A Guide to the Fluvanna County (Va.) Business Records, 1838-1942
A Collection in
the Library of Virginia
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Library of Virginia
The Library of Virginia800 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219-8000
USA
Email: archdesk@lva.virginia.gov(Archives)
URL: http://www.lva.virginia.gov/
© 2025 By The Library of Virginia. All Rights Reserved.
Processed by: Greg Crawford; Tamia Taylor
Administrative Information
Access Restrictions
Many of these business volumes are fragile--some are in poor condition due to water damage, a damaged spine and/or missing pages, Please handle these volumes with extreme care.
Use Restrictions
There are no restrictions.
Preferred Citation
Fluvanna County (Va.) Business Records, 1838-1942. Local government records collection, Fluvanna County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.
Acquisition Information
These records came to the Library of Virginia in transfers of court papers from Fluvanna County in an undated accession.
The Fluvanna and James River Valley Telephone Company Ledger, 1908-1909, came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Cumberland County in an undated accession.
Processing Information
Prior to 2024, the various business records in this collection were originally described as individual records, but they have been consolidated into one large business record for the locality.
In 2025 Local Records staff made the decision to include the Fluvanna and James River Valley Telephone Company Ledger, 1908-1909, in the Fluvanna Business Records descriptive guide as the sphere of activity is more central to Fluvanna than to Cumberland County despite being transfered by the Circuit of Cumberland County.
Encoded by C. Freed, January 2025
Historical Information
Context for Record Type: Business Records, both volumes and loose records, are in some cases transferred to the Library of Virginia as components of court record transfers. These business records in some cases were simply stored in the local court building for safe keeping by business owners. In other cases, business records (particularly ledgers, account books, etc.) may have been filed in a court case as an exhibit. These business record exhibits appeared both in chancery causes and in judgments, these records serving as exhibits for business dissolution cases, debt suits, and contract disputes.
Locality History: Fluvanna County takes its name from an eighteenth-century designation of the upper James River. The name, meaning river of Anne, was originally bestowed in honor of Queen Anne of England. The county was formed from Albemarle County in 1777. The county seat is Palmyra. Area: 287.4 square miles. Population: 20,047 (2000), 24,900 (2005 estimate.)
Scope and Content
Fluvanna County (Va.) Business Records, 1838-1942 are comprised of various records created by individuals and companies in pursuit of documenting business activities in and around Fluvanna County (Va.) Represented records consist of bound volumes such as account books, ledgers, journals and daybooks.
Arrangement
This collection is arranged
Related Material
Additional Fluvanna County (Va.) records can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."
Contents List
Historical Information: Robert W. Ashlin and Company was a general store that conducted business in Fluvanna County during the late 19th century.
Scope and Content: Robert W. Ashlin and Company Account Book, 1871-1874, records the accounts of individual customers. Each account lists transactions in chronological order. Information found in each account includes dates of transactions, merchandise sold, and the amount owed and paid. Merchandise sold include supplies to local cooper's shop, gloves, dry-goods, shoes, rice, candy, bleach, and bacon. Payments made by cash or barter such as butter, chickens, and sumac.
Robert W. Ashlin and Company Ledger, 1870-1874, records the accounts of individual customers. Each account lists transactions (purchase of merchandise, payment of debt, etc.,) in chronological order and the amount owed and paid. Ledger does not list the names of items purchased, rather it uses the general term, "merchandise." Ledger also records the company's controlling accounts such as merchandise account, charges account, and cash account.
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Barcode number 1107915: Robert W. Ashlin and Company Account Book 1871-1874
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Barcode number 1107927: Robert W. Ashlin and Company Ledger 1870-1874
Historical Information: David S. Baker served as manager of Byrd Plantation in Fluvanna County owned by Thomas Baker during the latter half of the 19th century.
Scope and Content: David S. Baker Journal, 1860-1874, records the transactions of Byrd Plantation in Fluvanna County. It records transactions as they occurred daily from January 1860-February 1865. Information found in each entry includes name of individuals doing business with the plantation, items purchased or payment of debt by customers, items purchases or payments made by plantation, and amount owed or paid. Merchandise sold and purchased include turkeys, ox hide, butter, oats, straw hats, and whiskey. Includes Payments made by plantation to individuals to build a church, weave cloth, hiring enslaved individuals, and nails. Also included in volume are contracts signed by David S. Baker related to hauling lumber from the estate of Thomas Baker.
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Barcode number 1107886: David S. Baker Plantation Journal 1860-1874
Historical Information: Thomas A. Davis was a wheelwright who conducted business from the late nineteenth century until the early twentieth century in Fluvanna County.
Scope and Content: Thomas A. Davis Account Book, 1882-1942, records the accounts of individual customers. Each account lists transactions in chronological order. Information found in each account includes dates of transactions, services rendered, and the amount owed and paid. Services rendered include making wagon bodies and wheels, building coffins, repairing thrasher machines, and mending saw shafts. Volume also includes a listing of items sold from Thomas A. Davis' estate following his death.
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Barcode number 1107884: Thomas A. Davis Account Book 1882-1942
Historical Information: Before 1902, the Fluvanna and James River Valley Telephone Company was known as the Fluvanna Telephone Company.
Scope and Content: Fluvanna and James River Valley Telephone Company Account Book, 1899-1902, records expenditures (telephone poles, expenses, tax payments, etc.,) and receipts of company's treasurer; deposits and withdrawals from company's bank account; individual accounts of company's stockholders that lists chronologically total number of shares purchased and amount paid; and individual accounts of customers who rented telephones from the company. The latter lists chronologically the length of rental period, method of payment, and amount owed and paid.
Fluvanna and James River Valley Telephone Company Ledger, 1908-1909, records the accounts of individual customers. Each account entry lists in chronological order style of transaction as well as the amount owed and paid. Transactions include payment of rent and local and long distance tolls. Payments were made by cash, check, money order, and labor.
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Barcode number 1131080: Fluvanna and James River Valley Telephone Company Account Book 1899-1902
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Barcode number 1102239: Fluvanna and James River Valley Telephone Company Ledger 1908-1909
Historical Information: According to an inscription on the ledger, it was used as evidence in an unidentified court suit that was heard in Fluvanna County Circuit Court.
Scope and Content: William B. Hodgson, Jr. Ledger, 1865-1905, records the individual accounts of customers and additional miscellaneous information. Entries within each account are listed in chronological order. Entries list date of transaction, style of transaction (merchandise purchased or form of payment), amount owed or paid. Payments made by cash, credit, or labor. Merchandise sold include food, clothing, livestock, consumer goods, and dry goods.
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Barcode number 1145023: William B. Hodgson Jr. Ledger 1865-1905
Historical Information: Robert Shandy Holland, 1841-1878, was a farmer who lived in Fluvanna County during the latter half of the 19th century.
Scope and Content: Robert Shandy Holland Account Book, 1868-1878, records the accounts of individual customers. Each account records transactions in chronological order. Each entry includes date of transaction, style of transaction (goods purchased, service rendered, or form of payment), and amount owed or paid. Payments made by cash, credit, or labor (cutting wheat or cutting oats). Services rendered include hauling lumber and sharpening and repairing farm tools. Goods sold include flour, corn, butter, potatoes, bacon, and tobacco.
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Barcode number 1107914: Robert Shandy Holland Account Book 1868-1878
Historical Information: Hopkins and Harris was a general store that conducted business in Fluvanna County during the mid-nineteenth century.
Scope and Content: Hopkins and Harris Daybook, 1851 Nov.-1852 Oct., records transactions as they occurred daily. Information found in each entry includes name of customer, items purchased, and the amount owed. Merchandise sold include bales of cotton, shoes, whiskey, molasses, jugs, nails, pocketknives, and cheese. Page numbers associated with each entry correspond with page numbers in ledger. Additional found in daybook includes an inventory of goods sold by Hopkins and Harris in October 1852. Entries list quantity and total cost of each item.
Hopkins and Harris Ledger No. 1, 1852, records the accounts of individual customers. Each account lists transactions in chronological order. Information found in the accounts includes items purchased and the amount owed and paid. Payments made by cash, barter such as shingles, pork, and tobacco, or labor such as building a stable. Page numbers associated with each entry correspond with page numbers in daybook.
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Barcode number 1107883: Hopkins and Harris Daybook 1851-1852
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Barcode number 1145017: Hopkins and Harris Ledger No. 1 1852
Historical Information: Benjamin A. Minter was a merchant who conducted business in Fluvanna County.
According to an inscription on the ledger, it was used as evidence in the court case Minter versus Tisdale's administrators that was heard in Fluvanna County Circuit Court during the 1850's. Tisdale was George T. Tisdale.
Scope and Content: Benjamin A. Minter Ledger, 1847-1851, records the individual accounts of customers and additional miscellaneous information. Entries within each account are listed in chronological order. Entries list date of transaction, style of transaction (merchandise purchased or form of payment), amount owed or paid. Payments made by cash, credit, or labor. Merchandise sold include molasses, meal, eggs, and coffee.
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Barcode number 1145016: Benjamin A. Minter Ledger 1847-1851
Historical Information: Minter and Tisdale was a mercantile partnership that conducted business during the mid-nineteenth century in Fluvanna County. Benjamin A. Minter and George T. Tisdale were the partners in the business.
Scope and Content: Minter and Tisdale Ledger, 1847-1851, records the accounts of individual customers and additional miscellaneous information. Entries within each account are listed in chronological order. Entries list date of transaction, merchandise purchased, and amount owed and paid. Payments made by cash, credit or labor. Merchandise sold include whiskey, flour, bacon, coffee, corn, and shoes.
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Barcode number 1145001: Minter and Tisdale Ledger 1847-1851
Historical Information: William B. Payne owned a shoe shop in Fluvanna County in the mid-nineteenth century in Fluvanna County. He made, repaired and sold shoes and boots.
Scope and Content: The first half of William B. Payne Account Book, 1842-1851 records transactions daily. Entries list the date of transaction, name of customer, service rendered, or merchandise purchased, and amount owed. Entries also include page number that contains the individual accounts of customers found in second half of volume. Each individual account lists all the customer's transactions in chronological order and the amount owed and paid. Volume includes additional miscellaneous information such as an account of shoe shop expenses.
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Barcode number 1131083: William B. Payne Account Book 1842-1851
Scope and Content: Unidentified Business Journal, 1864-1865, of an unidentified business, perhaps a dry-goods store, located in the town of Palmyra in Fluvanna County. It records the business' transactions in chronological order. Entries are listed under style of transaction such as "cash to sundries", "sundries to merchandise", "sundries to cash", etc. Entries list name of customer, items purchased, or debt paid, amount owed and paid.
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Barcode number 1131079: Unidentified Business Journal 1864-1865
Scope and Content: Unidentified Business Ledger, 1851, of an unidentified business, perhaps Little and Tisdale. It records the accounts of individual customers. Each account lists transactions in chronological order. Information found in each account includes dates of transactions, merchandise sold, or services rendered, and the amount owed and paid. Merchandise sold include mackerel, pantaloons, molasses, bacon, meal, eggs, and soap. Services include sharpening hoes, pointing plows, and shoeing horses. Payments made by cash, bond, or labor. Volume was used as an exhibit in a court deposition.
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Barcode number 1145002: Unidentified Business Ledger 1851
Scope and Content: Unidentified General Store Daybook, 1838-1870, records transactions as they occurred daily from September 1838-February 1839. Information found in each entry includes name of customer, items purchased, and the amount owed. Merchandise sold include food, clothing, suspenders, cheese, dry goods. spices, tools, shovels, whiskey, and tea. The last few pages of volume record credit accounts of an unidentified individual or business and transactions related to an unidentified blacksmith shop.
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Barcode number 1107786: Unidentified General Store Daybook 1838-1870
Scope and Content: Unidentified Mill Aocount Book, 1872-1874, records in chronological order transactions performed by the mill. Entries are listed under style of transaction such as amount owed for flour, bran, plaster, expenses, etc. Each entry lists name of customer, amount of wheat, bran, flour, etc., sold, and amount of payment owed or paid.
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Barcode number 1107908: Unidentified Mill Account Book 1872-1874