A. D. Leech Business Ledgers, Vol. 1-3

Collection — Box: 3167

Identifier: 2008.106

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Volume one contains records of sales/purchases of agricultural supplies, wages, and charges for “hauling.” Individual customers are listed by name, business name, “negro,” “stranger,” or just “horseman.” Other branches of the business included “Mill” and “Leech Bros” or “A.D. Leech,” “Labor,” “Work,” and “Essentials.”

Volume two consists of accounts which record the same type of transactions, with the addition of the occasional entries for “bounties” and “speculation.” Covers the time period 1868-1869.

Volume three, named “Journal B,” records sales of merchandise, such as molasses, butter, yard goods, children’s hose needles, coffee and sugar, Irish linen, ribbon, silk, and many other items. Also records cotton bales, bounties, and hides for the Tan Yard. Covers the time period 1868 May to 1871 May.

Dates

Creation: 1866-1871, 1868-1869, 1868-1871

Rights Statement

Materials in this collection may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).

Biographical / Historical

In 1857, Amzi Leech and his wife Elizabeth Haydock Leech arrived in Cape Girardeau from Kentucky and eventually established a business, the A.D. Leech General Store, located at 102 N. Main. He was able to attract cotton growers from as far away as Arkansas and soon launched a thriving cotton market. After Leech’s death in the early 1870s his brother William Leech took over the business and continued until becoming distracted by other interests in the late 1880s.

Extent

3 Ledgers

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Three volumes of records for the A.D. Leech company, a general store and later a cotton market, located at 102 North Main in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Records cover the period 1866-1871, 1868-1869, and 1868-1871.