Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.
The Mill Book
The first week of March, 250 years ago, ended with another busier than normal day at the Colden store. The average number of store visitors recorded in the DayBook is ten per day. Yesterday, twenty persons visited the store. Today (Saturday), the number was seventeen. The store would also conduct business tomorrow, a Sunday, a day on which it was normally closed. The demand for store items appears to have been high at this time.
 |
Visitors to Colden Store on Saturday, March 5, 1768. |
Search the DayBook
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.
One of the more interesting transactions was the purchase of bran by John McClaughrey (McClauthery). In this transaction, Colden refers to a "Mill book."
This is the first time in the DayBook that this Mill Book is mentioned, but not the last. It is known that Colden had a mill based on early maps of his property.
 |
| 1811 Map of Coldenham. Base map taken from Williams, Robert, Colden House Study, 2017. This map was also provided to the author separately by Colden descendant, Robin Assenza. Red labels were added by the author. |
In November of 1767 (152-04), Colden recorded a transaction as "Wheat - ground for him." Presumably Colden had ground wheat for a customer, but did not reference the Millbook. In two days (March 7, 1768), Colden will record a sale of corn in the DayBook with the annotation of "pr Mill book."
The "Items Purchased" in the DayBook have only been transcribed up to March 5, 1768. Perhaps the mill and Mill Book will be mentioned more frequently in the coming pages? Stay tuned.
===================
Search the DayBook
No comments:
Post a Comment