Tyler, Philemon L., b. 1812

Philemon L. Tyler was born in Massachusetts in 1812. He and his wife Tersilla, also a native of Massachusetts, settled in New York some time before the birth of their first child in 1838. By 1850, after at least a decade in the village of Springville in the agricultural town of Concord, New York, Tyler had three children, and real estate valued at $4,400.

The two daybooks span the years from 1841 to a few notations in 1852. They document the prices of boots and shoes and exchange system that typified farming communities in the northeast. Customers paid Tyler with apples, potatoes, chicken, wheat, mutton, pork, beef, and hay, among other farm products, and only rarely in cash. In some cases, labor rather than products was exchanged. Edward Rushmore built stairs for Tyler in 1842; Henry Fuller paid his bill by one day’s work with a team moving goods from Yorkshire. Of course, many farmers with livestock traded cow hides or calf skins for Tyler’s wares. At times, customers accumulated quite substantial debts for a small-shop shoemaker; when E.W. Worth settled his accounts on January 9, 1845, the total amounted to $54.70, although Tyler’s boots never cost more than $3.50 per pair.