This article appeared in the Watertown Daily Times, April 3, 1928

The account book of Charles Welch, the first white male child born in Jefferson county, is now in the possession of Mrs. Nancy Welch of Brownville, whose husband, John Welch, is a descendant of Charles Welch. Charles Welch was born in 1802 and died in 1888.

The book contains some items that are most interesting when compared with modern prices. It is in good condition, although the ink is somewhat faded in places.

One item, for example, mentions one pair of shoes at $1.75. Another mentions one cord of wood at $1. A visit from the doctor was $.75 back in 1830, when the account starts.

Another item calls for one watch at $7 while immediately following it is another for a pair of shoes at $1.62. Just below that is an item, “To one quart rum,” but no price is given. A horse cost $30 back in those days.

Damage caused by cows in the corn and horses in the grain, was no small item of that day. Fifty pumpkins cost $.75, and “mending shoes” appears very often with varying accounts recorded as the price, although most of the prices range from around $.10 to $.50.

A quarter of beef was recorded as being $3.37 and a pound of tobacco was $.25. Four days and a half of work in 1839 came to $1.69 and hay in 1842 was $4 a ton.

Housewives of today would have reveled in the market prices of that time. A half gallon of molasses, for instance, was listed at $.16 and a bushel of potatoes came to $.25, while 5-1/2 pounds of pork were only $.44. Eleven and a half pounds of lard cost $.16.

Fifty cents a day seems to have been good pay for work in those days and the owner of the account book evidently hired many persons to work for him and did no small amount of work for others himself. Even as the years go on, prices do not seem to increase very radically or rapidly. In 1850 beans were $.31 a peck. Dress good were just as inexpensive as everything else. In 1850, for example, 8 yards of gingham were purchased for $1.20, and 10 yards of poplin was $3.50, while a whole dress cost exactly $1. Two yards of calico were $.30 and one pair of garters was $1.75.

Mr. Welch apparently did a great deal of borrowing and lending (of) money, since many of the items recorded were concerned with interest on such money and with wages paid to others and due to himself for work done.

Typist’s Note: As a pre-teen I remember my father taking me to a store in Brownville then owned by a Mr. Welch. It was located just east of the Mason Temple Bldg. on Main Street in that village. Could it be that the owner of this journal is related to the owner of that store? Could it also be that the premises where Mr. Welch of olden days operated his store was same storeroom as the one we frequented in the late 1940’s? The same place where we children got Sealtest or Frojoy ice cream cones???!!

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