A Country Storekeeper in Pennsylvania

Contents

List of Figures and Tables

Preface and Acknowledgments

Introduction: A Country Storekeeper and His Network of Relationships

1. Beyond “Wild Forest People”: Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania

2. The Rex Store and Its Local Customers

3. Feeding the Furnaces: The Iron Community and the Rex Store

4. “Orders Thankfully Received, and Carefully Executed”: Rex and the Philadelphia Merchants

5. A Life of “Comparative Ease”

Epilogue: Rex’s Network and Its Significance

Appendix A: Rex and Valentine Families

Appendix B: Goods Sold at the Rex Store, 1790–1807

Appendix C: Tradesmen and Craftsmen Who Used the Rex Store

Appendix D: Philadelphia Merchants Patronized by Rex

Appendix E: Samuel Rex’s Carters

Appendix F: Location of Samuel Rex Documents

Notes

Bibliography

Index

“Diane Wenger's analysis of the economic life of a rural shopkeeper in Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania, exemplifies an excellent use of microhistory to rethink a larger historical phenomenon. . . . Her methodology and exhaustive research . . . [provide] a much-needed complement to interpretations of the early national economy that rely on abstract theories of political economy or aggregate data from hundreds or thousands of historical actors. . . . The book will also be of great use to those with an interest in the Pennsylvania German culture, microhistory, material culture, or archaeology. . . . Wenger is at her best in the detailed analysis she provides of Rex's account books, ledgers, and other business documents. Her extensive appendixes, which painstakingly detail customer visits and goods sold, will prove almost as valuable to scholars as her interpretation. This close reading of documents often glossed over by other scholars sets Wenger's work apart from other studies of the early republican economy that focus on theories of political economy or dwell on the rise of the market. . . . Wenger's work contributes to an emerging literature interpreting the early American economy on its own terms and through the eyes of those who experienced the changes it wrought directly. By taking as evidence material actions, experiences, and artifacts, rather than abstract ideas, [this book provides] a fresh and welcome insight into the complex nature of the early republican economy. . . . A Country Storekeeper in Pennsylvania provides readers with a satisfying interpretation of the role of rural storekeepers in early national Pennsylvania and raises new methodological and conceptual questions for future studies elsewhere.”

—Donald F. Johnson, Winterthur Portfolio