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| Copyright 2014, Diane L Richard -- Benjamin Austin and Henry Reid Papers, Duke University, Durham (NC) |
It’s always
fun when a bit of serendipity comes along.
Just last
week I was researching in the Benjamin Austin and Henry Reid Papers, 1756 (1790-1820) 1879,
at Duke University. This collection
includes some late 1790s to early 1800s (I looked at c. 1793-early 1820s)
account ledgers. I was struck by how
most of the earlier ledgers referenced “fluid volumes” (e.g. gallons, pints,
etc) though later ones list a greater variety of products sold.
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| Copyright 2014, Diane L Richard -- Benjamin Austin and Henry Reid Papers, Duke University, Durham (NC) |
The finding
aid was little help ...
Correspondence and other papers of
Benjamin Austin and of Henry Reid, also a Justice of the Peace, consisting of
legal papers, court records, tax lists, militia rosters, election lists and
returns. There are also personal letters from relatives in Georgia , Kentucky ,
and Indiana Indiana , and Burke
County
Even though
these gentleman lived in Burke County (NC), we weren’t talking the 1920s, Prohibition and Bootlegging and NASCAR. I also had
no information to suggest that either managed an establishment where liquor
would have been sold.
So, I was curious
to learn more of the story. After all, the names of just about every neighbor
were listed in these ledgers.
A book, Moonshiners and Prohibitionists: The Battle over Alcohol in Southern Appalachia,
Bruce E. Stewart, University Press of Kentucky, Mar 15, 2011 states
...
Entrepreneur Henry Reid made a small
fortune operating a distillery in Burke
County
A bit more
research and I found an article in The
North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. 66, No. 1, JANUARY 1989 – The Whiskey Rebellion in North Carolina (accessed via
JSTOR) which states ...
Between 1795 and 1800 Henry Reid, Burke County
What do you
know, the early ledgers end up being Henry Reid’s ledgers for his distillery
business. After all, those winter nights
in the North Carolina Burke County
A reminder
that even back at the turn of the 18th century, the Burke County
The
serendipity is that today, as I am catching up on some genealogy newsletters I
receive, I read the one from AOTUS (Archivist of the United States Spirited
Republic
Now that I have personally seen the ledgers of an 18th (early 19th)
century distiller, I think I will need to check out that exhibit and learn some
more about our ancestors and their consumption of liquor.
Have you come across
similar ledgers in the course of your research?
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