Title: John P. Lewis Business Records
Inclusive Dates: 1844-1897

Creator:

• Lewis, John P., 1824?-

Call Number: Platteville Mss K

Quantity: 0.8 c.f. (6 volumes in 2 archives boxes)

Repository:

Housed at the Southwest Wisconsin Room and Area Research Center, Ullsvik Hall, University of Wisconsin-Platteville; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections.

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

UW-Platteville Southwest Wisconsin Room / Platteville Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

Financial record books from the store of John P. Lewis, a Lancaster, Wisconsin merchant. The journal of 1844-1845 shows purchases made by well-known Grant County residents, among them Nelson Dewey, Joseph T. Mills, and George R. Stuntz.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-pltv000k

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Very little information can be found regarding John P. Lewis. He is listed in the 1850 Census for Grant County as being 26 years of age, a native of Austria, with property valued at $75. The 1860 Census records him as being a merchant in Lancaster with property valued at $18,000, a native of Bohemia, 35 years of age, with a wife, Thiza E., who was born in Ohio, and a son, William H., age 2, born in Wisconsin.

“John P. Lewis operated the store [in Lancaster] just south of the alley running north and south, and dividing the block north of the Court House into two equal sections. This would have put the store in the building now occupied by Walker & Seip as a clothing store--and east of the store of Ivey and Webb which was a land mark there for many years. Lewis never had a partner in his business, and for many years did a very large volume of business....He had two sons, Orville and William, both of whom moved to the west about the time that the lands were thrown open in the Dakotas. Lewis was known as a very shrewd business man, a good dealer, but 'hard' in his collections....” (John L. Grindell, June 11, 1945, Letter in Historical Society Files.)

This is a collection of mercantile records, business accounts, and other miscellaneous papers of John P. Lewis of Lancaster, Wisconsin.

In view of these records, it is unlikely that the earliest volume in the collection, the store record for 1844-1845, was kept by Lewis. It may be an account book used in a store that was later purchased by Lewis. The volume is useful for the names of persons having accounts at the store, and thereby becomes more or less a record of residents of Lancaster for those years. Among the names are several that were prominent in Wisconsin history, including Joseph T. Mills, Nelson Dewey, and George R. Stunts.

The later record books are not complete or continuous enough to be of much value. The three volumes of inventories list the stock of the store, with prices, for about ten years.

The small group of unbound papers are very miscellaneous. There is a letter from J.M. Showalter who was teaching school in Union Town, Alabama in 1838, to his father, John Showalter of Smithfield, Pennsylvania. The remainder of the papers are mostly deeds and promissory notes. They are all found in a pocket in one of the volumes.

Acquisition Information

Presented by the Grant County Historical Society through its president, Virgil Showalter and its secretary, John L. Grindell, March 1945.

Platteville Mss K Box   1 Folder   1	Miscellaneous papers, 1838-1890
	Ledgers
Box   1 Volume   1	1860-1869
Box   1 Volume   2	1867-1877
Box   2 Volume   3	Journal, 1844 June 25-1845 March 20
Box   2 Volume   4-6	Inventories, 1870-1874; 1875-1877; 1878-1881; 1883; miscellaneous accounts to , 1897