Conrad Seabaugh & Company: An Inside Look at an Illinois Hinterland Merchant

Abstract

DURING THE 1830s, in the northern Illinois hinterlands, three components were critical to establishing the beginnings of a thriving local economy: a tavern, a mill, and a general store. The success of all three entities depended on the owner's business acumen, a solid customer base, and access to the period's transportation networks. Taverns provided a focal point of communications transfer and lodging for travelers, mills allowed area farmers a means of converting cereal grains into flour in an expeditious manner, and a general store served as the linchpin between local residents and the broader national market. This is the story of the general store of Conrad Seabaugh & Company in Ottawa, LaSalle County, Illinois, utilizing Conrad Seabaugh's massive day-book from 1836 to 1838, a source previously never used by historians.1 All general stores were not alike, nor were their means of accounting and recording. Therefore, Seabaugh's store cannot be said to quite be a representative general store's operation. Despite this, the research provides us with a detailed view into a general store's daily operations. More significantly, this article argues that our perceptions of general stores out in the antebellum hinterlands may need to be adjusted to fit the realities in which some operations engaged. Additionally, Seabaugh's store eventually failed to remain open, but even failed entrepreneurs can elucidate the daily business dealings of a merchant during the era. In fact, it is common consensus that “before the Civil War . . . over ninety-five of every hundred such ventures ended in bankruptcy.”2 As such, this particular merchant's story is more common than one might think, but many failed business records do not exist. Seabaugh offers us an unusual look at a general store as it records the information from its opening until it closes; therefore, we can assess the full run of the store's operation.This research seeks to place this particular store in the existing historiography in several important ways. First, the role of the merchant has been identified as critical to the growth and success of a village. Historian Lewis Atherton noted that “a store . . . was the most important element in Western towns.”3 Town boosters knew that to compete in this era of new western growth, that settlers often sought locations that were served by local stores to acquire the items they could not grow or construct themselves. Likewise, stores offered an option in which to market locals’ agricultural surplus. In 1836, Ottawa was relatively new, and these early merchants played a significant role in how fast and how well a community developed. Seabaugh's complex operations and commitment to a merchant's life demonstrate how such a merchant was essential to community development. Additionally, Gerald Carson asserted that these stores “stood between the artisan and the full-scale factory” as they were also the initial step that local artisans sought to deposit some of their homemade or homespun goods.4 Viewed from this wider lens, this could be where merchants were another link between producers and the broader market, though there is little evidence of this from Seabaugh's store.Next, there are distinct differences between merchants in the hinterlands and those in Chicago. The booming village on the western shore of Lake Michigan funneled raw and finished commodities from both the East and West, making its merchants’ access to commodities unprecedented, as was the access to customers. William Cronon's work on the economic changes brought about by the rise of Chicago focuses primarily on the city, and pre-railroad, hinterland merchants received only a few pages to explain their essential role in the market economy, utilizing the example of John McDowell Burrows of Davenport, Iowa.5 Cronon utilizes Burrows's reminiscences, Fifty Years in Iowa, published in 1888, to provide broad strokes of the merchant's life based on qualitative analysis. By way of comparison, the Seabaugh story is mostly driven by quantitative analysis. Reminiscences can be, and are often, sanitized from the failures and complications encountered by the author, whereas, the accounting sources are produced with the express purpose of telling the reality of the business at hand. More directly in Chicago is Charles Cosgrove's work on Augustus Garrett, an auctioneer in the city, who later becomes mayor.6 Though auctioneers were merchants, the fact that they did not maintain a consistent stock for customers sets them apart from general stores.Finally, as always, regionalism played a major role in the early development of the state, and merchants were engulfed in this phenomenon. A majority of Illinois, prior to 1840, was settled by people from the upper South moving into the southern part of the state, many of the village stores appear to fit the mold of the famous Lincoln-Berry site in New Salem. The quaint rustic setting had a few sundry items, as well as, some exchanged local produce which allowed the future president ample time to read, exchange stories, and to initially develop the skills that made him so connected with the people.7 Concurrently, John Faragher's excellent work on the Sugar Creek region in Sangamon County demonstrates more of the commodity exchange methods between individuals rather than merchants.8 While residents in the southern half of the state did occasionally purchase luxury items, the vast majority of these people focused more on a form of subsistence-level living and neighborly exchange, as they were accustomed to back home. The northern tier of the state, settled by people from the Mid-Atlantic states and Europe were accustomed to a more market-driven source of exchange and local merchants had to oblige. This research seeks to provide an alternative narrative to the hinterland merchant compared to those in these southern models.Before discussion of the specific business, a couple of definitions need to be addressed: that of general store and day-book. At times, scholars utilize these terms interchangeably with other closely related terms like “merchant” or “account book.” It is important to understand the nuances amongst the various titles in the merchant class. Several different types of merchants existed, including peddlers, general store owners, grocers, specialty merchants, and commission merchants.9 Each focused on different types or quantities of commodities as each had a separate role within the market structure, sometimes based on the size of the community. Many of the smaller operations, which ran on thin profit margins, never needed outside investor help because their customer base was local and quite loyal. In these cases, the customers knew that the success of the operation offered them some convenience, so they helped to sustain the business to draw in more businesses to grow their community versus becoming reliant on other towns for their needs. The Illinois General Assembly contributed to the definition of each category as it sought to regulate merchants.10Beginning in 1831, the state required that all general stores that “engaged in the sale of goods, wares, and merchandise must procure a license.”11 The state wrote the laws so that counties controlled local licensure practices. This began as an initiative to reduce out-of-state trade coming over the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers in an attempt to support businesses located within Illinois. As it spread beyond the border counties, it also allowed county commissioners to protect and support their investments in their communities by offering more favorable conditions to people who also chose to settle in the area. We can measure the growth of the merchant class in LaSalle County during the 1830s through license applications. In 1839, the general assembly passed a law concerning a statewide plan for property taxation which included all “stock-in-trade,” which, when paid by local merchants, exempted them from further licensure obligations.12Figure 1 indicates that during the 1830s, the county received a steady growth of general store license applications.13 By way of comparison, it also identifies the slower rise of grocers in the county beginning four years after the first merchant's license. A critical difference between a dry goods license and a grocer's license was that grocers sold liquor.14 Therefore, counties that wished to abide to temperance views had a means of controlling local supply. The only two obvious anomalies for general store licenses occurred first in 1832, when the region was embroiled in the Blackhawk War, which stifled most commercial growth, and in 1839, when the new law went into effect. The two merchant's licenses granted in 1840 went to peddlers.The difficult question to answer is, what effect did the Panic of 1837 have on these merchants. Nationally, as the Panic was sparked by the large amount of land speculation, Illinois—specifically Chicago—felt the sting of hard times.15 But initially, hinterland general stores and grocers demonstrated significant growth despite the Panic. Over time, as the full effect of the Panic moved ever westward, there may be a correlation with the grocer drop off in 1840, though local evidence does not support widespread financial failures. A review of the advertising sections of local papers during the immediate post panic years shows that stores were still opening; new wares, goods, and merchandise were being sold; and commission merchants were still buying vast quantities of agricultural surplus. Though there is no direct evidence of the Panic's outcome on Seabaugh's store, its broader influence cannot be discounted as potentially having some effect. Luckily, the constant regional population boom in LaSalle County supported the growth of the merchant class. This growth was inspired by both the removal of the Indian presence and the highly anticipated forthcoming Illinois and Michigan Canal. Most of these early merchants owned either a grocery or a general store, with most forwarding and commission merchants appearing in the early 1840s.Additionally, different types of account books provide significantly different information. In this case, the document available for research is a day-book. Store owners, or clerks, utilized day-books to record the daily transactions as they occurred. As each customer proceeded to close out their business for the day, credit or debit, the recorder listed each item in the day-book and then calculated the total for the transaction. They would complete the procedure for each subsequent customer for the day and then start afresh the next business day. As such, the business for repeat customers would be spread throughout the book. Therefore, a common secondary accounting book was the ledger. Ledgers were books that had a page set aside for each customer in which the store owner, or clerk, would transfer the day-book activity to the ledger in a summarized format. In this manner, store owners tracked each individual customer's balance due over time. This was particularly effective when stores dealt in credit to the many local farmers that paid as their agricultural production allowed. As such, many store owners acted as proxy banks loaning cash or allowing credit to accumulate for their customers, thereby making stores essential to the long-term survival of many people. In archival holdings, either day-books or ledgers are the most commonly found sources, and at times, when the customer base is small enough, the account book might house the day-book activities in the front and the ledger toward the back of the same volume.16 Seabaugh has no known existing ledger book or pages. Looking at all the individuals’ transactions and then assessing the patterns they form, we can ascertain the “processes of buying, selling, and paying for goods.”17Not surprisingly, the actual book has no listing on the title page as to whom the book belonged to, but it does indicate that the store was located in Ottawa. There is plenty of evidence linking it to Seabaugh. First, several entries throughout the book, including those for land purchases, house expenses, and personal expenses all indicate that Conrad Seabaugh was the owner. Second, of the limited number of merchants in the village, Seabaugh's licensure data matches the day-book entries. Conrad Seabaugh applied to the LaSalle County commissioners for, and received, his first year's license, for twenty-five dollars, at their quarterly meeting on June 6, 1836.18 His first day of transactions was May 17, 1836, thereby assuming he applied on or before the May date and finally received official authorization at their June meeting. He renewed again in 1837 and 1838, and there are no other renewals on file.19 In 1838, he upgraded his operation by applying for and receiving a grocer's license.20 His final transaction occurred on August 6, 1838.21The third confirmational evidence lays with the connection to the Illinois and Michigan Canal's construction. The first example exists on an entry made on November 11, 1837, in which it was noted, “by balance for section 166 of canal to be taken out in goods of our store.”22 As shown in figure 2, Section 166 was just east of the Fox River running parallel to Bull's Island.23 The contract for this section was held by Seabaugh.24 Then, in early 1838, Seabaugh entered transactions concerning sections 177 and 180.25 In 1838, the canal commissioner's contingency funds show funds reserved for Seabaugh on Sections 177 and 180.26 Section 177 was further downriver, parallel to Buffalo Rock, and section 180 was a bit further west. Finally, there is a loose note made out by Seabaugh & Company in the book. The combined evidence conclusively links the day-book to Conrad Seabaugh.Outside of his store's activities in Ottawa, little is documented about Conrad Seabaugh. He was originally from Middletown, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.27 He was born there on February 8, 1805, to Conrad and Anna Seabaugh. Conrad was the oldest of eight children, including brothers Hugh, George, and John—who all followed their brother west as they are listed numerous times in the day-book. Hugh Seabaugh was a constant customer of the store that also took out “loans” for personal needs and land transactions. The entire family appear and disappear in LaSalle County corresponding with the run of the day-book. Even noted businessman and county historian Elmer Baldwin, who lived in Fall River township beginning in 1835, failed to acknowledge their existence in his well-received county history published in 1877.28 From court records as early as October 11, 1837, Seabaugh had two silent partners: William H. Morrison and John G. Brown, who later died and his portion of the business passed to a John Sutherland.29 Other than the fact that they remained in partnership throughout the business's operation, nothing is known of the partners.The connection to Pennsylvania is significant. Several families migrated from Dauphin County to LaSalle County in the 1830s. According to the 1850 Census—the first to record a person's origin, 10 percent of all LaSalle County residents born outside Illinois came from Pennsylvania.30 Only New York (21.3 percent) and Ireland (16.1 percent) could boast more. This was an era of substantial chain migration, in which one local resident migrated to a new destination and then either encouraged or was subsequently followed by more kith and kin. Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, was originally the home of such prominent LaSalle County names as Buchanan, Shuler, Ebersol, and Osman, to name a few. It was commonplace for fellow emigrants, once in their new homes, to support one another, and all these families were customers of Seabaugh.There is also a fascinating similarity between the geographic locations between old and new. Like Ottawa, Middletown is located in the northwest corner of the confluence of two rivers, the Swatara Creek flowing into the Susquehanna River, very similar to the Fox River flowing into the Illinois River. Additionally, Conrad's father originally ran a cooper's shop on the southeast corner of Middletown's main square, whereas Conrad's general store was located on the southwest corner of Ottawa's main square.31 The younger Seabaugh was cognizant of the importance of obtaining a good location for his store, as set by the example of his father. In finding an almost identical location akin to what he knew from his hometown in Dauphin County, Seabaugh also established a sense of familiarity.LaSalle County was an exceptional location for new entrepreneurs to set up operations, especially along the Illinois River corridor because of the anticipation of the canal. The entire Western Division of the canal was within the county borders, making it the link with the navigable portion of the Illinois River, which stimulated unprecedented growth in the hinterlands. In 1840—only nine years after incorporation—the county claimed forty-three stores with a total of $103,550 capital invested in them.32 By way of comparative growth, a decade later, the county's diverse array of business operations ranged in cash value from a few thousand to over $100,000. Ottawa provided a central hub with access to capital, unlike much of the rest of northern Illinois.33 During the 1840s, some local entrepreneurs took advantage of the region's economic appeal and sought outside investors to help grow and sustain their endeavors. The desire for capital increased as time passed, but the number of businesses that sought investors was relatively small. For example, in LaSalle, of the 125 merchants and grocers in operation in the early 1850s, less than 10 percent obtained investors’ help.34Ottawa was not your typical hinterland village, but neither was it the booming town it would become later in the century. Ottawa was centrally located in the newly formed county of LaSalle, and the small village grew at the confluence of the Fox and Illinois rivers. The Great Sauk Trail ran parallel to the north side of the Illinois River, and local settlers converted the old Indian trail into a well-travelled road running right through Ottawa. In 1831, when the county was formed, officials designated it as the county seat and the location of the Fifth Circuit Court. Additionally, canal commissioners originally determined it to be the western terminus of the forthcoming Illinois and Michigan Canal, though, in 1836, they relocated the terminus fifteen miles downstream at Peru.35 This combination of transportation access and governmental activity made Ottawa a bit more important and, therefore, the most visited regional town. While most hamlets or villages would be excited to boast of ten buildings in the late 1830s, Ottawa had several score.36As place always plays a role in the success of a business, Seabaugh set up shop at an ideal location for potential growth and busy customer traffic. Few places in northern Illinois could compete with Ottawa with regard to location. Additionally, he chose wisely for the specific location of his store. In 1836, Seabaugh bought the lot in which his store would soon rise for $500 from the canal commissioners.37 A hand-drawn map of Ottawa in 1838 (figure 3) shows his large two-story building in Block 12 on the southwest corner of the public square. He was at the other end of the block from the county courthouse and a short walk away from both the Fox and Illinois Rivers and their respective ferries that conveyed passengers over several times a day. And he had plenty of customers. In the little over two years his doors were open, a total of 558 unique customers conducted some form of business with Seabaugh. This is a significant number, especially when compared to the county population. In 1840, LaSalle—which still included what would shortly become Kendall and Grundy Counties—had increased to 9,348 people who lived in 1,471 homes, therefore, numerically speaking, over a third of all homes in the county did business at Seabaugh's store.38The construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal was a boom for the region. It was more than likely that Seabaugh, and other ambitious entrepreneurs from the east, heard or read about the western canal from their local papers, as shown in figure 4.39The East Coast, especially states like New York and Pennsylvania, had earlier adopted the successful use of canals—most famously, the Erie Canal crossing New York in 1825—which local contractors built. The commissioners of the Illinois and Michigan Canal sought to tap into this experience, and as such, strategically advertised in regions that they might attract experienced contractors. Whether Seabaugh worked on any of the local canals in Pennsylvania, like the Union Canal or the Swatara Feeder are unknown, but he most certainly was aware of the role canals played in shaping the fortunes of contractors and store owners.40 Many canal contractors reacted to the needs of the growing workforce in the region by becoming merchants themselves, Seabaugh set his sights on both simultaneously.41 Owning a general store was extremely beneficial for canal contractors. The store would extend credit to the owner's diggers in lieu of cash, so that they could get the essentials of life, and then deduct that total from their earnings once government funding arrived. This established a substantial means of income for store owners, who were cognizant of the profit margins they could make off of interest or charging more for credit purchases. Migrant workers who had no local connections other than the canal and possibly fellow workers in the same predicament also benefited by having access to those necessary supplies, though a mindful merchant always garnered more of the spoils. On January 3, 1838, Seabaugh contracted to build section 166 in the Western Division of the canal.42 In the end, he failed to meet the demands of the contract. In a report by Joel Manning, secretary of the canal commissioners, by December 1838, the commissioners extended advances to several contractors in money and supplies, of which, Seabaugh received a small portion. The commissioners retained a good portion of the potential advance from Seabaugh as his work was not completed.43 On May 1, 1839, the contract was “abandoned by the commissioners,” but by then, the store had closed.44 Finally, in September of 1845, a land agent for the commissioners wrote that he was about to “close up the collections of Seabaugh & Co. business at Ottawa.”45 They did not describe the details concerning the collection or the failed contract. Beginning in 1840, Seabaugh was in Texas until, at least, 1866.During the period of construction, the average merchant in LaSalle County had a better ratio to both local suppliers and local customers than they would a decade later. Most storeowners located near the river, so they were not evenly distributed around the county until much later in the era. The density of stores near the river was closely connected to the density of people in the county, between the larger communities and the canal workforce.As figure 5 indicates, in 1840, the ratio of merchants to farmers—local suppliers—was 1:28. This means, if hypothetically evenly distributed, each merchant had access to twenty-eight farming operations’ annual agricultural surplus and petty commodities. Then, under similar theoretical circumstances, they could offer this to 217 unique customers, or with an average family size of 6.3 people per household, a little over thirty-four households. Atherton calculated, in 1840 Illinois, that the average customer to store ratio was 340 to 1; thereby indicating that LaSalle County had a higher-than-average number of stores.46 Also, utilizing the data, it is obvious that Seabaugh's customer base was much better than average.Of course, these statistical analyses are not perfect as his store brought in customers from a wide range of locations. When looking closer at the 558 customers, forty-five, or eight percent, were obvious business accounts, leaving 513 residential-type customers. Of these, we can accurately determine the dwelling location, down to the township, of 282 customers, or about 55 percent of his consumer base.47 Of course, the vast majority of his customers, with known locations, originate in LaSalle County, and the three major rivers in the county—the Illinois, Fox, and Vermillion—did not pose an impediment to his customers. He had customers from practically every township in the county that had a known population in it, regardless of the side of the river the customer lived on. There were also numerous customers that came from DeKalb County to the north, several from townships just over the border along with some from the northern most townships of that county. It was not uncommon to see DeKalb County commissioners or, even more often, the sheriff doing business at Seabaugh's, undoubtedly in conjunction with their trips to the circuit court. Furthermore, as the Illinois River was a major throughfare between Chicago and the vast Mississippi watershed, various businessmen, boosters, politicians, state officials, and army officers stop by the store for the occasional transaction. This data demonstrates the vast reach one store could have in the hinterlands.The transient, one-time, customers comprised only 22 percent of Seabaugh's total customer base. As figure 6 demonstrates, Seabaugh also maintained a healthy amount of returning customers that supported the store both during and after harvest time.Again, looking at Seabaugh's 558 customers, of which we can identify the details of 282, a total of 197 of those, or almost 70 percent, were farmers. Adding the 8 percent of business customers, this left only 22 percent of his customers as professionals, craftsmen, or unknown. As a result, a vast majority of his business relied on the agricultural credit cycle.These hinterland stores collected farm produce and home industry goods from the surrounding countryside, making them a crucial link between producers and the broader market. In exchange, those producers obtained the merchandise they could not produce themselves, or if they were new to the area, items they had not yet produced. More importantly, the merchants provided the critical component of the regional market: credit. At this time, credit was still in its infancy, or what Rowena Olegario categorized as its “first phase” in the US, where it “was confined to networks of people who knew one another, or had mutual acquaintances.”48 As such, merchants in the early days of settlement took on a certain level of risk, as the number of new residents continually grew, thereby forcing merchants to extend credit to some to stay competitive. Many new customers probably depended on kin or kith who had settled before them to vouch for the new customers’ good moral character. Specie, or hard currency, was present, but it was not abundant or consistently available in the hinterlands. Many times, new settlers held onto their specie for land purchases. Credit alleviated some of specie's shortcomings, but it also dovetailed with the financial cycle of the average farmer. Farms produced surplus for trade on two different production cycles. The first cycle consisted of small periodic production, usually performed by women and children and which included, but was not limited to, feathers, ash, soap, candles, as well as extra textile work that time might permit.49 Other petty commodities like butter, eggs, and orchard fruit added to first cycle. This family production was in small enough quantities that the output was relatively easy to transport for exchange, and its primary benefit was that it helped provide for the family's day-to-day needs. With the build-up of these commodities, families established credit for lean weeks or paid off accumulated debt. The second cycle, which usually entailed higher value on account of higher volume, included seasonal production usually from harvests or slaughter. Depending on a farmer's success and their operation's diversity, there might be several annual harvests of various crops. In some cases, surplus wheat went to one merchant while salted pork might go to another. This depended on initial contracts or the disbursement of accounts among local merchants. Similarly, merchants collected the surplus from many farmers in quantities that became more cost-effective to transport to larger markets to settle their accounts with wholesalers for merchandise not normally or efficiently produced in the hinterlands.50 During annual buying trips, merchants brought this merchandise back to the West and stocked their shelves and storerooms, reinitiating the local economic cycles. This process caused the majority of specie to remain in the East, which amplified the need for credit in the West.51 The terms that the wholesalers provided to the merchant, as well as the merchant to the farmer, took these farm production cycles into account and credit made it all possible.52 In either case, the borrower provided a note to the creditor for the principal and interest that indicated the note would be paid off in a certain period of time.53In addition to commodity exchange, Seabaugh dealt in specie and banknotes. Almost half of all credit transactions are recorded with the common term “cash.”54 Throughout the day-book, he rarely differentiates specie from banknotes by utilizing this term, and as such, we are unable to get a feel for the amount of specie versus banknotes moving through the store. Also, whether or not he accepted banknotes at par or at a percentage cannot be determined by his accounting practices. His store opened to coincide with the era of free banking, therefore, with no national banknotes in existence, it would be quite plausible that some of his traveling customers, or new emigrants, paid in notes from another region or state and we see evidence of this in