In 1802, Laban Thacher sold the land where the Bangs Hallet house now stands to his cousin, Henry Thacher, for $700. Henry, who was 24 and about to be married, was a merchant. Thus, by 1802, both a house and a store combined existed at 11 Strawberry Lane. The store may have stood earlier at the foot of Church Street, across the Common.

Around the time of Henry’s early death in 1833, the store moved to a new location where Parnassus Book Store (formerly owned by Henry Knowles and built in the 1850s) presently stands. Some say the house was cut in half and the front part that was a store was moved. In any case, it was in the new location by 1837, as the Swedenborgians were recorded meeting there before they built their own church (now Thacher Hall) in the 1870s.

Thacher was an important person in the community. In addition to his store, he owned a dock on Lone Tree Creek near the original store on Church Street. We were fortunate to receive three of Thacher’s store journals from his descendant, Lawrence Perera, described here.

All of the store’s transactions were kept in these daybooks. Thacher numbered only the right hand pages, using the left page for debits for the individual identified, and used the right page for the credits from the person (then known as Contra). However, frugality was a virtue, and occasionally debts creep over to the right hand page, rather than starting a new page. Thacher used creative/phonetic spelling, typical of the time, and throughout this narrative these words will be in quotes.

Thacher identified the first and last names of the customer at the top of each page. A woman whose husband had died was noted as Widow __; sea captains were identified, and even a “Docter” Hedge. “Deken” [deacon] Joseph Hawes received special notice.

His business was mostly with Yarmouth people, but occasionally there are entries for people from Barnstable, Harwich, and Dennis. These people purchased mainly nautical items, most probably for a vessel at one of the docks on the Northside that needed repairs. These accounts were paid in cash.

One thing stands out in daybook purchases – nearly everyone bought rum! There is hardly a page where rum isn’t purchased. Ansel Taylor had 13 entries in the book, ten included rum, two were for powder and shot, and one was for apples. Even women bought rum, with Thankful Hall being one of the more frequent purchasers!

The store sold other beverages as well. In addition to rum, “shirey [sherry] wine”, brandy, gin, and cider were sold. These must have been sold from large barrels, as the number of dipperfuls are marked with hash [//////] lines, marked as each “gill” (4 ounces or 1/2 cup) was dipped and poured into the purchaser’s jug, before the final tallying.

Thacher sold an incredible array of items. Types of cloth sold included cotton, linen, striped cloth, silk, “cambrick”, black broadcloth, calico, and cotton “yarne”. He also sold thread, pins, buttons, ribbon, and even leather. Clothing was much more limited, with records showing that stockings, sometimes spelled stockins, mittens, “showes” [shoes] and handkerchiefs being the chief clothing items. People generally made other items at home.

Food was sold as well. “Barrel flower”[flour], green tea, “souchang” tea, whole tea, “coffe”, “Chocklet” [chocolate], butter, cheese, eggs, apples, sugar, pepper, beans, ”ry” [rye], corn, salt, “pepermint”, nutmeg, “Cineman” [cinnamon], and large quantities of “melases” [molasses] were sold. Molasses was probably the second biggest seller, behind rum, often used for sweetening rather than the more expensive processed sugar.

Nautical and hardware sales included anchors, boards, locks, “laches” [latches], nails, turpentine, cordage, white lead, sheet lead, paint colorings such as Spanish Browne, verdergrees, and indigo, hinges, compasses, and even “scrues” [screws]. Also included were putty, glass, tools such as sickles, fishing line and hooks. Guns, flints, powder, and shot (sometimes spelled “shoot”), and brimstone were also available.

Thacher’s store sold books and writing items including paper, quills, and almanacs. The almanacs were most likely for farmers and sailors. Homemakers could purchase platters, tin pans, tea pots, “coffe” pots, brooms, brushes, oil, forks, blankets, milk pans, and bean pots. And, when you needed to sit down and relax with that jug of rum, pipes and tobacco!

Recorded on the right hand page of the day book, the Contra page, people paid their bills. Dr. Tilden always paid cash, but most didn’t. Times were hard and far more often, people paid in kind. Thacher accepted a person gathering and spreading “seeweed” on his fields. Some who owed used creative means to resolve their debt and some even borrowed funds from Henry, all recorded in the book.

Unknown until it came to light in these books, Henry Thacher was the ¾ owner of the sloop Betsey, the packet ship that sailed between Yarmouth and Boston. He listed materials for a new sloop in April of 1807, and sold Elisha Doane a ¼ share. Selling shares in a boat was common at the time. Doane paid off his ¼ share before the vessel was built “By Cash on Vesel Acct.” Evidence indicates Betsey was built by the Bray brothers, shipwrights in Hockanom. Supplies for the sloop in Thacher’s book were paint, varnish, sails, rope, payment for blocks and a “woman head” (figurehead).

The need for good transportation to and from Boston to stock items in his store was one of the reasons for this vessel. We do know from other records that after the War of 1812 Ansel Hallet was her captain.

Henry Thacher played an invaluable role in the lives of the people of Yarmouth. He was their general store, bank, and by accepting payment in kind, a customer during hard times. His daybooks gives a close-up view of the small town economics that kept the early 19th century economy running as smoothly as it did. Hats off to this fine merchant and solid citizen!

Researched and written by Duncan Oliver