WHEAT! January 30, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Saturday January 30, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Wheat

On this final day of the week, and the final shopping day of January, 250 years ago, purchases were made on sixteen different accounts. There may have been only twelve persons in the store as one of them, Hermanus Ostrander, picked up items charged to the accounts of his brother (John),  Peter Terwilliger Sr, and John McClean [McClane, McKlean, McKlain]. Alexander Sloot [Slott, Slutt] purchased items on his own account as well as on his father, John's, account.

[You can search on '1768-01-30' in the on-line database.]

This article is one in a series of a daily accountings of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for more of an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.

On this day, 250 years ago, four of the visitors had transactions involving wheat.

Mattyce Cullup (182-05) sold 8 1/2 bushels of wheat to the store which was entered as a credit in the DayBook. Hermanus Welder (183-04) sold 60 bushels of wheat to the store, also entered as a credit. Lewis Bodine's (184-01) transaction, however, was only a side note... "he sold his Wheat @6/4".  No debit or credit was added to the DayBook. Mathyce Kembergh (184-02) was paid cash "on Wheat" and a 24 shilling debit was entered in the DayBook.

In the case of Bodine, we have no idea of the quantity of Wheat that was sold. Perhaps this was a pure 'produce for cash' transaction and so had no debit or credit that would be carried to his account. For accounting purposes no record was necessary. I wonder how much of the economic activity in this community was not recorded because it did not involve a "credit or debit"? His transaction is a rare one in the DayBook. In the 51 transactions involving 'Wheat' in the prior five months, only one other transaction does not have a debit or credit recorded.

The case of Kembergh is a bit more common. Of the 51 transactions involving wheat in the prior five months, eight were recorded as debits in payment for wheat yet to be delivered. Apparently the harvesting of wheat was still ongoing in the middle of the winter.

In the prior five months, the DayBook records about 410 bushels of wheat purchased by the store. As mentioned above, the DayBook does not record the quantities of wheat yet to be delivered. If the £168 paid for wheat is divided by the going rate of 6 shillings per bushel, the estimated wheat flowing through the store was 560 bushels in the prior five months.

At this time of year, and with the harshness of the winter of 1768, it is doubtful that the wheat flour mills were operating at this time. The freezing conditions would have made operation of the water wheels impossible. It is likely that the wheat grown in this area was ground close by. The DayBook records that Peter DuBois had a 'miller' and evidence exists of a mill on his property where the Tin Brook enters the Wallkill.

In November of 1767 (152-04), Colden recorded a transaction as "Wheat - ground for him." It is likely that Colden had a mill himself. Several other mills in the area are known to historians.

New York and Pennsylvania were becoming the 'bread basket' of the colonies with their large wheat production. A New York City newspaper in February 1768 reported that exports of wheat flour to the West Indies were so large that the warehouses were overflowing and the prices dropping.

The January 25, 1768 issue of the New-York Mercury listed the price of wheat at 6s 9d, just a tad more than the 6s 4d [6/4] Colden was paying. (See red circle below.)

This seems to indicate that New York City was not a market for the wheat purchased by Colden at the store. He would have been losing money unless someone shipped the wheat to New York for free. It is more likely that he milled the wheat locally and sold the flour at the 20 shilling per bushel price printed in N-Y Mercury.

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McCOLLUM! January 29, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Friday January 29, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Mary McCollum

One valuable aspect of the DayBook is its revelations of relationships. The McCollum [McCollam, McColem, McCollem, or McKoleme] family is a good example.

There are twenty-seven instances where someone with the name McCollum makes a  visit to the store. The given names in order of appearance are:  Sarah, Thomas, John, Mary, Mathew, and William.

This article is one in a series of a daily accountings of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for more of an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.

On March 19, 1768 the DayBook states that items charged to Mathew's account are delivered to (picked up by) his brother Tom. Mathew and Thomas are brothers.

On October 17, 1768 the DayBook states that items charged to Thomas' account are delivered to (picked up by) his son, William.

Further we know that Thomas' wife is alive as she also picks up items on his account. Unfortunately, she is not named.

Sarah and Mary share the same account: #181. They could be mother and daughter or sisters.  Perhaps one or both are sisters to Mathew and Thomas?

John picked up items for Thomas, hinting at an unknown relationship.

On two occasions, items for McCollums are picked up by people who do not share the same surname: John Rose and Thomas Beattie. I happen to know from my study of farms of the area that they are both close neighbors of the McCollums and perhaps they are even related in some fashion.

I find it fascinating that so much about relationships can be postulated using DayBook data. I say "postulated" because there could be several different Mathew McCollums and Thomas McCollums. The families were large and favorite names were frequently reused.

I have an interest in this family as I believe they were close friends of my 6th GGF, Samuel Campbell. Samuel had many children and grandchildren while they were neighbors with the McCollums and perhaps there was some intermarriage. Their farms abutted. The properties were on the southern border of the Wileman patent. And both lands were bisected by the Plank Road that ran to the future site of St. Andrews church. Previous blog on the McCollums.

McCollum and Campbell Farms in Montgomery, New York.  The cross at the top of the map is where St. Andrews Church was located.  The cemetery is still there. St. Andrew's road follows the path of a road that existed at the time of the DayBook. It passes through the Campbell Farm in yellow and the McCollum Farm in blue. The line at the southern end of the properties is the boundary between the Wileman and Brasier patents. The Perry Farm is shown in red. The black line  running north through the McCollum farm is an abandoned road that existed at the time of the DayBook. Route 52 or South Plank Road passes through the Perry Farm (red). The blue river is the Tin Brook.  It flows west to the Wallkill River.

Five years from this date, in 1773, Samuel McCollum would witness the will of Samuel Campbell. [No Samuel McCollum is listed in the DayBook.] Samuel McCollum did not appear at the probate of the will in 1780 as did all of the other witnesses.

In 1779, Samuel Campbell's grandson, Ezekiel Campbell would serve along side Thomas McCollum and James Beattie in VanKeuren's Company of McClaughrey's Regiment of Militia. All of these names are in the DayBook.

In the 1790 census, Samuel Campbell's sons, Nathan and Levi, are listed just before John McClannen [believed to be McCollum]. Their location, based on other adjacent names in the census, is the area of the homesteads shown above.

By 1794, the Campbells had moved west and Robert Beattie came into possession of the Campbell farm. In 1808, Mathew McCollum and his wife, Elizabeth, sold their farm to Dr. Henry Hornbeck.

250 years ago today, Mary McCollum had two separate entries in the DayBook. The first entry lists three items sold to the store: Cash, Wheat, and Stocking Yarn.  Had she harvested the wheat and spun the yarn herself? Had she acquired the cash through sales of other items to her neighbors?

The second entry lists the three items she purchased: Molasses, Tea, and Plates.

Unfortunately, we don't know much else about Mary McCollum. The month prior she had sold cash and yarn to the store and purchased heels, cups, pins, and fabric. Today's entry for Mary would be the last heard of her in the DayBook. It is frustrating that more is not known of this industrious woman.  On the other hand it is fantastic that her doings from 250 years ago have been preserved by the DayBook and made available to all through this transcription.

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TEA! January 28, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Thursday January 28, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Tea

Today was another busy day for the store. There were twenty-two shoppers purchasing 58 items. The day was clear, but very cold. Deep snow from Monday night's storm still covered homes and fields.

You can display the shoppers and the items they purchased via the on-line database. [Search for 1786-01-28; to see the items... search for the Daybook pages of 179-, 180- and 181-]

This article is one in a series of a daily accountings of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for more of an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.

Two of the customers purchased tea. Tea was a very popular item despite its cost. It sold for 7 shillings per pound or about a days wages. In the prior five months, Colden had sold over 160 pounds of tea in over 200 different transactions. Tea was such a money making import that the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury listed its going price in the top banner on its first page of every issue.

In the issue published on July 25, 1768, 250 years ago, the "Price-Current in New York" for Bohea Tea was "4s 9d." Bohea indicates that this tea was a dark tea, likely sourced from the Fujian region of China.

The price in New York also gives us an idea of the mark-ups Colden needed to pay for his shipping costs to Newburgh, his carting expences from the docks to his store, and for other overheads such as his clerks. At a store price of 7s his mark-up was 2s 3d or about 47%.

Coffee was not as popular despite being one quarter of the cost of tea at 1s 9d per pound. In the prior five months Colden sold about 30 pounds of coffee in about the same number of transactions.

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As evening fell, the winds picked up. The New York Journal (February 4, 1768 issue) would later report that on this evening it was "extremely cold" and the ground was "deep covered with snow." A "violent wind" arose out of the northwest and drove a ferry from New Jersey into shallow waters near Staten Island where it sank.  Nine men crawled through a freezing marsh to a small island.  Seven survived to be rescued the next morning. Most of those lost toes, fingers, or ears to frostbite. Hopefully the Colden Store shoppers were in their homes sipping tea.

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CIDER! January 27, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Wednesday January 27, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Cider

The store was closed Tuesday due to the violent weather, but today it opened to its biggest crowd of the year. Purchases were made against thirty-two different accounts and 111 items were purchased.

This article is one in a series of a daily accountings of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for more of an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.

The large number of people in the store on this day is outside of the usual variation. On average, ten people per day visited the store over the 450-day period covered by the DayBook. Today saw 32 shoppers.

Could it be that the store was more than just a place to buy things? Could it have been a gathering place to talk about the weather or to find out how your neighbors fared during the storm?

The items purchased did not seem that much different than on a normal day...fabrics, rum, salt, sugar. A few items were relatively unique:  Bible, Primer (presumed to be a text for teaching writing), and a barrel of cider sold to the store. I doubt if this cider was for Colden's personal use as he was known to have a large mature orchard and undoubtedly made his own cider as did most of the community.

Cider Press

Many of the community had come from New Jersey where there were many old apple orchards.  They undoubtedly brought seeds with them and created new orchards in New York. Wickes in his History of the Oranges (New Jersey) wrote that New Jersey was known for its apples. They were exported as was the cider made from them. A more potent alcoholic drink was made by scraping off the ice that froze at the surface of a keg of cider during winter months. By as early as 1700, the apple orchards in Newark were mature and producing one thousand barrels of cider per year.

Peter Gumaer of nearby Peenpack wrote that apple cider was part of Peenpack life since the original settlers. Some of the original families were Huguenots from France, and were accustomed to wine. Upon arriving in Peenpack, cider became their drink. The apple trees in Van Inwegen’s orchard in Peenpack were “between two and three feet in diameter in the time of the Revolution.” Gumaer’s eighteenth century home had a cider cellar equipped with a gutter that led directly from his cider press.

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HATS! January 25, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Monday January 25, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Hats

The store reopened today after its normal Sunday closure. But a winter storm was brewing and the store traffic consisted only of five persons who bought a total of only six items.

Store Visitors

Items Purchased

This article is one in a series of a daily accountings of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for more of an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.

250 years ago today, Samuel Gillespie bought a hat for 10 shillings. Perhaps it was in preparation for the approaching (or ongoing) storm.

Hats were a common item of sale at the store. In the prior 5 months, Colden sold about 70 hats. A hat made of beaver fur sold for around two pounds (40 shillings). These were also called Castor Hats. However, most of the hats sold were in the price range of four to twelve shillings.

Most of the items in Colden's store were imported through the port at New York City, however there was one item that he purchased locally and resold in his store. He called them "Hills Hatts."  He purchased 66 of them from William Hill on November 4th of the prior year for about 6 1/2 shillings a piece. Their materials of construction are unknown but were likely of felts made from furs and wools.

I found this an interesting decription of  'hat-making' in colonial times: http://www.alfredjacobmiller.com/explore/from-pelt-to-felt/

As the day of January 25, 1768 progressed, the storm grew worse.  Perhaps Colden closed his store early in the day. The New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury reported that a meeting of the citizens of New York City on this evening was "adjourned on Account of the Badness of the Weather." (see p. 3 of the February 1, 1768 issue) The storm either continued into the next day or its aftermath took a full day to recover from, as the store was not open on Tuesday, January 26. It was one of only six days, other than Sundays, that the store did not have a transaction for the 450 calendar days of the DayBook.

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DYES! January 23, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Saturday January 23, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Dyes

250 years ago today, twelve persons made purchases at the store in Coldengham. Richard Applegate's (ID: 174-07) items included indigo.

This article is one in a series of a daily accountings of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for more of an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.

Yesterday I listed the incredible number of fabric varieties that were available in the store. All of these appear to be imported.  Only two sales of "homespun" to the store are recorded.

These facts might make one think that there was no production of cloth in the local community. There are several reasons to think otherwise.

First is the sale of dyes, like indigo, at the store. Indigo makes a blue dye and is still used today to color blue jeans.  Between August 1767 and January 1768 indigo was purchased 70 times! It appears many of the community were involved in cloth manufacture.  Redwood was another dye that was purchased on twelve different occasions at the store. Alum was also considered a "dyestuff" as it was used "fix" colors in the dyeing process. It was purchased on ten separate occasions. [Author's note of 2018-01-24: Copperas was also sold on five occasions in the prior five months. It was an iron sulfate that was used both as a black dye and as a mordant (color fixer). It is generally written by the clerks as 'Copras.']

The second reason to support the case for local cloth manufacture is the large flax harvests. The main use for flax is the manufacture of linen from its fibers. We know the Coldengham community grew flax because they sold the seed to the store. Between August 1767 and January 1768, 129 bushels of flaxseed were sold to the store! Flaxseed played a big role in the export trade because the flax in Britain was harvested before the seed formed.  This was done to get a softer fiber for premium linen. The New York flax could still be used to make a course linen. I describe the labor-intensive process to make linen in my recent book, Yeoman of the Revolution, page 25.

"...weaving was a domestic operation where the loom was shared among community members with labor exchanged for some of the woven goods....    ...The harvested flax would be left in the fields to age in the sun, making for easier separation of the seeds and woody parts from the soft and strong flax fibers. Isolating the fibers was often a winter indoor activity with each family member (and neighbors) playing an important role. There was beating and breaking, combing and carding, spinning and weaving."

The last reason to suspect domestic cloth manufacture is data from estate inventories (and wills) of the day. A large fraction of estates included looms.

The broader implication of this is the existence of a separate economy not revealed by the store ledger. The exchange of produce, cloth, shoes, lumber, game, and services among neighbors is almost invisible.

As was the normal Sunday practice, Colden's store was closed on Sunday, January 24th, 1768.

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CLOTH! January 22, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Friday January 22, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Cloth!  and Joel Campbell's 33rd birthday

According to family tradition, this day would have been the 33rd birthday of Joel Campbell. Many of you know that I am sceptical of this date, but it has been tradition for so long that I am going with it. Joel is the eponym of this blogsite, the subject of my recent book (bit.ly/JoelCampbellBook), and an occasional shopper at the Colden store. But he was not one of the eight shoppers on this day.

This article is one in a series of a daily accountings of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.

The shoppers on January 22nd were in a celebratory mood (likely not for Joel's birthday) as  seven of the eight purchased rum.  In fact, for half of them it was their only item! [Go here and search for "173-" to see all of the purchases on January 22, 1768] A prior blog discussed rum.

One of the shoppers, Jeames Stekeney (James Stickney?), purchased a representative group of sewing goods. See below:

The store carried many types of fabrics. Most of them are shown below along with the quantity sold in the prior five months.  The first four items are ribbon-like goods that were less expensive.  Linen, Shalloon, and Callico were the top fabrics in yardage sold. Descriptions of most of these fabrics can be found in the DayBook Dictionary.

Fabric	Yards Sold
Binding	224
Lace	23
Ribbing	8
Ferreting	6
Linen	108
Shalloon	86
Callico	62
"Cloth"	55
Flannel	53
Forest Cloth	45
Check	36
Nap Cloth	31
Cotton	29
Cotton	28#
Cambrick	24
Kersey	24
Osnaburg	21
Durant	19
Baize	18
Everlasting	17
Crape	16
Half Thicks	16
Persian	16
Stuff	16
Gimp	13
Buckram	11
Lawn	11
Swanskin	11
Rateen	10
Wilton	9
Shirting	7
Taffeta	4
Serge	3
Alamode (a silk)	2
Plaid	2

I made extensive use of the 1887 edition of Caulfeild's Dictionary of Needlework courtesy of Internet Archives in creating the DayBook Dictionary: http://archive.org/details/dictionaryofneed00caul

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BRIMSTONE! January 21, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Thursday January 21, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Brimstone

The shoppers in the Coldengham Store on this date 250 years ago included Bondawine Tarpening. He would become a Captain in Colonel Hasbrouck's Ulster County militia regiment during the War for Independence.  His company included many of my Campbell ancestors. For example, on July 27, 1777, Tarpening led a company down the Hudson River to construct Fort Montgomery. Joshua and Samuel Campbell were in that party.

This article is one in a series of a daily accountings of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for more of an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.

The list of shoppers above also contains Samuel Haines. The Haines were already numerous in these parts. The Benjamin Haines farmhouse of c.1750 still stands on Coleman Road.

Two of the shoppers on this date bought an item called 'Brimstone.' In the prior four months, 26 purchasers had bought about 30 pounds of brimstone. Most of it had been purchased in just the past six weeks.  Was this a seasonal purchase? Brimstone is another word for sulfur. It was used mainly for its antibacterial properties. It was used as a fumigate for barrels and casks, as a treatment for skin infections on humans and livestock, as an insecticide in gardens, and even to control bee populations in hives.

If the primary use of brimstone was for fumigating barrels, would not the barrel-makers (coopers) be the main consumers? Five different men of the community were labeled as "Coopers" in the DayBook. However, they were no more likely to purchase brimstone at the Colden store than anyone else.

Salting of meats for storage in barrels was a seasonal domestic activity that took place late in the year. It seems to correlate with this peak in brimstone sales. There will be more on the purchase of hogs by the store in a future blog.

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SLEIGH! January 20, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Wednesday January 20, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Colden buys a Sleigh

250 years ago today was relatively quiet at the store. One of the six customers, Ambross Jones, had many transactions. Among other things he sold the store a sleigh, settled his old account, and opened a new account.

This article is one in a series of a daily accountings of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for more of an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.

The list below shows the store visitors. Holtzlander, Felter, and Crist were all from the German settlement and may have come together.

The list below shows the 17 items transacted by Ambross Jones.

The most interesting items is the sleigh he sold to Colden. Sleighs were not recreational. They were essential to work and trade during winter months. As I describe in my book, Yeoman of the Revolution p. 170...

"Winter was actually a good time of year to convey wood, salt, grain, hay, and other supplies. This was because pulling a sleigh on snow required less effort than pulling a wagon through mud. This may not make sense to people of the twenty-first century, who are accustomed to smooth roads, but in 1778 the roads were not much more than cleared pathways through the woods. In the winter, the normally bumpy and muddy roads became smooth sheets of packed snow. Even the frozen rivers became alternate routes if they were more direct."

In the winter of 1778 (ten years after this date) the sleigh of Jonathan Campbell (see prior blog) along with a team of horses was "drafted" into the service of Washington's army. The sleigh carried ammunition, clothing, and salt from the storehouses in Newburgh to Valley Forge.

Sleigh accidents were also common. The week prior, a sleigh had fallen through the ice on the Hudson River as it attempted to cross at Wappingers Falls not too far from the Colden Store. Several men drowned.

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SHOES! January 19, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Tuesday January 19, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

James Cammel, Shoemaker

250 years ago today thirteen different people made purchases at the Colden store on fifteen accounts. How is this so? Johannes Youngblood made purchases for himself and for his father, Han. Robert Gillespie made purchases for himself and for his cousin, John.

This article is one in a series of a daily accountings of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for more of an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.

Of special interest to me are the "Campbells" who appear on this page.  "Joel Campble" is my 5th GGF and Jonathan is my 6th Great Uncle. Joel was just three days short of his 33rd birthday.

"Jeames Cammel, Shuemaker" is more of a mystery. He is not a brother of Joel or Jonathan. They did have an uncle named James, but there is no evidence that he moved with them from New Jersey to this part of New York. If they are related it seems strange that the clerk would spell his name differently than that of Jonathan, just one entry below on the same page in the DayBook!  On the other hand, Joel, Jonathan, and James all appear several times in the Daybook with "Cammel", "Campble", "Cambel", and "Camble" used interchangeably.

Below are the items puchased by James:

James purchased fabric and the ubiquitous rum, tea, and sugar. The knives and handsaw that he purchased were perhaps used in his trade. His entry ends with two sales to the store...3 pairs of shoes and a fox skin.

My guess is that the shoes were for Colden's personal use.  No other sale of shoe or boot is recorded in the store up to this date. It appears the shoemaker made shoes only to custom order.

The store did sell other items to construct shoes. It bought and sold "sole leather" and "upper leather." It sold "Everlasting" which was a woolen jean used for the tops of boots. It sold pairs of heels, including one pair described as "wood." Alder was the wood of choice. Cork was also a heel material. The store sold shoe laces, shoe buckles, shoe knives and hammers.

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The wealthiest person on this page is Peter DuBois. He was represented by "his Miller." More on him later, but if you can't wait you can read this article I wrote about DuBois in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.

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RUM! January 18, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Monday January 18, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Rum!

250 years ago today, 15 separate persons shopped at the Colden store and bought 53 items. See below.

Two of those persons were women and one of them, Mrs. Daniel McMullen, purchased the largest number of items of anyone on that day.See the first 13 of her 15 items below.

One of her purchases was rum. That was not a unique purchase at the store. On that day 6 of the 15 persons included rum in their purchases. Between August 1767 and January 18, 1768 (about 5 months) about 540 gallon of rums were sold by the store.

There were two grades of rum sold at the store: Y Rum and W Rum. The Y Rum was priced between 3/4 and 3/9 and the more expensive W Rum between 5/ and 5/6. [I use the same shorthand used in the DayBook. '5/6' means 5 Shillings and 6 Pence.]

Occasionally the 'Y' and 'W' are followed by superscripts which are difficult to decipher.  In the case of 'W' the superscript appears to be 't' or even 'st.' It could stand for 'West Indies Rum' which was imported in great quantity into the colonies. It would also explain the higher price.

My guess at the meaning of the 'Y' is that it stood for 'York' Rum. New York City was referred to as York City or just 'York' in those times. But the rum could have been from other sources. It is estimated that at the time of the Revolution there were over 150 distilleries in New England.

The customers must have brought their own containers because there are a few entries where the customer purchased both a container and the rum.

Rum is made from sugar cane products, usually molasses. Molasses was also a common purchase at the store. Between August 1767 and January 18, 1768 (about 5 months) about 125 gallon of molasses were sold by the store. I think it is unlikely that the purchasers had distilling equipment for rum manufacture. It is more likely that the molasses was used for making home brewed beers. [See colonial recipe for Molasses Beer in Kimberly Walters' Book of Cookery]

You can read more about rum consumption in the colonies here: http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/10/rum-the-spirit-that-fueled-a-revolution/

CLOSED! January 17, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Sunday January 17, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

250 years ago today... the store was closed (as usual) on Sunday!

250 years ago today was a Sunday. Colden's store was not open on Sundays. The DayBook covers a period of 450 days from August 1767 until November 1768. Eliminating Sundays leaves 386 possible days for transactions. The DayBook had entries on 380 of those 386 indicating that there were few occasions of "vacation" or "disaster" during this period.

On Sundays, Colden worshiped with the Episcopals. It would be another two years before the structure known as St. Andrews Epicopal Church would be completed. The community had a large Dutch population who worshipped in the Dutch Reformed church. Members who lived on the east side of the Wallkill River would also need to wait two years for their own church house referred to as the Dutch Reformed Church at New Hurley. The Protestant majority largely worshiped at the Goodwill meetinghouse. The German community also had their own congregation. The importance of religious worship on Sunday appears to have been the reason for the store's Sunday closures.

ALMANAC! January 16, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Saturday January 16, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Ruben Weed buys a 1768 Almanack

250 years ago today only two persons visited the Colden Store. Maybe this was one of those blizzardy January days where it was better to stay at home. On average January 18th is the coldest day of the year in this area of New York. 1768 was a cold winter in America according to diaries of the time, but short and with less than normal snowfall.

This article is the second installment of a daily accounting of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for more of an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.

Adam Vispart (166-03) and Ruben Weed (166-04) purchased a few common items 250 years ago today: Linen, Cotton, Rum, and Pins. However, a couple of Weed's purchases are a bit more mysterious.

Weed purchased 3 pairs of heels. What these actually are and what they were used for will be in a future blog (if I figure it out.)

He also purchased an Almanack. There had only been about six purchases of Almanacks in the prior months by other patrons, so it appears to be somewhat of a luxury item. The literacy rate in this area is unknown, but  it contained many well-educated citizens and a Boys Academy (founded by Colden). Store items which indicate some literacy include the sale of Bibles and about 30 quires of paper (24 sheets in a quire) in the prior four months. On the other hand, despite the word "Almanack" printed in large letters on the item in question, the clerks consistently failed to spell it correctly. Or perhaps they were just following their habit of dropping vowels if they appeared late in a word...."Almanck."

At this date there were several Almanacks available in New York. These annual publications had been popularized by Benjamin Franklin who published his first "Poor Richard's" in 1732. New York City published at least four Almanacks targeted at New Yorkers: Poor Roger's (Roger More), Poor Thomas improved (Thomas More), New-York Pocket Almanack (Richard Moore), and Freeman's New-York Almanack (Frank Freeman).

It is likely that Ruben Weed purchased one of the four mentioned above. Copies of these appear to exist, but I could not find any on-line. The 1767 version of Roger's can be viewed on-line here: https://archive.org/stream/poorroger1767ame00more  It gives an idea of what Weed may have been reading by candlelight 250 year ago tonight.

"Kind Reader....When I published my last year's Almanack the most gloomy prospect appeared, that ever threatened our American lands. --Slavery and impending ruin shook their baleful rods; the Stamp-Act..."

INTRO! January 15, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Friday January 15, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

For the next few weeks I will be writing a daily blog on "what happened 250 years ago on this date at the Colden Store." The store was in what is today the Town of Montgomery, New York. The exact location of the store is not known, but it is believed to have been on the Colden Estate as the records of the store have page headings of "Coldengham." Colden had just built a new home at about this date. The ruins of this home are visible at 17K and Stone Castle Road.  Perhaps the store was close to that structure? (also see http://www.coldenpreservation.org/)

A DayBook of the Store has been preserved in the New-York Historical Society. Volunteers have started to transcribe the DayBook. All of the names in the book have been transcribed and can be searched at http://www.orangecountyhistoricalsociety.org/Colden_DayBook.html.  The transcription of the items purchased is still a work in progress. Those items give us a glimpse into the lives of the people who lived in this area before the War for Independence.

The store was not some small enterprise operated as a hobby. Monthly transactions included hundreds of gallons of rum and molasses, yards of fabric, pounds of lead/shot/gun powder, along with luxury items of handkerchiefs, bonnets, snuff/pipes, and even lottery tickets (no joke). On the other side of the ledger the store bought wheat, flaxseed, honey, walnuts, hogs, skins, hats, and leather from the locals. Colden must have maintained almost a daily cartage from his store to the docks at Newburgh/New Windsor to maintain this trade.

On Friday, January 15, 1768, 250 years ago today, the store had nine customers. In at least two cases, the customer was represented by his son, and in another two cases by a neighbor. (See below.  You can do the search yourself here.)

If you know the 18th century history of this area of New York, you many recognize a few of the names. McClaughrey was a colonel during the war and married into the Clinton family. Gallatian was an influential farmer whose 1798 map of the area hangs in the Montgomery Town Center. The Graham family was also influential, many of whom were officers in the militia. A few sided with the British in the war to come.

The image above is a transcription of the purchases of Josiah Talket (Talcott) (ID=165-02). Benjamin Wood was the person in the store on his behalf. Both items, silk thread and Buckram fabric, were likely used to make clothes for his family.  I have found no instances of clothes (other than hats) being sold back to the store. If you are not familiar with some of the names of items sold at the store, I maintain a dictionary here.

John McClaughrey (165-03) was a carpenter, so his purchase of brads and nails (see above) is not surprising. Rum was one of the most common purchases at the Colden Store. In the prior four months, Colden had sold over 400 gallons of rum.  There were two types:  Y Rum and W Rum, the second being more expensive, but consumed in almost equal quantity. More on rums in a future blog.

The image below show purchases of Carskadan, Henyon, and Gallatian.

Gun powder, lead, and shot were common items purchased at the store. This ammunition was undoubted used in militia drills as well as for hunting. A few deer skins were sold to the store.

Robert Graham (166-02) wins the prize for most items purchased...10. (See below) His selection includes many of the favorites that were bought again and again at the store.

Although rum was a popular item, the community spent much more on sewing goods such as the fabrics, buttons, and mohair purchased by Graham. Tea was more expensive and yet much more popular than coffee. A pound of tea was 7 shillings, more than the price of a days labor. Sugar and molasses were also common items. Domestic rum or beer manufacture is a likely use.

If you are still puzzled by Shalloon and Buckram you can go to DayBook Dictionary or wait until a future blog.

On a personal note, my 5th great grandfather lived in this area and shopped at this store. On this date he was about 33 years old. He probably never imagined on this date that he would live another 60 years. According to family tradition (in otherwords this is probably not true ;-)) he died 190 years ago today, January 15, 1828.