Post by mary on Jul 14, 2004 10:22:01 GMT -5
The early settlers had but little money. All that was needed was to pay a small tax, sometimes a doctor’s bill, and for blacksmith work. This was obtained from the sale of cattle and hogs. Store goods and groceries were generally paid for with butter, eggs, beeswax and peltries. Corn frequently sold as low as five cents a bushel, wheat at thirty, forty, and fifty cents, cows and calves at five dollars, beef and pork at a cent and a-half a pound, and other products of the farm proportionately low. Produce was gotten to market in a wooden cart drawn by a yoke of oxen. Salt was one of the dearests of the commodities that the pioneer settler absolutely needed. In 1818 salt sold at Edwardsville for three dollars a bushel, and in 1821 at one dollar. Whisky was cheap and frequently could be bought at twenty-five cents a gallon by the barrel. Coffee and sugar were expensive and considered luxuries not to be indulged in every day. Their use was reserved for old people and visitors. Wild honey was often used in place of sugar. Because of the scarcity of mills and the difficulty of travelling to them, hominy, green corn, beans and potatoes often supplied the table to the exclusion of bread. Every farmer calculated as much on having his barrel of honey when winter came as on having a supply of corn or other provisions. Hence bee hunting was common.
In the summer of 1817 corn at Edwardsville, Illinois sold at thirty-three and one-third cents a bushel, in the spring of 1818 at fifty cents, and in the summer at seventy-five cents. Potatoes were from fifty cents to a dollar, oats fifty cents, and wheat on dollar. Cows that in 1819 sold at twenty-five dollars, in 1820 brought only fifteen. The price of a yoke of oxen fell from one hundred and twenty to eighty dollars. Matters grew worse in 1821. There were times in territorial days, when corn sold as low as six and a quarter cents a bushel, and wheat thirty cents.
History of Madison Co., Illinois, pages 95, 99.
In the summer of 1817 corn at Edwardsville, Illinois sold at thirty-three and one-third cents a bushel, in the spring of 1818 at fifty cents, and in the summer at seventy-five cents. Potatoes were from fifty cents to a dollar, oats fifty cents, and wheat on dollar. Cows that in 1819 sold at twenty-five dollars, in 1820 brought only fifteen. The price of a yoke of oxen fell from one hundred and twenty to eighty dollars. Matters grew worse in 1821. There were times in territorial days, when corn sold as low as six and a quarter cents a bushel, and wheat thirty cents.
History of Madison Co., Illinois, pages 95, 99.
