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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