NC: Early Burke Co.: "Morganton Store Account Book (partial R - Y)
  
  From:
        PGreatho01@aol.com
    ------------------

Burke Co. Researchers & Other "Interesteds":

I have recently obtained a PARTIAL copy of an "Old Morganton Record"
which was published in "The Burke Journal" December 1992.  It's an
"account book (list) kept in The Morganton Store in 1791 & 1792.  The
following names appear among the list of customers" (partial R - Y)
(FYI - the page that I do NOT have apparently contained any names G thru
possibly part of R.)

Rencher(or Renshaw), John
Rencher, Benjamin
Rencher, Abram
Ray (Rey), William

Spencer, John
Sharpe, William
Scott, Joseph
Scott, George
Sherrill, "Ute"
Simpson, Michajah
Simpson, John
Shoup(or Choup) John
Sellers, John
Southerland, Fendal
Smith, Edward,
Smith, Thomas
Stevelie, John H.
Stringfield, John
Scronce, Nicholas
Stilwell, John

Thompson, Jeremiah
Tate, John
Tate, Samuel, Sr.
Tucker, William

Vance, David

White, Thomas
White, Benjamin
Winters, James
Wood, Andrew
Wood, Henry
Wood, Robert
Wakefield, henry
Webb, James
Wilson, John
Wilson, Greenberry
Walsh(Welsh), William

Young, Thomas
Young, Joshua

(End of list of names)

The Burke Journal                                                       December 1992
 

                 ^3The Morganton Store^2 Account Book 1791-1792

                From The Morganton News-Herald -- June 10, 1915

(Editor^1s
note:  The following article was submitted by Mildred Walker as part
of her
continuing series from Burke County newspapers.  However, the singular
significance of the material contained in this piece warrants its
presentation in the ^3Journal^2 as a separate feature.  This also occasions a
reminder to researchers to always check every possible source of information
when tracing ancestors -- in this case, a 1915 newspaper article gives us 231
names from a 1791-1792 Morganton account book!)
 

                                  AN OLD MORGANTON RECORD

The destruction
of the records of Burke County at the close of the Civil War was a great loss
to the county in a historical sense.  Who lived in and near Morganton a
hundred years ago?  There are very few records left which throw any light on
the question.  In an old account book kept in ^3The Morganton Store^2 in 1791
and 1792 the following names appear among the list of customers:

                                (The List of Names above)

Some of these names, it will be noted, have
entirely disappeared from Burke, but most of them are family names still
represented in the county.

This old account book was found at
^3Belvidere^2, one of the homes of the Erwin^1s on Johns River, when one of
the outbuildings was torn down, ten or fifteen years ago (Note:
ca.1900-1905).
The entries were made with a goose quill pen, and the
^3figures^2 are in pounds, shillings and pence.  The goods were hauled from
Fayetteville, N.C. the entries showing a payment of forty pounds to Jeremiah
Thompson and Thomas Patton for hauling two loads of merchandise from
Fayetteville to Morganton.  As forty pounds face value is equal to $200 in
round numbers, it is surprising that some legislative commission was not
appointed to investigate the overcharges of these old time freight
monopolists.

The old Morganton Store, the name of whose proprietor is not
given, dealt largely in deer skins, bear hides, and gingseng root as articles
of barter, and sold large quantities of Jamaican rum, silver snuff boxes and
shoe buckles.  Wrought iron nails were sold by the hundred, 100 twenty penny
nails costing four shillings, or one dollar.  Other articles were:  rum per
quart three shillings; sugar per pound eight shillings; silk gloves, twelve
shillings; linen per yard, ten to seventeen shillings; wheat flour per
hundred, twenty shillings; corn, two shillings; wheat flour per hundred,
twenty shillings or one pound; steel per pound, three shillings; deer skins
two shillings; bear skins, twelve shillings six pence; venison hams, each one
shilling six pence; pewter plates, each four shillings and six pence; lead
per pound two shillings; Dutch blankets, each one pound four shillings;
butter per pound, six pence.  The only books sold were Bibles, and Testaments
at fourteen shillings and seven shillings respectively; and the ^3Young
Man^1s Companion^2 at fourteen shillings.  When it is considered that the
pound was $5, the shilling 25 cents and the pence, two cents; these prices
will appear somewhat steep; but it is probable that they were payable in the
depreciated coin of that day and that all things considered the old Morganton
merchant did very well by his customers.

                                              W.C.E.
(From The Morganton
News-Herald -- June 10, 1915)

Berna
Stillwell
abner@napanet.net
Napa Valley, CA