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A personal account book of Joseph E. Bell: a record of survival in nineteenth century rural America

University of Maine

Thomas Tyson

St John Fisher College

While many recent accounting histories focus on large companies or institutions and describe the origins, antecedents, or developments of modern practice, few explore the working world of the common man and the activities needed to survive on farms and in rural areas. This paper describes the life of a nondescript early nineteenth century working man primarily through his personal account book. Joseph E. Bell lived in Lincolnton, North Carolina from 1820-1827 and was at various times a minister, a teacher, a seller of books, a renter, a hauler of cotton, a farmer, an extractor of teeth and perhaps a merchant as well. Bell's account book illuminates a life rarely examined by today's accounting historians. It reveals the range of skills and flexibility that were needed to survive in an era preceding the advent of the modern job or career. The account book clearly shows the nature of accounting in a rural economy that had relatively little hard currency and relied on multiparty barter transactions.

Key Words: colonial bookkeeping • barter accounting • personal accounts

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