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West Winfield Academy Cash Book, Herkimer County, New York 1865-1866
This is a great little one of a kind genealogy find from the town of West Winfield. West Winfield is a small village in Herkimer County, New York. An early school in the town, the West Winfield Academy was erected in 1850 at a cost of $4,000. The funds were raised by subscription. The school was opened Dec. 11, 1850, under the direction of LeRoy Bliss, Principal. The Academy, one of only three in Herkimer county in 1860, began in 1850 and continued until it merged into a Union Free School in 1884.
The West Winfield Academy Cash Book is a record of monetary dealings that the school had with employees, students and local people in the years 1865 and 1866. The West Winfield Academy Cash Book was kept by John G Robinson and contains the names of people who worked for the school, pupils at the school or people who had contact with the school. The West Winfield Academy Cash Book also records what the money was for, and how much was paid. The book records things like salary paid to clerks, work done for the school by local men and money owed by students for things bought in the school store.
The amount of information with each entry varies. In some cases it is simply the person's name with the date a amount of money. However many of the entries in the book contain much more detailed information about the transaction.
If you have an ancestor that went to this school or lived in New York he may be mentioned in this book. The students at West Winfield Academy came from all over New York State.
At the back of the book is a list of men (about 200) at what would seem to be a auction sale.
Pages 16-19 look like a farm auction in the late 1800s (1880s? 1890s?) I found many of the men listed on those pages, in the 1880 census of Richfield, otsego co. NY. It contains the the names of the men what they bought and how much they paid. It is facinating to read the list of what the men bought, buck saw, sadle, shot gun ect. This auction sale list provides a interesting little peek into the daily lives of our ancestors.
I am pleased to announce that I am slowly scanning all of these wonderful Ledger Books. Each book will be published as a downloadable PDF file on AncestorsAtRest website so that genealogists and historians can access them freely. Please be patient as I work towards bringing them all online.
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Meantime if you wish to help with the expense of my purchasing these invaluable one-of-a-kind Ledger Books please consider contributing. No amount is too small. The books are very expensive and I want to bring as many online for researchers to access for free. I hate to think of these wonderful books, chock full of our ancestors' names, disappearing!
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Death Finds a Way: A Janie Riley Mystery by Lorine McGinnis Schulze
