Lewis family general store and farm daybook

Collection — Volume: Col-1087

Identifier: Col-1087

Content Description

Daybook for the years 1877-1942 with some gaps, primarily between 1895 and 1915, for a general store and farm in Dover, Delaware possibly owned by R. H. Lewis and later by R. E. Lewis. A frequent customer of the store is Dr. Edward Lewis, along with his wife and daughter. Transactions recorded for the store account include all manner of dry goods as well as cash; the farm account records transactions for supplies and equipment as well as rent, taxes, and similar. The later farm accounts also include records of property owned and rented.

"Farm account" records for the Lewis farm begin on Jan. 1, 1880 (pages 249-271); "Property as rented ... and to whom," for the years 1889 and 1891-1894, pages 272-273; "Our farm near Almshouse," 1891-1892, followed by accounts with individuals, perhaps tenants, 1892-1894, and with some additional notes dated 1905. After 1905, recordkeeping resumes in 1915, with all subsequent entries concerning the farm and dated 1915-1942.

Dates

Creation: 1877 - 1942
Creation: Majority of material found within 1877 - 1893

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Full Extent

1 Volumes (433 pages) ; 17 x 7 inches

Language of Materials

English

Metadata Rights Declarations

License: This record is made available under an Universal 1.0 Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons license.

Additional Description

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchased from eBay for $300, December 2023.

Physical Description

Bound in stamped leather with mounted spine label of red leather, lettered in gilt. Spine title: Daybook.

Endpapers are variously inscribed in pencil with mathematical calculations, annotations, and rough diagrams of electrical circuitry (upper pastedown).

Some pages either removed or blank: pages 371-372 removed and inserted between pages 308-309; pages 334-366 blank; pages 370, 381-430 excised and not present.

Inserted and added material: at front are inserted 3 pages of records and notes on 2 sheets of lined ledger paper removed from another volume. Notes include "Plans for farm, etc." A check dated Oct. 5, 1933 is tipped in at page 311; another dated Aug. 31, 1934 is laid in at page 317.

Page 373 with 2 mounted clippings on books about electricity; page 374 with 2 mounted clippings on wire specifications, appearing to be from a trade catalog or other book of trade literature. On pages 376-380 and 431 appear several drawings or plans, including some with the headings "wireless sending and receiving"; "Leyden jar"; "telegraph code"; "aerial fixtures"; "condensers"; and "rheostats."