Thursday, August 18, 2016

Personal Estate of Peter Johnston, Jr. (1832): Foodstuffs and Food Production

From Inventory and Appraisement of the Personal Estate of Peter Johnston, Jr. (1763-1831). Peter Carr Johnston (1793-1877), administrator. Washington County, Virginia, Will Book No. 6, page 261, recorded August 27, 1832. Appraisers: George V. Litchfield (ca. 1797-1875), Valentine Baugh (1775-1851) and Robert R. Preston (probably 1793-1866, Abingdon banker. Note that his son attended VMI and that Peter Carr Johnston was on VMI's first Board of Visitors in 1839).

In the lists, let's start with animals other than horses and dogs, and bees. The Panecillo estate included, at least at the time of its purchase in 1811, about 500 acres of land just outside of Abingdon, Virginia. Some of the original land may have been given over to Peter's son Charles Clement Johnston (1795-1832) in the 1820s.
 

Note: of the thirty-two enslaved people living on the land in 1831-1832, many would have been designated for doing the preponderance of outdoor labor, tending the fields and animals. There would have been a separate garden for their tillage and slave quarters (probably three to six cabins), plus a detached kitchen, stables and additional outbuildings. 

37 head of sheep = $37.00 [about $1,000 equivalency in 2016]
25 hogs = $37.50
100 pigs = $25.00
2 3-year old steers = $15.50
4 yearling steers and bulls = $17.00
7 2-year old heifers = $30.00
2 heifers = $12.00
6 cows and one calf = $44.00
6 work oxen = $70
5 stands of bees = $8.00

Next, crops and grains:
400 bushels of wheat = $200
2 stacks of old oats = $60
420 bushels of rye = $90
700 bushels of corn = $233.33
40 acres of oats in the field = $80.00

Representative tools:
3 patent ploughs (plows) and hangings = $15
3 scythes and cradles = $9.00
3 grass scythes and hangings = $4.00
1 cross cut saw = $3.50
5 hoes = $1.75
4 axes = $3.00
3 one-horse barshear ploughs (plows) [for corn] = $3.00
2 pairs of sheep shears = .50
1 harrow = $4.00
1 wagon = $50
4 sets gears = $20
2 pairs wheels and iron axles = $5.00
1 lot of carpenter's tools = $5.00
1 iron wedge = .375
1 spade and chizel (chisel) = .50
1 lot of brick = $25.00

In the next post, we'll turn to interior items. 

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