Manuscript ledger of a [Rochelle Illinois?] drugstore, possibly Clark & Dana's of Rochelle, Illinois with entries from 1864-1872

[ Illinois ]: [ not published ], 1872. First Edition. Boards. Good. First Edition. 368 numbered pages. 8 1/2 x 13 1/4 inches. Suede/leather ledger style binding. Pages 115, 116, 215 bottom, 281 bottom, 293-309, 311 bottom, 313-320 and 329-334 excised. Pages 336-338, 346-368 blank. The balance of the pages (nearly 300) are used for accounts related to the business. Covers warped, with wear to the extremities overall. Manuscript accounts throughout, in a readable hand. Boards. Front flyleaf notations include "W Coldit ?? C & D $17 found on ???..." and below that "Bought from Joe Michaud Iowa City Nov 6, 1985. He bought it Monmount Illinois."

With entries as early as 1864 and as late as 1872, this ledger details a decade of business just after the civil war. A few of the more interesting items sold in this drugstore include pills, alcohol, liniment, oil, rosin, whiskey, cough elix, chloroform, kerosene, gold leaf, wicks, spices, corn starch, ginger, camphor, lead, wax, eye salve, soap, tobacco, opii blister, RR & Elm, brandy, benz, aspholtum &c, vermillion, etc etc (any transcription errors are mine). And much, much more. Customers include many individuals, as well as groups like IOOF, Good Templars, School No. 3, Heath and Milligan, Dr. D.W.C. Vaile, JS Patchin, Otto Wettstein, AF Decamp, JC Ayer & Co., etc.

While the store is not conclusively identified with labels (or as sometimes the case by inserts of bills, etc), we find it likely this ledger is from a drugstore in Rochelle, Illinois in Ogle County (whose history online contains many of the names in the ledger). Of the drugstores noted in that History, one, Clark & Dana, matches the "C&D" found on the front flyleaf, and was clearly in the same community as many of the patrons of this establishment. Further research may prove (or disprove) this hypothesis. In any event, and interesting view into what the populace in the area was purchasing in the post war years.