Company Ledgers

During operations, 1771 to 1883, the company clerk kept furnace records meticulously. More than 18,000 pages from seventy-six record books, dating primarily from 1800 to 1876, have been scanned and digitized, allowing for a glimpse into life at Hopewell Furnace.

Account books document information including payments to workers, workers’ store purchases, and payments from dealers of more than 3,600 individuals and 300 businesses.

Volunteers have been working on a project to make these books searchable by name, book type, and date. If you are interested in assisting with this project, visit volunteer.gov.

 

What are the Hopewell Furnace Account Books?
The company clerk documented furnace operations and financial transactions in a series of record books. The books owned by Hopewell Furnace consist of:

• General Ledgers – Accounts of workers (households).
• Main Journals – Re-recorded financial transactions neatly from daybooks and other books. Entries include payments to workers and vendors, purchases from the store, payments fro dealers, transfers between workers, cash deposits and withdrawals, and any other transaction involving money.
• Daybooks – Recorded original entries for all transactions that did not include a specialized book. Entries were often transferred into a main journal.
• Store Journals – Daybook of the Company Store, organized in chronological order of transactions.
• Store Ledgers – Daybook of the Company Store, organized by account.
• Cash Books – Records cash transactions involving the furnace.
• Blast Books – Records the details of a particular blast.
• Time Books – Records time of work done.
• Moulders Books – Details work done by a moulder.
• Canal and Railroad Books – Records loads materials shipped to and from the furnace via local canals and railroads.
• Order Books – record of castings ordered by customers.
• Hauling Books – Records of hauling ore, castings, iron, wood, or other various things to/from the furnace.

 

Viewing Company Ledgers
Researchers can browse and search these 19th Century account books through an online portal via NP Gallery.

Additional Hopewell Furnace account books are owned by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Berks History Center; Chester County Historical Society; and the Pennsylvania State Archives. The Pennsylvania State Archives’ Hopewell Furnace books are in Manuscript Group (MG)-2, MG-258 and MG-259. Researchers will need to make appointments with these institutions in order to access their Hopewell Furnace account books.