6 ledgers & account books, 1812-1830 pioneering Reel family of West View & Perrysville (Allegheny County, PA), Harmony
Allegheny County, PA: 1812-1830. Hardcover. 4 hardbound ledgers / account books / day books, 2 homemade paperbound account books and miscellaneous loose papers, detailing mercantile life, farm work and smithing, tax collecting, business dealings including partnership in a Harmony PA tannery, etc. by Casper Reel and at least two of his sons, Conrad Reel and Casper Reel, Jr. Most of the Reel family papers were given by Casper Reel's great-granddaughter to the local historical society in 1914 (now the Heinz History Center) but these few ended up in our hands by way of a collector of local history who recently passed away. The History Center website has this biography of Reel (1742-1824): "Casper Reel, prominent early European settler of northern Allegheny County, was born in Frankfurt, Germany on May 11, 1742 and immigrated to the colonies as a young child. According to family tradition, Reel's father died at sea and the rest of his family settled near Baltimore, where Reel's mother and two of his siblings were killed in a Native American attack. Details concerning Reel's early life are sketchy and inconsistent, but he was apprenticed to a tanner, either in Maryland or Lancaster, Pennsylvania. By 1774, he had settled at Fort Pitt, on Fifth Street near Wood, where he conducted business as a fur trader and storekeeper. After serving in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, Reel married Elizabeth Wise (1760-1843) in 1784 in Lancaster and together they returned to Western Pennsylvania. In 1791, he acquired land in Pine Township (present-day Ross Township and West View Borough), where he built a cabin in 1792. As the first Euro-American landowner in this area, he was the victim of several attacks by Native Americans and abandoned the frontier for a few years. Returning to this area to settle permanently in 1795, Reel continued hunting, tanning, and trapping and also became a prosperous farmer, fruit culturist, constable, and the first tax collector north of the Allegheny River. The first recorded Christian marriage in this district took place on Reel's farm in 1795 between his employees Charlotte Zimmerman and Christopher Rineman. As he prospered, Reel built an estate called Reel Hall in 1813. Along with another tract called Caledonia, Reel owned over 800 acres and was widely considered to be the wealthiest man in the region." Additionally, the West View boro website has this information on Reel: "On January 22, 1798, Casper and Elizabeth welcomed twins, David and Casper, Jr. They were the first white children born north of the Allegheny. Casper and Elizabeth went on to have ten children total: Mary, Jacob, John, Daniel, Conrad, David, Casper Jr., William, William’s twin sister who died in infancy, and Elizabeth." (The West View Historical Society calls Casper Reel "the founding father of the North Hills.") Casper Reel Jr. seems to have continued the family businesses of farming and possibly even tax collection, with the help of some of his siblings, notably Conrad, the eldest son and the first postmaster in Ross Township. The first account book is 15 x 6.5 inches, half leather and marbled boards, overall good or better condition with normal rubbing and wear to binding, with approximately 85 pages filled in, from 1812-1819 with some miscellaneous entries from the 1820s at the beginning, detailing blacksmithing work such as horseshoes, sharpening blades and ploughs (including coulters) and sales of farm equipment, fuit (apples especially), and sundry other labors or goods, along with several pages of cash book entries detailing expenses, purchases, etc. The second book measures 15.75 x 6.75 inches, half leather and marbled boards, well bound but with some rubbing and wear to binding, with "Casper Reels" in ink on cover and "Casper Reel His Day Book" on flyleaf. Account book for 1815-1819, only 40 pages have been filled in. The next page details what this particular book is: "Partnership for the Tanyard at Harmony between Wm. Hays & Conrad Reel." A portion of the book does appear to have been used by Casper Reel as his own account book of smithing, sharpening blades & ploughs, selling farm goods, etc. but 10 pp. detail the business at the tanyard from 1815 to 1816, acquisition of various kinds of skins (deer, sheep, etc.), the making of harnesses and other leather products, etc., in a distinctly different hand from Casper Sr.'s, likely Conrad. Harmony (back then a German pietist utopian community, now simply a town) is located approximately 23 miles north of where the Reels made their home. The third book measures 13 x 8 inches, half leather, in fair condition with much wear and rubbing to binding, contents good, general tanning, outermost pages tattered at edges, etc. Details accounts of many names from 1822 to 1828, possibly tax collection, but it could be running accounts of their customers, all from Perrysville. The fourth book measures 12.25 x 8 inches, leather backed boards, good with general rubbing, wear and darkening to binding, about 45 pages filled in, from 1829-1830, by Casper Reel Jr. (1798-1887) detailing accounts receivable as well as expenses. The fifth book is homemade of stitched pages, 14.5 x 6.25 inches, approximately 35 pp. from 1826-1827, an account book of work done as a blacksmith, repairing farm equipment, cooper and cobbling work, etc. The sixth book is also a homemade booklet of paper stitched together and has the signatures of Jacob, Casper and William Reel, measuring 13 x 4 inches, an index of accounts by name, of about 30 pp. Together with several loose pages of account-related interest, the most interesting being one titled, "The following is a true inventory of all the goods and chattels rights and credits of Jacob Reel..." Good. Item #H41692
Price: $1,500.00