Contributing Institution: UCLA Library Special Collections

Title: D. B. Long ledger

Creator: Long, D. B. (David Burton)

Source: Zephyr

Identifier/Call Number: Biomed.0394

Physical Description: 1 unknown (1 volume)

Date (inclusive): 1865-1919

Language of Material: English .

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Purchased from Zephyr, 1 October 2016.

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UCLA Catalog Record ID: 8054658 

Ledger begins with the constitution and minutes for U.S.A. Hospital [i.e., U.S. Hospital, or U.S. General Hospital] Temperance Society (Cleveland, Ohio) Temperance Literary Society, Cleveland, Ohio, March-April 1865, [10] p. (on [10] leaves, some blank), kept by D.B. (David Burton) Long, secretary. Followed by Long's ledger for the patrons of a cooperative drug store in Ellsworth, Kansas, 1877-1878 and 1890-1891. Laid in: Picture postcard from Alice B. Long, Kansas City, to D.B. Long in Boulder, Colorado, cancelled 1919.

"This fascinating manuscript offers an invaluable historical record of the emergence of Temperance societies during the Civil War, as well as the movement during the Gilded Age to establish cooperative programs for American farmers to help them sidestep middlemen and keep more profits for themselves. This U.S. Army Hospital Temperance Society was organized in March, 1865 at the General Hospital for Camp Cleveland, with David Burton Long (1829-1923) as Secretary. He had enlisted in 1862, and became 1st Sergeant in the Regular Army Hospital Stewards Infantry, Company F, Ohio, 124th Infantry Regiment, and mustered out on March 14, 1865 after he had been promoted to Full Hospital Steward. Members were to pay 10¢ dues for joining, and were to take an oath of abstaining from the use of alcoholic beverages, and to prohibit its use among the soldier patients of the Hospital, and serve on the Society's Vigilance Committee against alcohol. The manuscript records the mandated weekly meetings, with debates ranging from whether Lafayette deserved greater gratitude from Americans than George Washington, to the position that the dangers from the abuse of alcohol were a greater evil than slavery, as well as various infractions by members such as hitting the head of another member with a cane at the first meeting. Of interest is the postponement of the April 14th, 1865 meeting due to the celebrations and thanksgiving surrounding the surrender of Robert E. Lee's Army. The last meeting recorded by Long was for the April 20, 1865, and following these minutes he has included an index with page numbers of all the names and places detailed in the Temperance Society minutes."--Antiquarian bookseller's description, 2016.

"Long left the Ohio area, and moved to Ellsworth, Kansas after the Civil War to homestead and settled there as a successful farmer until the beginning of the 20th century. First married to Harriet Marie Long (1840-1899), and subsequently to Alice B. Dawson Long (1861-1934) he kept the accounts of the Farmer's Drug Store Cooperative in Ellsworth, KS. Farming after the Civil War became much more onerous with industries receiving tax breaks, and farm owners steadily losing their farms when they couldn't pay back loans, their mortgages, or tax liabilities, forcing them to become tenant farmers under a crop-lien system. The Patrons of Husbandry known as the Grange began setting up cooperative programs allowing farmers to help themselves, borrow money, and eliminate the middlemen who were enjoying lucrative profits. This ledger maintained by Long for the years of 1877, 1878, and 1890 record the expenses, and debts incurred by the various coop members, with specific amounts listed and deducted from their shares, together with careful account of how much each had paid. The last 14 pages of the manuscript detail drugs, supplies, and other materials bought and sold by the Farmer's Drug Store including Laudanum, Camphor, Diptheria Medicines, Fish Oil, Cotton Seed Oil, Sulphuric Ether, Coca, Ammonia, Tannic Acid, Adhesive Plaster, Gasoline, Red Lead, Japan Varnish, and even Gun Powder. Long would eventually become ill after moving to Boulder, Colorado, and entered the Battle Mountain Sanitarium at Hot Springs, South Dakota in 1917. See: Humphreys, Marrow of Tragedy: The Health Crisis of the Civil War (2013); D.E.W., The Temperance Movement in This Hospital, Hospital Register, 2 (April 16, 1864), p. 134; Agricultural Problems and Gilded Age Politics."--Antiquarian bookseller's description, 2016.