#103—James Hannah—Debits and Credits to William Hannah

I have been analyzing and blogging about the estate papers of James Hannah. Most of the papers seemed pretty routine to me.  Bills from various people; for example, $10 from the attorney.   However, there were two that caught my attention.  They were from his sons, William and John and each was an accounting of the value of what each had done for his father and what he had done for them.  This week I am blogging about William, and next week will cover John.

William and his father had a long history of mutual assistance.  In 1819, James lent William $11.33 ¾.  That same year, James sold William six bushels and a half of corn at 40 cents a bushel for $2.60 and later that year did the same thing for $3.60.  On William’s behalf, it appears that he paid Jonathan Moore $6.00 for two days of hauling.  Two years later, in 1821, he sold him one and a half bushels of
corn for $.37 ½ and a year later, a half bushel for $.12 ½.  The total due James from William was $23.93.  I was interested to know who Jonathan Moore was so I check the History of Brown County, Ohio.  Jonathan Moore was an early settler in Brown County and the first to possess a team.  I cannot determine how he was related to Rachel Moore, William’s wife, but I suspect they were related.

William also provided some assistance to his father.  In 1818 and 1819, he sold his father the following items of clothing.  3 pairs of pantaloons, 2 regular shirts, 1 fine shirt, and a pair of socks for a total of $4.75.  I was interested to see that a regular shirt cost $.75, a fine one cost $.50.  In 1820 he sold him three hundred and ninety feel of weather boarding plank while in 1821, he worked 4 days cutting briars and 3 ½ days cutting honey.  The total for his work was $8.8125.

The balance due William was $10.57 ½.                                                                                    

If I could talk to both of them, I certainly would have some questions.   I am not sure what the assistance from James to William is all about, but I would guess that it was to help William get started in life.  William was about 22 at the time of the first assistance, recently married and with his first child.  From what I have read, corn was one of the primary crops in Brown County at that time.  However, to grow the corn, the land would need to be cleared.  So I would ask about that.  I am more
puzzled about the clothing that William supplied to his father.  James’s wife was still alive, and I would presume that she was able to make clothes.  I would like to know who made them and why.  The cutting of the briars and honey makes sense to me.  James was getting older, and that is hard work.  So I would ask if that is correct.