The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
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Collecting area: Personal finance

Akin, Ebenezer, Jr.

Ebenezer Akin Account Book

1842-1869
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 220 bd

A merchant, town clerk, part-owner of many ships, and involved citizen, Ebenezer Akin lived nearly all of his 87 years in the town of Fairhaven, Mass.

This miscellaneous personal ledger includes documentation of Ebenezer Akin’s work as town clerk and includes accounts for ships he may have owned, entries made as an estate executor, accounts of expenditures for clothing and incidentals, and accounts of lot purchases and loans. The volume also contains genealogical information about the Blossom family of Bridgewater and the family of Benjamin and Eunice Akin, Ebenezer’s great-grandfather.

Acquired from Charles Apfelbaum, 1987

Subjects

Akin, Benjamin, 1715-1802Akin, EuniceBlossom familyClothing and dress--Prices--Massachusetts--FairhavenFairhaven (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryFairhaven (Mass.)--Politics and government--19th centuryHesper (Bark)Merchants--Massachusetts--FairhavenNapoleon (Ship)Shipowners--Massachusetts--FairhavenShipping--Massachusetts--FairhavenWilliam Rotch (Ship)Winthrop (Bark)

Contributors

Akin, Ebenezer, 1816-

Types of material

Account booksGenealogiesInventories of decedents estates
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
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
Maynard, Nathaniel

Nathaniel Maynard Exercise and Account Book

1801-1862
1 vol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1063
Depiction of Front cover of the Maynard volume
Front cover of the Maynard volume

The farmer Nathaniel Maynard was born in Marlborough (Worcester County), Mass., on Feb. 27, 1780, the eldest of four children of Joseph Maynard and Lovina Barnes. By 1804, when he married Rachel (Hill) of North Brookfield, Nathaniel was already a resident of Leverett, where he had apparently moved with his brother William. Nathaniel and Rachel had four children: Ira B. Maynard (1810-1896), Alvin (1813-1818), Emeline Dudley (1815-1901), and Joseph Bartlett Maynard (1817-1881).

This small volume is a hybrid production. Roughly the first half of the volume consists of relatively standard exercises for learning arithmetic and business activities, including calculating weights, measures, currencies, finances, and interest rates. The remainder consists of accounts, recording a variety of work performed by Maynard, ranging from farm labor (sale of potatoes, plowing and planting, working with oxen, slaughtering, and chopping wood) to weaving (“sheeting”) and especially mending or making shoes.

Twiss, Thomas D.

Thomas D. Twiss Account Book

1829-1873
1 fol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 921 bd

A farmer and laborer in Antrim, N.H., Thomas Dimon Twiss was born in Beverly, Mass., in 1801. At the age of 24, Twiss married a local Antrim woman, Betsey Brackett, with whom he raised a family of three children.

This typical single-column account book of the mid-nineteenth century records Twiss’s diverse economic transactions, providing labor for the town in “braking rods” [breaking roads] and “digin graves”and to neighbors and for a wide variety of manual farm labor, including killing hogs, plowing, threshing, haying, and assorted carpentry work.

Subjects

Antrim (N.H.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryFarmers--New Hampshire--19th centuryGrave diggers--New Hampshire--19th century

Types of material

Account books
Weatherby, William

William Weatherby Account Book

1835-1837
1 vol. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 179 bd

Transient worker for Seth Porter and Co., a cotton mill in Cummington, Massachusetts and for Wells, Blackinton, and White, manufacturer of fine textiles in North Adams, Massachusetts. Includes accounts of his employers, debits, credits (a running account with a general store for the purchase of clothing and foodstuffs), and notations of providing room and board for other workers.

Subjects

Cummington (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryGeneral stores--MassachusettsNorth Adams (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th centurySeth Porter and Co. (Firm)Textile industry--Massachusetts--19th centuryTextile workers--Massachusetts--Economic conditions--19th centuryWells, Blackinton, and White

Contributors

Weatherby, William

Types of material

Account books