sundry items for sale in Green Bay in 1835

[pshrake]

While doing some research at Stevens Point the other day I was perusing through the Green Bay Intelligencer and found a series of adds for the “new store” of A. H Arndt & Co.

Below is a edited transcription of one of those ads dated May 19 1835. Every item listed in the ad is listed here. I only removed some superlative text. The items are listed with the original spelling intact.

Though it is printed three years after the Black Hawk War it is a good example of the wide variety of goods available in the remote Michigan Territory. I have tried to keep the list and the spelling as intact as possible. All other errors that may be found, should a comparison with the originl list be made, are mine. ;D

DRY GOODS
Blue, brown, mixed and fancy colored Broad Cloths
Blue, brown, mixed and fancy cassimeres and satinetts
Faustian and Beaverteens
Assorted Flannels
A great variety of calicoes and ginghams of rich patterns
Gros de nap and Gros de Berlin silks
Makinaw blankets of all colors
Camlets
Canvas
Padding
Osnaburghs
Bleached and unbleached shirting, sheeting, and linen
3.4 and 6.4 bed ticking
Checks and stripes
Gentlemen’s and Ladies beaver deerskin and kid gloves
Cotton and worsted hose and half hose.
Tuscan hats and trimmings
A variety of nap’d and wool hats and fur and seal otter caps of the latest fashions

FAMILY GROCERIES
Teas, Sugars, molasses, coffee, chocolate, coca, pepper, spices, mace, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, rice, saleratus, ginger, pipes, snuff, tobacco of all kinds, lemon and lime syrup

A variety of drugs medicines and paints

HARDWARE
English and American shovels and spades
English and American Saw mill saws
English and American X cut saws
Axes, hatchets, chisels, iron squares
Mortice, knob, chest, plate, pad, drawr, trunk, and stock locks
Butts and screws
Strap and IL hinges
Norfolk latches and bolts
Braces and bits
Files
Cuttlery of all kinds
A quantity of excellent and double fire-proof TINWARE warranted

Crockery and Glassware of the most modern and beautiful patterns.
China setts
Blank Books, writing and letter paper, quills, wafers &c

Pete Shrake

[mary]

Thanks for sharing this great snapshot of the time and area!

Do you have a sense of how close this store may have been to the fort?

Mary

[Robert Braun]

..to find and transcribe this ad. What a nice snapshot of the material goods available in "Old La Baye!"

Some interpretive thoughts...

1. The "3.4" and "6.4" bed ticking I think refers to cloth width. The 3.4 being loomed to 27-28 inches wide; the 6.4 being 54-55 or so inches wide.

2. The "cotton and worsted hose and half hose" of course refers to stockings and socks (or half hose) in either cotton or wool yarn.

3. "Tuscan hats" are straw hats. Whether or not the term applies to the actual straw used, or the braid (or both) escapes me.

4. "Teas... coffee, chocolate, and coca." Hmmm... looks like the store carries ALL the legal stimulants, eh?

5. "Saleratus" we know today as "baking soda."

6. "Norfolk latches" are those thumb latches used in cabin doors and the like. For example, the doors at Apple River Fort use a Norfolk style latch.

7. "Double FIREPROOF tinware." Sounds like a hot item. I sure hate it when my tinware bursts into flames! Or otherwise...

8. Sounds like the store is carrying fur caps... in May! Of course, it IS Green Bay, where I'm told they have two seasons... winter and the Fourth of July.

9. "Shovels and spades." SEE!!! I told you that there was a difference! I think Mark Tully would agree, as well!

10. "Flannel" has got to be domet or wool-flannel, and not the cotton diapery material of today.

Very interesting inventory! r.