This collection contains two small ledger books, a letter and three pieces of ephemera apparently used as bookmarks. All items relate directly to people living in Bradford County. The client accounts are not chronologically arranged and do not the usual column accounting.

There are two account books. One is bound with a brown leather spine and mottled brown book board cover, 6 ½” wide x 7 ½” tall x 5/8” thick with faintly blue lined and index notched pages. This book is inscribed three times David Whipple in crude ink and pencil handwriting on the free end paper along with a penciled note - Blacksmiths Ledger 1840’s, the paste down end paper has a series of numbers from 1 to 20 written in ink and cursive a to g in pencil, the notched pages are indexed A through Y with no pages D-E, I, Q,Z. The pages are used either for accounts naming many pioneering citizens of Bradford County such as the Benjamin family, the Bennet and Biles families, the Homets, LaPortes and the Vanderpools. There are several examples of practice handwriting. The examples for penmanship exercises list primarily the Whipple and Wheeler family names. An Erastus Wheeler is listed in the 1907 Bradford County Directory as a boarder on the Whipple farm. As a “bookmark” is an instructional guide for forming numbers. Dates of entries are as early as 1829 to 1907. Another “bookmark” is a scrap of paper listing a transaction between David Benjamin and Jacob Emery dated Aylum (Asylum) September 19, 1834.

The second book is bound with a dark brown buckram spine and marbled dark brown book board cover 4 ¼” wide x 11 ¾” tall x 5/8” thick with blue lined pages. As a “bookmark” is a letter dated Oct. 22 - 05 to Rastus (possibly Erastus Wheeler who is listed as a boarder on the Whipple farm) from John B Rogers (Monroeton Pa). John B. Rogers is listed in Bradford County Directory of 1907 as a farmer in Wilmot Township and a justice of the peace of Wyalusing Borough from 1905 to 1910. Another “bookmark” is a “Judgment Note” dated Wilmot Pa April 28 1908 naming Ira Wilber in the amount of $155. This book lists Charles and Charles Jr. Homet as David Whipple clients. Charles Homet was one of pioneering French to create a settlement in 1793as a refuge for the king (Louis XVI) and queen (Marie Antoinette) of France in Asylum, Bradford County. Charles Homet’s wife was a lady-in-waiting to Marie Antoinette. Charles and his wife married in New Jersey and their son, Charles Jr. was born there before the family moved on to Asylum. Later the family moved to Wilmot Township. The Homet family is listed several times as using David Whipple’s blacksmithing services. There appears to be two David Whipples involved with the ledgers.