The collection is open for research.
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Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], W. J. Bryan Account Ledger, Ms2010-027, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
The W. J. Bryan Account Ledger was donated to Special Collections in 2009.
The processing and description of the W. J. Bryan Account Ledger commenced in May 2010 and was completed in June 2010. The volume had been accessioned as an unidentified railroad ledger but upon closer inspection during processing was found to be the personal ledger of W. J. Bryan, and the title was changed accordingly.
According to census records, Weden J. Bryan was born in Pennsylvania in November 1825. He was married around 1849. In the 1860 census, he appears as a 33-year-old farmer residing in Greene County, Pennsylvania, together with his wife, 28-year-old Cecelia Bryan. The couple had one daughter, Sarah, born around 1852. W. J. Bryan seems to have died prior to 1910, though Cecelia is listed in the 1910 census.
This collection consists of a 408-page ledger belonging to W. J. Bryan, a farmer in Greene County, Pennsylvania. The ledger lists transactions which seem to be related to sales and rental payments. Though the ledger details a few transactions for farm rentals or sales of farm commodities, many of the entries consist only of page numbers and money amounts which have been carried over from an earlier ledger (an entry of "6/2.25/22/.50" apparently representing "page 6, $2.25; page 22, $.50" and so forth). On opposing pages, Bryan notes account payments. Payment seems often to have been made in the form of labor, with Bryan noting what work was performed. The entries begin in 1860 and end in 1904, and run through the ledger's first 336 pages. The remaining pages are devoted to bank account records and to money received as royalty payments on coal and oil removed from property in Marion County, West Virginia and Greene County, Pennsylvania.
Also included is a folder containing papers which had been placed within the ledger. These papers consist largely of letters from the Fairmont Coal Company (Fairmont, West Virginia), concerning the payment of mineral royalties during the first decade of the twentieth century.
The guide to the W. J. Bryan Account Ledger by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/).