Terrell Bros, Bradford, PA circa 1880-90

Factual Questions
1

I’ve got a bunch of old receipts from various railroads, importers, a locksmith and a preserving company for “Terrel Bros.” There’s some for things like 1 tub lard and 2 brooms and 1 (cuddy? caddy?) tobacco, small volumes that could be for personal use. But there’s also one receipt for 4 dozen cabbages (for $2!), which seems excessive for one person. There’s one for repair of a child’s carriage (35 cents) and replacement of a front door lock (25 cents).

I’m curious. Does anyone know if this was a general store or business, or are these perhaps personal receipts? Google got me mention of a Stephen Terrell in Bradford who died in the forties, no idea if he’s connected or not.

How do people find out about these sorts of things?

2

This book looks like it has an answer on page 68.

3

Awesome! Thank you so much. :slight_smile:

4

Hello,
I am related to the Terrell Bros. May I ask what items you have? The Terrell Bros.
came to Bradford to open a business during the oil rich years. The Stephen Terrell you located online was a son of one of the brothers and my grandfather.

5

Hi terre! Welcome to The Straight Dope Message Board. As you can see, we’re quite an eclectic board, where you can get the answer to almost everything, eventually!

What I have, as I wrote in the OP (Original Post), is about half a dozen receipts from, it appears, items and/or services provided by Terrel Bros. They’re all handwritten, and quite lovely in an old-timey sort of way. They provide quite an interesting little peek into the era.

If you have any specific questions, don’t hesitate to send me a PM. You can do that by clicking on my username.

Enjoy your time on The Dope. Browse a while, enjoy the boards, and again, warm welcomes. :slight_smile:

6

Here is a picture of the Terrell Bothers store in Bradford PA about 1886.
My Great Grandfather was Leonard Terrell, who was one of the brothers.

7

Cecil Adams, his powers are far reaching…

8

Hey, that’s pretty cool!

My husband’s looking through boxes to figure out where we put those receipts. It might be a while. Man’s a pack rat with a poor memory. :wink:

When he finds one, I’ll try scanning it. The writing’s fairly faint, but maybe if I fiddle with the settings I can get it to be readable.

9

Didn’t people do a lot more home canning back then? Perhaps someone was cooking up some sauerkraut to store in mason jars.

10

kraut was made in crocks of a few gallons in volume.

11

Cite?

When my Ma canned it we’d go out to a “pick your own” place and get a couple of bushels of cabbages (at least 30 head) and she’d make dozens and dozens of large jars of it.

'Course, this was in the 1960’s, not the late 1800’s.

12

I grew up 15 miles from Bradford and in the 1960s, we used a crock like this - it took a lot cabbage.

13

Then do you agree that if someone were canning it, 4 dozen heads would not be out of the ordinary?

14

I appreciate the effort, Why Not!
Thanks!

15

Sure, it would be routine based on my experience (I may have misunderstood your cite request - we made more than “a few gallons” at a time - our fermentation crock was at least 10 gallons).