KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, THAT WE SAMUEL CLEMANS JOHN THOMAS AND THOMAS ANDERSON OF THE COUNTY OF CHAMPAIGN AND STATE OF OHIO ARE HELD AND FIRMLY BOUND UNTO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN THE FULL AND JUST SUM OF ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS MONEY OF THE UNITED STATES, TO WHICH PAYMENT WELL AND TRULY BE MADE...THIS TWENTY-FIFTH DAY OF JANY, ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN. THE CONDITION OF THE ABOVE BOUNDEN OBLIGATION IS SUCH THAT IF THE ABOVE BOUNDEN SAMUEL CLEMANS SHALL BEFORE USING OR CAUSING TO BE USED ANY STILL OR BOILER, OR OTHER VESSEL USED OR INTENDED TO BE USED FOR THE PURPOSE OF DISTILLING SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS - MAKE TRUE AND EXACT ENTRY, AND REPORT THE SAME IN WRITING TO THE COLLECTOR OF INTERNAL DUTIES FOR THE DISTRICT IN WHICH THE SAME IS SITUATE, OF EVERY SUCH STILL OR BOILER... WITH THE QUANTITY OF DOMESTIC SPIRITS IN GALLONS, WHICH HE MAY HAVE ON HAND..

[Champaign County, Ohio, 1816. Broadside, 8" x 12.5". Printed bond completed in manuscript. Tanned at margins and along old folds. Signed in ink by Clemans, Thomas, and Anderson. Docketed on verso. Very Good.

This bond requires distillers to keep a detailed accounting of the amounts of liquors distilled, with separate accounts for foreign and domestic materials. The books were reviewed quarterly by a local Collector, who would assess the duties owed to the United States. The bond's text tracks Section 2 of Chapter XV of the Act of Congress passed at the 3d Session of the 13th Congress.
"John Thomas settled about three miles south of Urbana, about where Mrs. Newell now lives, and had a distillery up the creek, between where the Newell and Donavan houses now stand...
"Thomas Anderson was a noted well-digger in Salem Township at the same time Richard Stanhope was here. He was a soldier of the war of 1812; was not as steady a man as Richard; he would sometimes 'drink too much and fight too much,' yet with all had many good qualities, and was well known in Champaign County, and was honored as an old soldier. He has no doubt long since gone the way of all the earth, but do not quite remember the manner of his death." Ogden, THE HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, OHIO 214, 507-8 [1881].