Business and personal papers of Benjamin Walker and his family and business associates. 1793-1877

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Business and personal papers of Benjamin Walker and his family and business associates., 1793-1877

Business and personal papers of Benjamin Walker and his family and business associates. 1793-1877

http://hdl.handle.net/10407/9419795277

The business and personal papers in the Benjamin Walker Collection range from 1793 to 1877, but the majority date from 1808 to 1824. They primarily record the business and social activities of Benjamin Walker in connection with relatives, business associates and acquaintances, all residing in the towns of Taunton and Dighton in Bristol County, Massachusetts. A group of 8 agreements and statements of accounts, 1811-1813, records building the ship James Lloyd (presumably named for the U.S. senator from Massachusetts, 1808-1814), by collaborative investment of money, labor and goods. Gamaliel Church, owner of a neighboring shipyard, also became a shareholder. Evidence of the Walker family's influential involvement in the West Congregational Society of West Taunton, from its 1809 founding through the 1824 building of a new meeting-house is recorded in 5 documents and letters. More miscellaneous in nature, a group of 13 letters and documents deals with transactions in land, building materials, domestic goods, etc., as well as collecting of debts and assessing of local taxes. Although some of these items were carefully preserved, the backs of others are covered with accounting notes and calculations indicating re-use as waste paper. Even stronger evidence of the latter thrifty practice is provided by a group of 30 scraps of paper, some torn from documents or letters, used for accounting notes and calculations of various transactions.

56 items (2 folders, 1 oversize folder)

eng,

University of Kansas Kenneth Spencer Research Library Department of Special Collections