mums226 Zephaniah Buffington Accounts, 1803-1808 Finding Aid Finding aid prepared by Ken Fones-Wolf. Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Amherst, MA

2002

Finding aid encoded using Perl scripts and edited in XMetal 2.0. Encoded by Eric Cartier. 2002-07-29 Finding aid written in English. 2005-09-23 mu26 converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by v1to02-5c.xsl (sy2003-10-15). Special Collections and University Archives W.E.B. Du Bois Library University of Massachusetts Amherst Zephaniah Buffington Accounts, 1803-1808 Finding Aid Manuscript Number 226 Compiled by Ken Fones-Wolf December 1988 Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Collection Overview Buffington, Zephaniah Zephaniah Buffington Accounts 1803-1808 MS 226 1 envelope Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst Quaker merchant and farmer from Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Includes two major notations about a large cheese purchase and the sale of hoes in Washington County, New York. Also contains inventories of goods, notations for notes payable and notes receivable, and accounts of his farm (including amounts of cheese made, accounts of farm tools, and the keeping of cows and sheep). English. Biographical Note

Zephaniah Buffington (born 1771) was a farmer and merchant active in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. His business connections appear to have been principally within the Society of Friends communities of Bristol County, Massachusetts and Washington County, New York, the latter being a community started by emigrants from the Dartmouth area. As a merchant within this Quaker network, Buffington had dealings with other prominent Bristol County Quakers, including Joel Packard, Stephen Gifford, Peleg Slocum, and Joseph Howland and Company. Furthermore, his one marriage in the Dartmouth vital statistics was to Lydia Tucker, the daughter of another Dartmouth Quaker family; she died within two years of the wedding.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The account book contains miscellaneous notations principally for the year 1803. Included are two major ventures: one, a cheese voyage, in which Zephaniah Buffington purchased cheese from many of the Quaker farms in Dartmouth for sale in New York. He split the profits with his brother Stephen. The second concerned the sale of hoes, again principally, it seems, in Washington County. There are also, in the 50 pages of the volume, inventories of goods on hand, suggesting he ran some sort of store; notations for notes payable and notes receivable, with amounts running into hundreds and even thousands of dollars; and accounts concerning his "up country" farm, including the keeping of cows and sheep, the amount of cheese made, accounts of his farm tools, and an accounting of his "cheese things" - vats, tubs, groundstones, baskets, etc.

The collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation

Cite as: Zephaniah Buffington Accounts (MS 226). Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Acquired from Charles Apfelbaum, 1987.

Processed by Ken Fones-Wolf, December 1988.

Search Terms Buffington, Zephaniah, b. 1771. Cheesemakers--Massachusetts--Dartmouth--History--Sources. Merchants--Massachusetts--Dartmouth--History--Sources. Farmers--Massachusettts--Dartmouth--History--Sources. Quakers--Massachusetts--Bristol County--History--Sources. Quakers--New York (State)--Washington County--History--Sources. Dairying--Economic aspects--Massachusetts--History--Sources. Cheese. Hoes. Dartmouth (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th century--Sources. Bristol County (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th century--Sources. Washington County (N.Y.)--Economic conditions--19th century--Sources. Account books.