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5
The Waggoner Store
Record
The Waggoner store record covers the shortest period of time of any component of the
record book--less than a year and a half, from February 1845 to the final wind-up
in June 1846. Indeed, there are no sales recorded after Decembe
r 1845, so the actual
life of the store as recorded in the Waggoner record is less than one year. Yet the information
packed into that short period about what the Whitley Point farmers bought at the
store--as well as the prices, and how the customers p
aid--helps sketch a picture of
life in that community.
Although the store record opens in February 1845, there is no reason to believe that
the store itself was newly opened at that time. Daniel Ellington and William Haydon
had previously oper
ated stores at Whitley Point.* Amos Waggoner succeeded Haydon
as Justice of the Peace in October 1839, probably the result of an election victory. It
is possible that Haydon continued to operate his store until early 1845, when Waggoner
took it over. O
r perhaps Waggoner opened a new establishment.
A "store," according to the Englishman William Oliver, was to be distinguished from
a "grocery." The former was a source of a "grand melange" of things--all the necessaries
and luxuries the settler
s might require. (161) The stores observed by Oliver charged
"exorbitant" prices and were sources of great profit--a testament to the power of
* When John Vogel demolished the Haydon tavern about 1918 (supra, 20), he retained fragments of a store record which have been passed along to the current owners of the Vogel farm, Mr. and Mrs. Marion Voyles. These fragments record
sales made by a store on certain days during the period March 9, 1840, to September 3, 1840. However, the record does not identify the store, its proprietor or its location; and none of the customer names matches any of the names recorded in the Whitle
y Point Record Book.
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local
monopoly pricing. Goods were sold for cash or credit, often with a difference of
10 to 15 percent between the two. By contrast, a "grocery" was a dram shop, where
spirits were sold by the glass.
Supplies destined for stores in southern a
nd central Illinois were purchased at commercial
centers such as Louisville, Cincinnati, St. Louis, or downriver at New Orleans, then
shipped by steamboat via the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to landing points on the Kaskaskia or Wabash rivers, and then
hauled by ox teams and heavy wagons or pack
horses to the ultimate retail markets. The expense of transport was high in relation
to the prices of the goods, which were frequently sold on credit, or in exchange
for local produce, pelts, hides, hams, fea
thers and other such articles. The merchant would
then do his best to transport and sell such locally-produced items in distant markets,
turning them into cash or credit for purchase of more consumer goods to take back home for sa
le. (162)
We do not know the specific origin of the goods brought in by Amos Waggoner to stock
his Whitley Point store. Nor do we know what water routes were used for part of the
movement, or what roads were used to
haul in the goods. The principal rivers serving
east-central Illinois were the Kaskaskia and the Wabash. The Kaskaskia, according to
Peck's Gazetteer of Illinois, 1837, was navigable by steamboat only as far up river
as Carlyle, in Clinton Count
y, roughly parallel with St. Louis. By the mid-1840's
the Kaskaskia may have been navigable farther north, to Vandalia. Some farmers traveled from
Whitley Point to Vandalia in the 1830's and 1840's to bring back supplies. (163) The
Wabash, according to Peck, was navigable at high water as far north as Logansport, Indiana. (164) So Terre Haute on the Wabash east of Charleston may have been the intermedi
ate
point where the goods passed from water to land transport.
Railroads were not yet an alternative for Illinois merchants in 1845-46. Plans to
construct a network of railroads had been concocted by Illinois businessmen and politicians
in the
1830's; and this network would have included a line from Terre Haute, Indiana, through Paris and Shelbyville to Alton, Illinois. But the ambitious state plans
for this rail network collapsed after the Panic of 1837. Railroad service did not
come to the
central part of the state until the mid-1850's. (165)
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However, Amos Waggoner was able to bring his goods from a river port to Whitley Point
via wagon. There was a primitive east-west path or track through the immediate area
when the earliest settlers arrived; and the east-west road called the "old Whitley
road" followed the same general path. (166) This early path or track was so insignificant
it did not appear on early maps of the state.
In 1845, when Waggoner's store record opens, the main roa
d nearest to the Whitley
Point community may have been the northeast-southwest Shelbyville and Danville road
referred to above (supra, p. 12), reported as having been surveyed in 1833.
There was also an east-west road from Terre Haute p
assing south of Paris to Shelbyville.
The David Burr map of Illinois, 1834, shows this road passing several miles south
of Whitley Point. Another Burr map of Illinois and Missouri, not dated but from roughly the same period, displays somewhat more detai
l and shows the same east-west road
from Paris to Shelbyville passing through such places as Paradise and Cochran's Grove,
both of which were, again, a few miles south of Whitley Point. The Tanner map of
1841 (which appears as an illustration) shows bo
th the Shelbyville and Danville
road and the Terre Haute-to-Shelbyville road.
Farther south, the "National Road"--the first great Federal government experiment in
road building--was a westward extension of the Cumberland Road. It extended thro
ugh
Ohio and Indiana, and was planned to cross Illinois to a point on the Mississippi.
The road in fact passed through Terre Haute, then south of Shelbyville through Effingham,
and terminated at Vandalia. In the 1830's and 1840's it was far from an imp
roved
highway. One writer concluded, "The best that could be said of it was that it was
only a partly cleared lane, filled with chuckholes and studded with stumps." (167) Congress withdrew
financial su
pport from the project in 1840, and thereafter no work was done west
of Vandalia.
It thus appears likely that in 1845 the goods sold by Amos Waggoner were shipped to
Whitley Point by a combination of river movement to one of the river port town
s--perhaps
Terre Haute--and then a wagon haul over primitive roads or open prairie to Waggoner's store.
We have only a partial record of the Waggoner store's transactions--only the record
of sales on credit, not sales for cash. Nor do
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we have a record of what Waggoner
bought from his suppliers, or how much he paid.
Waggoner offered for sale a broad range of goods. Customers could buy material for
making household goods and clothing, as well as certain articles of clothing. C
otton
could be purchased by the "bale" for use in making homespun cloth. Customers could
also purchase the homespun material itself--material which other local settlers had sold
or traded to the store for credits to pay for their own purchases.
The basic raw materials for creating homespun were cotton, wool and flax. The cotton
was spun on spinning wheels into thread--sometimes referred to as "chain." Wool fleece
was cleaned, carded, combed, and spun into yarn. The cotton and wool were then
woven
with hand looms into a light cloth known as "jeans", or "janes." Daniel Brush wrote
of his experience working in a store in southern Illinois during the 1820's, and
reported selling both "jeans" and "janes" in his store. (168)
Flax fibers could also be used to make a thread which, together with shorter flax
fibers called "tow", could be woven into a coarse cloth known as "tow linen." Or
the linen warp could be combined with wool weft t
o produce a coarse, durable cloth
known as "linsey-woolsey" used for men's shirts and women's dresses. (169)
Both "janes" and "linsey-woolsey"--sometimes referred to in the store record as "Ky.
Janes" and "Kentucky linsey"--could be purchased by the yard at the Waggoner store.
Factory-made fabrics could also be obtained. "Domestic" referred to unbleached cotton
goods such as sheets, towels, and blankets--as distinguished from clothing fabrics. (170)
Clothing materials included "Prince," Mexican "stripe," "eagle chicks," muslin, flannel, silk, calico, linen, and lace. The word "Prince" suggested a printed cloth. However,
both "Prince
's linen" (a cheap linen fabric) and "Prince's stuff" (a silk and worsted
cloth) were sold in the colonial era; the "Prince" sold by Amos Waggoner may have been one of these. (171)
Closer to th
e finished product, one could buy vesting, shirting, shirt lining, padding,
edging, capping, footing, and coat trimmings. "Ticking"--the material for making bed
mattresses--was also available.
Blue "drill"--short for "drilling"--was a durable c
otton or linen fabric woven with
a three fold thread. (172)
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"Jackonet," an Anglicized version of the French "jaconet"--a soft, closely woven cotton
fabric, originally made in India, generally glazed and used for dresses and children's
clothes--could also be purchased by the yard. (173)
But what was "Lyon Skin"--purchased by Ichabud Dodson for 50 cents per yard? (174) The
hide of a panther? That hardly seemed likely. Perhaps a "skin"--or "skein"-
-of silk
made in Lyon, France, a silk-weaving center, or some other similar material made
in the Lyon style. (175)
Implements and materials for use in making clothing included cotton yarn (by t
he bale),
cotton thread (by the "bale" or the "skin"--or "skein"), fine thread (by the spool),
needles, papers of pins, thimbles, and ribbons.
The Waggoner store also offered dyes used by the Whitley Point women to color the
clothing they made
. One such dye, sold by the pound, was copperas--a green hydrated ferrous sulfate. (176) Also available was madder--the root of a herb used to produce
a moderate to strong red dye. Two of the Whitley Poi
nt buyers of madder purchased it along with
indigo, another dye. Daniel Brush, who had worked in a store in southern Illinois
in the late 1820's, referred to the sale of madder along with indigo for the coloring
of fabrics and cl
othing. (177)
Although most clothing was made at home, certain articles were available for purchase,
including hats (palmleaf hats, fur hats, and "bonnets"), stockings, gloves, shoes,
boots, and suspenders. The gentl
eman farmer could buy a "vest"--or "vest patron."
Handkerchiefs could be purchased in different materials and for different prices: silk
(75 cents), gingham (37-1/2 cents) or cotton (18-3/4 cents).
As was the case with the amounts of judicial charges, (178) prices were related to the
coinage circulating at the time. We see prices that include 1 2 cents, or 1 4 or
3 4 cents. But we see these as the result of combining coins: along with half-do
llars
and quarters, there were "bits" worth 12-1/2 cents, and half-bits, or 6-1/4 cents. Thus,
the price of the gingham handkerchief--37-1/2 cents--was a quarter and a "bit," or a
total of three bits. (179) A pair of gloves cost only 183 4 cents--one and a half bits (or a bit and a "picayune"). (180)
Household goods included pots, bowls, plates, saucers, tea cups,
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tin buckets, tin
pans, salt cellers, sets of knives and forks, table cloths, coffee mills and pots,
storm jars, and cakes of soap. The men could also buy shaving soap.
For hunting and fishing or farm work, one could purchase a wide range
of items: iron,
bars of lead, rope, bridles, barrels, gunpowder and gun flints, sulphur or brimstone,
percussion caps, fishhooks, and "buls" and screws. One could buy a side of leather,
or sole leather for shoes. Combs came in a variety of types: fine
combs and course
combs, riding combs, and tuck combs.
Farm families produced their own meat, poultry, eggs, milk, grains, and vegetables;
but a few special food items were available at the store--items that could not easily
be grown or made o
n the frontier and that were small enough in relation to their
value to be transported economically. Coffee and tea were popular items--coffee running 10-11 cents per pound, and tea (less popular and more expensive) at 25 cents per quart.
Sugar was avai
lable by the pound (12-1/2 cents), as were pepper (25 cents) and salt
by the sack (2 cents per pound). Also available were molasses, castor oil, ginger, rice,
alum, and "spice." One could buy "saleratus"--from the latin "sal aeratus," aerated
salt--a l
eavening agent consisting of potassium or sodium bicarbonate used in cooking
or baking and in making maple sugar molasses. One sensitive traveler in the mid-nineteenth
century complained of travelling in central Illinois via broken-down stages, stopping
at a rickety, fly-ridden log tavern, and being presented with a supper of "greasy
side meat [and] soggy and ill-smelling saleratus biscuits.... (181) An occasional customer
would purchase bacon or che
ese, often in large quantities (see, e.g., William Scott (182)),
no doubt obtained by shopkeeper Waggoner from some other customer in barter or payment for goods.
The religious convictions of t
he community did not deter the use of either tobacco
or whiskey, both of which were among the high-volume sales items. Thus, John Martin,
a staunch member of the Baptist congregation led by his "Uncle Billy," purchased
2-1/2 pounds of tobacco (10 cents
per pound or 10 cents per "plug") in March 1845--for chewing
rather than for smoking. He also bought several gallons of whiskey over a period
of several months (50 cents per gallon). Since the store accounts record only credit
sales, it is likely that
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additional purchases were made at different times for cash. Indeed,
whiskey was recorded as having been sold to different customers by the gallon, the
quart, the pint, and the jug (apparently the one gallon variety). Wine was far less
popular, bu
t nonetheless available, at 37-1/2 cents per quart--three times the price
of whisky. (183)
Corn whiskey was both an item of general consumption and a product of the local economy
for barter or
to generate cash. Many farmers owned their own small distilleries--"stills"--with
which they converted corn mash into the clear, potent liquid. A bushel of corn was good for about two gallons. "Much was consumed at home. Corn whisky was the
popular west
ern drink; home consumption ran high, and in many cabins all members
of the family drank it at every meal." (184) More versatile than many products, it was
used in Whitley Point, as in other frontier co
mmunities, for medicinal purposes as well
as social ones: "Whiskey was then a popular remedy for ague, chills and fever, and
snake bite, and it was often bought by the gallon jug--sometimes by the keg or barrel."
(185)
Moreover, more compact than corn itself, whiskey could be easily stored and later transported
to city markets.
Not everyone approved, of course. William Oliver, the English traveler, referred to
corn whiskey as "that most exec
rable of spirits." (186) The temperance movement had
commenced in Illinois in the 1820's, and the Illinois legislature in 1838 had enacted
a "local option" law, which empowered voters in particular comm
unities to petition county
officials to forbid the licensing of "groceries," in which liquor was sold in quantities
of less than a quart. However, the law had been repealed in 1841. Thus, in 1845 when Amos Waggoner was selling whiskey in quantity to the
Baptists of Whitley Point,
there were no state or local restrictions limiting such sales. In 1846, Maine enacted
a law forbidding the sale of intoxicating liquor; and the "Maine law" movement spread
westward. Although particular Illinois cities enacte
d "dry" ordinances, statewide prohibition
efforts were unsuccessful. Thus, in 1855 an Illinois proposal to prohibit the manufacture
of spirits except for medical or sacerdotal purposes failed to pass, although the legislature did impose a licensing requ
irement for dram shops, which sold
liquor in small quantities. (187)
In addition to supplying whiskey for medicinal and other pur-
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poses, the Waggoner store
was also a supplier of writing materials and school books. Paper could be purchased
by the quire (20 cents) or half quire--a quire consisting of a collection of 24 or 25 sheets of paper. (188) In two of these instances, the paper was purchased "by son" of
the named customer, suggesting that the use of the paper may have been for school
work. Ink was available at 12-1/2 cents per bottle. (189) (There is no reference in the
store record to sales of pencils.) And there are several recorded purchases of "spelling"--or
"spilling"-- books, at 121 2 cents each. (190)
The goods and produce used to pay for articles purchased on credit are as informative
as the purchases themselves. Some customers settled their accounts by paying cash.
But others brought in items that they had made, grown or killed. Butter (6-1/4 cen
ts
per pound) and feathers (25 cents per pound) were among the most frequently-tendered
items. The feathers--probably goose--were used for bedding, a considerable improvement
over straw "tick." As noted above, homespun materials such as "janes" were br
ought
in for credit--at the rate of 43 cents per yard. Also, one finds tenders of "fowls," cheese
(6-1/4 cents per pound), dry hyde, a log ($1.50), a "plank" ($2.871 2), chickens,
eggs, roosters, rags, sacks, meal, flour, corn, oats, hay, sugar, a coon
skin (20
cents), hogs, lard, a turkey (25 cents), and pork by the pound. In a few cases, payment was
made in labor, at the rate of $1.00 per day--e.g., "2 days hauling." (191)
Beeswax was ano
ther item for which customers received credit. Bees were not native
to Illinois, but came from domestic hives, usually migrating one hundred miles or
so in advance of the frontier. With its woods and prairie flowers, Illinois was said
to have an unusua
lly productive bee population. The bees produced both honey, which was
used by the settlers as a sweetener, and beeswax, which was used for waxing furniture
and thread (for sewing), and in making candles--and was said to be "as valuable as the honey." (192) The Whitley Point settlers who brought in beeswax for credit were allowed
25 cents per pound by Amos Waggoner. (193)
Tallow, the solid fat
of cattle and sheep, was collected, saved, and used with homemade
wicks to produce candles. A pound of tallow earned the producer a credit of 6-1/4 cents. (194)
Wright Little obtained credit (
183 4 cents per pound) for 1-3/4
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pounds of "sang"--or
dried ginseng root. (195) Settlers from the South regarded the hunt for the ginseng plant* with much the same fondness as the hunt for deer or wild turke
y. (196) The ginseng
roots were dried and processed and then chewed by the finders or purchasers, some of whom
considered the substance to be an aphrodisiac. (197)
A
few Whitley Point settlers also earned credit with Amos Waggoner by bringing in
flax seed, for which they were allowed 62-1/2 cents per bushel. (198)
Finally, no store would have been complete
without candy for the children--"stick twist,"
at 6-1/4 cents per stick. (199) Many years later, I.J. Martin, grandson of the John Martin
whose account is set forth on the first page of the store record
, passed on to his youngest daughter an early recollection of being taken by his father to a mill
in the Whitley Point area where their corn was to be ground into meal:
He often went with him and felt proud to be allowed to stay in the wagon and hold
the reins of the horses. There was a little store beside the mill, and he could see
in the windows that there was a glass jar which held red and white stick candy. He
alw
ays hoped that his father would buy some of that candy, but he never did. Instead he bought
raisins and crackers for them to munch on as they drove home. I asked, "Why didn't
you ask your father to buy some candy?" He answered, "In my day children did n
ot
do that--they took what was given to them and were thankful for it." (200)
* American ginseng, Panax quinquefolium (not to be confused with Chinese ginseng, Panax
ginseng) is a woodland herb with dark green compound leaves and red berry clusters
that grows in the East, South and parts of t
he Midwest. Extract made from its roots
is still used to produce a tonic having a pleasantly bitter taste.
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