Account Book of a Wallingford, Connecticut Farmer, Town Clerk, Ropemaker by Munson, Hunn - 1838

Wallingford, 1838.

Tall folio. 330 x 200 mm. [13 x 8 inches].  Manuscript in ink.  300 pp., with customer index at front.  Contemporary calf sine over marbled paper boards; boards show wear, but ledger is surprising sound and attractive.  Paper stock brown with age but in good condition.    

Written on the flyleaf in a very legible hand is the name, "Hann Munson Wallingford".

Hunn Munson, son of Medad and Desire (Carrington) Munson, is well documented in The Munson Record, a genealogy from 1896. He was born in Wallingford, Conn., in 1762 and died in 1843. Described as a "short necked and large bodied man of light complexion...he was rather easy, but quite ingenious".  His genealogist writes that he had no trade but this record shows that he was a  jack of all trades and may have had a general store. He was also the town clerk of Wallingford for 31 years, from 1803-1834.  Parts of this ledger records work he conducted on behalf of the town and some of the transactions made by town residence concerning town business.

As a farmer, Munson did everything from "carting a load of dung" for £1&6 in 1793 to selling turkeys, rye, and wheat flour. His wife Jerusha Cook also sewed clothes and spun cotton and wool and sold it into the community.  His accounts are well kept, neat, orderly and easy to read. In 1808 Martha Culver paid " to a pair morocco shoes£1/3"  Later in the month she spent 39 cents for transportation to New Haven, and purchased "3 skanes of threads, 1 skane pink silk" to make a bonnet.  Recorded are expenses as well, such as "by one load of rock cut by myself and brought by Norman in his sleigh" and "by your horse and waggon to Andrew Bartholomew's". Munson also made bed cord, rope, cart rope, and traces.

His work for Walling for is especially of interest.  He records payments made by the town to various tradesmen for work conducted on town property, roads, and the like and payments to him for services rendered including copying documents, executing and recording deeds, taking town minutes, and recording votes on bills and elections.

Unusual for its extensive and detailed treatment of various transactions. Detailed and useful adjunct to the Wallingford town records as many actions as town clerk are recorded.

 

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