Finding Aid: F. F. Fagan and Company Account Books, 1832-1839, PC.AB.66

[Identification of item], Private Collections: Account Books, PC.AB.66, F. F. Fagan and Company Account Books, 1832-1839, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC, USA.

This collection consists of four bound account books, including two ledgers and two day books with 1,468 pages, less pages overwritten and cut. These volumes record transactions of a store located in Tyrrell County. The business, known as F. F. Fagan and Company, was active from 1832 to 1839. Both cash and barter systems were in use. Presumably,the store served as a post office during Fagan's years as postmaster of Columbia.

Food staples available at the store included roe herring and corn by the barrel, spices, coffee, and tea. Tobacco and spirits were purchased frequently. Medicines were limited to bottled syrups and opium. Cloth was often described in terms of color and quality, such as black cambric, super fine checks, silk vesting, black bombazine, black bombazell, red flannel, blue-black gros de Naples, figured Marseilles, and Italian crepe. Shirting, calico, cotton, duck, gingham, muslin, silk, Osnaburg, and Valencia were also sold. Accessories included parasols, fur hats, kid gloves, and silk hose. Footwear was made from a range of materials, such as morocco [leather], prunel [twill-woven worsted], buckskin, and seal skin. Items for the household and farm included coffee pots, enamel bowls, pitchers, forks, knives, flints, fish hooks, weeding hoes, padlocks, and trunk locks. Rarer items were Jew's harps, spectacles, band boxes, and spelling boxes.

A separate lumber account indicates that this was a thriving part of Fagan's and Halsey's business. Customers brought in lumber items to barter. Oak staves, juniper shingles, and cypress shingles were shipped from the store, probably via the Pasquotank River and Dismal Swamp Canal. Potential markets were Norfolk, Baltimore, and other port cities to the north. Schooners doing business with the store were named , , and .

The two ledgers are arranged by name, then date. The two day books are arranged by date, then name, in the order in which transactions occurred.

F. F. Fagan and Company operated in Columbia in Tyrrell County, North Carolina from 1832 to 1839. Fagan's partner in the business was Joseph Halsey. A few notes and inserts in the account books refer to Plymouth in the neighboring county of Washington. Accounts show that a member of the Fagan family also had a partnership with Cameron. The full nature and extent of F. F. Fagan's businesses are not known.Franklin Friley Fagan (1811-1874) was the son of Levi (1785- ) and Frances Stubbs Fagan (1788- ). He married Ann Eliza Bozman (1814-1878) on 24 August 1836. The couple lived in Plymouth and Mackeys Ferry in Washington County, N.C. They had two daughters and one son who lived to adulthood: Frances Ann Fagan (1838-1860), Harriet Victoria Louise Fagan Martin (1840- ), and Levi Ives Fagan (1844-1894).Usually, F. F. Fagan listed his occupation as farmer on the federal Census; however, in 1850 he specified his position as "Clerk, C.C.W." This abbreviation possibly stood for clerk of court of Washington County. F.F. Fagan served as postmaster of Columbia from 1834 to 1835; postage was sold at the general store during this period.Joseph Halsey (approximately 1790-1854) was born in New Jersey. As a young man, he moved to Columbia, N.C., where he met and married Marey [Mary] [May] Wynne (approximately 1797-1854) on 28 October 1823. Sources reveal that they had one son and two daughters who lived to adulthood. Numerous legal documents substantiate the existence of the two daughters: Sarah Halsey Wynne (approximately 1825-1847) and Ann Eliza Halsey Skinner (approximately 1827-1852). The son, William (1824?-1847?), was named in his grandfather's will; the name William also appears on an insert in the account book. Halsey's obituary noted that the couple outlived all of their children. By 1850, they had become guardians for their grandson, Joseph H. Wynne (approximately 1846-). The 1850 Census listed Joseph Halsey as a farmer owning real estate worth $20,000. The marriage announcement of his daughter Ann Eliza to Thomas E. Skinner, which appeared in the in 1847, noted that the marriage occurred at Rich Level, presumably the name of the Halsey plantation or the nearest crossroads. Much like Fagan, Halsey served as postmaster of the town of Columbia from 1826 to 1828 and clerk of court of Tyrrell County for a number of years, eventually becoming a state senator.

Collection Contents

Fagan, F. F.

Plymouth (N.C.)

F. F. Fagan and Co.

Account books

General stores--North Carolina--Tyrrell County

Grocers--North Carolina--Columbia

Post office stations and branches--North Carolina--History

Post offices--North Carolina

Retail trade--North Carolina--Tyrrell County

Merchants

Stores, Mercantile

Consumer Goods

Business

Columbia (N.C.)

Plymouth (N.C.)

Tyrrell County (N.C.)

Washington County (N.C.)

Washington County (N.C.)

Columbia (N.C.)

Tyrrell County (N.C.)

Accessioned 26 July 1929 by the State Archives, unknown donor.

Processed by Lea Walker, February 2014

Finding aid prepared by Lea Walker, February 2014