Beginning in about 1830, John F. Fenton began a thriving business as a wheelwright in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He married Mary Ann Ring, also of Newtown, on November 26, 1834, and was elected a County Commissioner in the late 1850s.

The Fenton Day Books provide a daily record of work performed by the Bucks County wheelwright and County Commissioner, John F. Fenton, between 1830 and 1844, primarily the manufacture or repair of wagons and wheels (double trees, wagon tongues, sideboards, spokes, rims), with very occasional reference to carriages. Other activities are occasionally recorded by Fenton, including making a plough, mending and painting a hay rake, dressing saws, and providing cord wood, and in 1831, he records going hunting "in the pines" and getting five deer.

Volume 1 consists of three volumes bound together; volume 2 includes 4 pages of work by hired hands for June 1853.

Provenance

Gift of Edward H. Barnsley, 1977 (accn. no. 1977-204ms).

Preferred citation

Cite as: John F. Fenton Day Books, American Philosophical Society.

Processing information

Recatalogued rsc April 2003.

General physical description

2 vols. (289pp.); 0.25 linear feet

Early American History Note

The John Fenton Collection consists of daybooks for Fenton's business as a wheelwright. The books contain records of clients, prices charged, and costs for goods and labor for the years 1830-1844.

Genre(s)

• Business Records and Accounts
• Daybooks.

Subject(s)

• Business and Skilled Trades
• Carriage and wagon making--Pennsylvania--Bucks County
• Wheelwrights--Pennsylvania--Bucks County