[Ohio River Commerce] Big Sandy Wharfboat Co. [Manuscript Ledger]

Big Sandy Wharfboat Co.

Edité par Big Sandy Wharfboat Co., 1883

The Golden Age of the Ohio River Packet Trade: an extensive original manuscript ledger recording the daily shipments of the Big Sandy Wharfboat Co. at Catlettsburg, Kentucky, the critical transfer point for steamboat com. Large heavy folio. Contemporary paneled calf ledger book with suede panel inserts on front and back cover. Marbled endpapers. Binding leather heavily worn. Hinges separating. Internally very clean. 612 numbered pages of pre-printed columnar pages completely filled with manuscript entries. Sample receipt on Big Sandy Wharfboat Company letterhead (with vignette of river steamboat) tipped to inside front cover. The Golden Age of the Ohio River Packet Trade: an extensive original manuscript ledger recording the daily shipments of the Big Sandy Wharfboat Co. at Catlettsburg, Kentucky, the critical transfer point for steamboat commerce between the Ohio River and the Big Sandy Valley in the late nineteenth century.A substantial commercial ledger comprising detailed, day-by-day manuscript records of cargo transferred through the Big Sandy Wharfboat Company during the years 1883 and 1884. Situated strategically at the confluence of the Ohio and Big Sandy Rivers, Catlettsburg served as the primary gateway for goods moving into and out of eastern Kentucky. The wharfboat, a massive moored floating warehouse, facilitated the transfer of freight between deep-draft Ohio River steamboats and the specialized, shallow-draft "batwing" packets built specifically to navigate the sandbars and low water of the Big Sandy River to reach inland destinations such as Louisa, Prestonsburg, Paintsville, and Pikeville (frequently recorded here under its older name, Piketon).Records of Regional TradeThe pre-printed ledger pages are headed: Shipped, in good order and well conditioned, by Big Sandy Wharfboat Co., on board the Steamboat mentioned below, to be delivered without unavoidable delay (the dangers of Navigation, Fire, Explosion and Collision excepted), unto the parties named below, at ____, pm Wharfboat or Landing, twenty feet from the water's edge, where Carrier's responsibility shall cease; Consignee paying freight at the rate of ____, and Charges $____, Marks and Articles as below, with privelege of Re-shipping, Stowing on Lighter, and Towing on the Ohio River. Catlettsburg, KY.____ 1883.The ledger's 612 pages are completely filled out in pen and ink, detailing the date, destination, shipper, consignee, number of packages, description of goods, weight, rate, and charges for thousands of transactions. The entries offer a highly granular view of the Appalachian regional economy. Incoming shipments destined for upriver towns document the influx of manufactured goods and staples, including barrels of flour, sacks of coffee, kegs of nails, dry goods, and whiskey. Conversely, outbound shipments bound for Cincinnati and other major industrial markets feature the region's agricultural products and raw materials, such as bags of wool and feathers, beeswax, ginseng, and bacon.Wharfboats were among the essential yet now largely vanished institutions of nineteenth-century river culture. More than simple docks, they operated as floating commercial exchanges, warehouses, ticket offices, and logistical centers that coordinated the rhythms of packet traffic throughout the Ohio Valley. The Big Sandy Wharfboat at Catlettsburg was particularly important because it anchored the commerce of an otherwise geographically isolated upland region whose economic life depended upon reliable river access. Manuscript business records of this kind survive only rarely, especially in such complete and extensively used condition. The present ledger therefore constitutes an important primary document of the late steamboat era, capturing the daily mechanics of Appalachian river commerce during the very years in which expanding rail. N° de réf. du vendeur 114539

Détails bibliographiques

Titre : [Ohio River Commerce] Big Sandy Wharfboat Co...
Éditeur : Big Sandy Wharfboat Co.
Date d'édition : 1883
Reliure : Hardcover
Etat : good
Type de livre : Book