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Start Over Collection Jim Comstock, Newspaper Editor and Collector, Papers Date range 1847

Series 4. Account Books Box 6-17

This series includes 27 account books, many of which relate to north-central West Virginia businesses. These ledgers document general stores, a Jewish-owned clothing store in Richwood, the activities of an itinerant Methodist minister in the mining villages of north-central West Virginia, grocery stores and meat markets, a glass manufacturer, and other businesses. See Separated Materials note for information on volumes separated to other collections.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center
  2. Jim Comstock, Newspaper Editor and Collector, Papers

Volume 24: George C. Gans, Physician, Marshall County, WV. Ledger. Box 15

George C. Gans was a physician practicing in Marshall County in the decades prior to the Civil War. Although most of his patients resided in the area around Moundsville and Elizabeth, Gans does not appear in either the 1840 or the 1850 U.S. census schedules for Marshall County. The ledger documents his treatment of families in Marshall County for a wide variety of ills, including typhoid fever (1861), cholera (1847), and farm injuries. Gans also routinely attended childbirths. His treatments included blistering, bleeding, venesection, lancing, and operating as well as administering medicine and pills. In return for his services, Gans routinely accepted farm produce, labor on his farm, and other useful items such as shingles. He went on to serve as an assistant surgeon in the Civil War.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center
  2. Jim Comstock, Newspaper Editor and Collector, Papers
  3. Series 4. Account Books

Volumes 20 and 21 (box 14), and 22 (box 15): Jacob Hornbrook, Merchant and Businessman, Wheeling, WV. Account Books. Box 14-15

Jacob Hornbrook was born in Tavistock, England, in 1812 and moved with his parents to Wheeling when he was a small child. Jacob's father ran a small [business?] in Wheeling. As a young man, Jacob began a mercantile business buying and selling produce on the flatboats travelling on the Ohio River. He later started a notions store, purchased interest in a steamship line and the First National Bank, and was president and owned stock in the Wheeling Gas Company. These three books, a journal (volume 20; 1847-1874), a ledger (volume 21; 1847-1874), and a cash book (volume 22; 1845-1874), document his business interests, investments, and personal expenses during the last three decades of his life. Although he remained an active investor, Hornbrook retired from his mercantile business in 1855 with an estate valued at more than $30,000. In 1852, he moved to what he called "Forest Home" near Wheeling Park, and he served in the West Virginia legislature during the Civil War.

  1. West Virginia and Regional History Center
  2. Jim Comstock, Newspaper Editor and Collector, Papers
  3. Series 4. Account Books

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