The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1915-11-05
Friday, November 5, 1915.
SOME OLD TIME PRICES


Sherman of Wililamsville, The Ban
ner has had the chance to examine
an old account book owned by II. M.
Hall of -Newfane and used by one OF
! Mr.. Halls ancestors who was in bus
mess in the town of Newfane some
eighty to one hundred years ago.
The man who kept the book appears
TO have been the proprietor OF saw
mill and also to have run livery
stable. The first entries in the book
are dated 1903 and the records ex-
tend to 1910. The handwriting is
very plain and both ink and paper
are well kept. We doubt if there is
business man on the street in Ben
| nington whose accounts are more
carefully kept but it is the prices
which are of the greatest Interest to
us today, when compared with pres
| ent day prices. The livery apparent
ly kept both horses and oxen and
the following are some of the charg-
| es for service:
Horse to drive to Rockingham, %
| miles, SO cents.
Horse to drive to Wardsboro. 16
miles, 4S cents.
Horse to Brattleboro to make
| bargain for coffin, 6S cents.
Horses to draw load of boards
from Somerset, two days, 81.
Oxen to draw load of logs from
Somerset, rs cents.
Oxen to Brattleboro, IA miles, one
dollar.
Drawing 4 loads of wood, 67 cents.
Prices of lumber in those days
were not much like those at present.
Following are some prices of lumber
Sold
709 feet hemlock boards, $1.7S.
100 feet partition plank, 25 cents.
800 feet of lath, so cents.
1000 feet of hemlock boards, deliv-
cred at a distance of several miles,
So.
For cutting 40 cords of wood at 80
cents a cord S12.
Four cords OF wood sold, at $1.75
per cord, $7.tEO.} fr1 A
1000 feet of pine boards delivered,
SIG.
240 feet OF spruce boards, As cents.
1000 shingles $3.50. "
One load of boards, 81.
Four sticks of square timber, 16
feet long, 81.
One cord and 43 feet of hemlock
bark. $500
For saving 1876 feet of lath, "a
cents.
Saving SAB feet of hemlock boards,
$l.os
Saving 295 feet of half inch boards,
"a cents. is%Rtss. b%y1
Timber for two bedsteads, So
cents.
100 feet of hemlock plank, 80 cents.
S. feet of pine boards, % cents.
12O feet of slitwork, 81 cents.
Hall a building for shop, $l4.
One stack of maple plank, 80
cents.
500 feet half inch hemlock boards,
$3.50.
Among the miscellaneous prices
given are the following:
1860 pounds of hay, $3.50
One quarter of beef, 101 pounds, S.
One axe, 81 cents.
Four bushels of potatoes, delivered,
81.
Three days work, thrashing, $150.
One job of butchering, 25 cents.
One peck of apples, 8 cents.
Two barrels of cider, $3.50
One side of "soal' leather, $225.
One side of upper" leather, $3.50
One ram, S1.34
Keeping three calves z weeks IS
cents.
Mending Miss Reeds shoes, rs
cents. Ff, 81,
Tapping boots, % cents.
Use of "slay' one day, cents
For ordinary labor the price seems
to have ranged from 80 to 60 cents
per day, and for skilled labor from
fifty cents to one dollar per
day. 1t is doubtless true that
people lived comfortably in those
days on what they received. The
purchasing power of money was so
much greater than now that the size
of the income was less important.
In the entire book which seems to
have covered all the financial tran
sactions of busy man, we find not
one entry Of money paid out for en-
'tertainmenti or pleasure and about
the only luxury INDUCED in appears
20 have been cider