[Business ledger compiled during post-war growth of Bryan, Texas].
Blank book with stamped page numbers. Manuscript entries date from August 1st, 1868-August 19th, 1869. Lacking some pages e.g. 1-2, 85-90, 135-6, and some pages mostly torn out e.g. 69-70, 175-199; 1 additional loose leaf.
| Format: | Manuscript |
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| Language: | English |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | Blank book with stamped page numbers. Manuscript entries date from August 1st, 1868-August 19th, 1869. Lacking some pages e.g. 1-2, 85-90, 135-6, and some pages mostly torn out e.g. 69-70, 175-199; 1 additional loose leaf. |
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| Item Description: | Title devised by bookseller. Internal evidence suggests ledger was compiled by a commission freight forwarding firm that was also a general store and a lender of sorts. There are multiple entries for the purchase of various goods, as well as the descriptions of money collected for bills the firm paid on behalf of others. Others reference entries in a separate forwarding and receiving book not included here. Some also mention loans as well as the assumption of others' accounts' receivable. Many entries list members of the Beall family and many more show transactions with a J.T. Balch. An 1869 Bryan newspaper listed a "Beall & Balch" as cotton factors and general commission agents and there are many transactions with White, Beall & Sims which was a "factorage and commission" firm. Ledger documents sales of everything from cotton and flour to bibles, candles, overcoats and tar. A number of payments were made to the Bryan Ladies Aid Society as well as an unidentified baptist church. Many transactions involve Khleber Miller Van Zandt, a prime mover in the growth of Fort Worth who co-founded the city's first newspaper, played a central role in the acquisition of its first post office and served as a legislator. There are also entries related to Moody, Bradley and Co.; Moody's son, William Lewis Moody, Jr., became an important Texas financier who founded the Moody Foundation in 1942. Another interesting area of research are transactions related to Colonel T.D. Wilson, W.W. Crook and W. Wilkinson--all of whom employed sharecroppers.--Bookseller. The Cushing Library/Chapman Texas Collection copy is part of the Floyd & Louise Chapman Texas & Borderlands Collection. The Cushing Library/Chapman Texas Collection copy contains 10 leaves of research notes. |
| Physical Description: | 200 pages ; 40 cm |