mums627 Phinehas Hemenway Daybook Finding Aid Finding aid prepared by Dex Haven. Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Dubois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst, Mass.
2009

© University of Massachusetts Amherst. All rights reserved.

 Finding aid encoded in MSWord2009-02-06 Finding aid written in English Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst Phinehas Hemenway Daybook Finding Aid MS 627 bd Compiled by Dex Haven August 2009

© 2008 University of Massachusetts Amherst. All rights reserved.

 Collection Overview Hemenway, Phinehas. Phinehas Hemenway Daybook 1818-1828 MS 627 bd 1 volume (0.1 linear ft.) Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst The tanner Phinehas Hemenway was born in Bolton, Worcester County, Mass., in September 1794, the fourth of six children born to Simeon and Mary (Goss) Hemenway, but he resided nearly his entire adult life in the Franklin County hill town of Shutebsury. Although little is known about his life, Hemenway appears to have married twice, to a Polly or Mary Gray in about 1816, and to the widow Mary Sears of Prescott in Aril 1838. Hemenway died in Shutesbury on December 21, 1850. With approximately 150 pages of brief, but closely written records of daily transactions, the Hemenway daybook documents the range of activities of rural tannery in antebellum Massachusetts. Along with the names of clients, the date and amount, and a brief notation on whether the work was for dressing, tanning, currying, or (apparently) the sale of finished product, Hemenway records work in a variety of leathers, from calf to sheep, hog, and horse and from sole leather to upper leather, sometimes specified as for shoes. The daybook also includes credit entries for labor performed, the purchase of hemlock bark or hides, or more rarely for cash to settle accounts. English Historical Note

The tanner Phinehas Hemenway was born in Bolton, Worcester County, Mass., in September 1794, the fourth of six children born to Simeon and Mary (Goss) Hemenway, but he resided nearly his entire adult life in the Franklin County hill town of Shutebsury. Although little is known about his life, Hemenway appears to have married twice, to a Polly or Mary Gray in about 1816, and to the widow Mary Sears of Prescott in Aril 1838. Hemenway died in Shutesbury on December 21, 1850.

 Scope and Contents of the Collection

With approximately 150 pages of brief, but closely written records of daily transactions, the Hemenway daybook documents the range of activities of rural tannery in antebellum Massachusetts. Along with the names of clients, the date and amount, and a brief notation on whether the work was for dressing, tanning, currying, or (apparently) the sale of finished product, Hemenway records work in a variety of leathers, from calf to sheep, hog, and horse and from sole leather to upper leather, sometimes specified as for shoes. The daybook also includes credit entries for labor performed, the purchase of hemlock bark or hides, or more rarely for cash to settle accounts.

Laid into the front of the volume is a copy of a letter to the Overseers of the Poor for the town of Shutesbury, Nov. 1, 1823, requesting reimbursement for support given to Ebenezer Burpee and family following Burpee's illness, along with a loose leaf of paper containing some calculations.

The collection is open for research.

 Preferred Citation

Cite as: Phinehas Hemenway Daybook (MS 627 bd). Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Acquired from Dan Casavant, 2002.

Processed by Dex Haven, August 2009.

Hemenway's marriage to Mary Sears is recorded in Lillie Pierce Coolidge, The History of Prescott, Massachusetts (s.l., ca.1952).

 Search Terms Hemenway, Phinehas, 1794-1850. Tanners--Massachusetts--Shutesbury. Tetrahymena--Genetics. Shutesbury (Mass.)--Economic conditions--19th century. Daybooks.