pages of clippings with the names of Lyman’s daughters, Mary and Frances, written on them.

Subjects

Aaron P. Emerson Co. (Orland, Me.)Barter--Massachusetts--Springfield--History--19th centuryHarness making and trade--Massachusetts--Springfield--History--19th centuryHarnesses--Prices--HistorySpringfield (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centurySpringfield (Mass.). Fire DeptTrunks (Luggage)--Prices--HistoryWages--Leatherworkers--Massachusetts--Springfield--History--19th centuryWhips--Prices--History

Contributors

Hubbard and LymanHubbard, Jason, b. 1815Lyman, Moses, b. 1815

Types of material

Daybooks
Hunt, W. W.

W. W. Hunt Account Book

1886-1888.
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 621 bd

The proprietor of a general store and postmaster in Wendell Depot, Mass., W. W. Hunt carried on a thriving business for a small Franklin County town during the 1880s and 1890s. Selling a range of dry goods, foodstuffs, and other goods, Hunt catered to residents in Wendell and neighboring communities up and down the Miller River.

An extensive ledger, marked No. 5, the W.W. Hunt account book contains records of sales of a surprising range of dry goods and foodstuffs, snaths and scythes, stamps and envelopes, and other goods useful to a rural community. Although most of Hunt’s customers were individuals seemingly purchasing for personal consumption, he also sold goods to the Farley and Goddard Wood Paper Companies, the Ladies Aid Society, and the town of Wendell, with some accounts marked “Town Farm.”

Subjects

Merchants--Massachusetts--Wendell DepotWendell Depot (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th century

Contributors

Hunt, W. W.

Types of material

Account books
Joseph D. Norton and Son

Joseph D. Norton and Son Account Book

1851-1881
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 103 bd

Father and son wood turners, manufacturers of ladders, and general wood workers from the Loudville section of Westhampton, Massachusetts. Includes names of customers and businesses (bulk of the accounts are with local lumber and furniture dealers S.M. Smith Co., E.H. Lyman, Medad Pomeroy, and Charles Loud & Co.), items sold (such as bureaus, tables, and lumber), furniture that they repaired, and supply items which they acquired (such as varnish, stain, glass, tacks). Also contains documentation of employee payment, flour, tow, sugar, and coffee purchases, and employee lost work days.

Subjects

Charles Loud and CoE. H. Lyman (Firm)Furniture industry and trade--Massachusetts--Northampton--History--19th centuryFurniture industry and trade--Massachusetts--Westhampton--History--19th centuryFurniture--Repairing--Massachusetts--Loudville--History--19th centuryLaddersLoudville (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryLumber trade--Massachusetts--Northampton--History--19th centuryLumber trade--Massachusetts--Westhampton--History--19th centuryMedad Pomeroy (Firm)S.M. Smith Co.Wages--Furniture workers--Massachusetts--Loudville--History--19th centuryWages-in-kind--Massachusetts--Loudville--History--19th centuryWoodworkers--Massachusetts--Loudville--Economic conditions--19th century

Contributors

Norton, Joseph D.Norton, Leonard

Types of material

Account books
Judice, Edward

Edward Judice Photograph Collection

1973-2010
281 digital images, 2 videos
Call no.: PH 046
Depiction of Lathe operator, Rodney Hunt co., 1974
Lathe operator, Rodney Hunt co., 1974

Raised on Long Island, Ed Judice embarked on a path in photography at the age of 13 when he took a job sweeping floors in a local photo studio. After picking up work photographing locally and a stint in the army, he moved to New York city, Judice began doing commercial work for ad agencies and magazines and eventually with Polaroid. Through Polaroid, he began developing contacts in western Massachusetts, eventually moving to Wendell in the early 1970s. He maintains an active studio in Northampton.

The Judice collection consists of a series of 59 digital images relating to a photo documentation project at the Rodney Hunt factory in Orange, Mass., in 1973 and 1974; a series of photographs documenting the bicentennial of Wendell in 1981; and two video documentaries of the Three County Fair, Northampton, Mass., 2007, and “Benny and Joe: A friendship,” 2010.

Subjects

Foundry workers--Massachusetts--OrangeNorthampton (Mass.)Rodney Hunt Machine CompanySerrazina, JoeShoemakers--Massachusetts--NorthamptonShu-Fix (Northampton, Mass.)Strojny, Benny.Wendell (Mass.)--Centennial celebrations, etc.

Contributors

Judice, Edward

Types of material

Digital imagesVideo recordings
Karl Finison Connecticut River Valley History Collection

Karl Finison Connecticut River Valley History Collection

1803-1912
2 boxes 1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1226

Karl S. Finison was an undergraduate (class of 1975) and then graduate student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, studying Anthropology and local agricultural history. His 1979 master’s thesis “Energy Flow on a Nineteenth Century Farm,” was a part of a Anthropology Department research series on the ecological anthropology of the Middle Connecticut River Valley, studying demographic and other trends from 1650 to 1900 in the area. Part of this work was supported in 1970s by the Connecticut Valley Population Ecology Project. While doing this work, Finison also began to collect agricultural journals, books, and original manuscripts about the ecological history of Upper and Middle Connecticut River Valley.

This collection consists of five original accounting logs and ledgers from western Massachusetts and southern Vermont, offering insight into the commerce and community in these areas in the 19th-century and early 20th-century:

  • An 1803-1826 account book covers agricultural and business transactions in the Middle Connecticut River Valley, including in such Massachusetts towns as Chester, Granby, Northampton, Northfield, and Shelburne.
  • A ledger of the accounts of E. F. Reed and Co. (Dummerston, VT) from 1883-1894, is the only volume with a known authorial origin.
  • A mixed-use logbook includes 1845-1846 worker logs (lumber industry) in Ashfield, MA; 1849 diary and expense entries from Shelburne Falls, MA; diary entries from 1851, ca. 1855, and 1878; and undated “little sermons.”
  • An account book of unknown origin, 1881-1905, mainly transactions regarding  shoes, boots, and harnesses.
  • A “Time Book,” tracking the labor of agricultural workers at an unknown location in summer 1912.
Gift of Karl Finison, 2024.

Subjects

Agricultural laborers--Connecticut River ValleyAgriculture--Economic aspects--Connecticut River ValleyConnecticut River Valley--Economic conditions--19th centuryIndustries--Connecticut River ValleyMassachusetts--Economic conditions--19th centuryVermont--Economic conditions--19th century

Types of material

Account books
Kellogg, Rufus

Rufus Kellogg Ledger

1840-1850
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 041 bd

A notable figure in Amherst, Mass., prior to the founding of Amherst College, Rufus Kellogg was born on July 16, 1794, the child of Jerusha and Joseph Kellogg. Married to Nancy Stetson in June 1820, Kellogg made a successful, if highly varied living, serving as town postmaster (1809-1824), keeping an inn and tavern at the “City” beginning in 1818, and farming, and he became a stalwart of the local Masonic lodge. His son Rufus Bela Kellogg rose even higher on the social ladder, graduating from Amherst College in 1858 and became a prominent banker.

A diverse and fairly complicated book of records, the Kellogg ledger is part waste book, day book, memorandum book, and account book, marking records of lending a horse and sleigh are interspersed with accounts for the sale of grain and hay, boarding locals, repairing pumps, and other miscellaneous transactions. Although it is unclear precisely which member or members of the Kellogg family kept any individual record, it appears that Rufus must have initiated the book, although later entries were clearly made by one or more of his children.

Acquired from Dan Casavant, Mar. 2006

Subjects

Amherst (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryFarmers--Massachusetts--AmherstHotelkeepers--Massachusetts--AmherstMerchants--Massachusetts--Amherst

Types of material

Account books
Ketcham, Robert, b. 1796?

Robert and Henry Ketcham Account Book

1829-1875
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 176 bd

Owners of a farm business/general store in Charlton, Saratoga County, New York. Includes lists of items sold, services performed (such as plowing, harvesting, and planting corn), transactions with fellow townsmen, and debts owed. Also includes newspaper clippings of poetry, samples of dried pressed foliage, written document of Ketcham family births, deaths, and marriages, and the document of a house sale agreement.

Acquired from Charles Apfelbaum, 1987

Subjects

Agricultural laborers--New York--Charlton (Town)--History--19th centuryCharlton (N.Y. : Town)--Economic conditions--19th centuryFarmers--New York--Charlton (Town)--Economic conditions--19th centuryFood prices--New York (State)--New York--Charlton (Town)--History--19th centuryGeneral stores--New York--CharltonKetcham family--Genealogy

Contributors

Ketcham, HenryKetcham, Robert, b. 1796?

Types of material

Account books