THESE NOTES ARE TAKEN FROM BITS OF PAPER, LETTERS AND JOURNAL ENTRIES FOUND IN AN OLD CHEST BELONGING TO WILLIAM G. ROBBINS (1840-1919) THEY ARE THE PERSONAL PAPERS OF WILLIAM AND HIS SONS ELISHA, MERLE, WILLIE & ORA

FROM WILLIAM ROBBINS' LEDGER PAD TO F.M FERGUSON (STORE?) AND OTHERS

He wrote his date of birth as being April 6, 1840. The other pages had dates with items purchased and their amounts. A sampling is as follows:

Memoranda note: January the 15 1890, surveyed land the 13 and 14th

From Nov 1891 through Nov 1892 William paid Bazel Dulin 39.00. (Didn't say what for, just so much a month.)

4/4/1890 1 pair shoes 1.00 Baley 3 lbs sugar .25

9/15/1890 bacon 1.62 P.A. Bradly 5 1/2 yards calico .45

10/6/1890 paid to R.M. Smith, 2 pokes of flour 1 bushel potatoes .50 R.M. Smith blad fodder .25 1/2 bushel corn .25

5/19/1900 38 lbs baycon 3.80 H. Bradley

7/12/1900 2 par shoes 2.80 1 par womens shoes 1.15 1 horse shoes .25

10/1/1900 1 pr pants .90 W.N. Brown B. Doolin

March the 3rd 1904 owe 1 bushel of corn

Dec the 5th 1900 one month after date I promice to pay Wm Robbins five dolors in cash for value received of him. Oscar Cantrell J.M. Cantrell

9/29/1900 1 lb salt 2.00 (J. Rowlan)

William must have been fond of the song, "Diamond in the rough", because he wrote the entire song and chorus down in his ledger pad, three pages full. He must have liked it since he considered paper valuable.

4/3/1901 5 yards linen .25 N.M. Cantrell

He had an order form from the John M. Smyth Company of Chicago, IL dated 1901 for dry goods. Men's all wool suits were $7.50, Men's wool overcoats were $9.00 and men's wool trousers were $1.95 an up.

An entry on a memoranda page is dated March 4th, 1902: "They came a big snow, a bout 18 inches deep, hit lay on a bout 2 weeks before it went off.."

Sept the 24 1904 In the beginning was the word and the word with God and the word was God

2/13/1907 1 pair shoes $1.50

2/18/1907 tobacco & papers .20

3/16/1907 coffee .50 nails .17 wire plyers .50

4/1/1907 comb .10 pencils .15

4/17/1907 coffee .50 meat 1.20

4/27/1907 sox .30 shirts .90

11/24/1907 horse shoes .25 accnt with J.C.Mc? oil .10 " bucket .50 "

12/12/1907 over alls .45 "

4/27/1908 meat 1.72 F.M. Ferguson flour .35

9/1/1908 1 can salmon .10 accnt with B.F. Lemaster

1/10/1906 mule shoes & nails .25 F.M. Ferguson sugar .25

(I notice that in most of his ledgers he notes when school commences and the number of days a week it is in session. Is this so he'll know when he will have the children available for farm work?)

They were transcribed in May, 1997 by

Notations in parentheses are those of the transcriber. Spelling & Grammar is as written.