The Winterthur Library

The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

Creator: Aspril family

Title: Records

Dates: 1842-1927

Call No.: Col. 38

Acc. No.: 79x342

Quantity: 13 volumes

Location: 14 B 1-2

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

The Leonard V. Aspril 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 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.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

These records consist of some of the business records of the Aspril family's blacksmith business in Cantwell's Bridge/Odessa. There are thirteen bound volumes in the collection. Most of the volumes are account ledgers. Two of the volumes are daybooks, with some overlap on 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 Atherly’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

Topics:

Blacksmithing - Delaware - Odessa.

Wages - Iron and steel workers - Delaware - Odessa.

Agricultural implements - Repairing.

Sloops - Delaware - Odessa.

Business records - Delaware - Odessa.

Account books.

Ledgers.

Daybooks.

Blacksmiths.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

Location: 14 B 1-2

Volume Contents

79x342.1 Account ledger, 1842-1850, 234 p.

79x342.2 Account ledger, 1847-1852, 266 p.

79x342.3 Account ledger, 1852-1859, 593 p.

79x342.4 Account ledger, 1859-1863, 328 p.

79x342.5 Day book, 1863-1866

79x342.6 Account ledger, 1863-1869

79x342.7 Day book, 1876-1879

79x342.8 Bought ledger (and pay records), 1870-1923

79x342.9 Account ledger, 1881-1888

79x342.10 Account ledger, 1894-1901

79x342.11 Account ledger, 1901-1910

79x342.12 Account ledger, 1910-1927

79x342.13 Notebook, 1863-1892