Three households, one mill, one year

A ledger from the Pataha flour mill, 1889–90, holds accounts for a son and a son-in-law of Nicholas Williams. They paid in wheat.

Three pages photographed from a bound ledger held at the Pataha Flour Mill.

Page 115 is headed J. A. McCanse, who had married Maggie Williams in 1884. Flour in fifty to three-hundred pound lots, bran, and custom grinding of barley and malt. He settled it not in cash but in wheat: one credit line reads "By 28 30/60 wheat."

Page 84 is headed D. B. Williams — Nicholas's son Daniel, five years old and the owner of one shirt on the road out of Missouri. His account is not a household buying bread. Bran and shorts by the half-ton, sacks by the dozen, custom chopping. He was also selling sacks back to the mill.

Page 239 is headed Albert Long, and carries 1889 in the left margin — the figure that dates the whole volume.

The mill converted from millstones to roller milling in 1889, so these accounts run straight across the change. Whether it shows in the prices is still an open question.

Pataha Prairie

Page 115 — the account of J. A. McCanse. He paid the mill in wheat.

Page 84 — D. B. Williams, buying bran and shorts by the half-ton and selling sacks back to the mill.

Page 239 — Albert Long. The 1889 in the left margin dates the whole volume.

Sources

Source

Flour Mill Customer Ledger, 1889–1890

Three photographed pages of a bound flour-mill ledger: p. 84 (D. B. Williams), p. 115 (J. A. McCanse), p. 239 (Albert Long). Page 239 carries 1889 in the left margin, which dates the volume. Customers settled in wheat rather than cash. The small middle column on each debit line is a day-book folio reference, not a price — it resets partway down two of the three pages.

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