Truman Wheeler Account Book
1764-1772
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 618 bd
One of twelve children of Obadiah and Agnes (Tuttle) Wheeler, Truman Wheeler was born in Southbury, Conn., on Nov. 26, 1741. After completing his education, reportedly at Yale, Wheeler moved north to Great Barrington, Mass., in the spring of 1764. Acquiring property about a mile south of the center of town, he soon established himself as a general merchant trading in silk, fabrics, and a variety of domestic goods.
The Wheeler account book represents the initial years of a thriving, late colonial mercantile business in far western Massachusetts. Beginning in June 1764, not long after Wheeler set up shop in Great Barrington, the account book includes meticulous records of sales of domestic goods ranging from cloth (linen, silks, and osnabrig) to buttons, ribbons, and pins, snuff boxes, a “small bible,” “jews harps,” and tobacco. Among the prominent names that appear as clients are members of the Burghardt and Sedgwick families.
Acquired from Dan Casavant, Mar. 2001
Subjects
Great Barrington (Mass.)--Economic conditions--18th centuryMerchants--Massachusetts--Great BarringtonContributors
Wheeler, Truman, 1741-1815Types of material
Account books