This collection consists of four account books. The first two of these were created during the early 1890s by a Washoe Valley, Nevada general merchandise store--possibly that operated during the 1880s by C.A. Lee of Franktown. The third account book was owned by William Morris, who worked as a blacksmith during 1856-57 and was later Justice of the Peace of Township #3 in Contra Costa County as is evidenced by the presence of Justice's Minutes (1865) in the same volume. The fourth book was created by a blacksmith in Uniontown (Lotus), El Dorado County, Calif. (1860-1863).

During the late 19th c. the Washoe Valley, located half way between Carson City and Reno, was a quiet agricultural region.A generation earlier the three principal villages in the valley--Franktown, Washoe City and Steamboat Springs--had been booming,due to the need for lumber and other goods and services at the nearby Comstock Lode in Virginia City. In 1866 Washoe City is said to have featured seventy stamp mills! During the 1860s, Washoe City was the county seat of Washoe County and Franktown, as the site of a large saw mill, was the principal supplier of timber to Nevada's silver mines. When the Central Pacific Railroad was completed in 1869, however, Reno--which lay on the route--became the county seat. Soon afterward a spur line linked Virginia City with Reno. By 1881 Washoe City was "But the mournful relic of its former greatness," according to Thompson & West's History of Nevada.

Collection is open for research.