Nacogdoches Store Ledger

Collection

Identifier: B-0099

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This is a general store ledger with an index of customers. The accounts of Dr. Robert Anderson Irion are pasted inside the book.

Items of particular interest include:

This ledger includes the purchases of many prominent early Texans, including: Henry Raguet, Thomas J. Rusk, Frost Thorn, Lyne T. Barret, Bennett Blake, and Adolphus Sterne.

The ledger notes the prices of certain goods in Nacogdoches in 1847-48, as well as items in high demand, including quinine. This information can help researchers better understand East Texas society and culture in the 1840s.

Dates

Creation: 1847-1848

Language of Materials

The collection is in English.

Conditions Governing Access

Open for research.

Biographical or Historical Information

likely in Nacogdoches, Texas, that sold various dry goods, medical supplies, and equipment. Although some patrons paid in cash, most customers bought their goods on credit and paid the store owner back at a later date. This store also seemed to have imported goods, such as “fine beaver hats,” from an international port.

In addition to the accounts of this particular store, the ledger also contains the transferred accounts of local physician and noted Republic of Texas politician Robert Anderson Irion (June 9, 1847, to August 20, 1847) pasted inside the ledger book.

Although the ledger book titles each page with “Nacogdoches,” evidence within the ledger suggests it may have belonged to Thomas Jefferson Johnson of Melrose, Texas. Pages 121-122 of Nacogdoches County Deed Book J show that Blackstone Hardeman, Jr. and John N. Fall bought a mercantile store from Johnson on December 21, 1847. In the “Nacogdoches” ledger book, there are no sales entries from December 17 to December 24. This absence of any entries may indicate the time it took for the official sale to occur. After December 1847, there seems to be a change in the handwriting, which indicates a possible change in business ownership. All the “most familiar” patrons to Hardeman’s store, including Bennett Blake, R. A. Irion, Henry and Condy Raguet, Thomas J. Rusk, Frost Thorn, Lyne T. Barret, and Adolphus Sterne, appear in the ledger book before and after December 1847, again supporting that the ledger belonged to the Melrose store.

The Gladys Hardeman Research Collection (A-69) references a Melrose store ledger book that ran from 1848 to 1852 [1]. Although the “Melrose” ledger is unaccounted for (not at the ETRC), since the “Nacogdoches” ledger ended in 1848, the “Melrose” ledger she cited might be the continued accounts of the same store. Although there is no decisive proof, this documentation suggests that the “Nacogdoches” ledger book might have been used by Johnson and Blackstone Hardeman at the Melrose store.

Notes

[1] Gladys Hardeman, “The History of Melrose,” unpublished document, 1964-1965, Folder 3, Box 1, Gladys Hardeman Research Collection (East Texas Research Center, Nacogdoches, TX), 38.Note written by Jake McAdams