A Granville Cooper's Experience
With Barter in the 1820's
By PETER FOX SMITH*
IN 1805 A COMPANY OF
NEW ENGLANDERS from Granville,
Massachusetts, journeyed over the
mountains to the west,
crossed the Ohio River, and settled
near the center of the
infant state of Ohio. Today, Granville,
Ohio, which is popu-
lated by some two thousand villagers
and fourteen hundred
students of Denison University, still
retains some character-
istics of her eastern heritage. One of
the oldest buildings in
the village is the Old Stone Bank,
which, with some modifi-
cation, has become the Granville
Historical Museum. Relics,
tools, and furniture of the first
settlers fill several rooms in
this little building; and, of more
importance to the historian,
there are preserved here the records of
early land transactions,
the minute books of the village clerks,
and daybooks belong-
ing to the early merchants and
craftsmen.
This modest article proposes to analyze
the contents of a
ledger kept by Asa Shepardson, cooper
and shinglemaker,
who lived and labored in Granville
during the first half of the
nineteenth century. The justification
for such a study is that
the cooper's record offers unusual
insight into the system of
barter which developed as a mechanism
for conducting busi-
ness in a region where money was
painfully scarce. Barter,
defined as the simple exchange of
commodities, is usually
associated with primitive economic
situations. Before the
* Peter Fox Smith, a Denison
University graduate of 1958, is a graduate student
at Harvard.
BARTER IN THE 1820'S 59
invention of money a bow and ten arrows
might be exchanged
for a good stone axe, or a horse for
two cows and a calf:
there was a matching of values followed
by an immediate
exchange. By comparison, the system
that operated in Gran-
ville and other such Ohio communities
in the early 1800's
was highly sophisticated, requiring
accurate records, some
ingenuity, delays in balancing
accounts, and, always, an
implicit rating of credit. While there
exist unique features in
the history of Granville, the economic
problems which plagued
her early years were all too common
throughout the Old
Northwest.
It has just been stated that barter
served as a means for
carrying on a business when money was
scarce. The reasons
for the scarcity of money in pioneer
Ohio were several and
complex. Westerners were debtors,
almost to a man. It is
estimated that one-half of the early
Ohio settlers owed money
on installments for land purchases made
under the Harrison
act or other land laws. Many
frontiersmen were indebted to
eastern creditors for goods or for
direct loans. Moreover,
the lack of a satisfactory market for
what could be produced
resulted in a perennial imbalance of
trade, which perpetuated
this indebtedness.
Bulky surplus products from the Ohio
region were loaded
on flatboats for the New Orleans
market, since it was not
feasible to pay for hauling them over
the poor roads leading
to the East. Cattle and hogs were
driven to eastern markets,
and the small returns from this tedious
business were usually
invested in goods for the frontier
stores. The economic
dilemma of exporting to one market and
importing from
another resulted in meager profits and
prevented the West
from accumulating the capital which was
so needed for the
developing of local economy and the
paying of debts.
Such currency as came into Ohio from
the trade with New
Orleans was immediately drained off by
eastern creditors. To
fill the vacuum state banks were
established, and at the out-
set, in Ohio, they proved to be
financially sound. As a by-
product of the War of 1812 silver money
flowed into the
60
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
West, creating a sense of security.
This era of a seeming
prosperity led to the establishment of more banks, one
being
the bank of the Alexandrian Society in
Granville. As a
result of the panic of 1819--a general
depression precipitated
by the policy of the Second Bank of the
United States--the
state banks collapsed. Liberal,
short-term loans had been
granted by the bank of the United
States to the state banks,
which in turn had made loans to the
settlers. When the gold
reserve of the bank of the United
States was depleted in
1818, the loans to local banks were
foreclosed and these
banks defaulted. Bankruptcy and hard
times thus followed
the period of plentiful money, and an
elaborate form of barter
tended to replace the overstrained
money economy. Many
years passed before the National Road,
canals, and ultimately
the railroads created satisfactory
markets for western prod-
ucts. When that prosperous period came,
Ohio was no longer
a pioneer state.
Granville was able to survive these
years of depression. Her
founders were friends and often
relatives, who had lived
together in the East. They knew the
leaders, those with fore-
sight and those whose credit rating was
to be trusted. Crafts-
men skilled in the use of their tools
had supplied the villagers
with houses, clothes, and home
furnishings, and the village
grew in the image of the New England
town they had left
behind. Within a few years after the
founding in 1805,
Granville was an established,
self-sufficient community so
well-knit that she was better able to
weather economic storms
than were most Ohio villages. It was a
simple form of com-
munity-wide bartering that accounts for
the early develop-
ment of comfortable living, and it was
an intricate system of
barter that helped her weather the
difficult years that followed
the financial crisis of 1819.1
1 For the presentation of the background
of this article the author has relied
upon three sources: two books, Granville:
The Story of an Ohio Village (Gran-
ville, 1956) and The Frontier State,
1803-1825 (Vol. II of The History of the
State of Ohio, edited by Carl Wittke, Columbus, 1942), by William T.
Utter and
notes made from discussions with Dr. Utter,
professor of American history at
Denison University.
BARTER IN THE 1820'S 61
Asa Shepardson's daybook illustrates,
as well as anything,
the way in which barter operated in a village such as
Gran-
ville. Bought on the third of October
in 1827 at a cost of one
dollar, the book contains one hundred and forty-four
pages.
The first ninety-five pages are a
continuous record, kept by
Shepardson, while the remaining pages
are mostly blank or
carry incomplete accounts. From these
beautifully written
pages we know that Asa Shepardson was both a
"wet" and
"dry" cooper, for he made
water-tight barrels, pails, buckets,
churns, and tubs and less carefully
joined containers for
apples and grain. He was also a
shinglemaker, producing
both rough shingles and the more desirable jointed
shingles.
One of his specialties was the riving
of buckeye "splints,"
used in weaving buckeye hats, so popular in those
days.
An alphabetical table of contents names
sixty-one cus-
tomers with whom Shepardson transacted
business. Two
pages, face to face, were necessary to
record each account.
Both the left and right-hand pages have
one column on the
left of the page for entering dates and
two columns on the
right of the page for listing the
relative dollars and cents.2
At the top of the left-hand page
Shepardson entered the name
of the person with whom the
transactions were being made.
Following this name is the abbreviation
"Dr.", denoting that
this person is the debtor. The
right-hand page reads "Con-
tra Cr.", indicating the ways in
which the indebtedness was
offset.3
The first account in this book is dated
June 23, 1827, but
this ledger was not the first of the
cooper's daybooks, for
several records bear reference to a
"balance due by settlement
on Old Book." A brief but
interesting record is the account
that Shepardson carried against Joshua
Linnel, a shoemaker.
Because of its brevity and simplicity
this account provides us
with a precise illustration for an
understanding of how barter
2 Although
money was seldom exchanged in the transactions, the bartered prod-
ucts were assigned a dollar value.
3 Shepardson's
spelling is retained in all direct quotations from his journal.
The sign "Do", found in the
date column is an abbreviation for "ditto."
1828 Joshua Linnel Dr
....................... $ C
Jan
15 To one days work
sawing bord logs....... 0 50
Ap.
11 To one tea-kettle ....................... 1 25
Aug.
13 To sitting one hoop
on churn ............ 0 06 1/4
Dec.
31 1829 To laying shingles two
days and 1/3 .......1 75
Jan
23. 1830 To cash
............................. 0 50
Dec
31 To one blue-ash
pail ................... 0 62 1/2
1832 To sitting one hoop on
pail .............. 0 06
1/4
Aug.
25 To one blue-ash pail
................... 0 62 1/2
Balanced $5 37 1/2
1828 Timothy Case
Dr. ..................... $ C
Nov
19 Due by settlement on
the Old Book ...... 3 28
1829 To mending a pail
..................... 0 18
Sept.
10 To hooping vinegar
cask .............. 0 25
Do 12 To mending pail &
churn-dash. ......... 0 25
Do 17 To one apple-sauce tub
................. 0 90
1830 To buckeye for four hats
................ 0 25
May
19 To buckeye for three
hats ............... 0 19
Ap.
20 1831 To one wash-tub
...................... 1 25
Balanced $6 55
A
LEFT-HAND PAGE FROM ASA SHEPARDSON'S DAYBOOK
1828 Contra Cr. $ C
Jan.
15 To tapping pair
shoes .................. 0 25
June
5 To oxen half day
...................... 0 12 1/2
June
6 To spinning ten
runs yarn .............. 1 25
Jan.
16 1830 To makeing pair shoes
for Charlotte ..... 0 50
Jan.
23 To taping and
healing pair shoes ........ 1 00
Sept
23 To one small
oak-tree for hoops ......... 0 25
May
31 1831 To one days work on the
road ............ 0 75
Ap
22. 1833 To paid to Adison
Woodworth ......... 1 25
Balanced $5 37
1/2
1828 Contra Cr. $ C
Dec
26 To spinning thread
.................... 0 37 1/2
1829 To makeing pair linen
pantaloons ........ 0 25
Jan
2. 1830 To ox work two days
.................. 0 60
Aug
25 To oxen one day
...................... 0 30
Dec.
17. 1830 To footing one pair
socks .............. 0 37
1/2
Ap 30
1831 To footing one pair socks
.............. 0 37 1/2
May
16 Paid to Daniel
Shepardson ............. 4 27 1/2
Balanced $6 55
A
RIGHT-HAND PAGE FROM ASA SHEPARDSON'S DAYBOOK
64
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
worked. The following paragraph is an
interpretation of the
record with Linnel.
On January 15, 1828, Asa Shepardson
charged Joshua
Linnel $0.50 for laboring one day
sawing logs into boards,
while on the same day Linnel earned
$0.25 from the cooper
by mending a pair of his shoes. A tea
kettle worth $1.25 was
delivered to Linnel on April 11 of the
same year, and on
August 13 Shepardson replaced a hoop on
the shoemaker's
churn for a $0.06 1/4--half a
"bit." The hire of Linnel's oxen
was $0.12 1/2 for the half day that
Shepardson used them on
June 5. The next day Linnel provided
Shepardson with ten
runs of yarn valued at $1.25. On the
last day of the year
1829 Asa Shepardson found due to
himself $1.75 after laying
shingles for two and one-third days.
Linnel, on January
16, 1830, made Charlotte (presumably
Shepardson's infant
daughter) a pair of shoes and charged
$0.50; a week later he
was credited $1.00 for
"healing" a pair of Shepardson's
shoes. That very day the cooper
returned to Linnel one-half
of that dollar in cash. Complying with
Shepardson's insati-
able demand for good lumber, Joshua
Linnel provided him
with a twenty-five cent oak tree on
September 23, and on the
last day of the year he received from
Shepardson a blue-ash
pail at the standard price of $0.62
1/2. A villager had the pri-
vilege of paying his road tax with
cash, by laboring at road
construction, or hiring a substitute.
On May 31, 1831, Joshua
Linnel worked for one day in return for
$0.75 in credit. The
next entry was not until August 25,
1832, when Linnel got
one blue-ash pail for $0.62 1/2 and had
Shepardson replace a
hoop on an old pail for half a
"bit." Eight months later Linnel
paid $1.25 on Shepardson's account with
the tailor Addison
Woodworth. This was the final entry,
and at this point, after
more than five years, the account
between Shepardson and
Linnel was closed. "Debtor"
and "Contra" columns balanced
perfectly, and the cash involved was
only one-sixth of the
total. The cooper and shoemaker had
bartered their products
and abilities; both were no doubt
satisfied.
This precise balancing, even to the
half-cent, of "debtor"
BARTER IN THE 1820'S 65
and "contra" columns was accomplished not by constant altera-
tion of the price values placed on goods and labors but by
maintaining an open account until a balance could be struck
with a minimum exchange of cash. If transactions were re-
sumed at a future date, a new record was begun. A review
of this daybook discloses that only one record in nine was not
balanced at the closing of the account. David Woods, Jr.,
serves as an example. Woods was a handy man who provided
timber and sawed logs, and then delivered shingles for Asa
Shepardson. Over a period of four years Woods was credited
with $35.50 for his infrequent labors. Against his credit
Woods was accounted with $30.12 for pails and sap buckets.
The balancing of this account reads as follows: "January
4th 1832. . . . This day reconed and seteled with David
Woods Jun. and found due to him five dollars and thirty-eight
cents. [Signed] Asa Shepardson. David Woods, Jr." Shep-
ardson doubtless gave a due-bill or note for the amount he
owed.
Another illustration is the account Shepardson kept with
the Rev. John Pratt, president of the Granville Literary and
Theological Institute (which evolved into the present-day
Denison University). The institute was indebted $70.74 to
Asa Shepardson for making and laying shingles during the
fall of 1836. The largest cash settlement recorded in Shep-
ardson's ledger resulted, since paper money was the only
means by which the school could balance its account. The
closing of this account was made in the following manner:
1836 Contra
Cr. $
cts.
Sept. 1 To cash ................................ 30.56
Dec. 7 To cash ................................ 30.00
Do To Dubill ...............................
10.18
Balanced $70.74
The many accounts comprising this ledger cover a period
of fifteen years. During this time Shepardson valued his
products and labor at $829. Of this total he received $136 in
66 THE OHIO HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
cash, due-bills, or notes on third
parties totaling $41, and he
accepted $34 in personal notes. This
means that $618, or
approximately seventy-five percent of
his earnings, was paid
by goods and services rendered by his
customers.4 Only one-
fourth of Shepardson's work was paid
for in cash.
Shepardson's customers provided the
cooper with almost
every necessity, including the raw
materials from which he
produced the coopery and shingles which
were his stock in
trade. It is interesting to notice the
variety of trees required
for the making of his wares. Both
blue-ash and chestnut lum-
ber made sturdy pails, and the latter
was also used for barrel
staves. Good white oak was shaped into
the higher-priced lap
shingles; for the ordinary shingles the
cooper preferred black
walnut. From buckeye trees he split the
splints that were
woven into buckeye hats. The uses for
cedar were various, and
Shepardson used it for both piggins and
gallon "bottles."
Black-ash hoops were employed in
finishing buckets, churns,
and pine milk pails. Cross-cut saws,
the property of Joseph
Lovelin, were rented in order that
handy men David Woods,
Jr., and James Peaslee could cut bulky
timber into workable
sizes. Many of Shepardson's tools used
in shaping the finished
products were obtained by barter from
Nathan Brooks and Eli
Thrall, two of the village blacksmiths.
Occasionally Shepard-
son had to rent a horse and wagon,
usually from "Orphan"
Burnam or William Sanderson. Marcus
Martin made the
bricks with which Shepardson built a
home and workshop,
while furniture from Gabriel Warden's
cabinet shop furnished
the house, glass by Joseph White
completed the windows, and
John Smith's padlocks gave security to
possessions.
Clothing for the Shepardsons was the
combined service of
many friends. Hiram Wicks tanned the
leather and calfskin
that eventually was made into boots and
shoes by Joshua Linnel
or Daniel Dusenberry. Addison Woodworth
and Daniel Grif-
fiths relied on Alanson Sinnet for
cloth and flannel to make
coats, suits, and vests. Widow Polly
Smith spun the yarn
4 These
figures have been rounded off to the nearest dollar.
BARTER IN THE 1820'S 67
that might have been knitted into socks
by Gideon Daggeth or
into a "shirtee" by Joseph
Lovelin. From his uncle, Daniel
Shepardson, Asa received
"cambrick" shirts, handkerchiefs,
and sheets. Cash or notes and orders on
Alfred Avery's store
made it possible to purchase many items
that were not received
by barter. Another merchant, L. D.
Mower, furnished Shep-
ardson, on occasion, with a
"superior tonic mixture, frieze,
and velvet," and other eastern
luxuries. A reference has al-
ready been made to "services"
exchanged for credit. Two
common possibilities were ordinary
labor or the "working out"
of Shepardson's road tax. Other
services, such as washing,
ironing, and mending and even the
boarding of a young
daughter, were vital to Shepardson, who
had suffered the
loss of his wife.
This substantial representation of Asa
Shepardson's trans-
actions indicates the many commodities
and varying services
that enabled a cooper to carry on a
business in a village that
for over fifteen years seldom heard the
faint rustle of new
bills or the sharp ringing of silver
coins.
If barter as a means of conducting
business and providing
a living was as beneficial for all the
villagers as it was for this
humble cooper, and one has reasons to
believe just that, it
shows how Granville avoided poverty and
gained a sense of
security even during hard times.
Regardless of these positive
aspects, bartering was a poor replacement
for money. Even
though Shepardson was well clothed, and
adequately fed,
obtained the raw materials and tools
for his craft, received
valuable services, and paid his church
pledge and road tax, all
without cash, he was unable to start a
savings account or to
make investments of any size. The
limitations of the system,
therefore, prevented him from
"getting ahead."
If the original intention of this
article has been realized, it
has served to illustrate a single
aspect of frontier economics.
Barter was the direct result of the
central problem--the
perennial need for capital. Only by the
development of an
adequate means of transporting Ohio's bulky surplus to
east-
ern markets was the problem solved. With
the adaptation of
68
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
canals and railroads to transportation
the unfavorable balance
of trade was rectified, western markets
began to flourish, and
eastern money began a steady influx
into this debtor section.
A Granville Cooper's Experience
With Barter in the 1820's
By PETER FOX SMITH*
IN 1805 A COMPANY OF
NEW ENGLANDERS from Granville,
Massachusetts, journeyed over the
mountains to the west,
crossed the Ohio River, and settled
near the center of the
infant state of Ohio. Today, Granville,
Ohio, which is popu-
lated by some two thousand villagers
and fourteen hundred
students of Denison University, still
retains some character-
istics of her eastern heritage. One of
the oldest buildings in
the village is the Old Stone Bank,
which, with some modifi-
cation, has become the Granville
Historical Museum. Relics,
tools, and furniture of the first
settlers fill several rooms in
this little building; and, of more
importance to the historian,
there are preserved here the records of
early land transactions,
the minute books of the village clerks,
and daybooks belong-
ing to the early merchants and
craftsmen.
This modest article proposes to analyze
the contents of a
ledger kept by Asa Shepardson, cooper
and shinglemaker,
who lived and labored in Granville
during the first half of the
nineteenth century. The justification
for such a study is that
the cooper's record offers unusual
insight into the system of
barter which developed as a mechanism
for conducting busi-
ness in a region where money was
painfully scarce. Barter,
defined as the simple exchange of
commodities, is usually
associated with primitive economic
situations. Before the
* Peter Fox Smith, a Denison
University graduate of 1958, is a graduate student
at Harvard.