Account book for a Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, general store

This daybook was kept between 1817 and 1818 at an unidentified general store located in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, that sold foodstuffs, tobacco products, finished clothing and accessories, textiles, and other miscellaneous items. The book contains a chronological account of customers’ debts and, occasionally, their credit payments.

Some products mentioned in the account book include food and beverages such as coffee, alcohol, tea, eggs, butter, flour, and oats. The store also sold finished items like shoes and gloves, as well as materials to create clothing, such as fabrics, buttons, needles, and thread. Many customers bought tobacco products, including Spanish cigars, balls of tobacco, snuff boxes, and pipes. The store also loaned money and traded and sold wood.

The content is organized as a list of daily transactions, mostly in chronological order. Most of the entries record customers’ debts, although a number reflect credit payments to the store. The bookkeeper often noted when a particular debt had been paid. In addition to cash and goods, the store also accepted and dispensed bank notes from several local financial institutions.

The book is unbound, but holes along the left side of the folded signatures indicate that they were, at one point, bound together to form a single volume. Entries are written in ink, with some pencil notations.