[Manuscript] Ledger for the Redstone Paper Mill, July 1825 - Nov. 1826

Brownsville [PA]: Redstone Paper Mill, 1825/1826. Manuscript. Original reverse calf.. A good copy; first 60 pages have been utilized as a scrap book in 1880s.. Folio, appx. 280pp.

A rare and valuable account ledger for the Redstone Paper Mill that was founded on Redstone Creek in Fayette City (4 miles from Brownsville) appx. 50 miles outside of Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania in 1796 by Jonathan Sharpless and Samuel Jackson. This paper mill was the first in Pennsylvania west of the Alleghenies and supplied newsprint for the Pittsburgh Gazette and newspapers as far away as Cincinnati. It was also a manufacturer of all kinds of printing and special purpose papers. At the time of inception the paper mill consisted of paper mill, grist mill, and tenements for the work staff. By 1797 the mill employed appx. 25 people. By 1823, the only year of an extant ledger for the mill, there were 13 women employed (primarily at making paper). The business was finally destroyed by fire in the 1840s at which time its inventory of paper was valued at nearly $20,000. Ownership had descended directly to members of the Sharpless family and one Job Harvey. The ledger offered here is 280 pages in length. The first 60 pages have been used as a scrapbook and will require the removal of all kinds of paper advertising to be legible. This should not be a great nuisance and once accomplished will reveal another two months of activities. The narrative, however, is unencumbered between Aug. 30, 1825 and the end of the journal Oct. 31, 1826. The record is a day-to-day narrative of shipments and purchases at the mill site. It includes all shipments of paper (by type) and transport into Pittsburgh, purchases of rags, books for a local school, binding charges, blank book production, the order and evolution of the manufacture of book binding boards (including the purchase of machinery), occasional statements on the employment of women, payments to the Sharpless family etc . It is a full and unusually detailed accounting of income and expenditures relating directly to the manufacture and sale of paper and the book arts in frontier America. By the 1820s the Redstone Mill had also grown to include a small local store and undertaken many of the commercial tasks associated with mill work, e.g., carding, grinding fees.These records are also present in the daily accounts. By reading through the ledger one is given the impression of substantial commercial activity and community centered on the paper mill. There is also the record of a drought in 1825 that brought production to a close for a short time. A magnificent resource.