Buckland began its development as a mill-based farming and manufacturing community in the late eighteenth century at least two decades before the Virginia General Assembly officially chartered the town in 1798. Previous research has established that numerous ancillary industries and trades grew around the early village so that by 1830 Buckland had not only two mills but a paved turnpike road, stagecoach inn, tannery, distillery, blacksmiths, shoemakers, a wheelwright and cooper in addition to several residences, a church, and common grazing land. Economic growth had been fast, and the surviving period newspaper, gazetteer, and personal accounts offer a glimpse and impression of the success of business in the town. However, it has proven difficult to explain the exact local chronology or financial mechanisms by which Buckland’s enhanced productivity and trade appeared within only a few years of the charter and maintained itself through at least the first half of the nineteenth century, with milling and cloth manufacturing continuing into at least the late nineteenth century. Fortunately, the account books of multiple stores in Buckland make it possible to answer at least the second component of the above question – how manufacturing and trade worked on a day-to-day basis and how both changed over time, defining the economic viability and social fabric of the town. The best primary source evidence for the daily operations of stores, factories, and commodity exports comes from account books kept by some of the stores and manufacturers in the town at various points throughout the nineteenth century. This portion of Buckland’s rich documentary record includes the Hampton Day Book (1810), the Britton Store/Turnpike Ledger (1813-1818), the B.G.D. Moxley Account Book (1829-1835), the Marsteller Papers (1829-1857), and the Sanders Family Papers (1877-1922). Previous efforts have permitted the acquisition, preservation, or digitization of these disparate sources. For the current project, the author has transcribed and compiled a representative sample of the most complete books into a financial transaction database, allowing for a close analysis of the range and success of products and services over time.

This analysis of business and manufacturing in Buckland focuses specifically on the period 1810-1857. The objective is to clarify and characterize in greater detail the historic context of business and manufacturing in Buckland – especially milling, distilling, and cloth-making – during its key periods of growth and change. Detailed business records prior to 1810 and from the years 1857-1876 have not yet been discovered. Furthermore, the Sanders Papers, though substantial in quantity, are not comparable to the early nineteenth century sources and are so voluminous as to demand their own study – an endeavor beyond the topic and scope of the current analysis. The Sanders Store Day Books and Ledgers from the 1877-1914 period reveal a town that had changed significantly since the 1830s. Local patrons were primarily buying groceries at the Sanders store, and these purchases of eggs, bacon, sugar, and fruit, while historically interesting, offer little information concerning manufacturing or industry in the town. From 1798 to 1835, various businesses and enterprises grew in the town of Buckland, most diminishing the scale of their operations in the mid-nineteenth century. The manufacturing industries included large-scale automated mills, a distillery, and a woolen mill. Additionally, there were small-trade manufacturers that included blacksmiths, coopers, wheelwrights, shoemakers, and tanners, as well as an ambitious road building company. African American slaves and free laborers contributed to many of these trades, industries, and projects.