Library of Virginia
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Processed by: Bari Helms
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Use microfilm copy, Pulaski County (Va.) Reel 56.
Newbern (Va.) Stagecoach Daybook, 1838-1841. Local government records collection, Pulaski County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.
This item came to the Library of Virginia in transfers of court papers from Pulaski County under the accession number 43684.
The city of Newbern traces its beginnings to 3 March 1810 when Adam Hance laid off 28 lots fronting the Wilderness Road. Newbern was the county seat of Pulaski County through much of the 1800s and served as a stagecoach stop on the Wilderness Road. The Wilderness Road was the principle route used by settlers to reach Kentucky. In Virginia, the Wilderness Road ran from Frederick County south to Lee County and the Cumberland Gap.
Newbern (Va.) Stagecoach Daybook, 1838-1841, records the stage fares charged to passengers departing from Newbern. Transactions were entered as they occurred and document the passenger name, destination, and the fares charged. Notes were also used to indicate charges for trunks and extra baggage. The front of the daybook lists the standard fares charged for travel to Wythe County, Montgomery County, Salem, Fincastle County, and Buchanan County.
Several pages located in the back of the volume were used as a ledger and cashbook for an unidentified business. Transactions were recorded for 1810 and document the accounts of individual customers. Information found under each account include the date, the notation "to sundries," and the monies debited or credited to the account. Each transaction was recorded under the customer's name in the corresponding cashbook. It is possible that the ledger was used by Jacob Sadler, a merchant in Pulaski County in the early nineteenth century.