Ledger book, 1794 - 1799, with pagination that runs from 515 to 1061, suggesting that this ledger is second volume of a set; entries constitute a major archive of information about the social history and population of the community of Camden, S.C.; entries document sales of alcohol, lottery tickets, books, and various household goods. Customers represented include Edward Rutledge, the prominent Charleston attorney and signer of the Declaration of Independence, who visited the store on 10 Aug. 1794 during convening of the Kershaw County court. Rutledge purchased a man's saddle, one saddle cloth, four pounds of shot, three and a half yards of linen, some thread, one penknife, one pair of men's shoes, twelve and a half yards of white plains, two yards of Irish Droghedas, a half pound of threepenny nails, one pound of lead, and two quarts of whiskey (the second quart being an afterthought when time came to tally the bill). Whiskey was a perennially popular item, especially just before Independence Day. The store charged 4s 8d per gallon, the same price they charged for a Bible. On 3 July 1798 they sold approximately ten gallons of whiskey and three quarts of Jamaica rum. Laurence Manning, the state adjutant general, was in town for the festivities of July 1798, and he purchased some thread that day. The volume also documents the firm's entry and involvement in milling of grain, including entry, 23 May 1796, re purchase of 3203 acres of land from Joseph Kershaw, property that included Kershaw's mill and a large pond on Big Pine Tree Creek. The store catered to all tastes in reading material. On 2 July 1795 Isaac Gibson, Sr., bearer of a surname strongly identified with the Baptist church in South Carolina, purchased two Bibles at 4s 8d apiece. On 17 October 1796 the store sold five copies of Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason at 5s 10s per copy to John Dinkins, Reuben Arthur, James Ring, John Trent, and Josiah Scott. Two customers (Trent and Scott) also took copies of Gilbert Wakefield's An Examination of the Age of Reason, a 1794 reply to the first part of Paine's work.
