Lawrence-Gulley General Store Records

1898 to 1955, undated
Manuscript Collection #5
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Creator(s)
Lawrence-Gulley General Store
Physical description
41.5 Cubic Feet, consisting of correspondence, mortgages, bank notes, promissory notes, invoices, statements of account, checks, ledgers, daybooks, stock inventory books, cash books, and catalogues.
Preferred Citation
Lawrence-Gulley General Store Records (#5), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
Repository
ECU Manuscript Collection
Access
No restrictions

The Lawrence-Gulley General Store Records document the financial and commercial activities of a rural eastern North Carolina mercantile business from approximately 1898 to 1955. The collection consists primarily of business records, including correspondence, mortgages, receipts, invoices, inventories, day books, account books, ledgers, journals, cash books, sales books, cotton books, and related financial materials. These records provide detailed evidence of daily store operations, customer credit systems, agricultural commerce, inventory management, and local economic networks during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Particularly extensive are the day books and ledger volumes, which preserve long term transactional documentation and offer insight into patterns of rural trade and community relationships. The collection is valuable for research relating to regional commerce, agricultural history, rural consumer practices, bookkeeping methods, and the economic development of eastern North Carolina.

Biographical/historical information

The Leggett General Store was a store in the small town of Leggett in Edgecombe County, N.C., operated during the first half of the 20th Century by members of the Lawrence family. Joshua Thomas "J.T." Lawrence, Sr., was born on August 8, 1883, in Martin County, NC. He later relocated to Edgecombe County, NC, and married Mary Lillian Fountain in June of 1908. Lawrence had at least five children: two boys and three girls. J.T. Lawrence, Sr., was the owner of the Leggett General Store from 1919 to 1945 and was succeeded by various members of the Lawrence and Fountain families. By 1941, Lawrence was a member of the County Board of Education in Edgecomb County. Lawrence also worked with Fountain and Fountain, an Edgecombe County company which provided mortgage loans. J. T. Lawrence, Sr., died in May of 1949 in Leggett, NC.

Scope and arrangement

The Lawrence-Gulley General Store Records consist primarily of business and financial records documenting the operation of a general mercantile establishment in eastern North Carolina from the late nineteenth through the mid twentieth century. Materials include correspondence, mortgages, receipts, invoices, statements of account, shipping orders, inventories, bank records, safe records, day books, account books, order books, journals, cash books, cotton books, sales books, and ledgers dating principally from 1898 to 1955. The collection provides extensive documentation of the daily commercial operations, credit practices, inventory management, agricultural commerce, and customer transactions associated with a rural general store enterprise during the first half of the twentieth century.

The collection is arranged by record type and then chronologically where possible. Boxes 1-4 contain correspondence, mortgages, receipts, invoices, inventories, banking records, and safe records. Boxes 5-30 primarily contain day books, account books, and order books documenting daily sales and customer transactions. Boxes 30-61 contain ledgers, journals, cash books, and related financial volumes recording accounts and business activity. Box 62 contains a cotton book, an undated account book, and an additional ledger volume. Several volumes and folders are undated.

Administrative information
Custodial History

September 20, 1967, ca. 1,200 items and 120 volumes; Store records of the firm owned successively by C. L. Fountain and L. E. Fountain (1903-1908), C. L. Fountain and J. Tommie Lawrence (1909-1915), C.L. Fountain (1915-1918), and J. Tommie Lawrence (1919-1945), consisting of correspondence (1940-1945), mortgages, bank notes, promissory notes, invoices, statements of account, checks, ledger, daybooks, stock inventory books, cash books, and catalogues. Gift of Oscar G. Gulley III, Leggett, North Carolina.

Source of acquisition

Gift of Oscar G. Gulley III

Processing information

Processed by D. Lennon

Encoded by Apex Data Services

Copyright notice

Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.

Metadata Rights Declaration

This record is made available under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Creative Commons license.

Key terms
Corporate Names
Lawrence-Gulley General Store
Topical
Agriculture--North Carolina--Edgecombe County--History
Cigarettes--Taxation--North Carolina
Commercial catalogs
Farm tenancy--North Carolina--History--20th century
General stores--North Carolina--Edgecombe County
Public schools--North Carolina--Edgecombe County
Places
Edgecombe County (N.C.)--History
Container list
Box 1 Folder a Correspondence, 1940-1945
Box 1 Folder b Mortgages, 1904-1911
Box 1 Folder c Receipts, Accounts, Services, and Shipping Orders, 1903-1915
Box 1 Folder d Invoices and Statements of Account, 1915
Box 1 Folder e Invoices, Statements of Accounts, and Shipping Orders, 1918
Box 1 Folder f Invoices, Statements of Accounts, and Shipping Orders, 1918
Box 1 Folder g Invoices, Statements of Accounts, and Shipping Orders, 1918
Box 2 Folder a Invoices, Statements of Accounts, and Shipping Orders, 1918
Box 2 Folder b Invoices, Statements of Accounts, and Shipping Orders, 1918
Box 2 Folder c Invoices, Statements of Accounts, and Shipping Orders, 1918
Box 2 Folder d Invoices, Statements of Accounts, and Shipping Orders, 1919
Box 3 Folder a Inventory, 1905
Box 3 Folder b Inventory, 1909
Box 3 Folder d Inventory, 1917
Box 3 Folder c Inventory, 1907-1908
Box 3 Folder e Inventory, 1918
Box 3 Folder f Inventory, 1919
Box 3 Folder g Inventory, 1920 and 1928
Box 4 Folder a Inventory, 1921-1922
Box 4 Folder b Inventory, 1945-1949
Box 4 Folder c Inventory, undated
Box 4 Folder d J.T. Lawrence and Son Security National Bank Records, 1494-1950
Box 4 Folder e Safe Record, 1951-1952
Box 4 Folder f Safe Record, 1952-1953
Box 4 Folder g Safe Record, 1954-1955
Box 5 Folder a Day Book, undated
Box 5 Folder b Day Book, 1904
Box 5 Folder c Day Book, 1904
Box 5 Folder d Day Book, 1904
Box 5 Folder e Day Book, 1904
Box 5 Folder f Day Book, 1904
Box 5 Folder g Account Book, 1904
Box 5 Folder h Account Book, October 1904 - January 1905
Box 5 Folder i Account Book, 1904 - March 30, 1905
Box 6 Folder a Account Book, October 7 - December 25, 1905
Box 6 Folder b Day Book, 1905
Box 6 Folder c Day Book, May - September 1904
Box 6 Folder d Day Book, 1905
Box 6 Folder e Day Book, December 1905 - February 1906
Box 6 Folder f Order Book, October 2 - December 6, 1905
Box 6 Folder g Order Book, September 1905
Box 6 Folder h Day Book, 1905
Box 7 Folder a Day Book, 1906
Box 7 Folder b Day Book, 1906
Box 7 Folder c Order Book, 1906
Box 7 Folder d Account Book, 1907
Box 7 Folder e Account Book, September 1907
Box 7 Folder f Account Book, March - July 1909
Box 8 Folder a Day Book, 1909
Box 8 Folder b Day Book, 1910-1911
Box 8 Folder c Day Book, July 1918
Box 8 Folder d Day Book, 1919-1921
Box 8 Folder e Day Book, 1926-1929
Box 9 Day Book, 1910
Box 10 Day Book, 1910
Box 11 Day Book, 1913-1914
Box 12 Day Book, 1913 July - December
Box 13 Day Book, 1914 August - December
Box 14 Day Book, 1915 March - September
Box 15 Day Book, 1916 January - February
Box 16 Day Book, 1917 January - September
Box 17 Day Book, 1917 February - October
Box 18 Day Book, 1917 September - 1918 March
Box 19 Day Book, March - July, 1920
Box 20 Day Book, August 1920 , February 1921
Box 21 Day Book, July 1923 , March 1924
Box 22 Day Book, April 1924 , August 1924
Box 23 Day Book, September 1924 , February 1925
Box 24 Day Book, March 1925 , August 1925
Box 25 Day Book, September 1925 , January 1926
Box 26 Day Book, January , July 1926
Box 27 Day Book, July 1926 , July 1927
Box 28 Day Book, August 1927 , September 1928
Box 29 Folder a Day Book, 1931-1934
Box 29 Folder b Day Book, September 1930 , June 1931
Box 29 Folder c Day Book, undated
Box 29 Folder d Day Book, undated
Box 29 Folder e Day Book, undated
Box 29 Folder f Day Book, undated
Box 30 Folder a Day Book, undated
Box 30 Folder b Day Book, undated
Box 30 Folder c Day Book, undated
Box 30 Folder d Day Book, undated
Box 30 Folder e Day Book, undated
Box 30 Folder f Day Book, undated
Box 30 Folder g Day Book, undated
Box 30 Folder h Ledger, 1898-1903
Box 31 Folder a Ledger, 1902
Box 31 Folder b Ledger, 1902
Box 31 Folder c Ledger, 1904
Box 32 Folder a Ledger, 1905
Box 32 Folder b Ledger, 1905-1906
Box 32 Folder c Ledger, 1906
Box 33 Ledger, 1907
Box 34 Ledger, January 1906 and February 1908
Box 35 Folder a Ledger, March 1907 and August 1908
Box 35 Folder b Ledger, 1907-1909
Box 35 Folder c Ledger, September 1908 and August 1909
Box 35 Folder d Journal, October 1908 and March 1909
Box 36 Ledger, March and October 1908
Box 37 Ledger, 1908-1909
Box 38 Folder a Ledger, 1909
Box 38 Folder b Ledger, 1909
Box 38 Folder c Ledger, 1909
Box 38 Folder d Ledger, 1911
Box 39 Ledger, 1911
Box 40 Ledger, October 1911 and June 1912
Box 41 Ledger, July - December 1912
Box 42 Ledger, January 1911 and November 1912
Box 43 Ledger, 1912-1913
Box 44 Ledger, 1914
Box 45 Folder a Ledger, 1914
Box 45 Folder b Ledger, 1915
Box 45 Folder c Ledger, 1915
Box 45 Folder d Ledger, 1918
Box 45 Folder e Cash Book, 1919
Box 46 Ledger, 1916
Box 47 Ledger, 1916
Box 48 Ledger, 1917
Box 49 Ledger, 1918
Box 50 Ledger, 1918
Box 51 Ledger, 1918
Box 52 Ledger, 1919
Box 53 Folder a Cash Book, 1919
Box 53 Folder b Ledger, 1920
Box 53 Folder c Cash Book, 1920
Box 53 Folder d Ledger, 1920-1922
Box 53 Folder e Ledger, 1912
Box 54 Ledger, 1920
Box 55 Ledger, 1920
Box 56 Ledger, 1920
Box 57 Folder a Ledger, 1913-1914
Box 57 Folder b Cash Book, 1924
Box 57 Folder c Cash Book, 1925
Box 57 Folder d Day Book, 1925
Box 57 Folder e Ledger, 1925
Box 58 Ledger, 1920-1948
Box 59 Folder a Ledger, 1931
Box 59 Folder b Ledger, 1933
Box 59 Folder c Sales Book, 1933-1934
Box 59 Folder d Journal, 1934
Box 59 Folder e Ledger, 1938
Box 59 Folder f Ledger, 1944
Box 60 Folder a Ledger, undated
Box 60 Folder b Ledger, undated
Box 60 Folder c Ledger, undated
Box 60 Folder d Ledger, undated
Box 60 Folder e Ledger, undated
Box 60 Folder f Ledger, undated
Box 61 Ledger, undated
Box 62 Folder a Cotton Book, 1925
Box 62 Folder b Account Book, undated
Box 62 Folder c Ledger, 1916