Thomas Price Account Ledger (1923)
Archival ID: omhi-ledger-1923-thomas-price
Date: 1923–1925 | Subject: Integrated Housing & Store Credit | Format: Financial Ledger
Why This Document Matters
The Thomas Price ledger reveals the interlocking nature of rural southern economics in the 1920s. This document is unique because it combines daily retail needs (flour, sugar, merchandise) with formal Rent payments on the same page. This proves that the merchant or the entity managing the ledger served as a centralized financial hub—acting as landlord, grocer, and banker simultaneously. For grant purposes, this is prime evidence of the “Company Store” or central merchant model that defined life in post-Reconstruction agricultural communities.
Archival Note: The Cost of Shelter
Pay close attention to the Rent entries of $100.00 and $64.76. By placing housing costs alongside agricultural inputs like Guano, the ledger shows how a family’s entire income was often pre-allocated to the merchant before the harvest was even brought in.
Pay close attention to the Rent entries of $100.00 and $64.76. By placing housing costs alongside agricultural inputs like Guano, the ledger shows how a family’s entire income was often pre-allocated to the merchant before the harvest was even brought in.
Archival Citation
“Thomas Price Account Ledger, 1923-1925.” Store & Daily Transaction Collection. Digitized by OMHI, ID: omhi-ledger-1923-thomas-price.
