Foxfire 9
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PLATE 37 One page from the Fort Hembree tannery ledger. It shows purchases and payments made between February 23, 1846, and May 2, 1846.
5¼ pounds [of] harness [$] 1.75
1 side [shoe] sole [leather]—7 pounds 2.10
1 side [shoe] upper [leather] 3.00
1 piece shoe leather 1.00
Tanning 1 kip skin 1.00
Bridle leather .50
Leather remnants 1.00
2 sides bridle leather 5.00
2 bell collars .87½
1 bell collar four feet by three inches .30
Tanning and dressing 1 sheep skin .75
1 sheep skin for saddle 1.50
1 pair bridle reins .37½
1 plow line .50
Strap and leather for coat pad .25
1 side harness leather 3.00
Tanning 1 calf skin .75
Deer skins to a saddle at Blairsville 1.00
2 dog skins 1.00
1 hog skin and back band 1.25
1 deer skin for whangs .25
Whang leather .37½
4 sides harness leather—40.33½ pounds 13.33½
Tanning 1 colt skin .50
1 set bridle leathers .75
4 sides [shoe] upper [leather] 9.00
Though we cannot explain several items on the list—why someone would want two dog skins tanned, for example—we have learned from our contacts something of how such tanneries worked. We know, for example, that with cow hides, they usually worked in terms of sides—each hide being split down the backbone into two equal pieces. Sometimes a farmer would bring a cow hide in to be tanned and when the job was done, he would get one side for his own use on the farm, and the tannery would keep the other side as payment. They could then sell that side to shoemakers, for example, who might not have the time or capacity to tan their own.
A sale such as “1 piece shoe leather” was probably to a farmer who was making repairs on his own family’s shoes, whereas a sale such as “4 sides upper” must have been to a shoemaker, upper leather being for the upper portions of shoes.
“Whang leather” usually meant lower-quality leather that was going to be cut into strips for shoelaces, bridle laces, etc.
Items that the tannery bought, or listed as credit on accounts appear in a separate section of the ledger. A sampling follows:
35 pounds dry hides [$]4.20
Deer skins 1.75
1 hog skin .50
1 small deer skin .25
Tan bark 3.37½
1 kip skin and hog skin 2.00
1 buck skin 1.00
1 green hide—29 pounds 1.74
1 sheep skin .40
1 bull hide—75 pounds 4.50
1 yearling skin 1.20
¾ cord [of] bark 2.25
Such a list brings an additional dimension of reality to stories contacts have told us about those times when just about the only money to be made came from going to the woods, cutting down chestnut oak trees, stripping off the bark, and hauling it to area tanneries for sale. The tanneries, of course, made an ooze of the bark by crushing it and mixing it with water in large vats. The tannic acid released played a vital part in the tanning process.
A small tablet of lined paper found in the ledger and dated January, 1902, contains the following selection of entries handwritten in pencil. Unfortunately, we do not know who made them:
Tea Cake
1 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of butter
1 egg
1 cup of buttermilk
½ teaspoonful each of soda, nutmeg and lemon
A cup of flour
Ginger Cookies
Put 1 teaspoonful each of ginger, soda, a pinch of salt and three tablespoons of sugar. Fill the cup with [molasses] syrup. Stir well. Turn out into bowl. Put into the cup three tablespoons full of each of lard and hot water. Flour enough to roll out.
Lemon Cake
Cream together 1 cup of butter, 1½ cups of sugar, three eggs, ½ cup of sweet milk, grated rine and juice of one lemon, ½ teaspoonful each soda and cream of tartar (or sour cream and soda), 2½ cups of flour.
Cheap Cake
Two eggs, 1 cup sugar, two of flour, 1 cup of sweet cream, 1 teaspoonful of baking powder, 1 pinch of salt and flavor.
Corn Gems
One cup of cornmeal and 1 of flour, teaspoonful of soda, two of cream of tartar, ½ teaspoonful of salt, a tablespoonful of sugar or molasses.
The same tablet also contains a listing of remedies, handwritten in pencil, as follows:
Ringworm
Teaspoonful of vinegar. Drop a little soda and rub on while foaming.
Sprains or Bruise
Wormwood boiled in vinegar.
Bedsores
Eggshells. Brown and pulverize. Take a teaspoonful three times a day. Make a tea of clover blossoms dry or green and drink at mealtime.
Salve
Fry mutton tallow. When cool, stir turpentine in it until white.
Toothache
Tincture of benzoin on cotton. Good for cuts, burns, and chapped and cracked hands.
Iron Rust
Rub cream of tartar in the spot and boil in clear water.
* * *
The same tablet also contains a set of computations for construction of a house. We have reproduced them here as they appear. “Box in” must refer to the boxing-in lumber needed for walls, floor, and ceiling:
The accounts for the Fort Hembree store were maintained in two parallel ledger books. One book was simply a daily log, listing every customer for that day, his or her account number, and his or her purchases or payments on that particular day. The second was organized by customer accounts, the name of the customer and his or her account number written in large script across the top of the facing left and right pages, and beneath the name, the left hand page showing a running total bill by date, and the right describing payments. When the account was credited a certain amount on the right-hand page, the amount owed the store would be altered accordingly.
The whole operation was typically straightforward and simple, and the journals reflect predictable buying patterns: some customers, for example, bought far more than others. McCravey himself was the biggest customer (see photostat of his account), and people like Grove Lemond (who made only one purchase in all of 1846: 18¾¢ worth of tobacco) were the smallest. Some bought fine cloth, others bought only flannel. Some bought books, some none. Some bought no tobacco; others bought almost nothing but tobacco. Some ran up bills of almost $100 before making a single payment on their account; others paid as they went.
PLATE 38 One of the ledgers for the Fort Hembree store showed a running total of purchases (on the left page) and payments (on the right page) for each customer.
Buying also, as could be predicted, was seasonal. For obvious reasons sales of powder, lead, and gun flints for flintlock rifles went up in the fall; sales of flannel went up in the winter.
We anticipated finding changes in holiday spending habits; however, we found almost none. A coat purchased for $9.00 on December 13 when no other purchase was made all year that cost over a dollar looks suspiciously like a Christmas present. Likewise some December purchases of shawls, bonnets, hats, plates, some lace, and some ribbon. But these were relatively rare, and in most cases the arrival of Christmas caused no change at all in general spending patterns.
Other surprises emerged as we spent more and more time with the ledgers. From what we were able to determine, for example, over the course of an entire year, most of the customers of the store never purchased over ten dollars’ worth of goods total for the year. The breakdown of the 201 accounts is as follows:
Total worth of purchases for one year: Number of accounts in that category:
$ 0-10 150
$11-20 19
$21-30 9
$31-40 8
$41-50 6
over $50 9
201
Fifty-three of the accounts had to be sued—mostly for sums of less than ten do
llars. In most cases, the accounts were settled “by judgment,” and in most cases the people had paid at least a portion of their bills before being sued. They were trying, at least, to pay their debts.
One of the biggest surprises was how little cash actually changed hands. When William Skewbird’s indebtedness to the store amounted to $2.50, for example, he gave the store a bushel of corn for which his account was credited 37½¢. Jesse McClure assumed the balance [probably in return for some service Skewbird performed for him] and so the $2.12½ owed was taken from Skewbird’s account and showed up on McClure’s debt to the store as “Cr. Wm. Skewbird 2.12½.” McClure, in turn, paid off his indebtedness by getting $15.79 in credit for “hauling” and $4.50 credit for “wagon and steers” (probably the fee for their use in the hauling job). No cash ever changed hands.
PLATE 39 William A. McCravey, one of the owners of the store, ran up the largest amount of indebtedness by far, at one time totaling a whopping $847.57. The record of his charges, from the Fort Hembree ledger, is reproduced in this and the following plate.
PLATE 40
PLATE 41 McCravey made the first payments on his account in 1847. The ledger shows he was credited here with $325.78, mostly through horses he turned over to the store, probably from his own farm.
PLATE 42 For many years, Frank Moore ran a general store in this building.
PLATE 43 The account reproduced above is an example of one that was sued for payment. Before being sued, George Watson had paid part of his indebtedness with 24½ bushels of corn, 91 pounds of pork, a bearskin, and hides.
Intrigued, we made a list of the types of goods customers turned over to the store in payment for their bills, and the amount of credit they received. The list:
Paid Credit
By beef [$] .96
“ 9 pounds tobacco 1.12½
“ 1 bushel Irish potatoes 1.00
“ deer skins .50
“ ½ bushel onions .50
“ fur and feathers .50
“ bacon 1.56¼
“ 2 ½ pounds wool .62½
“ 1½ pounds beeswax .37½
“ 24½ bushel corn 6.12
“ 91 pounds pork 2.75
“ 1 bear skin 2.00
“ socks 1.75
“ 7½ pounds tallow .45
“ 1 calf skin .50
“ deer skins 1.75
“ 5 steers 43.50
“ corn 1.00
“ shucks 1.00
“ 1 bushel corn .25
“ 54 pounds pork 1.62
“ iron 2.87½
“ 1 coat 5.25
“ 4 bushel oats 1.33 ⅓
“ 50 bushel corn 10.13½
“ flax seed .46
“ 15½ bushel salt 21.70
“ 5½ pounds butter .45
“ cow and calf 9.00
“ 19½ pounds wool 4.87½
“ 10 bushel salt 15.00
“ work on room 2.00
“ 3 days work by John 1.50
“ 26½ pounds green hide 1.59
“ 1 venison ham .37½
“ 6 ¾ pounds feathers 1.68¾
“ 3 opossum, 1 cat and 1 coon skins .62½
“ 20 rabbit skins .20
“ 81 pounds bacon 6.48
“ 4 opossum skins .40
“ 1 hog skin .75
“ 1 cow 8.00
“ 1 steer 9.50
“ driving cattle to Nantahala 1.00
“ 1 coon and 1 ox skin .25
“ wagon and steer 4.50
“ 50 head cabbage 1.50
“ work on chimney 3.00
“ oats 1.75
“ 65 pounds green hides 3.90
“ hide [sheepskin] .50
“ mink skin .12½
“ 4 opossum skins .40
“ cutting wood .50
“ going to mill .25
“ 4 cords wood 4.00
“ driving cattle 5.33
“ 11 pounds lard .88
“ dope .10
“ gloves 1.50
“ 5 ¾ pounds cheese .57½
“ 1 coon skin .12½
“ 19 pounds flour .57
“ cow and steer 15.00
“ 14 pounds tallow .84
“ yearling 3.00
“ 2 bushel Irish potatoes .80
“ 1 pair shoes 1.50
“ 1 pair boots 4.50
“ 1 pair blankets 5.00
“ 22 pounds mutton .66
“ services of wife —
“ 8 yards flax cloth [wife] 3.00
“ digging well on half 11.84½
“ 2 bushel flax seed 1.35
“ 2 bushel wheat 2.00
“ 3 bells 3.00
“ bedstead 1.50
“ chairs .75
“ fruit 1.50
“ oats and gold 1.12½
“ whiskey—sold 7 quarts .65
“ 1 bay horse 40.00
“ hauling 2 loads from Augusta 100.00
“ sow and pigs 10.00
“ gold .45
“ 2½ bushel peaches 2.12
“ 46 pounds green hides 2.76
“ 12 plug tobacco 1.80
Yet another surprise came in the realization that virtually none of the accounts bore women’s names. One of the few exceptions was “Miss Mary Brown” who bought some calico, some peppermint, and a shawl, and $1.00 of whose debt of $1.75 was paid by Mr. McCravey himself. Another was “Miss Rachel Scroggs” who bought only shoes, calico, ginger, muslin, and one pocketknife, and who paid off her debt of $4.05 with three bundles of feathers and $2.98¼ “work of iron.” Another was Jane Hyatt, who must have been quite a woman, as she paid most of her debt off with green hides and sheepskins.
And as we looked through the pages, accounts began to tease us into conjuring up stories and activities behind the bare facts and figures. What was happening in the lives of the Scroggs family, for example, on November 8, 1845, when both Enos and John came in and bought one Holy Bible and one hymnbook apiece? And who was Amos Curtis, who, on December 18, 1845, opened his account with the purchase of one pair of shoes (75¢), ribbons (37½¢), lace (30¢), and a saddle ($10); paid for the goods with one steer ($8.50 credit) and “by settlement” ($2.92½) and then closed the account?
At times, it was fairly obvious what was happening. On November 6, 1845, for example, Enoch Beach bought chisels ($1.75), augers ($2.25), a handsaw ($1.50), a “drawing knife” (75¢), and some nails (20¢). On November 13, 1845, he returned to the store, the job obviously nearly finished, and purchased hinges (50¢), screws (25¢), and a gimlet (56¼¢). He also picked up 75¢ worth of molasses.
But what was happening in the life of Madison Curtis, who, on November 24, 1845, came in and bought one saddle ($12), stirrups (87½¢) and boots ($3). He did not come in again until May 25, 1846, when he brought in 134¾ pounds of bacon and received $12.12¾ credit on his account. On July 31, 1846, he made his second purchasing trip to the store, buying seventeen pounds of nails for $1.70. On August 11, R. C. Slagle paid $4.95 on the Curtis bill, leaving a balance due of fifty cents. On the same day Madison Curtis came in, paid the fifty cents in cash, closed the account, and disappeared from the record.
Obviously we can only speculate, and entertaining as that is, it remains speculation. And so we have confined ourselves primarily to the presentation of several accounts to give you an idea of the kinds of purchases people made from the only store around this part of the mountains in 1845–46.
The first account is that of Bennett Kirkpatrick. It spans November 12, 1845, to December 24, 1846. We do not know who Mr. Kirkpatrick was, but we selected his account because of the unusual variety of goods he bought. If one wanted to go further and engage in some speculation, it would be tempting to think he was a schoolteacher because of the books and paper he bought, the number of pocketknives (prizes for his better students?), his comparatively refined tastes, and the fact that he could pay part of his account in cash.
The account follows with spellings, capi
talizations, etc., maintained as they appear in the ledger:
1845 Bennett S. Kirkpatrick
By the end of the year, Mr. Kirkpatrick had managed to pay $34.21 ½ on his account. This amount was made up of $9.00 credit for a cow and calf, 97¢ for twelve pounds of butter, $1.35 for two bushels of flaxseed, $11.84½ for helping to dig a well, 50¢ for a well bucket, and the balance in cash.
The second account is that of Hiram Crisp—selected, again, because of the variety it offers.
On the credit side of the ledger, it shows that between the dates of June 25 and December 25 of 1846, Mr. Crisp brought in shoes and boots he had made to pay off portions of his account. On December 25, 1846, he paid off the balance of $39.21 by an entry that appears to read “By Moore & shoes.” We’re not sure what that means unless Mr. Moore—presumably the Moore who owned the store—paid off part of the account for him (or forgave it) in return for something not listed. The amount credited to his account for the shoes he brought in was hardly significant. One credit line, for example, reads, “14 pr. coarse shoes, $4.90; 5 pr. shoes, $3.12½.” He also got $4.50 worth of credit to his account for one pair of boots.
A survey of the books shows other types of goods that could be purchased at the store:
padlock [$] .37½
curry comb .20
5 pounds nails .50
2 blank books .60
1 bar lead .10
smoothing iron .30
pencil case .62½
steelyards 2.00
overcoat 7.00
thimble .06¼
bobinet .62½
1 bridle 1.00
suspenders .12½
chains .87½
1 sythe [scythe] blade 1.75
½ gallon jug .37½
1 frying pan .40
1 gallon tar .37½
1 girth .25
ropes .87½
soup plates .50
scissors .31¼