The Winterthur Library

 The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur, Delaware  19735

Telephone: 302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883

 

 

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

 

Creator:         Bruce, Charles, 1805-1892    

Title:               Account book and other records

Dates:             1836-1846

Call No.:         Doc. 1771      

Acc. No.:        2018x49

Quantity:        1 volume, 1 folder

Location:        31 J 6

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

 

Charles Bruce was a toolmaker and farm laborer in Nottingham, Rockingham County, New Hampshire.  Census records of 1860, 1870, and 1880 record his occupation as house carpenter.  He was born in Marlborough, Massachusetts, in December 1805, the son of Lydia Eager (1774-1856) and Joel Bruce.  At some point, Bruce moved to Nottingham, New Hampshire.  He married Mary McDaniels (1789-1845), and they had a daughter Angeline (1826-1911; married Edmund Gibbs).  (In the 1880 census, another daughter and her husband, Eldora and Lorenzo Garland, are also listed as living with him.  However, Eldora was actually his granddaughter; her parents were Angeline and Edmund Gibbs.)  Charles Bruce died in 1892.

 

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

Account book and other miscellaneous records documenting the work of Charles Bruce of Nottingham, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, 1836-1846.  Bruce repaired and made cutting tools, especially axes, chisels, and knives.  He also performed much farm labor, such as haying, ploughing, planting, and shoveling manure.  As well, he split rocks, built a shop and a house, and did other work.  He was often paid with produce, but also with cash.  

 

A number of loose items were found in the account book, including promissory notes and receipted bills, most related to Charles Bruce.  Interestingly, found among these loose items are receipts signed by Nottingham school teachers Abby A. Glass and Elizabeth A. Thompson, acknowledging payment of their wages in December 1846.  An undated piece of paper lists students and number of weeks and days each attended school.  A printed document lists the candidates of the Democratic Republican party for New Hampshire state offices, headed by Noah Martin for governor.  (He served as governor 1852-1854.)  A number of the loose papers are simple scraps of paper covered with arithmetic calculations.    

 

           

ORGANIZATION

 

The entries are roughly in chronological order.

 

 

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

 

The materials are in English.

 

 

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

 

Collection is open to the public.  Copyright restrictions may apply.

           

 

PROVENANCE

 

Purchased from Dan Casavant, Rare Books. 

 

 

ACCESS POINTS

 

Topics:

            Agricultural laborers – New Hampshire – Rockingham County.

Axes.

            Chisels.

Cutting tools. 

Forests and forestry – New Hampshire.

House construction – New Hampshire – Rockingham County.

Knives.

Political campaigns – New Hampshire.

Schools – New Hampshire – Rockingham County.

Women teachers – New Hampshire – Rockingham County.

Workshops – New Hampshire – Rockingham County.

Account books.

Daybooks.

           

 

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

 

Location: 31 J 6

 

Folder 1:

 

.1         account book, 1836-1846

 

            The volume opens with accounts for labor, 1836-1844: digging well, hoeing, fencing, cutting grain, mowing, making cider, planting, spreading dung and shoveling manure, picking rocks, splitting stone, work on mill and roads, trimming trees, and cutting wood, but occasionally Bruce recorded making a knife.  These accounts are arranged by the name of the person for whom Bruce worked.

                        Next are found undated records for building and stocking a shop, among the items stocked were iron, steel, borax, coal (spelled cole), and a file.

Then are found daybook entries, from Dec. 23, 1841-Jan. 10, 1843, for repairing and sometimes making cutting tools: axes, chisels, knives, plane irons, bits; he especially recorded new steeling or upsetting axes; also mentioned are froes, nippers, and scythes.  He provided a trap spring, hardened a broad axe, sold spring clasps and a hammer, fixed a shave, made a chip for a plough, made an adze, etc.

After these daybook entries, Bruce reverts to the accounts for labor, again arranged by the name of the person for whom he worked, and covering 1845-1846.  Much of this work was farm labor: haying, ploughing, shearing sheep.  He was often paid with produce, but also with boards, planks, cash, and other goods.

Towards the end of the volume is an account dated 1843 and headed “paid out for articles on house.”  Bruce purchased boards, nails, lime, bricks, glass, mantle iron, door fastenings, window frame and sash, and a door and frame, and names the men from whom he made these purchases.  Several pages later, Bruce recorded the names of those who worked on the house and cellar, tallying the number of days each man worked, although he did not note what the men did.

The volume ends with records of sales of timber and hemlock bark sold off the Barington [sic] lot, and taxes paid on said lot.

 

Note: Loose items were removed from the volume and placed in folder 2.

 

[Description of volume: marbled paper-covered boards and a leather spine.  On that part of the spine which wraps over the front cover is written Charles Bruce, Nottingham, 1836, N.H.  Pages are lined and ruled for accounts; about one-third are blank.]

 

 

Folder 2: loose items removed from account book

 

.2         List of candidates for Democratic Republican ticket, New Hampshire, no date.  Includes

Noah Martin for governor [he served 1852-1854];

Asa P. Care for railroad commissioner;

Moses Eaton, Jr. for councilor;

John S. Wells, senator;

Winthrop H. Dudley, treasurer;

Gideon Webster, register;

George H. Taylor, Daniel Melcher, and John M. Weare, all for road commissioners

 

Decorated  with an eagle holding a banner for Democracy, with quotations from Andrew Jackson

 

.3         Promise to pay: [Charles Bruce, whose name has been removed], no place, Jan. 3, 1835, promises to pay a sum to William W. Stickney;

            On back: Bruce note, with two records of payments received, Jan. 1, 1839 and Jan. 26, 1841

 

.4         Promise to pay: [Charles Bruce, whose name has been removed], Nottingham, May 26 1837, promises to pay a sum to Demerett & Dame[?];

            On back: Charles Bruce, May 26, 1837, the amount, and a note that a payment was made Feb. 23, 1838

 

.5         Promise to pay: [Charles Bruce, whose name has been removed], Nottingham, Nov. 20, 1837, promises to pay a sum to James Tompson [sic]

 

.6         Receipted bill: William B. Manning, no place, Sept. 14, 1838-Jan. 4, 1841, was paid for setting a tire, showing two horses (names James Thompson in these charges), and pounds of tire iron (names Charles Bruce in this charge)

 

.7         B. Cilley, credit, 1840, May 4 to August 1842, for iron and a peck of corn

 

.8         Receipted bill: John P. Lyman, Portsmouth, Dec. 28, 1841, was paid by James Thompson for pounds of materials, including cast steel, and a file

                        On printed billhead: importer & dealer in bar iron, steel, nails, hoops, … coach-springs, anvils, … coal, borax… [and a variety of other metal goods]

 

.9         Receipted bill: John P. Lyman, Portsmouth, May 29, 1842, was paid by Charles Bruce for pounds of materials, including cast steel, and a file

 

.10       Joseph Brown, to C. Bruce, debt, July 13, 1843, to labor done, July 13-January 1844: work on cutting grain and withe[?], splitting stones, veal, and “3 days on cole”

[almost exact duplicate of a page in the account book]

 

.11       Joseph Brown, credit, July 15, 1843, for labor done, Aug. 12-Oct. 20: work on cellar wall, splitting stones, stone work, cutting wood

[almost exact duplicate of a page in the account book]

 

.12       Bill, James L. Clark, Nottingham, Aug. 2, 1843, to Charles Bruce, for sawing boards and “pulling and sticking up”

 

.13       Note about work, 1843: James Tompson worked 67 days and his oxen 15 days

 

.14       B. Cilley to C. Bruce, Debt, 1844, July 1 to Aug. 13, 1845: for hoeing and cutting grain

 

.15       Receipt: W. Tredick was paid for purchases made July 16, 1844: textile fabrics and sewing supplies: alpaca, canvas, Silesia, cambric, silk, braid[?], thread;

                        On back: calculations

 

.16       Record of work: April 1, 1845-April 6, 1846; the 1845 records give no names, just numbers of days; the records for 1846 specify the labor was for G. Denett, and gives the days of lost time

 

.17       Receipt: Elizabeth A. Thompson, Nottingham, Dec. 18, 1846, received pay for teaching school

 

.18       Receipt: Abby A. Glass, Nottingham, Dec. 23, 1846, received pay for teaching school

 

.19       Receipt: H. P. Daniels, Somerworth, Grate Falls, April 28, 1847, received payment from Charles Bruce for his board;

                        Endorsed on back: H. P. Daniels, receict for 1847

 

.20       Promise to pay: [Charles Bruce, whose name has been removed], Nottingham, Aug. 14, 1847, promises to pay a sum to Charles Cabot;

written on back: C. Bruce note; also calculations

 

.21       Receipt: Jabez Green, Nottingham, April 4, 184?, was paid by Charles Bruce

 

.22       Receipted bill: N. W. Churchill, Dover, N.H., May 5, 1852, received payment from Charles Bruce for feathers and yards of something.

 

.23       School attendance record, no date: list of students who attended school, the number of weeks and days each attended, and a note that the student had paid;

                        Endorsed on back: District Bill;

                        Paper blind embossed with stationery company’s logo: Pro Patria, Hudson

 

.24       Record of days worked for C.B., oxen, and mare, no date

 

.25       Sheet of paper with calculations, prices for corn, salt fish, flour, coffee, and expenses to Portsmouth, no date;

                        Blind embossed with profile of Major General William Henry Harrison

 

.26       At head: Wood Shead[?], list of materials and costs; includes hemlock and pine boards, clapboards, sash, glass, putty, nails, butts, handles, labor, hinges, lock, etc., includes a charge for Tuttle Jr.

 

.27       At head: Joseph D. Weltch [sic], with charges for new steeling an axe, making 2 chisels, and upsetting 3 axes; no date;

                        On back: various calculations

 

.28a-b  Two printed poems, from a newspaper “Thine Eyes,” by Mrs. Corolla H. Criswell, written for the True Flag (from marriages on back, this is circa May 1852); and “Oh, When Wilt Thou be Mine!,” by Henry P. Grattan

 

.29       Slip of paper with name Daniel Garland, 1.1.19, with figures for credit and debit on back

 

[mostly not numbered]            Many slips of paper on which there are just calculations; one sheet is blind embossed with profile of Major General William Henry Harrison (.30); on another sheet is written Nottingham Rockingham NH (.31); and on a third are written dimensions of something (.32)