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JOHN THOMPSON : LATE 1800s ORIGINAL HANDWRITTEN LEDGER BOOK OF A GENERAL STORE IN TUCKERSMITH, ONTARIO KEEPING DETAILED AND METICULOUS NOTES ON PRICES, PAYMENTS AND BALANCES OVER THE COURSE OF ALMOST 20 YEARS

Folio - over 12" - 15" tall. On offer is a mid to late 1800s handwritten ledger from an unnamed general store in Tuckersmith, Ontario. The shop owner was John Thompson according to a note in the book. The ledger is made up of the all personal bills of the many patrons of the General Store. Presumably, the many customers of the general store bought on credit, and in this ledger John Thompson kept track of the prices. A normal page contains information such as who the account is of as well as what product and how much was purchased on what day: "William Allins account. Oct 16 - 2 bags flour; Oct 18 - Tea - 1; Oct 23 - Coffee, Sugar - 1; Oct 30 - Flour - 1 bag, Tea - 1; Nov. 6 - Coffee, Sugar - 1, Flour - 1 bag;...December 18 - Sugar - 1, Raisins - 1, Tea, lemons - two". The store seems to sell everything a person in rural township Tuckersmith, Ontario (1871 population: 3,699) might need: flour, sugar, pigs, lumber, coffee, potatoes, meat, etc. Many pages do not contain the specific details of what was bought, but contain the name of the person and a tally of costs. What seems to be the most common item bought at this store was lumber, as specific pages are entirely devoted to the "Lumber Bills" of various people who bought various amounts of lumber of differing lengths and dimensions. Under a page entitled "John Leaper Lumber Bills" there are such items entered as "12 pieces 4 x 4, 12 ft. lg. - 192", "44 pieces 3 x 4, 16 ft. lg - 572", and "38 pieces 3 inches wide 12 ft. lg - 200." The number at the end seems to be the price charged for the wood. Most pages contain some sort of mathematical calculation done by Thompson, usually no more than just adding up the varying things bought and calculating a total. These calculations are usually done in pencil and are much rougher and less organized than the other writing in the book. There are also pages in which Thompson writes down what he himself bought for the shop, and the prices paid. Bills that have been closed often have large X's through them, but this does not often impede the legibility of the words behind the X. In another page, smaller and loose from the book, there is a breakdown of the general store's finances in 1887. Beginning with "Balance due 22 dec. 1886 - $134.33" and the money he owes an employee for "nine months and a half work - $158" he adds up all the cash received each month since the beginning of the year. When he subtracts the cash received from the cash owed, he comes out to an outstanding of "$61.91" (~$1,550 dollars in 2016 dollars) for the year, a huge improvement from the year before. The ledger has financial information from a very wide array of years, with the earliest being 1875, all the way up to 1893. Interestingly, there is little or no chronological order to the dates, meaning this ledger may have been used whenever needed (not systematically) over the years. The end of the ledger has many pages of seemingly comprehensive financial information. The pages, titled "log for 1875", "logs 1877", and "logs 1878" are very detailed and easily readable and contain information on the bills and payments of store patrons through those years. The book is fragile. Some pages are ripped. The spine has been taped. Some pages are detached from the binding. For the most part, the handwriting is easy to read, especially when the writing is in ink. In more detailed parts of the ledger, the handwriting can get cramped, but it does not make the script completely inaccessible.. Manuscript. Book Condition: Good

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