1861 Merchant Bill (Mayesville, South Carolina)

Description

1861 Merchant Bill (Mayesville, South Carolina)

1861 Itemized Merchant’s Bill — J. A. Mayes, Mayesville, S.C.

Featuring Early Medical Purchases Including Cocaine and Quinine

 

An extensive and well-preserved 1861 itemized account ledger documenting a year’s worth of purchases made by Richard Miles Wheeler (Wheler), 1811–1894, a farmer residing in Sumter District, South Carolina. The bill was kept by local merchant J. A. Mayes and includes more than thirty entries, providing a detailed look at antebellum Southern commerce on the eve of the Civil War.

 

Among the standard household and farm-related purchases are notable medical items, including:

• One bottle of cocaine (then a legitimate 19th-century medicinal ingredient)
• One ounce of quinine (widely used for fever and malaria)
• Three written prescriptions for Wheeler’s wife, Mary

These rare pharmaceutical references highlight the medical realities of rural Southern life—where general-store merchants routinely dispensed compounds and remedies long before professional regulation.

 

The document concludes with Wheeler’s full settlement of the account, signed by J. A. Mayes, making this a complete and financially closed ledger page. Merchant account sheets of this length and clarity—especially those documenting early pharmacological substances—are increasingly scarce. Document measures 15 1/2″ x 6 1/2″.

 

A rich primary source offering insight into daily purchasing habits, medical treatment, and economic patterns in pre-war South Carolina.

 

Inventory Number: DOC 407