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Money and Barter
In early Worthington, people were more likely to exchange skilled labor or produce than to pay with cash. Money was scarce and the village had no bank, but goods and services had a cash value which was recognized throughout the community.
The 1805 subscription list for the Worthington Academy shows more than fifty subscribers including "Thomas Palmer - 5000 brick & $7 cash ($27), Levi Pinney - $9 cash $9 in timber & $2 in smith work, Benjamin Chapman - 2000 feet floor boards & $5 cash ($35), Abram Nutt - $5 cash & 5000 shingles ($22.50), Ebenezer Welch - 100 bushels of line $12.50, Chauncey Barker - $15 in joiner work, Roswell Wilcox - 12 days work ($18)." Bricks were valued at $4 per 1000, floor boards $15 per 1000 feet, and a day's labor $1.50.
It was much the same in 1819 when subscriptions were sought to build a new college wing onto the academy building. James Russell pledged $25 in painting "when boded for," Stephan Maynard $50 in lumber "at ay mill," Orris Parrish $5 for books of history and poetry, Chester Griswold $25 in tinner and carpenter work or $36 in Hinnes' twelve volume History of England, Asa Gillet $25 in hay or produce, John Collins $25 in boots and shoes, and Matthew Seeley $25 in lumber and lime.
In 1819 goods and services had a more tangible value than money. During the postwar inflation of 1815 to 1818, more than thirty varieties of paper currency commonly circulated in central Ohio. Bank notes were frequently discounted outside their local area because no one was sure whether they could be redeemed or at what discount rate.
Currency issued by Ezra Griswold Besides the notes of some twenty-eight state chartered banks, there were "shinplasters" issued by turnpike and manufacturing companies, merchants, and tavern keepers. In Worthington this included notes issued by the Worthington Manufacturing Company and by tavern keeper Ezra Griswold. Fraud was rampant as illustrated by E.W. Cowles' notice in the Columbus Gazette refusing to honor a twenty dollar note against the Worthington Manufacturing Company because the company had never issued notes larger than ten dollars.
When Smith & Hor opened a new store in Worthington in 1820 they accepted "notes from the Bank of Cincinnati, J.H. Piatt, Urbana paper and Griswold's notes of Worthington." Griswold's currency was issued in 6 1/4 cents, 12 1/2 cents, 50 cents, $1, and $2 denominations between 1816 and 1819.
Most buyers and sellers found barter essential to remain in business. In 1821, Worthington physician Daniel Upson advertised that he would accept "wheat, rye, corn, oats, flax, linen cloth, Beeswax, Tallow, Lard & Sugar on most debts due me."
Griswold and Spencer, publishers of the Franklin Chronicle. accepted produce in payment for subscriptions - butter, cheese, tallow, beeswax, sugar, honey, lard, chickens, eggs, bacon, beef, rye, wheat, oats, corn, flour, firewood, fruit (dried or green), linen, flax, wool, cloth, venison, dressed deer skins, potatoes or "money, although extremely scarce, we do not wish to exclude from among those articles we would MOST GLADLY receive."
When they dissolved their printing partnership in August 1821, the following values were assigned: "butter 10 cts/lb, bacon 8 cts/lb, wool 50 to 75 cts/lb, flax 12 1/2 cts/lb, country linen 25 to 50 cts/yd, wheat 62 1/2 cts/bu, rye 44 cts/bu, corn 37 1/2 cts/bu, potatoes 44 cts/bu, chickens $l/doz, eggs 8 cts/doz, beeswax 25 cts/lb, lard 10 cts/lb, honey 75 cts/gal, dressed deerskins 50 cts to $1.50, rags 2 cts/lb."
As late as 1842 when Cowles' store was inventoried, the appraisers of his estate noted that the prices were based on payment in goods and would be "251 off for cash."
The extent to which Ohio businessmen in the first half of the 19th century risked all personal as well as business property, is illustrated by the fate of Worthington's leading pioneers James Kilbourne and Ezra Griswold during the 1819 depression. Kilbourne committed everything he had to the Worthington Manufacturing Company during the postwar boon and saw it all vanish when the business was unable to pay its creditors.
Like many local citizens, Ezra Griswold co-signed James Kilbourne's note and almost lost his tavern and personal belongings when it came due. Both men transferred their real estate, including their homes, to selected relatives to avoid having everything sold at sheriff's auction for debts.
It would be years before internal improvements such as roads, canals, and railroads made cash markets accessible to Ohio producers, and the United States stabilized currency rates through a national banking system.
SOURCES:
The 17 Hay 1805 Worthington Academy subscription list is in the Griswold Papers, 1802-1809, photocopy at Worthington Historical Society. The 5 February 1819 subscription list for Worthington College is in the 1810-1820 folder of the same collection.
An overview of Ohio's economy in this period is in C.C. Huntington, "A History of Banking and Currency in Ohio before the Civil War," Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society Publications, Vol. XXIV (1915) pp. 235-539.
Cowles' advertisement concerning Worthington Manufacturing Company notes is in the Columbus Gazette, 21 January 1819. Smith & Hor's advertisement is in the Franklin Chronicle, 10 April 1820, Daniel Upson's 5 February 1821, Griswold & Spencer's 12 February and 20 August 1821.
A history of Griswold currency was published by Richard G. Coakwell in Coin World, 24 September 1980, p. 88.
R.W. Cowles' estate inventory, Franklin County Common Pleas Court, is on microfilm GR 3368, pp. 203 at the Ohio Historical Society.
Boyd S Suydam's suit against the Worthington Manufacturing Company March 1819 to Hay 1823, Franklin County Common Pleas Court, Execution Book 6, p. 57 . Franklin Bank of Columbus suit against Ezra Griswold November 1819, Franklin County Clerk of Courts Complete Record, Vol. 1, p. 440 , and against Griswold heirs December 1827 in Chancery Record, Vol. 1, p. 356.
This article is one of a series of 31 articles originally published in the Worthington News and then in the book "Probing Worthington's Heritage" copyright by Robert and Jennie McCormick. The 1990 book is out of print, but copies are available at the libraries of the Worthington Historical Society and the Old Worthington Library. Much of this content was later included in the book "New Englanders on the Ohio Frontier" which can be purchased at our Gift Shop.
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