Harrison Brothers Hardware Company daybook 3, 1901-1903.
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Dublin Core
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Description
This daybook contains the Harrison Brothers' daily store transactions from January 2, 1902, to December 31, 1903. The store was not open on Sundays or holidays. The Harrison Brothers sold exclusively tobacco products such as cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, leaf tobacco, and tobacco-related products until 1900. In March 1900, the Harrison Brothers began selling assorted sets of china dishes and continued to sell primarily Queensware and other home furnishing-related products until the end of 1903 when the store began selling hardware products such as stoves and pipes. The store moved from its original location on Jefferson St. to #3 Southside Square in 1897. In December 1901, a fire damaged the front of the Harrison Brothers' number 3 Southside Square storefront as well as other buildings along the street. In 1902, the Harrison Brothers hired local contractors and masons, such as Daniel Brandon, to repair the damage and expand the storefront. The Harrison Brothers purchased the number 2 Southside Square storefront the same year and began operating both storefronts in 1904.
Each page in the Harrison Brothers daybooks is divided into columns for the date, transaction details, and debit and credit sales. The year is listed in the upper left-hand corner of each page and the month and day are listed in the column below on the left side of each transaction. Each transaction includes where the customer was from (for example: "Tuscumbia Ala"), the name of the customer (for example: "W.L. Halsey", "Mrs. Lizzie Barclift", or "Goldsmith + Co."), the items that the customer bought and the rate at which they were sold (for example: "1Bx Spot Cash 25#50" and "1/2Doz #0 Lanterns 5.00"), the total cost of the sale, the customer's method of payment (for example: "By Cash", "By Check", "By Mdse.", "By Work", "By Note" or by credit if no payment method is listed), and the customer account number. If the customer worked in a local cotton mill, the name of the mill is listed next to the customer name such as "Dallas" for Dallas Mills, and "West Huntsville" or "W.H." for West Huntsville Manufacturing Company. The customer account numbers reference page numbers in the Harrison Brother's Customer Account Ledgers where customer's store accounts are divided into debit and credit columns. The Customer Account Ledgers referenced by this daybook are located in The University of Alabama in Huntsville Archives and Special Collections. Many accounts do not list customer account numbers if paid for in full with cash or note. These transactions are written over with two ##s or three Cs. Debit and credit columns also appear in the daybooks on the right side of the page. Transactions are added up in the "D" column and payments are recorded in the "C" column. Employee information, invoices, inventory, assets, and liabilities for the Harrison Brothers store are included at the back of the daybook from pages 463-500. Information about the contractors that restored Harrison Brothers in 1902 can be found on pages 484 and 500.