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.
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| 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.
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| 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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