Manuscript Group 195, Stephens& Caskey, Stephensburg, NJ Daybook, 1832-1833
Archives
Documents, Manuscripts, Maps, & Photographs
Manuscript Group 195, Stephens &
Caskey, Stephensburg, NJ
Daybook, 1832-1833, 0.1 linear feet / 1 volume
Call Number: MG 195
Kept by the proprietors of a general store
in Stephensburg, Morris County.
Gift of Roscoe L. Smith, 1954.
The Stephens and Caskey General Store was located in Stephensburg, Morris County, New
Jersey. The proprietors of the store were most likely Robert C. Stephens (fl. 1820-1843)
and Robert C. Caskey (fl. 1832-1833), both prominent citizens in the area.
Robert C.
Stephens served three consecutive terms as a Morris County Justice of the Peace (1833,
1838, and 1843). Caskey was a church elder at the Presbyterian Church of Pleasant Grove.
Sources:
Hart, Ernest M. History of Morris County, New Jersey. W. Munsell & Co.,
1882.
“Stephens and Caskey Daybook, Stephensburg, N.J., 1832-3.” New Jersey
Genesis, October 1954: pg. 8.
The volume was a 1954 gift of Roscoe L. Smith (accession number M3054).
The collection consists of a daybook detailing transactions of Stephens and
Caskeys general store from October 25, 1832-November 30, 1833. Each entry lists the
customer, date, items purchased, price, and method of payment. Customers bought items such
as rum, whiskey, salt, pepper, molasses, wheat, stockings, shoes, and nails, paying either
by cash, barter, or by working off their debts. The volume is missing its original binding
and covers and begins on page 117, suggesting that the book is incomplete or part of a
set. An index for the names found within the daybook was published in New Jersey
Genesis, October 1954: pg. 8.
See other merchants’
records/papers.
Processed by Jeff McMillan, August 2000 as part of the “Farm to
City” project funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications
and Records Commission.
Submit a request to copy part of this collection