DAVID L. HOW:
An Inventory of His Business Records at the Minnesota Historical Society
Manuscripts Collection
Part or all of this collection is restricted.
For
details, please see restrictions.
OVERVIEW
| Creator: | How, David L., 1835-1893, creator. | |
| Title: | David L. How business records. | |
| Dates: | 1861-1893. | |
| Abstract: | Financial records and related papers kept by David L. How, of Shakopee, Minnesota. The material relates to a Shakopee drugstore operated by How in the 1860s, and to two farms he owned in Renville and Scott counties, Minnesota. | |
| Quantity: | 0.25 cubic feet (4 folders). | |
| Location: | P1543: See Detailed Description section for shelf location. |
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
David Lennox How was born August 23, 1835 at Elbridge, New York. He attended the Monroe Collegiate Institute (1844-1848), and then moved with his family to Syracuse, New York, where he clerked in a grocery store and attended evening school. He worked in a drugstore at Dunkirk, New York from 1850 to 1855, and then moved to Adrian, Michigan, where he worked for N. Bidwell and Company, druggists.
How came to Shakopee, Minnesota in May 1857, where he opened a drugstore with D.W.C. Wisner. Wisner retired from the firm in 1858 and How operated the business in partnership with Dr. J. S. Weiser until 1861. He later operated the business with his brother as a partnership that apparently continued until 1870. The business advertised itself as "Wholesale & Retail Dealer in Drugs, Medicines, Chemicals, Turpentine, White Lead, Oils, Varnishes, Lamps, Plastering Hair, Kerosene, Oil, Patent Medicines, [and] Fancy Goods," and operated under the names D.L. How (1861-1864) and D.L. How & Bro. (1865- ).
How and a Major Strait (apparently Horace Burton Strait, 1835-1894) purchased 3/4 interest in the Jordan, Minnesota flouring mill in 1865. They also owned a mill at Chaska, Minnesota. How and Strait eventually sold these mills and purchased a large mill at Shakopee, which burned in 1875 and was rebuilt the same year.
How was an officer of the First National Bank of Shakopee and was affiliated with the Scott County Bank (Jordan, Minn.). Historian Edward D. Neill in his History of the Minnesota Valley asserts that How started both of these institutions. He also engaged in farming and stock raising.
How married Mary M. Sherrard in 1862. The couple had one child, Jennie, who married E. L. Welsh of Henderson, Minnesota on November 25, 1885.
How died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his Shakopee home on December 22, 1893.
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Availability:
The collection is open for research use.
Use Restrictions:
Copyright in the drugstore journal is retained by Murphy's Landing, a living history museum located at Shakopee, Minnesota.
Preferred Citation:
[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. David L. How Business Records. Minnesota Historical Society.
See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.
Location of Originals:
Drustore journal lent to the Minnesota Historical Society for photocopying by Murhpy's Landing, Shakopee, Minnesota.
Accession Information:
Accession numbers: 327 (Archives); 15,565; 17,057
Processing Information:
Processed by: Lydia Lucas, March 1986; additions by David B. Peterson, November 2000 and November 2015.
Catalog ID number: 990017155170104294
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
| Box | |||||||||||
| P1543 | 1 | Farm account book, 1875-1893. | |||||||||
| Ledger recording receipts and expenditures in connection with the management of farms in Renville and Scott counties, and perhaps elsewhere. There are accounts for improvements, upkeep, labor, supplies, machinery, livestock, quantities and values of field grains, receipts and expenses for various annual harvests, and livestock purchases, sales, and breeding. They are recorded in an unsystematic mix of annual or chronological and topical groupings. It is not always clear which sets of figures represent income and which represent expenses; some appear to be records of the current values of livestock and other assets. | |||||||||||
| The number of individual farms represented in the account book, as well as How's relationship to them, is unclear. He in some manner shared an interest (apparently a half interest) in a Renville County farm with Andrew, Gustave, and John Thurston. | |||||||||||
| Miscellaneous papers, 1886-1893. | |||||||||||
| Supplements the account book. Includes miscellaneous tallies and receipts of various sorts; letters from Andrew Thurston (Olivia, Minnesota) regarding farm management matters; a printed sale description of the Belle Plain Farm; a chattel mortgage of Andrew and Gustave Thurston with the First National Bank of Shakopee, offering crops and livestock on How's Farm in Norfolk Township, Renville County, as collateral for a loan (1891); and a newspaper advertisement by How offering to loan money on improved farms in Scott County (1892). | |||||||||||
| Drugstore journal, 1861-1865. | |||||||||||
| Photocopy of a financial record book from How's drugstore. Includes a listing of the firm's merchandise purchases from firms in Shakopee, Saint Paul, Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and other cities (pages 5-73). Items purchased include such things as pepper, axle grease, paper, cement, butter, eyeglasses, pharmaceuticals, Yankee Doodles, Morocco wallets, pencils, guitar strings, dictionaries, diaries, glassware, lamp black, syringes, and chewing gum. The volume also contains inventories of merchandise in the store on March 1, 1864 (pages 76-141) and March 7, 1865 (pages 142-186). Items on hand included fruit, candy, varnish, kerosene, oil, pencils, soap, a variety of pills, toothbrushes, fish hooks, candles, glass, and pharmaceuticals. The original volume is in the possession of Murphy's Landing, Shakopee, Minnesota. There are also photocopies of the drugstore's newspaper advertisements from the pages of the Shakopee Argus (1862 and 1865). | |||||||||||
| Prescription book, 1863-1864. | |||||||||||
| Prescription book of D.L. How & Bro., listing 779 prescriptions, noting for whom they were written and by whom, and instructions for taking them. Many of the prescriptions are by a Dr. Wakefield (presumably J.L. Wakefield); some are for soldiers involved in the U.S.-Dakota War or in the Civil War. | |||||||||||
CATALOG HEADINGS
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.
- Topics:
- Agriculture -- Accounting.
- Business enterprises -- Minnesota -- Shakopee.
- Drugstores -- Minnesota -- Shakopee.
- Farms -- Minnesota.
- Places:
- Renville County (Minn.).
- Scott County (Minn.).
- Shakopee (Minn.).
- Persons:
- Thurston, Andrew, creator.
- Organizations:
- D.L. How (Firm : Shakopee, Minn.), creator.
- D.L. How & Bro. (Firm : Shakopee, Minn.), ǂe creator.
- Occupations:
- Businessmen -- Minnesota.
- Merchants -- Minnesota -- Shakopee.
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