Page 3: During the Civil War, James Lafayette Acomb, brother of our ancestor, Thomas Acomb, lived in Cuba, NY. In 1928 the Cuba NY Patriot published the following story about an account book from an old hardware store, which lists James Lafayette Acomb as a customer, and provides interesting color about the world he lived in. Daybook of Hardware Store in Cuba in Civil War, Cuba NY Patriot, Thursday, December 27, 1928. An account book found in the Bartlett Hardware company building by Glenn Harris and loaned to The Patriot proves to be an unusually interesting record. The book, the dates of which run through 1864-5, doubtless belonged to Henry Mead, who kept a hardware store at that time now occupied by the Bartlett company. (Mr. Mead was a brother-in-law of the late Mrs. E.A. Bartlett.) To read the names in the book is to call the roll of the citizens of Cuba in Civil War times. Some are still familiar, thought it is difficult to find any of the persons still living. Among the well known citizens of the day are H.W. Orton, whose daughters, Mary and Mattie, and son Willie are mentioned as coming on errands to the store. Willie was afterwards president of the Western Union Telegraph company, and Mattie was later Mrs. E.A. Bartlett. Other prominent residents were Rev. J. Wynkoop, at that time the Presbyterian dominie; L.H. Hazen, a merchant; Anson Congdon of Clarksville; I.V. Stone, father of Gen. Roy Stone; M.B. Champlain, attorney general of the state; Russell Smith, a pioneer settler, builder of the Smith block; Gen. C.T. Chamberlain, equally well known in Cubas early history; J.A. Story, prominent merchant; William Dunkin, N.P. Loveridge, W.O. Talcott, Dr. Parker, Jasper Palmer, Collins Bradley, Gardner Sheldon, J.L. Acomb, Major Reynolds, William Armstrong, Jehiel Curtindale, Prof. Ephriam Waterbury, Philo Roberts, William McMonigle, Sam Story, Calvin Swift. Of chief note among the customers were numerous oil companies which were then engaged in drilling near Cuba. There appear the names of the Union Oil Spring company, said to have been the first to drill on the reservation; Cornplanter Run Petroleum company, Reservation Oil company, Indian Spring Oil company, Russell Cherry Run Oil company. It is also interesting to find the name of Philenas Pattyson, who in May, 65, bought a cook stove and a complete outfit of iron kitchen ware. He was the same Pattyson who at one time obtained title to the Seneca Oil Spring reservation, erected a house and barn there and did some farming, but was later ejected by the Indians when their title was legally restored. It was during his occupancy that the Reservation was leased for drilling. Cuba must have known exciting times in this period with the Civil War and the oil boom going on together. Another regular customer of the store was the Presbyterian church which, however, bought little but lamp chimneys, price 13 cents, and of these but one at a time. Once the society also bought a lamp for its melodean - this must have been for use in the little white wooden church which preceded the present structure. The Cuba Bank (which did not become a national bank until 1865) was also a conservative purchaser. At different times it invested in a lamp chimney or a burner and wick, or a sprinkler. Once it bought 3 1/2 yards of sash cord and prudently returned part the next day. It is most interesting to find that a number of farmers, as Sylvester Gray and William Bennett, bought cheese vats. At this time, as Mr. C.A. Ackerly informs us, there were no cheese factories in the region, although there were some in the eastern part of the state. The first one here, Mr. Ackerly recalls, was built at North Cuba about the close of the war. Prior to that the farmers made their own cheese, just as they still do in the Old World. Mr. Ackerlys memory as to the date is confirmed by a number of entries in the journal as to the material bought by James Hendryx in May and June, 1865, for the North Cuba factory. Wartime prices are of interest. Kerosene oil was $1 a gallon and some customers, as the Widow Griffin, bought but half a gallon at a time. Currier & Stebbins, proprietors of the True Patriot, bought a quart. Wale oil was 25 cents a pint, but there was little call for it. Boiled oil was $2 and benzine $1. Benzole, much in demand, was the same price, and white lead was 15 cents a pound. Apparently no mixed paint was sold. The store dealt in a surprising variety of merchandise, considering how many articles now on sale by its successor where then unheard of. We find items as to the sale of oilcloth, at $1 a yard, and drugget, at $3. It sold damask and lace, also spectacles at $1 a pair, brass pails and bed cords. It had coal flatirons, candle molds, candlesticks, and plated coffin handles. The price of a silver watch was $30 and of a lace shawl $6. N.P. Loveridge bought a silver-plated castor for $12, and Mrs. Tom Lancaster a walnut corner bracket for $6. The store charged $1.13 for making a pair of pants for A.H. Burdett, the work being done by Mrs. Underwood. It frequently loaned friends and relatives money and received small sums for safe keeping. F.G. Stebbins once borrowed $15. The firm bought maple sugar, paying 17 to 20 cents a pound, and on one occasion shipping a large quantity to Attleboro, Mass. (Perhaps Massachusetts maple sugar was then more popular than Vermonts.) It also bought honey at 17c and even took turnips in trade. It sold cider at 17 cents a gallon and did business in Chili seed potatoes and on occasion in oats, also in cord wood, at $4. It dealt much in wool twine and sheep shears, and in 1864 it lost $140 in buying and selling sheep pelts. A rather mysterious item about that time was the sale of 33 and 1/3 pound of War Springs at $8.58. Another echo of the war is the hint of a mass meeting suggested in the sale in September, 1864, of seven lamps with kerosene. These were charged to the Union League, an important patriotic organization of war time. Bruce Brothers, who as Mr. Ackerly recalls, sold wagons and dealt in insurance, were frequent customers. Mrs. C.M. Bruce, the wife of one of the firm, was a sister of Senator Teller. Other firms mentioned are Hallack & Nash, Lotteridge & Co., Park & Stevens. Rufus Kinney was a harness maker, who is said to have introduced a great improvement in the use of such buckles as are now common on harness. The name Enos Van Ness recalls his daughter, Carrie Van Ness, later Mrs. Adelbert Moot of Buffalo, and Lewis Culvers recalls his daughter, Miss Elizabeth Culver, years ago librarian of the Circulating library. We find Mrs. M.B. Champlain getting trusted for a tin fruit jar, priced at two schillings and six. (Whether glass fruit jars had then come into use does not appear.) Items charged in shillings (12 1/2 cents) were common in the account. Other names appearing include Wolcott Hatch, Asa Davis - (Was this Uncle Penny Davis who kept a dark little store where snuff and stick candy were sold?) John B. Cole, David Kirkpatrick, Willie Rice, Martin Butts, Norman Boon, Henry Arnout, Charlie Nash, Robert Armstrong, W.O. Osborne, S.P. Ault, William Simpson, George Swift. We learn from the account that board could be had in Cuba for $4, which was what John Neff charged the firm for boarding its employee Goodwin. Three shillings an hour was the price the store charged for tinners work in 64, and sixteen shillings were the wages paid Goodwin. The end of the war brought disaster to Cuba, when prices fell rapidly and merchants were left with large stocks of goods on hand bought at war rates. Mr. Mead was one of those caught in the depression, and so was the other Cuba hardware company. Tom Lancaster and Jim Willard, a firm of wool-buyers were among those who failed. These reverses affected the Cuba Bank, and the crisis it suffered, though successfully passed, made an opening for the founding of the First National Bank. Daybook Interested Him, Cuba NY Patriot, January 24, 1929. The old account book of the Mead hardware store, an article about which appeared in The Patriot recently, was very interesting to C.F. Moulton, who has since examined its pages. Among other items of significance he found the entry of the purchase by his father of a sidehill plow, priced $13. This Mr. Moulton says, was the first sidehill plow in the neighborhood, and he well remembers plowing with it. Speaking of this at a meeting in Belmont, someone at once introduced him to L.C. Allen, clerk of the board of supervisors, whose father manufactured the plows at Whitesville. Mr. Moultons uncle S.S. Randolph, won a cup at a rifle shoot in which Editor Stebbins took a prominent part, and Mr. Moulton has discovered entries connected with this. The guns used were made by Randolph & Thurston at a machine shop on Chapel street, the makers buying the barrels at the hardware store and making the stocks out of apple-tree wood. Cast: 2nd great grand uncle, James Lafayette Acomb, Birth February 27, 1828 in Stanford Bridge, Yorkshire, England, Death June 6, 1901 in Tidioute, Warren, PA, USA
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 01:04:42 +0000
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