R. G. Dun, later changed to Dun and Bradstreet, has been rating American businesses for over 150 years. The information is put out annually in directories, some of which go back to the early 1850s. The directories were purchased on subscription and were not cheap. Annually, they were supposed to be collected and destroyed, then replaced with the following year's report. Ten inches wide and sixteen inches tall, and weighing up to eight pounds, the directories were a burden to keep and therefore have become fairly scarce. The Baker Library at the Harvard Business School and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC have the largest collections of the old directories.

Aaron's books of Salem, Ohio has recently been collecting and revising these old documents, and then offering them for sale. In March 2005, Bob Sweeney bought the 1929 issue presented here, scanned it for the Sullivan County Genealogical Web Page, and then donated the directory to the local historical society in Laporte, PA. This source can be referenced as a financial snapshot of Sullivan County in the period just before the Stock Market Crash of 1929. Use it in conjunction with Sullivan County Industries--Now and Then to get a better understanding of the economy and society of Sullivan County before you were born.