Originally Published in the Cecil Whig
On October 2, 1858, Richard Rutter walked into the William Taylor Independent Store in Perryville and walked out with a drill bit, a quart of paint, 5 ¼ yards of muslin, and 2 spools of cotton.
Six weeks later, Josephine Little visited the Taylor store and purchased a few more items than Mr. Rutter: 1 pair of small boots, 1 pair of small shoes, 2 sheets of wading, 4 spools of cotton, 1 brush, 5 yards of muslin, 1 ½ yards of white flannel, 2 dozen button, 2 ¼ yards of gingham, and some black fleece. Ms. Little’s bill came to $5.94.
Also in 1858, John Wilson, John Campbell, and John Riddell were regular customers of tobacco and cigars, among other things.
These are just a few of the customers and some of the merchandize that was sold by the Taylor Independent Store in Perryville, Maryland where it operated between 1855 and 1950. How do we know? The Historical Society of Cecil County is the conserver of the store’s ledgers between 1858 and 1929, with sporadic records into the 1940s.
So, one might ask, what else did this general store sell? Glad you asked. The merchandise included lemon syrup, soap bars, plough paint, lots of cheese, salt, and butter plus bacon, butter, tweed, cotton, buttons, flannel, table cloths, matches, knives, boots, candles, brooms, potatoes, lard, pepper, ginger, dill, copy books, muslin, wool, chocolate, gloves, eggs, and the occasional almanac.
The ledgers list individual customers, what they purchased, the amount, and the price. On occasion, the ledgers indicate how the customer paid for their goods. Very few paid in cash.
One might also ask, what good is all of this information? So what if Ellen Bolden purchased 19 pounds of pork in November of 1858 or George Cossell purchased a large crock for 25 cents that same month? To most people, it doesn’t mean a thing. But to the down in the weeds genealogist, this is a gold mine.
Records such as these store ledgers tell us how our fairly recent ancestors lived: what they ate, how they made their clothes, if they made their own clothes, if they were handymen (or women), if they preferred tea or coffee, if they liked spicy food, were farmers (if they purchased farm equipment), used oil or candles to light their homes, and a host of other things, like if they used tobacco products.
More to the point, ledgers such as these, tell us a little bit about how our free enterprise system worked over 100 years ago. Since the Taylor Independent Store records cover such a long period of time, they show what products were sold during any given time period. For example, as time passed, fewer and fewer customers were buying fabric and more were purchasing complete articles of clothing. In the case of the Independent Store, William Taylor, in the 1870s, added fowl to his product list including both chickens and turkeys. The records do not indicate if the birds were sold live or butchered. The ledgers from the 1920s also include where Taylor bought what he sold: his bread came from the Maryland Biscuit Company, shoes from the North Lebanon Shoe Factory, clothing from the Tyson Company, and tobacco from the Neudecker Tobacco Company in Baltimore.
In addition to the Taylor Independent Store ledgers, the Historical Society also has ledgers for the Walton Country Store, James Ewing Store, Elkton Gas Company, and the Armstrong Telephone Company, among others.
For more information about these and other history resources, contact the Historical Society of Cecil County through our web site at www.cecilhistory.org