Call Number:

MC.975.08.001

Repository:

Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections

Extent:

0.13 linear ft. (1 volume)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Joshua L. Baily account book (HC.MC.975.08.001), Quaker & Special Collections, Haverford College, Haverford, PA.

Date:

1794-1915 (inclusive)

Creator:

Baily, Joshua L. (Joshua Longstreth), 1826-1916

Form:

Financial records and Account books

Abstract:

This volume was originally used as an account book, from 1794 to 1795, and was later repurposed as a diary or timeline of events, dated from 1826 to 1915. The section of the volume that acts as an account book includes an index, in which individuals are organized alphabetically, and entries record amounts paid or owned, the goods purchased, and the currency used. Goods listed are mainly dry goods and lumber, including: flour, "middling" (bulk goods of medium grade), hog feed, cornmeal, buckwheat, rye meal, and wooden boards. The second section of the volume acts as a timeline and diary for Joshua L. Baily. Included are entries concerning current events, such as terms of various presidents, the Orthodox-Hicksite separation, the emergence of the "Mormons" and their migration west, records of correspondence sent and received, and events in the Civil War and World War I.

Joshua Longstreth Baily (1826-1916) was a Quaker merchant in the dry goods business. He attended all of the American Yearly Meetings between 1845 and 1855. He contributed to African American causes, was interested in peace issues, and worked toward temperance, establishing temperance coffeehouses in Philadelphia. He was also the vice president of the National Temperance Society. He was treasurer of the Mohonk Arbitration Conference, president of the American Bible Society, and was affiliated with the Pennsylvania Prison Society for 66 years, being the organization's president at the time of his death. He was an author on topics related to Bible study and temperance. Baily married Theodate Lang in 1856. The couple had five children: Frederick Lang Baily (b. 1858), Albert Lang Baily (b. 1859), William Lloyd Baily (b. 1861), Charles Winter Baily (b. 1866), and Henry Paul Baily (b. 1868).

Sources: Dictionary of Quaker Biography, Prison Reform in Philadelphia, Genealogy of the Baily Family, pg. 302-303, Obituary in Friends Intelligencer vol. 43(1886):777, History and Genealogy of the Stackpole Family, pg. 172.

This collection is comprised of the single volume account book of Joshua L. Baily. The volume was originally used as an account book, from 1794 to 1795, and was later repurposed by Baily as a diary or timeline of events in his life, dated from 1826 to 1915. The section of the volume that acts as an account book includes an index, in which individuals are organized alphabetically, and entries record amounts paid or owned, the goods purchased, and the currency used. Goods listed are mainly dry goods and lumber, including: flour, "middling" (bulk goods of medium grade), hog feed, cornmeal, buckwheat, rye meal, and wooden boards.

The second section of the volume acts as a timeline and diary for Joshua L. Baily. Included are entries concerning current events, such as terms of various presidents, the Orthodox-Hicksite separation, the emergence of the "Mormons" and their migration west, records of correspondence sent and received, and events in the Civil War and World War I.