Morgan, George W.

[ACCOUNT BOOK] [LEDGER] New Hampshire family farm

Plainfield, New Hampshire: 1837-1879. Hardcover. 125 written pages. 38 x 15 cm. This ledger records the daily accounts of various individuals who worked for and bartered with George W. Morgan (1811-1857), alongside a set of household receipts: how to salt beef, how to salt ham, the best method for curing beef, the best receipt for curing ham (pinned in), a remedy to destroy worms on currant bushes (a clipping pasted in from the Boston Cultivator), and a receipt for staining cloth.

The book opens: "Sold March the 18th 1837" - 2 bushels of wheat, 1 bushel of corn, 3 bushels of oats, 1 sap, 6 qts of sider, 1 1/2 of corn, 1 calfskin and veal... Other goods mentioned throughout the ledger include indigo, wool, rum rye, calico, saleratus, silk, tobacco, skin shoes, and mutton. Bartered labor and chores include sheep shearing, tagging sheep, washing sheep, getting in oats, mending fences, digging potatoes, and pasturing cows and horses. Many pages are devoted to days worked, days of lost work, and highly specific chores performed by individual laborers.

Some people mentioned throughout the ledger: Daniel Emery, Aaron Cleveland, Nathaniel True, Franklin Fellows, Joseph Goodhue, James Fogg, Hiram Purmort, Phineas Alding, Daniel Smith, George Henrick, Edward Wood, Samual C. Moulton, Jerome Watson, Andrew Watson, Edwin Shepard, Sandford Shepard, Simeon Cram, Benjamin, Cole, Lucy Cole, and Mary Morgan.

George W. Morgan records the day his father died - Capt. Nathaniel Morgan (1762-1851), a Revolutionary War veteran - as well as the death of his own son. Many entries take the form of formal account settlements between individuals, such as:

"August 21, 1851 - this day settled & made even all book accounts for the use of cow & work & everything else, witness Lucy Standy" (with an X mark)

"Plainfield, November 11th, 1851 - received of George W. Morgan one hundred dollars & fifty cents in full of all demands up to date" (signed by Jerome Watson)

"February 16th, 1853 - to attendance at probate court in the storm at Newport, $3.00"

"Nathaniel True took his sheep away June 13, 1853; he put them in April 18 [th]."

And the last entry written dos-e-dos style:

"Lebanon November the 2, 1839 - Received of Gr W. Morgan Seventy-eight dollars, in full of all demands up to this date Joseph Goodhue" - followed by a receipt "one lb madder one half pound of alum to three yards of cloth to boil one half hours in alum water [nem?] in cold water two or three times soac the madder..."

George W. Morgan appears in the records of the Plainfield Historical Society, in an entry noting that Sylvanus W. Bryan "opened a store for general merchandise in partnership with Mr. Morgan." In Pines and Good Land: A History of Plainfield and Meriden, New Hampshire, George W. Morgan is listed as a "Surveyor of Highways" in 1856.

Founded in 1761, Plainfield was prized for its fertile land in the Connecticut River Valley. The town was divided into two parishes in 1780: the western parish encompassed Plainfield village and the lands along the river, while the eastern parish was named Meriden. By the 1820s, the introduction of Merino sheep spurred a dramatic increase in sheep farming - by 1835 the town counted sixty-five sheep farms, and by 1860 its flocks numbered 17,000 head, bringing a period of unusual prosperity to the area. Another institutional landmark was the founding of Kimball Union Academy in 1813, which established Plainfield as not only a farming community but a center of education as well.

Some pages torn, notes and receipts laid in as well as two dried flowers. Covers heavily rubbed and chipped. Marble covered boards, calf spine. Good. Item #5063

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