ALEX: and today is your birthday and you say you are 39
again?
RICHARDSON: No, 27.
ALEX: Well, I suspect that you have had a lot of
experiences over here—have you found that your bad debts have increased over the
years? You charge a lot of things.
RICHARDSON: Yes, different times until I write a possible
For. That’s pretty much all the customers and there are a lot of places people
wont even take a check unless they know you personally. Lots of those people
are all right. We don’t have too much trouble here.
ALEX: You know your customers?
RICHARDSON: pretty much. We are getting an awful lot of
retired people in the county—camps and trailers. So many people draw social
security anymore and try to live on it.
ALEX: and it almost is impossible to do that, I guess!
RICHARDSON: And there’re wasting a lot of good manpower
too. Brains. Some do some things, I suppose, a lot of young come along and
don’t want to do anything.
ALEX: Yeah, they are looking for an easy way.
RICHARDSON: Yeah.
ALEX: Trying to go back to Henry the Eighth time, listen
to the music and have everybody to hand them everything. I guess.
RICHARDSON: Yeah, and we have a lot of the Beards in the
county too. Pretty decent kind of folks.
ALEX: They build a new high school, did that take any
business away from you?
RICHARDSON: Yes some.
ALEX: Seems they took it way out in the county, I would
guess those parents that send their children in here might send them over to the
store to get something to bring home.
RICHARDSON: It used to be that way, when they had the
school here, of course, they don’t even stop now. They come from all directions
you know. Don’t see much of them anymore, used too.
ALEX: What would you say have been your best years in
terms of business. I don’t know if that is a fair question or not.
RICHARDSON: Well there is more dodge right now, that’s on
the account of inflation. Our volume sales are up right now in the last few
years.
ALEX: I was looking over there in that book a lot of those
items sold in 1905, 1906, 1907 and 1908 cant be had. I saw their picture there
in the basement. Is that what these antique dealer are getting 150 to 200 for
now?
RICHARDSON: Same thing.
ALEX: Sold for a dollar or a dollar and a half something
like that in the old days.
RICHARDSON: The thing that tickles me is that I notice
that in one of those old books after they got this railroad in, a lumber company
going in up here at Stony Bottom, that we shipped them thirty rolls of roof and
about fifteen doors and a pretty good line locks and so to go along with it.
The railroad agent there at that time had to pay a freight on it of 50 cents.
ALEX: Didn’t pay to much freight then.
RICHARDSON: No.
ALEX: Well I was interested in see you sold a coffin in
1906 for thirty dollars for a fella six foot one. Did you make that to order,
or did you just carry that in stock?
RICHARDSON: Carrying in stock. Yeah, had a whole bunch of
them had a person been in the undertaking business before he stored them here it
was better. There is one place on there meet train over here Italian
Give them a coffin. They were going to bury him somewhere
and he were coming up on a train.... Didn’t know his name or couldn’t spell it
maybe. It was eleven dollars, box or casket, I believe, or something like
that. He wanted it on the train so he could take it on with him.
ALEX: Oh yeah, on way to bury somebody.
RICHARDSON: Amen.
ALEX: I guess that Stony Bottom Lumber Company was a big
operation.
RICHARDSON: Yeah, it was a good size.
ALEX: You did a lot of business with them.
RICHARDSON: Hum uh yeah they were just building when they
bought the doors and windows, I think door were just two dollars apiece at that
time, I notice on that bill.
ALEX: I notice where they bought a lot of beds and so
forth, did they put up their workers?
RICHARDSON: Un huh.
ALEX: Furnish them room and board, I guess.
RICHARDSON. Un huh.
ALEX: brought their beds here.
RICHARDSON: Un huh. Brought most of them. Mattress was
about three dollars, I think.
ALEX: Three dollars for a mattress. This elevator in this building is rather
interesting, tell be about it.
RICHARDSON: they pulled it up by hand and later on they
had a gasoline engine which was pretty hard to start on a real cold morning it
got stuck up there. Electricity has high as it is it was a pretty good
invention wasn’t it
ALEX: Yes it was. Yes it was. Never used horses to pull
it up. Aways pulled it up by hand or on a block and tackle or pulley.
RICHARDSON: Yeah. Yeah. A couple of fellows of the belt
l
ALEX: How long has this store been here at this location,
you said it came after the railroad came through.
RICHARDSON. It came in 1904.
ALEX: So it has been on the location since 1904.
RICHARDSON: Another interesting thing, we were doing some
section out here and found a copy of the contract. Old fellow named E B. King
and my dad cost of building. Did you know how much it cost?
ALEX: No.
RICHARDSON: Six hundred dollars.
ALEX: And this is a three-story building. Was it a
three-story building then?
RICHARDSON: Yes.
ALEX: Pretty much as it is today:
RICHARDSON: Yes, just like it is now.
ALEX: Ah my.
RICHARDSON: Of course, we had shelving and showcases and
stuff like that right in the building. Got the concrete in all the way around.
ALEX: You have kept the store up good. You got some of
the old that adds a little nostalgia I notice over here on the side you got a
ladder that runs along the rail you can run right down the rail and climb the
highest point.
RICHARDSON: Yeah. Still have that.
ALEX: An old roll top desk here, Did you have that or did
your dad have that.
RICHARDSON: Dad had that.
ALEX: So it been around a long time too.
RICHARDSON: I suspect thirties or forties put it in then at
that time.
ALEX: If that desk could talk, it could tell you about a
lot of transactions, I guess.
RICHARDSON: Yeah, it could.
ALEX: You don’t see them much anymore.
RICHARDSON: Yeah, there a difference in the hours used to
work too.
ALEX: How’s that.
RICHARDSON: Stayed open at nights till nine o’clock,
Saturday night it was ten o’clock, seven on through.
ALEX: Seven in the morning.
RICHARDSON: Yeah.
ALEX: Closed on Sunday?
RICHARDSON: Oh yeah, not like these Arabs. They don’t
close for anything. Christmas, Sunday, anything. Doesn’t seem quite right.
ALEX: Yeah, I know what you mean. What did you have to
pay a clerk back in 1920 or 30? Do you remember what you got yourself?
RICHARDSON: I got hundred dollars a month. I remember
doing the depression there wasn’t any money and it was fifty dollars, then. but
you could buy thing cheap and plenty of it. But its different today when that
depression came along I was married at the time; I took two dollars and brought
a 100 pounds bag of beans.
Fella come along and were young and wanted to work evening
there wasn’t any jobs much and no money, kept a big pot of them on the stove all
the time. Give a cup of coffee and bacon and they seemed to appreciate it too.
It wasn’t bums yet. One hundred pounds of beans for two dollars. Now three
pounds are two dollars.
ALEX: Yeah, three pounds for two dollars—Pintos.
RICHARDSON: in the old. There a baseball field where the
stands where the High School is.
ALEX: Hum ah
RICHARDSON: Played some myself when I was in college. Had
fourteen teams.
ALEX: Where did you go to college?
RICHARDSON: Randolph Macon right outside of Richmond.
ALEX: Oh yeah. What did you play—shortstop?
RICHARDSON: Outfield, mostly.
ALEX: You said you had fourteen teams—when did you
play-Saturdays and Sunday.
RICHARDSON: Yeah Saturdays and Sundays. See a freight train
comes down up the road had flatcars with people all sitting on them.
ALEX: Going to the ball game.
RICHARDSON: Yeah. Of course there were no night ball at
that time.
ALEX: Yeah. Train comes to Marlinton now two or three
time a week?
RICHARDSON: Once a week and back down the next day freight
trains.
ALEX: Where does it go to Durbin and turn around doesn’t
go on through.
RICHARDSON: No there no further to go unless they go on
over to Elkins on the Western Maryland.
ALEX: Yeah.
RICHARDSON: During the war there was a train on the hour
day and night, coal mostly.
ALEX: Every hour. Did they get a lot of coal out of the
Williams River area where did they bring it?
RICHARDSON: No, most of it came down Sewells They...
ALEX: In Pocahontas County?
RICHARDSON. No, Greenbrier county mostly.
ALEX: Out of Greenbrier county.
RICHARDSON: They put out a load train on the hour.
ALEX: Did they run passenger trains through here during
the war?
RICHARDSON: Yeah, they had two up and two down.
ALEX: The station is still operating over here isn’t it.
RICHARDSON: Yeah. They keep a man over there but doesn’t
have much to do though count cars. I reckon when that closes up we will get
everything by truck.
ALEX: There is a lot of discussion on changing some of the
trucking laws. There will be a lot of changes made in term of freight cost by
that time. Might make it more difficult to make freight hauls. There will be
more trucks going to bulk hauling when those laws are changed and small hauls
will become a thing of the past and it will make more difficult.
RICHARDSON: Yes that uh and then they will deliver when
they take a notion too.
ALEX: Yeah.
RICHARDSON: Trucker will go on strike one thing or another
you’ll get it when you can. I hope they make some improvement in the labor
laws. Of course that’s part of management whether it bad. We may go back to
wage and price controls again like during the war.
ALEX: Yeah.
RICHARDSON: About the only thing I can see to stop it.
ALEX: Yeah. Hasn’t been much of a slow down—inflation
continues to climb.
RICHARDSON: Yeah. Sell one thing one day and go to buy it
back, its' about what you sold it for.
ALEX: Makes it hard for you to try to quote.
RICHARDSON: Those nails you saw in that book there sold
for 3 cents a pound and now they sell for 35 cents now and I think we are under
the average of what most people get.
ALEX: What to you get for fencing staples?
RICHARDSON: Forty cents.
ALEX: Forty cents a lot of places sell for 50 or 55.
RICHARDSON: Yeah Nails 45 to 50. A lot different when it
was 3 cents.
ALEX: Sure is. Whole lot of difference.
RICHARDSON: A pretty interesting thing was help hauling
some of it—the lumber in this building had a lumber company up here-Campbell
Lumber Company brought the lumber from them a 4 dollars a thousand.
ALEX: Four dollars a thousand—is that over here in the
book someplace. I thought I saw Campbells something.
RICHARDSON: Yeah a little place above here, Campbelltown
they called it. It was the Campbell that introduced rainbow trout in this
county. They came from Pennsylvania. Back in them times we didn’t have
anything except native-speckled. They brought some and put them in the Williams
River which was a pretty interesting place back at that then. You could stay
and camp out and maybe never see another fisherman.
ALEX: And now they are running over top of each other
looking for a place to camp.
RICHARDSON: Yeah.
ALEX: When did they log that Williams River out back
there. Do you remember that?
RICHARDSON: Yeah. I think they must have quit, I don’t
know somewhere 1919 to 1920 somewhere around there.
ALEX: Yeah. About 1918 20 you say.
RICHARDSON: Yeah, somewhere around there.
ALEX: It about the time they stopped logging at Cass isn’t
it.
RICHARDSON: Yeah they worked a little while longer at Cass
They had pretty extensive holding the Cass people. Of course, the Williams
River was a big country at that time. Lots of lumber came out of there.
I suppose it will grow up again though.
ALEX: Yeah, there are some good trees in there now.
Somebody was telling me that they surveyed it out for a railroad back in that
Williams country. They tell me they resurveyed the old roadbed and got it
staked out back there. I don’t know whether they are putting in a railroad or
not.
RICHARDSON: I really don’t know I never seen any stakes.
ALEX: Well I have taken a good bit of your time. You been
on have been on the scene a long time.
Do you mind if I go through those old ledgers starting with
1904-1906, it will at least give me a chance to pull out.
RICHARDSON: Yeah.
ALEX: I may want to read some of that into the recorder,
but I’ll have some lead and I want to check them out. I will find me a place
around here to sit down in the next few days if you don’t mind.
RICHARDSON: Go right ahead. Help yourself.
ALEX: If you think of anything or stories you would like
to tell, I will be happy to put those on and I know whether you’re selling on a
roadside market or a big store you have different kinds of customers.
RICHARDSON: Well back at that time we most always worked
with horses and we would order a harness a couple sets at a time you know.
Carried horse shoes nail and that kind of stuff. I wouldn’t know where to fine
that kind of stuff now. They tell me there is a man over here at Hot Springs
harness for a team sold for seventy-five or eighty-five dollars back in those
days – heavy harness. Had something made over there one horse eight hundred
dollars.
ALEX: For one set of harness.
RICHARDSON: Yeah Hand made all the factories have gone
out. I don’t know of anyone that makes them in this country anymore.
ALEX: I was looking in that check book over there many of
the companies that you order from—many of them don’t exist today. No longer
around.
RICHARDSON: Yeah. Thing we used to get in here by the
carloads was Jessie cook stoves, everybody did their cooking that way then-wood
and coal. One item I can remember about an old fella up here old Mr. McCarty
came in old Jesse not doing this oh it been twenty years, think I’ll get a new
set of grates for it.
He gave the model number-pretty old, I said you had that
two or three years haven’t you Mr. McCarty Yeah, he said I got that one in
1911. He was joking but holding off.
ALEX: Yeah—hadn’t held up very good. Probable crumbled
after all that heat all those years.
RICHARDSON: He was well satisfied with it.
ALEX: Lot of Irishman in this country, huh.
RICHARDSON: Yeah. Is there anything else that I could
help you with?
ALEX: No I’ll tell you I’ll be leaving but would like to
look at those ledgers another day. I appreciate your time.
RICHARDSON: All-Right. Glad to have you. (general
comments rewind the tape to start new tape)
ALEX: (reading from the day book journal)
I’m still at the C. H. RICHARDSON hardware store reviewing
some of the ledgers of the store that date back to 1906. It interesting to see
some of the notation that has been made the price and so on. Ledgers give you
a good indication of some of the companies this hardware store has done business
with. I notice here that they are doing business with a Warren Lumber Company
over at Mill Point where made certain sale of beds and other goods. An
interesting entry is a bed at that time would cost about eight dollars and two
spittoons cost for 20 cent in discussing this with Mr. Richardson he said they
were good quality spittoons.
Made of tin and compared in price today at about three
dollars fifty cents. One can tell by reviewing this ledger that building materials
apparently this was a time when the lumber operation was getting under full
force here both their material to build lodging for their worker bought all of
their supplies workers. Of note is the Stoney Bottom Lumber Company which is
just below Cass, Evidently has done a tremendous amount of business with
Richardson Hardware. An interesting entry here that says Iron bed for two
dollars and seventy-five cents with springs two dollars and twenty-five cents.
There is no mention of what the mattress cost or anything like that. Mr.
Richardson said that mattresses sold for little of nothing by comparison to
today’s’ prices. As you look at axe handles, axes and different things of this
nature, dippers water dippers were selling for about six cents apiece or five
cents. Roll pin sold for twenty-five, potatoes masher for ten cents, spoons
five cents. My guess these were spoons made of silver called spoon silver.
There is an order made out for an enterprise in Durbin looks like a complete
kitchen supply, coffee pots 85 cents a cook stove. The order start out with a kant
hook and certain thing that are use in a logging woods, and then it goes on a
complete supply for a kitchen—a cook stove, a large dish pan for a dollar and a
quarter, two small dish pans forty cent, a dozen tin cups twenty five cents, a
coffee pot eighty five, a tea pot fifty cents a meat fryer thirty five, two
dippers fifteen cents a dipper five cents, a coffee mill fifty cents, four
buckets fifty cents, one sieve, one rolling pin, a nutmeg grater five cents, one
fork, a bake pan thirty five, a stew kettle, lids five cent, pans twenty five, a
dozen pie tins, a wash board forty cents, a lamp complete for thirty five
cents, an alarm clock of a dollar fifty, a set of plates sixty cents,
tablespoons twenty five cents, and a butcher knife thirty five cents. You get an
idea that entry was made August 15th, 1905. So you start out with a
few items for the woods and you end up with a complete amount of supplies for
the kitchen.
There seems to be a lot of activity in and around Seebert
at that time too. Looking at an entry here which would have been the second day
of July 1906. An interesting entry is nine doors 2 6 by 6 and 6 by thirteen the
total cost of those nine door was thirteen dollars and fifty cents. It goes on
and talks about sash cords and other kinds of building materials that were used
presumably in putting together the cabin that the logger lived in, nails,
windows and so forth.
Another interesting order was eight nine of 1906, order to
a family by the name of Gladwell eighteen yards of batting number 1826 eight
yards per rolls three dollars and sixty cents one Lambert safe four fifty, one
set of DK chairs five dollars, one number 15 16 foot dining table six dollars,
one Ohio iron bed three twenty five, one pair of springs two fifty, a frank
chancy mattress three twenty five, a number two tub sixty five cents, two shades
light green dollar fifty, an alarm clock dollar fifty, one sifter fifteen cents,
one steel skillet fifteen cents, two baking pans twenty five cents, one standing
table two fifty, one rocker mahogany two fifty, one number 68 bedroom suite
eighteen fifty. There are a few assorted items I left off. The bill apparently
came to seventy-two dollars and twenty two cents.
There is another large order that might be interesting, one
mattock for sixty-five cents, one mattock handle fifteen cents. One coffee mill
seventy cents, one tea kettle seventy five cents, one yard of oil cloth twenty
cents, one spittoon seventy cents, one rocker two twenty five, another rocker
two seventy five, six chairs five dollars, one dresser nine dollars, one table
dollar seventy five, one cupboard seven dollars, two mattresses four fifty
dollars, two bed steads four seventy five, one dish pan a dollar ten, eight foot
of pipe eighty cents, one wheelbarrow a dollar sixty, I left out a few assorted
items, one of the older orders the total of that order came to about fifty two
dollars and a few cents.
Here is another example of probably a supply to a bunch of
loggers at W J Robertson at Bartow, W V, ten springs at twenty two dollar ten
mattress at twenty five dollars, 20 pillows for ten dollars, ten pairs of
blankets for fifteen dollars, ten comforts for twenty dollars, roughly, that
grinding noise in the background is the old elevator, that we talked about
earlier of the tape. We’ll wait for just a moment until it makes it trip
to the third floor. All right it’s just ended its trip, I might continue
to run through a few of these old ledgers. Here is the Warren Lumber
Company, number one tub fifty cent, one set of k frames twenty five cents, one
picture and frame one dollar, one half yard of oil cloth fifty three cents, two
shirts a dollar twenty five, one broom twenty five cents, one clothes line
fifteen cents, three dozen clothes pins for ten cents, one axe for a dollar, one
axe handle twenty five cents, two pillows a dollar fifty, one rocker three
dollars, one rocker a dollar fifty, one dresser six dollars, one mirror
seventy-five cents, one number three
table six foot three dollars, one butcher knife twenty five cents, one paring
knife ten cents, three cups twenty five cents, four plates forty cents, an
assort number of other things, that normally would have gone to the lodging
quarters and or cooks quarters for the lumber company.
I have just come across an old postcard inside the ledger
it date January 17th, 1908, A penny post card, it has McKinley,
President McKinley picture on it one side of it and on the other side is the
eagle under McKinley date 1843 to 1901 and it addressed to Mr. James Brooks of
Dunmore, WV Interesting what it has to say, It says Dear Sir; We find in looking
over our books that you are right and we are wrong. Sorry it happen, I remain,
very respectfully, J. R. RICHARDSON
Here is an order dated 9/28/06 one cook stove sixteen
fifty, one stand table a dollar fifty, four joints of six inch stove pipe fifty cents, one racket two seventy five, one skillet twenty cents, one sifter
twenty five cents,
Six glassed fifteen cents, one water bucket twenty cents,
one lamp fifty cents, two pitchers twenty cents, two curtain rods twenty cents,
one dish twenty five cents, one dish fifteen cents, one pitcher thirty cents,
two salt and pepper fifteen cents, one set of cups and saucers twenty five
cents, one lamp a dollar twenty, one chamber seventy five cents, In this list
are mostly household items probably purchased for housekeeping or some such
thing.
I just found one white coffin, three foot this was for some
youngster. Here is one for the Pocahontas Supply Company; Pocahontas Supply was
the main company over at Cass. Thirty-eight joints of pipe, which was stove
pipe. I have run across another note here in a 1908 ledger Mount Grove Va.
August 19th says, Dear Mr. Richardson, I was looking at a single set
of buggy harness in the store window priced, I think at fifteen fifty sent them
by John Gilmore, singed by John Ferrell.
Here is another long order to a Mr. William Watkins of
Falling Springs dated 11/24/06 One side saddle twelve fifty, one six foot
extension table six dollars, one hard tall dresser eight twenty five, one number
fifty wash stand and dresser twelve fifty, three Ohio beds thirteen fifty, three
pairs of springs seven fifty, one reed rocker four fifty, Two number eight, I
cant quite make that out, with tops one dollar, one enamel tea kettle one thirty
five, one … forty cents one enamel teakettle eighty five, one preserving kettle
fifty cents one coffee pot sixty, one rolling pin glass twenty five, three bread
pans fifty cents, one shovel and tongs dollar fifty, one coffee mill seventy
five, one dish pan thirty five, one enamel water kettle eighty five. One bucket
thirty, one sifter with string ten cent one wash tub sixty cent, one wash board
thirty five, one pie pan ten cents, one biscuit cutter five cents, one blue
ribbon range thirty dollars, number twenty five cant make the word out perfect
seven fifty, ten joints of pipe one dollar, six plates eighty five, six plates
ninety, six cup and saucers ninety, six side dishes forty five, six regular
dishes ninety cents, one teapot ninety cents, one butter dish eighty cents, one
dish, two dishes twenty the total amount was a hundred twenty five.
Here is an entry of 2/8/07 Grove City Lumber one coffin 6
foot two cost about twenty two fifty, cost for cloth and so on about five
dollars, eighty cent express charge.
Here is another entry for a coffin white three foot for
twelve dollars fifty cents. Old ledgers are very interesting, of course, the
bulk of the materials that are shown here are building materials which attest
somewhat to the building that was going on in the early nineteen hundreds. As
the lumber operations were getting underway. One of their better customer was
the Stoney Bottom Lumber Company, it interesting to see so often the references
made to the freight and the freight being carried by the C and O up and down the
tracks to these little towns. Axes and axes handles and picks and these sort of
things are prominent throughout as well as household items, Here is another
coffin made for a Kerr It was order out on June the 24 in 1907. It is
interesting, also, to note that each time a coffin order they order a robe.
Here is an entry for sleigh bells, for two sleigh bell two
and fifty cents, also on this page which is date 2/ 5/ 1907 they were using
plenty of sleigh in these mountains in those days and I suspect the snow was
pretty high. Another order speaks to all the household goods a tremendous
amount of dishes and this sort of thing. Another coffin ordered out on 2/8/07 a
six foot two casket priced at about twenty-two fifty. And one suit of clothes
about the same size for five dollars, and an express charge of eighty cents, it
was to the Grove City Lumber Company. An order for W. R. Hogshead at Seebert WV
for thirty spokes one and a quarter for a spring wagon. Along about this time
we see a good number of orders for fencing and as usual more building
materials. The V crimped type roofing seemed to be popular and a corrugated
roofing which by and large was made by the Wheeling Steel Company, Wheeling,
WV. Three eighteen of 0/07 we have an order for J. Rehno, of Clover Lick, WV for
a five foot nine casket, priced about twenty five or thirty dollars.
An order to Calvin Price, he is a long time resident and
Pocahontas County and his family still resides here on 3/20/07 for a reed rocker
priced at six dollars this obviously is the cane rocker which they have referred
to a reed rocker. Then on 4/3/06, we have an order going to a John MalComb for
one Amce washer for eight dollars and fifty cents, one tub for seventy-five
cents, and one stand table for a dollar fifty cents. An order here in
Pocahontas County orders of F. L. McNeil for Dave Anderson a two-foot coffin,
seven dollars and fifty cents. That was dated 7/6/07. Also, 7/6/07 here is an
order for a child’s rocker and that was for Willis Baxter sold for ninety
cents. And the Coyner brother at Clover Lick an automatic screwdriver for
twenty-five cents. For Dr. N. R. Price 7/13/08 we have an order for a plain
white chamber for twenty cents, twelve quart galvanized bucket twenty five
cents, and six, looks like, teaspoons for thirty cents. On 7/21/08 an order
for two buggy wheels for four dollars and fifty cents. There is also a
reference here to the Marlinton Academy. A telephone company, it looks like,
one socket pen send to Buckeye. On 8/28/08 going to the Coyner brothers a
six-foot coffin for twenty-five dollars. On 9/7/08 to a W. McClellan one casket
for fifty, twenty dollars a robe, twenty dollars a cash payment and fifty
dollars a balance due. The same day an entry for a casket and a robe for fifteen
dollars and embalming a child for ten dollars and ten dollars of this was paid
in cash.
I have the checkbook for the business beginning March the
fourteen 1903. Showed a balance of $191.00.
And as you go through the checkbook you get a pretty fair
idea the exactness with which this business was operated. It is notice as
we go
down that the balances get quite low and at one time the balances got as low as
fifty eight cents. On 3/22/04 there was a balance of dollar fifty-four in the
checking account. Particular check book then ends with check number 1467 on
3/1/06 the last check being written for $13.06 to Wallace and Company leaving a
balance to be carried forward in the next book of $854.40.
I was going though here and I found Clover Lick this and
Clover Lick that.
RICHARDSON: they had a railroad station there.
ALEX: A railroad station. It up the river here, its’ not
back on the hill.
RICHARDSON: No, its right on the river.
ALEX: Look at some of these things right here I was
trying to make some of those out. I guess that is a keg of what:
RICHARDSON: Number two and number three horseshoes.
ALEX: And there are mule shoes and they got nails and all
of those cost ten fifteen, and the nails cost two fifty, I guess that a hammer
there huh fifty cents, horseshoe and hammer, what that one hardy,
RICHARDSON: Yeah.
ALEX: What is that what is a hardy.
RICHARDSON: That goes in an anvil when its cut the iron
stuck on it.
ALEX: Ah huh, so that sold for fifty cents. Here is a B S
hammer for forty five cents, What is this.
RICHARDSON: A rasp.
ALEX: Yeah, I understand that for horseshoeing forty
cents. One kitchen, I can’t quite make that out, five dollars. One set, I see
those chairs in here D M chairs or something.
RICHARDSON: That is dark mahogany, I would say.
ALEX: So it would probably be a set of six chairs for five
dollars. Here is an Ohio bed white two fifty, one pairs of springs for three
dollars, a kitchen table three seventy five a stand table a dollar seventy five,
one machinist hammer seventy five and two, what that? Number 12 B R Hamrick the
whole order came to about forty dollars I guess. It went out to a Hamrick he
probably a blacksmith. I wonder if that name came from hammer.
RICHARDSON: No, over in Webster County you find a lot of Hamricks.
ALEX: Oh yeah. In Webster Springs you find one on every
hill and the hollow.
RICHARDSON, yeah. And three or four in the county.
ALEX: Yeah, I know that county pretty well and there are a
lot of them over there. Here is another Hamrick, I notice that they sold a
safe, is that a kitchen cabinet?
RICHARDSON: Yeah, at these auction sales it was pie safe
they call them. That what that was.
ALEX: Yeah, they had glass tops huh they were pretty
expensive.
RICHARDSON: No, most of them had a metal nothing but tin
and had designs taking a nail and drove in there and raised the tin.
ALEX: Oh yeah.
RICHARDSON: and made designs on them.
ALEX: Oh yeah.
RICHARDSON: Some of them had glass in them, but most of
them were the metal.
ALEX: Kind of a tin cabinet then?
RICHARDSON: Right. No, no the cabinet itself was made out
of wood but then the door had metal in the frame there instead of glass but the
panel was made out of tin.
ALEX: Oh, I see, What was an Ohio white bed? I see that
is here often.
RICHARDSON: Well the Ohio was the brand name and they put
it down there to distinguish. Maybe they had a Foster bed or a …..
ALEX: Well they sold mattresses, most of those I see in
here were felt mattresses. One wash boiler seventy five cents