The
The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and
Printed Ephemera
Henry
Francis du Pont
5105
Kennett Pike, Winterthur, Delaware 19735
Telephone:
302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883
OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION
Creator: LV. Aspril and Son (Odessa, Del.)
Title: Business records of blacksmithing
and machinery shop
Dates: 1842-1927
Call No.: Col. 38
Acc. No.: 79x342
Quantity: 13 volumes
Location: 2 H 5-9
BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT
Leonard V. Aspril and his family resided in Odessa,
Delaware. (During the time when the
earliest of these records were created, the area was known as Cantwell's
Bridge.) Leonard, first alone and then
with his namesake son, operated a blacksmithing business. They did a lot of repair work on farm
implements, some on the local sloops that carried so much of the agricultural
bounty of the region to market, shoed horses, and did other general smith work.
Leonard Vandegrift Aspril, Sr. was born in 1820, the son
of John Aspril (1788-1867) and Ann Vandegrift (1800-1886). Leonard married Mary McMurphy, by whom he
had four sons, including Leonard V. Aspril, Jr., born in 1850 (some genealogy
web sites indicate an unknown second
wife was the mother of this son). Leonard Sr. served in the Civil War in Co. K
of the 5th Delaware Infantry.
He died on May 1, 1911. In the
1900 and 1910 censuses, he was living with his son Leonard Jr. In the 1900 census, both father and son were
listed as making machinery and agricultural implements.
Leonard Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps as a
blacksmith and maker of agricultural implements; later, he became a carriage
and wagon maker. He married Lydia
Williams in 1879. They had several
children, including David Clarence Aspril, who married Ethel Mailly (see Col.
37 at this repository). Leonard Jr. died
in 1934. In the 1910 and 1920 censuses,
he was listed as a maker of carriages and wagons; in the 1930 census, he was
listed as retired.
SCOPE AND CONTENT
These
records consist of business records of the Aspril family's blacksmith and
agricultural implement business in Cantwell's Bridge/Odessa, Delaware. The Asprils made and repaired tools , cook
stoves, and wagons; shoed horses; and repaired iron work of all sorts. There are thirteen bound volumes in the collection. Most of the volumes are account ledgers. Two of the volumes are daybooks, with some
overlap with the account books. There is
one volume that was designated a "Bought Ledger." This volume records a few purchases for the
business, and then contains quite a few years' pay records.
One volume
(which is being called a notebook) contains a wide variety of notes, including
some accounts, what is probably a record of hours worked by several people, a
record of who was reported to the census taker in 1870, an account of bills
paid for John Atherley’s estate, “new work for the year 1877,” and various
other notes and accounts.
While there are a few gaps in the record (particularly
in the early 1870s and in the early 1890s), the collection gives a remarkably
complete accounting of a small town blacksmith's work.
ORGANIZATION
The
volumes are arranged in chronological order, with the exception of the
notebook, which is filed last.
PROVENANCE
Gift of
Mr. and Mrs. James A. Finley, Jr.
ACCESS POINTS
People:
Aspril, Leonard V. (Leonard Vandegrift), 1820-1911.
Aspril, Leonard V. (Leonard
Vandegrift), 1850-1934.
Atherley, John, 1802-1875.
Topics:
Blacksmithing - Delaware - Odessa.
Wages - Iron and steel workers -
Delaware - Odessa.
Agricultural implements - Repairing.
Sloops - Delaware - Odessa.
Business records - Delaware -
Odessa.
Decedents’ estates - Delaware -
Odessa.
Account books.
Ledgers.
Daybooks.
Blacksmiths.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE
COLLECTION
Location: 2 H 5-9
Volume Contents
79x342.1 Account ledger, 1842-1850, 234 p.
Name index in front of
volume
79x342.2 Account ledger, 1847-1852, 266 p.
Name index in front of
volume
79x342.3 Account ledger, 1852-1859, 593 p.
Name index in front of
volume
79x342.4 Account ledger, 1859-1863, 328 p.
Name index in front of
volume;
Written
on front cover: “L.V. Aspril’s day book, April 30, 1859”; but in fact, the
volume is an account ledger, not a day book
79x342.5 Day book, 1863-1866
Written
on front fly leaf: “Timothy Fortey, blacksmith, Smyrna, Del. April 1863,”
although the entries begin with Jan. 1, 1863.
The handwriting is different from that in 79x342.4 and 79x342.6;
however, some of the accounts are found in both the daybook and one of the account
books. Perhaps Fortey was a blacksmith
who worked for Aspril, or Aspril just noted down the name of another blacksmith
in case he needed an assistant.
[A
genealogy web site showed a Timothy Fortee, blacksmith, age 24, getting married
to Lydia Sharwood in Smyrna in 1862.]
79x342.6 Account ledger, 1863-1869
Name index in separate
notebook, laid in front of volume.
79x342.7 Day book, 1876-1879
79x342.8 Bought ledger [and pay records],
1870-1923
Name index in front of
volume
79x342.9 Account ledger, 1881-1888
Name index in front of
volume;
Label
in front of volume: C.F. Thomas & Co., booksellers, stationers, printers,
blank book makers, Wilmington, Del.
79x342.10 Account ledger, 1894-1901
Name index in front of
volume;
Label
in front of volume: William Mann Company, Blank book makers, …, Philadelphia
79x342.11 Account ledger, 1901-1910
Name index in front of
volume;
Label
in front of volume: William Mann Company, Blank book makers, …, Philadelphia
79x342.12 Account ledger, 1910-1927
Name index in front of
volume;
Label
in front of volume: Julian B. Robinson, Stationer, printer, engraving, blank
books, Wilmington, Del.;
Includes
a blotter from the American Wood Working Machinery Co.
79x342.13 Notebook, 1863-1892
Includes
an offering envelope for St. Paul’s M.E. [Methodist Episcopal] Church, Odessa,
Del., 189-;
Includes
a list of bills paid for John Atherley’s estate. Atherley was born June 17, 1802, in England,
and died Dec. 12, 1875 in or near Odessa.
He is buried at Old Drawyer’s Presbyterian Church. The James Atherley whose address is in the
notebook was a mechanic in Philadelphia; he died March 11, 1877, age 50 or
51. Perhaps he was the son of John.
The subscription to pay
for cushions was perhaps for St. Paul’s Methodist Church.
Revised
Sept. 2015