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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