Manuscript Group 149, Caleb Parkhurst (1744-1817), Merchant

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Manuscript Group 149, Caleb Parkhurst (1744-1817), Merchant

Records, 1784-1817, 0.5 linear feet / 4 volumes

Call Number: MG 149 + box & folder
number

• Summary

• Biographical Note

• Provenance Note

• Scope and
  Content Note

• Related
  Collections

• Container List

Summary:

An account book and three daybooks kept by the
proprietor of a general store in Newark, New Jersey.

Bequest of Henry Congar.

Biographical Note:

Caleb Parkhurst (1744-1817), the son of Esther Baldwin and Samuel Parkhurst, was a
merchant in Newark, New Jersey.  He had eight children by his first wife (her name is
unknown), and after her death married Eunice Baldwin (1745-1833), the widow of Daniel
Brown (1747-1776).  Caleb Parkhurst died on February 7, 1817 in Newark.

Sources:

Sayre, Mortimer F. Brown and Sayre Ancestry: Three Centuries in Northern New Jersey
(Spahr & Glenn: Columus, Ohio, 1971).

Provenance Note:

This collection was a bequest of Henry Congar, date unknown.

Scope and Content Note:

The collection consists of three daybooks and an account book covering the years
1784-1813.  The daybooks, dating from 1798-1799, 1803-1811, and 1811-1817, contain daily
entries of general store sales, which record customer name, item purchased, and price.
The
fourth volume in the collection contains the accounts of individual customers and of a
“Meeting House” project.  The entries, dating from 1784-1791, are generally
chronological and document the bartering of goods in the general store.  Customers
exchanged general store goods for products produced in their own households (such as
butter, oats, and “sundries”) or for services rendered (for example, washing).
The volumes are boxed according to size, and then arranged in chronological order.
These
record books represent a good source for the study of the development and availability of
consumer goods at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Related Collections:

Manuscript Group 150,
Henry L. Parkhurst (1767-1817) Daybooks

Manuscript Group 291, Baldwin-Brown-Coe Family
(Newark, NJ) Papers

Container List:

Processed by Irina Peris, May 2000 as part of the “Farm to City”
project funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records
Commission.

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