Truman Wheeler, Jr., Account Book
Truman Wheeler, Jr., of Great Barrington, Mass., is considerably more obscure than his father, a prominent merchant, but in the two decades after the War of 1812, he made his living raising and selling rye, oats, and corn, tending sheep, and operating a substantial cider mill.
Wheeler Jr.’s account book records an array of fairly typical transactions in a non-cash economy, in which goods (grain, cider, barrels, food) or services (rental of the cider mill, lodging, labor) of one sort were exchanged for another. The frequency and scale of his cidering operation, and his rental of his cider mill when not used, is a distinguishing feature of his account book, which includes accounts with members of the Burghardt, Ives, Tucker, Warner, Wheeler, Willcox, and other families, as well as with Jack Negro, to whom Wheeler sold grain, pork, and brandy in exchange for assistance in haying.
Background on Truman Wheeler
A graduate of Yale College, Truman Wheeler, Sr., settled in Great Barrington, Mass., in the spring of 1764, establishing himself as a general merchant trading in silk, fabrics, and a variety of domestic goods. A man of “genial and social disposition,” Wheeler was said to be held in high esteem by local residents. Prospering in his trade, he married Huldah Caldwell (1751-1799) on Oct. 2, 1771, purchasing an extensive farm on which he built a new house. The couple prospered in other ways, too, raising a family of twelve.
Although Truman Wheeler, Jr., is considerably more obscure than his father, but in the two decades after the War of 1812, he made his living raising and selling rye, oats, and corn, tending sheep, and operating a substantial cider mill.
Truman Wheeler Jr.’s account book records an array of fairly typical transactions in a non-cash economy, in which goods (grain, cider, barrels, food) or services (rental of the cider mill, lodging, labor) of one sort were exchanged for another. The frequency and scale of his cidering operation, and his rental of his cider mill when not used, is a distinguishing feature of his account book, which includes accounts with members of the Burghardt, Ives, Tucker, Warner, Wheeler, Willcox, and other families, as well as with Jack Negro, to whom Wheeler sold grain, pork, and brandy in exchange for assistance in haying.
Laid inside the front cover of the account book is a receipt for digging the grave of Nathaniel Lemon and the child of Milton Ball (1833) and a reward of merit for a child at school.
Acquired from Dan Casavant, Dec. 2004 (2004-118).
SCUA also holds an account book of Truman Wheeler, Sr. (MS 618 bd), documenting his earliest years in Great Barrington.
Processed by I. Eliot Wentworth, Aug. 2014.
)Cite as: Truman Wheeler, Jr., Account Book (MS 036 bd). Special Collections and University Archives, UMass Amherst Libraries.