GLASS! July 30, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

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

Glass

Hons Yurry Haas paid one-and-one-half shillings for a Looking Glass at the Colden Store, on this day, 250 years-ago.

Looking Glass c. 1760-1770. Although marked by a Philadelphian cabinet maker, John Eliott, the glass was likely imported. Image Courtesy of the emuseum at Colonial Williamsburg.  

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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.

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Only two Looking Glasses were sold at the Colden Store. James Dailey purchased one in the prior November for fifteen shillings. The one purchased by Haas must have been very small for one-and-one-half shillings.

The glass industry in the colonies was in its infancy in the mid-18th century. One of the first successful glass companies was founded by Caspar Wistar in 1739 in New Jersey. It appears these companies focused on bottles and stemware and did not make mirrors or window-panes. Therefore it is likely that the Looking Glasses and window panes sold at the Colden Store were imported.

Colden sold panes of glass on fourteen occasions. Panes were priced at six pence or four for two shillings.

The bigger purchases indicate who may have been building a new home:

Andrew Graham - 112 panes
James Crawford - 24 panes
Johannes Felter - 16 panes
Samuel Smith - 16 panes

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DAILEY! July 29, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

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

Margret Dailey

Margret Daley [Dailey?] picked up one-half pound of snuff for her father, James, at the Colden Store, on this day, 250 years-ago.

Colden Daybook entries of July 29, 1768 for Margret Daily and William Brennen. New-York Historical Society.

She also purchased one-half yard of Linen, one-quarter yard of Cambric, and a skein of thread on her own account.

William Brennan also bought the same amount of Cambric and thread as Margret. His entry follows that of Margret and is written by the same clerk. The three entries shown above were the last entries of the day. It appears that William and Margret were in the store at the same time, perhaps had even traveled together to the store, and appeared to have the same sewing project in mind.

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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.

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The Dailey surname (Daily, Daley, Dalley, Dayly, Dayley) appeared 33 times in the Colden DayBook. Given names included James (18 times with mentions of 'his wife' [Elizabeth Graham], 'his son John', and 'his daughter' Margret), James Junr (3), John (10 times with mentions of 'his sister' [Margret?]), and Margret (2).

James Dailey appeared in the 1779 tax assessment for Hanover Precinct. He owned one of the smaller properties at fifteen acres and had only £15 of personal property. This is why I suspect he is the older James and not his son, James Jr.  William Brennen did not appear in the assessment.

By the time of the 1790 census, James Dailey had dissappeared from the Hanover (now Montgomery) area. 'Brennan' also does not appear in the Montgomery census.

One public family tree shows James 'Dailey' (1720-1772) married to Elizabeth Graham in Shawangunk. This is confirmed by the will of her father, Robert Graham, that states that she is married to James Dayly. The public tree, however, does not show a Margret among the many children of this couple. Perhaps the DayBook has revealed a previously unknown offspring of James Dailey and Elizabeth Graham?

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VAN KEUREN! July 28, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

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

Hendrick Van Keuren

Hendrick (Hendrecus) Van Keuren Jr. purchased one-quarter pound of Indigo, a pair of wool cards, a paper of pins, and a gallon each of molasses and West Indian Rum...at the Colden store on this day, 150 years-ago.

Van Keuren Home on Goodwill Road

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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.

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Hendrick Van Keuren was about thirty years of age on this date. In the 1779 tax assessment for Hanover Precinct he had 215 acres of land and £570 of personal property.

At the start of the revolution he served as a Captain of one of the local companies of militia. My relatives, Samuel and Ezekiel Campbell, were in his company. In 1787 he was a trustee of the Montgomery Academy, a well regarded school for boys.

He lived close to the Goodwill church (see stone home above), had his children baptized there, and is proportedly buried there.

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STICKNEY! July 27, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

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

James Stickney

James Stickney purchased five-and-one-half yards of Check Linen, two pounds of sugar, a pound of coffee, and a gallon of New York Rum at the Colden store, on this day, 250 years-ago.

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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.

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James Stickney married Mary Belknap just a few years prior to this date. Their first son was born in January of this year (1768). When the Revolutionary War started, they had six children.  James served in the local militia during the war, commissioned as an ensign in John Belknap's company (his brother-in-law?). Ruttenber, in his History of Orange County, states that James practiced as a physician in Newburgh. At any rate, this prolific and influential family settled in many parts of Orange and Ulster.

[Sources: public trees at ancestry.com]

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BROWN! July 26, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Tuesday, July 26, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Benoni Brown

Benoni (Benony) Brown bought three pounds of sugar, two gallons of New York Rum, two knives, and a fine comb at the Colden Store on this day, 250 years-ago.

Headstone of Ebenezer, son of Benoni Brown. Image Courtesy of Starr.

The name of 'Benoni' is one that has been passed down my family line. There are at least seven 'Benoni Campbells' in my family tree including my great-grandfather, grandfather and uncle. As the first male grandchild of my grandfather (Benoni), I suppose there was some pressure to slip 'Benoni' into my name, but I somehow escaped.

My Campbell ancestors who lived in the vicinity of the Colden Store did not include anyone with the name of Benoni (although it appears incorrectly in some genealogies.) The first appearance of the name in my line is with the birth of a grandson in 1800 to Joel Campbell (Joel appears several times in the DayBook). It is unlikely that the naming of Joel's grandson was inspired by Benoni Brown, but you never know.

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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.

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Brown was not an uncommon name, and as it turns out, neither was 'Benoni.' Hence there is alot of confusion in on-line genealogies regarding this family. It does appear that Benoni had a son, Ebenezer, who served in the Revolutionary War and lived a long life. His very-legible headstone is shown above.  He was one of the many legacies of the Brown family who made Ulster County a stop along their way as they populated the new country. Ebenezer would have been about seventeen years-old on this date, and may have been a recipient of one of the two knives purchased by Benoni.

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RICE! July 25, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

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

Rice

Colden sold seven pounds of rice to four customers (twenty-eight pounds total) at his store on this day, 250 years-ago. Colden sold two pounds of rice in the prior September, but with that exception, no rice had been sold at the store until recently. It appears that Colden had brought back several seven pound sacks of rice from his recent procurement trip to New York.

Colden Day Book Entries for Rice for July 25, 1768.

This day at the store was the busiest yet recorded in the DayBook. The number of items sold totalled 182!

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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.

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Just a few days prior, on July 18, 1768, news from South Carolina appeared in the New-York Post Boy. The dispatch bragged of the economy in that colony, pointing to the large exports of rice. "Thousands of barrels of rice" had been exported from South Carolina in the past year. Perhaps some of those exports had found their way north to New York.

The British Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities 1550-1820 contains this comment on 'Carolina Rice.'

"RICE from Carolina, one of the southern states of the United States of America. According to John Houghton, the growing of rice in that area was introduced by a Mr Ashby, who 'was encourag'd to send a hundred pound bag full of rice to Carolina: from which rice, I am told, came last year hither sixty tun' [Houghton]. According to Toussant-Samat, however, the introduction came about after some enterprising colonists planted rice found on board a ship wreck [Toussaint-Samat (1987)]. Whichever way rice was introduced, the growth of rice in these southern states suited the slave economy entrenched there. Certainly it was well established by the mid-eighteenth century, with a reference to rice carried from southern Carolina and Georgia in an act of 1765 [Acts (1765)]. Carolina rice may already have been distinguished by a higher proportion of starch compared with other rices, for instance for a later period Simmonds states that it consists of 80 per cent starch, and by a more rounded grain [Simmonds (1906)]. In which case rice from Carolina would easily have been distinguishable. It seems to have been promoted by fashionable retailers, and was offered both whole and GROUND [Tradecards (19c.)]."

Rice was sold at the Colden store on nine occasions. [The DayBook is not fully transcribed at this date, so there may be more sales not yet revealed. The rice sales appear to be clustered in the latter part of the DayBook which is the part not yet transcribed.] Eight of those transactions were for seven pounds of rice sold for two-and-one-third shillings (4d per pound). It appears that the rice came in seven pound bags.

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Y RUM vs. W RUM! July 23, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

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

Y Rum vs. W Rum

In May of 1768, New York and Boston agreed to boycott British goods in protest of the Townshend Duties. The July 21st edition of the New-York Journal contained a note from Boston stating that the imports from Britain had declined, but the duties collected had created a scarcity of cash. The newspaper contained no indication of the effect of the boycott or duties on the residents of New York.

Colden stocked his store largely with British imports. This week he had done a brisk business. Four of the days had sales of over one hundred items. Today, Saturday, July 23, 1768, (250 years-ago today) was one of those one-hundred-plus-item days.

Partial image of database results for 1768-07-23

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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.

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There was one indication in today's DayBook that the shopping patterns at the Colden Store had changed from six months ago. It was revealed in the rum purchases.

Rum was divided into two main categories: 1) Rum imported from the West Indies which was darker, stronger, and more expensive and 2) Rum distilled in New York (or New England). In the Day Book they were distinguished as W Rum and Y Rum. When the 'W or Y' was omitted it was easy to identify them by the price difference. W Rum sold for five shillings and Y Rum for three-and-one-half shillings.

In the prior entries in the DayBook (see 1767 for example below) the split between Y Rum and W Rum purchases was about 50/50. It appears that customers were not adverse to the higher price of the W Rum as in many cases they diluted it and the stronger W Rum would go further. Another reason for W Rum purchase may have been a taste preference or even a statement of status.

Split between W and Y Rum in 1767

Of the 121 transactions on this day, 250 years-ago, twenty-six were for rum. However, a new preference for the Y Rum is evident. Only five gallons of the fifty-nine were for W Rum.

Did the store preferences reflect an act of protest? or was it just a matter of what was available in the store? This is not known to the author, but it is clear that the purchasing patterns had changed. The colonial protests would continue in 1769 until the Townshend Duties were repealed in 1770.

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BOLTING! July 22, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

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

Bolting

Friday, July 22, 1768, was another very busy day at the Colden store. The number of items sold topped one hundred for the third day in a row.

One of the items was a credit to William Bodine for seventy-four bushels of wheat. Bodine had delivered the wheat to Colden last winter 'to bolt.' Typically 'bolting' or sifting of the wheat was done after it was ground, but the entry made no mention of grinding.

Bolting Cloth.  Image courtesy of Theodore R. Hazen

Perhaps this 'bolting' referred to a crude sifting process to remove dirt and other contaminants prior to milling? According to this entry, the wheat was not bolted, but was sold on June 17th for six shillings per bushel. This is within the range of 5-7 shillings that Colden normally paid for wheat. The going rate in New York City was seven shillings and one pence per bushel of wheat.

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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.

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The other 126 entries of this day, 250 years-ago, ran the gamut. There were 34 gallons of rum sold, 11 gallons of molasses, and three pound of tea. Fabrics sold included Buckram, Calico, Caliminco, Cambric, Check, Ferreting, Osnaburg, and Persian. He sold tools and building supplies including nails, augers, gimblets, gouges, grindstones, and tar. Cutting tools included two knives, two sickles, and six scythes.

You can view the details of all of these purchases by going to the database and searching for today's date: '1768-07-22'.

If any of these items sound unfamiliar, I have written a blog on just about everyone of them. Just type the item name in the search box at the top of the blog.

Enter search terms in this box to search my 150+ blogs on the Colden Day Book. Unfortunately this search function only seems to work on full words. For example, a search for 'osna' will not find 'osnaburg.'

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RAGSTONE! July 21, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

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

Ragstone

Colden sold 149 items at his store in Coldenham on this day, 250 years-ago. Today was the busiest day yet recorded in the DayBook. Three customers bought 'Ragstones.' They probably used these to sharpen their scythes and sickles.

Antique Ragstone handcut from Schist? Accessed at rover.ebay.com

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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.

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary defined 'Ragstone' as 'A stone of the silicious kind, so named from its rough fracture. It is of a gray color, the texture obscurely laminar or rather fibrous, the lamins consisting of a congeries of grains of a quartzy appearance, coarse and rough. It effervesces with acids, and gives fire with steel. It is used for a whetstone without oil or water, for sharpening coarse cutting tools.'

Colden sold Whetstones with other names such as 'Grindstone' and 'Sandstone.' Webster defined a 'Grindstone' as 'A sandstone used for grinding or sharpening tools.' He defined 'Sandstone' as '..composed chiefly of grains of quartz united by a cement, calcarious, marly, argillaceous, or even silicious. The texture of some kinds is loose, of others close; the fracture is granular or earthy. Sandstones usually consist of the materials of older rocks, as granite, broken up and comminuted, and afterwards deposited again.'

The DayBook records eight sales of 'Ragstone' at about one shilling each, nine sales of 'Grindstone' for about ten shillings each, and two sales of 'Sandstone' for nine pence each.

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FLOUR! July 20, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

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

Flour

Hons Yurry Smith paid Colden for the grinding and packing of his wheat and corn flour on this day, 250 years-ago.

July 20, 1768 Entry for Hons Yurry Smith in the Colden DayBook.  New-York Historical Society.

The entries of this day were perhaps a record for the store...111! They included many for grinding, packing, carting, and freight of flour. Colden had a separate Mill Book, but for some reason, these transactions were recorded in the Day Book.

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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.

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The flour transactions reveal a recent trip to New York City by Colden. I had speculated on this in a prior blog, and it appears to be the case. Colden made a note in Smith's entry that Smith had carted his flour to 'York' and sold it himself. (see image above.) Smith had also paid Colden Cash 'at York.' It appears that Colden had made a trip to New York City in early July 1768 to sell corn and wheat flour.

The entries give us an indication of the weights and pricing of flour. Colden paid his local farmers eighteen and one-half shillings for a bushel. In New York [July 4, 1768 edition of the New-York Weekly Mercury] the 'price-current' was nineteen shillings per bushel. Colden's profit was small, but he charged for other services such as 'freight and cartage' at one and three-quarters shilling per barrel.

Colden also charged for grinding and packing which he charged by the barrel. However, he credited their accounts not by the barrel, but by different units which appeared to be 'bushels.'  For example, the three barrels of Corn Flour (Cor^l) converted to 6:1:7 (bushels?). I could not find a dry measure that lined up with the system used by Colden, but it can be approximated by bushels:pecks:cups.  In Colden's system there were 28 cups in a peck, and four pecks in a bushel.

The harvests in 1768 must have been good as the increased optimism was born out by large purchases at the store in the coming days.

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SICKLE! July 19, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

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

Sickle

Colden sold eight sickles on this day, 250 years-ago. Thomas Dunn bought three. Malachi Seigher, Ruben Weed, John Crawford, Abraham Dickerson, and Jacob Moore each bought one.

Sickle.  Image courtesy of motherbedford.com

The sickle is an ancient tool.  It is referred to in the Bible, but existed centuries before that. Webster defined it in his 1828 Dictionary as a "reaping hook; a hooked instrument with teeth; used for cutting grain."

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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.

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Sickles were a seasonal purchase based on the DayBook data. In fact, all of the sickle sales occurred in July (at least the thirteen transcribed so far). Was the timing due to new stock in the store or the grain's readiness for harvest?

The Scythe was also used for harvesting grain. Colden sold about twice as many scythes as sickles. And recently he had sold several 'New England Scythes.' The scythe appeared to be the tool of choice, but there must have been situations where the sickle was more effective.

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OSTRANDER! July 18, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

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

Ostrander

John Ostrander purchased a pound of tea and two gallons of York Rum at the Colden Store on this day, 250 years-ago.

Jacob Ostrander House, ca. 1775, on East side of the Wallkill River one-half mile north of current hamlet of Wallkill. Image courtesy of HudsonRiverValleyHeritage

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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.

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The Ostrander surname appeared 73 times in the DayBook, one of the more common.  Given names included Gideon (4), Harmanus (17), Jacob (24), John (18), Martha (2), and Petrus (2). The DayBook states that Jacob, John, and Harmanus were brothers and that Martha was the mother of Jacob. (There could have been more than one Harmanus, Jacob, or John.)

Luckily, 'Harmanis' Ostrander of Shawangunk left a will in 1801 which detailed his wife's name and children's names.  Unfortunately, there was no information about his siblings or parents. In my limited searching of this family, I was unable to find the connection between Harmanus' relations and those of Gideon. A Gideon Ostrander appeared in 1775 in nearby Marlborough and may be the same one who shopped at the Colden Store.

The Ostrander farms in Shawangunk were enumerated in the 1779 and 1799 tax assessments. In 1779, Hermanus had 88 acres valued at £2500 with personal property of £2000. Wilhelmus Ostrander had only three acres, valued at 0, and only £200 of personal property. Perhaps he was the aging father? Twenty years later, half of the property of Hermanus appeared to now be in the hands of his son, Jacob, including a mill. Wilhelmus was still alive with no property or home and only £60 of personal property. He was likely living with Hermanus?

Like many of the Dutch families who migrated up the Wallkill River from Kingston, the Ostranders built stone houses. One of these, built by a son of a Colden shopper, lasted almost two centuries.  The home of Jacob Ostrander (shown above) was torn down in 1973.

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TARPENING! July 17, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

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

Tarpening

Samuel Tarpening [Tearpening] purchased salt, sugar, tea, rum, and a set of six cups and saucers at the Colden Store on this day, 250 years-ago.

July 17, 1768 Entry in Colden Store Day Book for Samuel Tearpening. Courtesy of N-Y Historical Society.

For two weeks-in-a-row the store appeared to have sales on a Sunday. Sunday sales were rare.  I suspect there may have been some occasional 'misdating' of pages by Colden himself as he reviewed the pages of the DayBook at the end of a month, but these sales appear to have been truly on the 17th as the dating is on the item itself and not just on the page header.

This day began one of the busiest weeks recorded in the DayBook. The week consumed twenty
pages or about 5% of the book. It was about three times busier that the average week. Just
about every day saw more than twenty customers visit the store. The reasons for this increase in business are not totally clear.

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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.

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The Tarpening (Terpening, Tearpening) surname appears fifteen times in the DayBook, including Bondawine (4), John (6), and Samuel (5).  The DayBook indicates that Bondawine and Samuel were brothers.

A google search for 'Bondawine Tarpening' yields five results, all of which refer to my book, Yeoman of the Revolution or my blog articles.  Interesting. Did I just make him up?  I hope not. The National Archives confirms that a 'Bondewine Tarpenning' was a Captain of a company in Hasbrouck's Ulster Militia Regiment which included Joel Campbell (eponym of this blog) and his sons. This company was a 'Newburgh' company that appeared to recruit from the eastern sections of Hanover Precinct (the jurisdiction in which the store was located).

In January of 1777, Bondawine was with his militia company guarding the pass at Ramapo.  In July of 1777, his company did regular duty at Forts Montgomery and Clinton. Presumably he was with this company on Constitution Island on October 6, 1777 when the two forts fell to the British. Constitution Island was close enough to see the smoke and hear the cannon of the battle, but too far away to know what was happening or provide assistance.

The appearance of the Tarpening family at the store indicates the large geographical area covered by the store. It drew customers from Shawangunk to Newburgh and from Little Britain to the current hamlet of Wallkill.

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MOLASSES! July 16, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

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

Molasses

Jacob Bodine purchased one-half gallon of Molasses at the Colden Store on this day, 250 years-ago.

Molasses. Image courtesy of trigger-rum.com

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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.

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The principle use of molasses was in the production of rum. There were several distilleries in New York City (Massachusetts supposedly had 63 distilleries!). Colden sold copious amounts of Y Rum, which was presumably 'York' Rum.

There were many other domestic uses for molasses with its high caloric content. Domestic Beer was undoubtedly one of the uses. (Note that Colden did not sell beer.) Mary Randolph's cook book of 1838 gives this recipe for Molasses Beer:

"Put five quarts of hops, and five of wheat bran, into fifteen gallons of water; boil it three or four hours, strain it, and pour into a cask with one head taken out; put in five quarts of molasses, stir it till well mixed, throw a cloth over the barrel; when moderately warm, add a quart of fresh yeast, which must be stirred in; then stop it close with a cloth and board...."

Molasses was shipped in barrels.  Customers came to the Colden store with their own containers and filled them with the viscous dark-brown fluid.

Molasses was such a common item at the store that it was often abbreviated as Mol^s. It was almost always priced at three shillings per gallon.

Colden sold almost 400 gallons of Molasses in more than 325 transactions over the sixteen months covered by the DayBook. That is a lot of beer.

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DURANT! July 15, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

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

Durant

Mathew Gillespie purchased three-quarters yard of Durant (Durent) at the Colden Store on this day, 250 years-ago. In 1828, Webster defined Durant as 'a glazed woolen stuff; called by some Everlasting.' Caulfeild referred to it as 'Durants or Durance' in 1882 and described it as 'a strong worsted cloth made to resemble buffed leather and that it was used for window blinds and to cover corset stays.'

Modern Durant Fabric.  Heavy-duty upholstery fabric that stands up to severe abrasion. Courtesy of maxwellfabrics.com

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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.

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Durant was sold on twenty-seven occasions totalling about 80 yards. It was priced at about three-and-one-half shillings per yard.

The Ramsay Ledger of 1753-1756 mentions neither Durant nor Everlasting. Both are mentioned frequently in the Colden DayBook. Had fabric imports changed in character in a decade? Had tastes changed? Most likely they had not. I will do an analysis in a future blog, but it is believed that the two geographically separated stores had similar fabrics, but used different names for them.

Mathew Gillespie visited the store only twice. More on the Gillespie families who shopped at the Colden store can be found in a prior blog.

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GIMP! July 14, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Thursday, July 14, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Gimp

Lewis Bodine purchased thirteen items at the Colden Store on this day, 250 years-ago. One of the items was two-and-one-half yards of Gimp.

Silk Tassels (Gimp?), ca. 1750-1800  © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Gimp does not appear in the Ramsay Ledger (a store  in Alexandria, VA in 1750s). Perhaps it is similar to "Fringe" which appears in the Ramsay Ledger but not the Colden DayBook?

Webster defined Gimp in his 1828 dictionary as "a kind of silk twist or edging." Later in the century, Caulfeild described it as braided fabric used as trim - closer to its current use.

Modern Gimp Braid Trim.  Courtesy of DoveOriginalsTrims.com

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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.

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Gimp was sold on eleven occasions at the Colden Store totalling about 30 yards. It was priced at about a shilling per yard.

The Bodine name was a common one in the DayBook.  It appeared 64 times with Lewis Bodine accounting for 22 of those. As mentioned in the prior blog, the Bodines attended St. Andrew's Church. The J. Bodine home is shown on the 1798 map on the west bank of the Wallkill just opposite the Tin Brook.

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GROATER! July 13, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Wednesday, July 13, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Groater

Charles Ruby purchased two pairs of wool cards, a pound of loaf sugar, two bushels of wheat, and a groater at the Colden Store on this day, 250 years-ago. A 'groater' or groat was an English coin made of silver that was nominally four pence. Ruby paid five pence for it.  Groats were minted between the 13th century and 1856.

1766 George III Fourpence (Groat). Image courtesy of coindatabase.com

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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.

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Why would someone buy a silver coin on credit? My speculations are that 1) Ruby wanted it for the silver content. Silver coins were often melted to make silver spoons or other silver items or 2) he needed it for a separate transaction where the contract specified payment in British currency (which was not as depreciated as colonial currency).

Also see my blogs on Coppers (1/4 pence) and Bills of Credit.

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ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH! July 12, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Tuesday, July 12, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

St. Andrew's Church

On this date, 250 years-ago, there were only two customers at the Colden store. This was quite a change from the record number on the prior day. The shoppers names were Josiah Robison (Roberson, Robinson) and Ambrose Jones.

The surname of Robison appeared 46 times in the DayBook.  Josiah Robison accounted for fifteen of those.  The surname of Jones appeared fourteen times and twelve of those were Ambrose.

St. Andrew's Church Cemetery, St. Andrew's Road, Montgomery, New York.

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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.

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Josiah Robison was not found in the 1779 tax assessment, however there is a 'Siah Robenson' in Shawangunk who could be the same person. In fact, a Josiah Robinson appears in the 1790 census for the Town of Shawangunk.

Ambrose Jones was also not found in the 1779 Assessment. There was a widow Jones and an Ebineezer Jones in the Hanover assessment. Both were tenants of Colden Sr.

Unfortunately we know very little about these two families. What was their nationality? Where did they worship? Where were their farms? With which local families did they intermarry? I am sure some of that genealogical information exists, but it was not apparent from a simple internet search.

Perhaps they were both members of the St. Andrew's congregation? Ambrose Jones was known to be a vestryman at St. Andrew's. Robison lived close to the Grahams who were known to attend St. Andrew's (along with Colden, Galatian, and DuBois).

Technically St. Andrew's Episcopal Church did not receive its charter until two years after this date, July 30, 1770. However, the congregation met as early as 1745 in a temporary log structure with fireplace. It sat where the future church structure would sit and where it is shown on the 1798 Galatian Map.

1798 Map of Montgomery by David Galatian. Yellow Circle indicates location of St. Andrew's. Coincidentally the burial place of Galatian.

The Reverend John Sayre was appointed to serve this area in 1768 and is said to have lived in the vicinity of the St. Andrew's log structure, but he is not mentioned in the 1768 DayBook of the Colden Store. He also served episcopal congregations in Newburgh and on the Otter Kill. It was Sayre who was successful in obtaining charters for these congregations in 1770.

Money was raised for a new church building in 1772, and was built (by Andrew Graham) and dedicated in 1773. The early officers of the church included Colden, Graham, Galatian, Peter Bodine, Ambrose Jones, Justus Banks, John Blake, and Edward Burne. All of these men are mentioned in the Store DayBook except for Justus Banks. William Erwin was also known to be a member and several are of this family are buried in the old church cemetery. The Erwin surname appears in the DayBook and on the 1798 Galatian map.

Reverend Sayre, as well as many of the congregants, were ardent Loyalists. Sayre, sensing the future turmoil of the revolution, left the area, leaving the church without a rector for sixteen years. In fact, the heyday of the church had been in that short decade prior to the revolution. In 1826, the congregation removed to the village of Walden. The old church was sold to Loton Kidd who apparently tore down the edifice and operated a hotel on the site. Today all that remains is the cemetery as shown in the photo above.

Source: Bodine, Charles, St. Andrew's Church, Walden, New York, 1771-1946.

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DECKER! July 11, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Monday, July 11, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Decker

The four-day closure of the store of last week (250 years-ago) officially ended today. The store had one of its busiest days ever with 36 shoppers and almost 100 transactions. (The store had been open yesterday (Sunday) for four shoppers, but today appears to have been the real return to business.) Matthavis Decker made his only appearance at the store and bought only one item.

William Decker home in Shawangunk. Image courtesy of DeckerJourney.com

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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.

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Why was the store so busy on this day? Had Colden returned from a procurement trip to New York City with fresh items? Or were people just running out of stuff that they normally would have bought in the previous week?

The most popular items purchased on this day were....

Tea - Tea tied with rum at 14 entries, but customers spent more money on tea than rum. Rum sold for 4-5 shillings per gallon, while tea was 6 shillings per pound. Colden sold fifteen pounds of tea.

Rum - Rum tied with tea with 14 of the 98 entries. Colden sold nine gallons of New York Rum (@3.5 shillings/gallon) and five gallons of West Indian Rum (@5 shillings/gallon).

Sugar - Colden sold 21 pounds of sugar in six transactions.

Molasses - He sold 7.5 gallons of molasses in six transactions.

Wool Cards - He sold 4 pairs of Wool Cards.

Scythes - He sold three scythes and two sickles.

Indigo - He sold 11 ounces of Indigo in three transactions.

Books - He sold a Primer, a Spelling Book, and a Testament.

Nails - He sold nails to three customers including 60# of nails to Matthavis (Mathew?) Decker.

The Decker surname appeared 24 times in the DayBook. Isaac Decker had four entries and was described as 'of Shawangunk.' Matthavis appeared only once and purchased only one item (60# of nails on this date) and 'William Decker' appeared only once.

I mention William Decker, as he was also known to be 'of Shawangunk' and had considerable properties which might have needed nail work. His relationship to Matthavis is unknown, but all of the Decker families appear to have migrated up the Wallkill River from Kingston and were likely related in the not so distant past.

On today's date, 250 years-ago, an advertisement appeared in the Supplement to the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury on page one. William Decker was selling 700 acres in Shawangunk. It contained a log house with two fireplaces, a 45-foot-long barn, a saw mill, an orchard with 100 apples trees, and enough cleared land to 'sow 100 skipple of grain.' [A skipple was the Dutch version of a bushel and was slightly less than the English bushel.]  He must have been successful in selling the farm as he only owned 98 acres in the 1779 tax assessment (Twelve 'Decker's appeared in that assessment). His property was valued at a whopping 3000 pounds so it undoubtedly contained a large house and other buildings such as a mill.

Advertisement in July 11, 1768 supplement to the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury

Mathew Decker (the purchaser of nails) was assessed for a 216 acre property in 1779, also valued at 3000 pounds.

Perhaps there was another store closer to the Decker farms in Shawangunk, but today, Matthavis Decker made the long trek to Coldengham and walked away with sixty pounds of nails.

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GOODWILL CHURCH! July 10, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Sunday, July 10, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Goodwill Church

The Colden Store had been closed for four days prior to this Sunday, 250 years-ago. Colden rarely opened his store on Sundays, and today was one of those rare occasions. His customers were Abraham Hennion (Hanyon, Henyon), Johannes Milspaugh, James Kain (Cain), and Benjamin Constable.

Goodwill Church in 2010.

The reasons for opening the Store on a Sunday are not apparent. Perhaps it was a courtesy to a customer that happened to be passing by on travels to and from church? Or perhaps it was not that much of an inconvenience to open it for a few minutes if the store location was close to Colden's home, which I believe it was. It certainly does not appear that the items purchased were urgently needed.

Sundays were special days for worship and Colden normally recognized that by not doing business on Sunday.

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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.

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The area around the store was served by at least four churches. The Presbyterians had the Goodwill Church which had its own structure on the road between Colden's store and the Wallkill River. The Episcopalians worshiped at St. Andrew's Church which had a new structure on the road between the Colden Store and the Ten Brook's junction with the Wallkill. The German settlement had their own congregation which met close to where the bridge crossed the Wallkill. The Dutch had their Reformed Church which had a new congregation just east of the Wallkill that would be eventually known as 'New Hurley.'

1798 Galatian map of Montgomery with churches circled. Note that the home of only one of the four shoppers of this day (Milspaugh) is shown. The Milspaugh homes are show on the west of the Wallkill and are underlined in red.  The Constable family also lived in the same area.  The Hennions lived between the store and the Falls on the Wallkill (where the Kidd homes are located).  The location of the Kain farm is unknown to the author.

Unfortunately many records of the Goodwill Church are lost. For example, my relative, Jemima Campbell, attempted to find records of her wedding for a pension application in 1842.  She had been married to Joseph Tice at Goodwill in about 1785. The son of the Reverend Andrew King, confessed the records of his father from this period were missing.

Here are some on-line sources you might use in researching this church:

1. Dickson, James Milligan, The First 150 years of the Goodwill Presbyterian Church, 1880.

2. A searchable transcription of partial records of the church in the possession of the Town of Montgomery Historian (322 entries) - http://www.orangecountyhistoricalsociety.org/Goodwill-Church-Register.html

3. Cemetery headstones -Interment.net

4. The Churchyard Records of Goodwill Presbyterian Church, 1959.

5. Foley, Janey Wethy, Early Settlers of New York State: their Ancestors and descendants, 1934 see Vol III No. 1,2,3,4.

Note that there is some overlap in these records, but the uniqueness of each source suggests that the record is very incomplete.

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On this Sunday, 250 years-ago, it is unclear if and where the shoppers may have worshiped on that day. Colden's loyalty was to St. Andrew's Church so it is expected that he had spent time at that location. Some 'Milspaughs' were admitted to the Goodwill Church in the 1770s and 80s and some buried there in the 1800s, but the name is a prolific one and undoubtedly can be found in all of the local churches records. The names 'Constable', 'Kain', and 'Hennion' were not found in the Goodwill records cited above.

More on the other churches will appear in future blogs.

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CLOSURE! July 6, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Wednesday, July 6, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Four-Day Closure, 250 years-ago

The Colden Store appears to have been closed Wednesday, July 6 through Saturday, July 9.

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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.

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Even during the coldest days of the Winter of 1768, the store was never closed for more than two days in a row. Was this mid-summer closure planned? If so, it had not caused a rush to the store on Tuesday the 5th to conduct business before the closure. Only nine accounts had transactions on Tuesday and all but three were represented by persons other than the account owner. Twenty-four items were sold.

If the closure was unplanned, what might have triggered it? A storm would not last that long. If Colden was ill, he had clerks who could tend the store in his absence. An epidemic might close the store, but there is no history of epidemics at this date.

When the store reopened for four customers on Sunday, July 10, there were ten entries in the DayBook.  Sunday openings were rarely recorded in the DayBook. None of the customers bought items that could not have waited until Monday (with maybe the exception of the half-gallon of West Indian Rum purchased by Abraham Hennion.)

The main reopening of the Store was Monday, July 11th, on which date Colden had one of his busiest days in the history of the store. Thirty-six people made the journey to the store and bought almost one hundred items.

Perhaps Colden had made a major procurement trip to New York City and had taken his clerks with him? If he had hoped to take in the concert and fireworks on Thursday evening in Ranelagh Gardens, July 7th, he would have been disappointed.  The festivities were cancelled as the preparations for the fireworks could not be completed in time. [July 7, 1768 edition of the N-Y Journal, p. 3]

It can only be speculated what was going on with Colden and his Store during this period, but what is known is that the DayBook had no entries for the next four days, 250 years-ago.

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THREAD! July 5, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Tuesday, July 5, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Thread

John McMullen sold thread to the Colden Store on this day, 250 years-ago. There were over 125 transactions at the store involving thread. McMullen's transaction was only one of two sales of thread (presumably homespun) to the store (instead of sales from the store to customers.)

Skeins of silk thread ca. 1800-1850.  Image courtesy of Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

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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.

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The McMullen surname appeared 32 times in the DayBook. Daniel (19 times) and John (13 times) were the given names. They were often represented by their wives at the store or by Daniel's son.

John McMullen appeared in the 1779 tax assessment for the Precinct of Shawangunk. At that date he had nine acres of land and £500 of personal property. Daniel was not enumerated in Hanover Precinct (the jurisdiction of the Colden Store) or Shawangunk.

Thread sold or bought at the Colden Store never appeared with any adjectives. Neither color, weight, quality, nor origin were stated.

On three ocassions, thread was sold by the ounce. On all other instances it was sold by the skein for about three pence each. The image above contains thread in skeins (but probably not in 18th century style).. The word 'skein' does not appear in Webster's 1828 dictionary but it was a word in use at the time.

The thread sold to the store was likely linen thread, spun from the fibers of flax. It was collected on a bobbin as it came off the spinning wheel. It was then wound on a clock-reel to create the skein or knot. Alice Morse Earle states that the revolutions of the clock-reel were counted and forty turns constituted a 'knot' or 'lay.' 'Twenty lays made a skein.... To spin two skeins of linen thread was a good day's work.'

'Silk' was also sold in skeins, so it is likely that this also was a thread, but the DayBook never described it as such. There were over 200 skeins of silk sold at the Colden Store at about one shilling each (about three times the cost of the (linen) 'thread').

Yarn could also be considered a "woolen thread" (it is defined as such by Webster in 1828). There are only four mentions of yarn in the Daybook and all of them were sales of homespun to the store by customers. Three were described as "Stocking Yarn."

I have discussed "Mohair" previously. I imagine it was also a 'yarn.' It was sold in quantities of "sticks" on over 200 ocassions!

Cotton threads did not come into wide use until the 19th century. It is likely that the majority of Colden's 'thread' transactions were linen thread, imported from England.

The Ramsay store in Alexandria, Virginia also sold large quantities of thread. However, Ramsay's ledgers contained numerous descriptors such as the color and type of thread. Most of the thread in Ramsay's store was sold by the ounce. I have not been able to look at the raw data to see if he differentiated between silk and linen thread.

Thread, of course, was used to hand-sew fabrics using needles (see June 23 blog). The linen thread was always waxed to prevent breakage and unraveling during sewing.

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BOSTON! July 4, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Monday, July 4, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

The Boston Circular Letter and the Seeds of War

This day, 250 years-ago, was nothing out of the ordinary at the Colden Store. Monday was generally a busy day, but today there were only seven customers and twelve transactions. Three transactions were purchases of rum. Neal Gillespie deposited a large amount of cash. Benony Brown bought two and one-half yards of Check fabric.  He also picked up an order of sundries on John Ostrander's account 'for use of Danial Hains.' The specifics of that order were not given. Tea, Molasses, Wool Cards, and a Scythe were also sold.

What would happen on this day, eight years in the future, would be extra-ordinary.

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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.

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Eight years prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the stage for conflict with Britain was being set.  The July 4, 1768 edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury described the arrival of the King's response to the Massachusetts Bay Colony's grievances. These grievances had been sent to the King via a packet boat in February of this year.

Excerpts from July 11, 1768 edition of the N-Y Weekly Mercury starting with the Letter from the Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony to his House of Representatives.  He attached the King's 'Requisition' that they rescind their letter of grievances sent to their sister colonies. The House voted 'in the negative' to this request. Lastly, they confirmed in a letter to the Governor that the new Revenue Acts (Intoloerable Acts) were 'an unsupportable burden.' Accessed at genealogybank.com

Massachusetts had also shared their complaint with the Speakers of the Assemblies of all of the North American colonies. The King found this "a  most dangerous and factious Tendency" and requested that they rescind the letter. He also threatened to send troops to enforce the so-named Intolerable Acts if the Bostonians failed to comply.

On June 30th, the Massachusetts Bay Assembly responded to the royally-appointed Governor, that they would not rescind their letter. (This letter would not appear in print until the July 11 edition of the Mercury)

The seeds of independence, planted years earlier, had taken root and were about to explode in Massachusetts.

In New York City, life proceeded pretty much as normal. The concert and fireworks (3rd in the series) were still planned for this evening at 8 p.m. at Ranelagh Gardens for two shillings [July 4, 1768, New-York Weekly Mercury, p. 3].

Copies of the New York papers would probably not reach Coldengham for a few more days. The customers of Colden's store may have discussed the tension in Boston in their churches and taverns, but the fall-out from this conflict was yet to affect them.

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