In the late 18^th century, the Susquehanna River was a main artery for commerce. Finished goods such as cloth, tools, clothing, spices, liquor, and the like had to be transported from the populated areas of Lancaster, Harrisburg, and Philadelphia.

Almost every village and town had a general store where food, clothing, medicines, tools, and household goods were found on the grocer’s shelves.

Teacher, author, and historian, the late Gene Shipe shared insight in a 1993 newspaper article on one local merchant, Lewis Maus who kept a ledger on his transactions in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries in Montour County.

“The early merchants were the catalysts who brought the trappings of civilization to the frontier. Through their trading posts, they primed the pump of trade which became the lifeblood of the developing communities such as Danville.

To follow the entries of a ledger of Lewis Maus, a local merchant of those days, gives a glimpse of the way the frontier was changed. Maus was one of the sons of Phillip Maus, who purchased a large tract of land on Mahoning Creek from the Penns in the 1770s. 

By 1796, Lewis was keeping a ledger. The business was more than likely located in Danville, near the settlement. For decades the settlers were dependent on merchants such as Maus. The entries made in the ledger record not only the transactions but also the changes in the lives of the people.

For the first ten years or so of the business there was, during April, May, and June, considerable credit given to different accounts for “boating” or working at “corking” and “planking” of boats. Apparently, the boating operation was separate from the business, for there are no records of earnings from the boat. Boating may have been a ferry service or used just to transport goods needed in business.

Another way that amounts owed the business, were settled, was through the selling of shad to Maus. The run of shad in May of 1799 must have been extraordinary even for those times.  During this one-month period, twenty-two different people received credit for better than three thousand shad. This was in addition to several barrels that Maus purchased outright. Salt also became a commodity of exchange, as did shad barrels.

During the life of the ledger, there are few other entries concerning the shad. Maybe there was a market for “salted shad” or maybe there was never a “shad run” such as this. Was it possible that each settlement along the whole 400-mile length of the Susquehanna took this many shad?

For the first thirty years, bartering was a key part of the business. All purchases or delivery of services were recorded on the left page of the ledger. On the right page, a corresponding “contra” account was kept. This showed how payment was made for the goods and services that were received by the customers.

By 1810, the first entry of pay for a woman was recorded: “By housework three weeks at fifteen shillings.” This was about 69 cents per week, six days.”

In another newspaper account from Columbia County, the Morning Press of Bloomsburg had a regular column entitled The Passing Throng. A country grocer reminisced about his early days in the general store.

"Yes, the grocery business," remarked Leon Brewer, of Orangeville, who can begin to quality as an old-timer, for he started clerking for Frank Quick when he was fourteen, and while Leon isn't what you might call old, "he can, count up almost as many years the grocery business as The Morning Press can claim as a newspaper. "I guess some of us old-timers wouldn't know what to do if we had to work on these short week schedules." Leon, who has made a fine recovery from a severe attack of pneumonia, declared. "Back in the old days we always opened the store at six o'clock. in the morning and kept it open until after ten. Then, on Saturdays, we never thought of getting out before midnight.

"I'll never forget one incident having to do with store hours in those early days. I didn't leave the store until one o'clock Sunday morning and, a day or two later a customer reminded me that ‘you closed up pretty early Saturday night. I wanted to buy a pair of shoes.’ I told him I was there until one o'clock whereupon he told me he had driven past at two in the morning, and he couldn't understand why I wasn't open. "That was typical of the store business in those early years when we lighted the store with kerosene lamps and had the job of filling the lamps each morning. The old-time general merchant, the old-time druggist, and the newspaperman have always appealed to me as having just about the hardest hours of anybody I knew." It was easy to see that Leon was looking back to the days when the general store furnished the setting for the public forums of those days.

Always there were poorly lighted windows with practically no thought was given to display. Everything was sold in bulk in those days in contrast to the present, when practically nothing in the way of groceries or allied lines is sold that way. The cracker barrel, the molasses barrels the coal oil container were always familiar sights in every store. The pickles were always sold from barrels, as was much of the other merchandise. "I'll never forget," remarked Leon, "when I came across the first canned product I had ever seen in the store. That product was canned Myana peas. Today, everything comes in cans or containers. Folks don't even want to buy sugar in bulk. They want it packaged. How times have changed."

The column concluded: “Saturday and Saturday night always provided the banner trade hours for these old general stores. Folks drove in then to do their trading, and not a great deal of cash changed hands. The farmers brought their butter, their eggs and their potatoes--possibly other items--and traded them in for other family needfuls. A few sticks of peppermint candy were frequently included in the purchases for the children. In those days when there was no rural free delivery and no telephone, the farmer led a life of isolation, and no daily paper to reach him. The church and the general store became meeting places. At the latter, he could always expect to find sale bills plastered on the walls. He likewise expected to find others eager to exchange information.

Small wonder it was that the general store of that day became the meeting ground of the public. Small wonder, too, that the customers expected the store to be open early and late. Not infrequently the proprietor was quite a power, in politics. His views were respected, and he was looked upon as a storehouse of information. But today the general store has largely disappeared from the picture, as has largely disappeared the traveling salesman, who drove his horse regularly to the store.”