H. H. Buhne Company Ledger 1896 - 1897

H. H. Buhne Company, 1896. Hardcover. 800 pages. 13 by 18-1/4 inches, and weighs just under 20 lbs. Handwritten bookkeeping ledger used by the hardware and merchancise store in the heart of what is now Old Town, 422 1st Street, Eureka, California (Humboldt County). Dated June 1896 to May 1897. Every page lists customers -- including prominant individuals and businesses of the day along with their purchases -- which paints a picture of the young, industrial redwood logging town on Humboldt Bay. Customers included railroads, restaurants, fire stations, school districts, and the City of Eureka. Names include Russ, Vance, Falk, Ole Hansen, Dolbeer & Carson Mill, Pacific Lumber Company, Occidental Mill, Eureka Foundry and the H. H. Buhne Farm. Merchandise and sundries of all manner listed, from eggs, butter, sugar and soap to nails, rope, tools, buggywhips, pitch forks, barbed wire fencing and more. The ledger book was manufactured by H. S. Crocker Company of San Francisco. Born in Denmark, Hans Heinrich Buhne (1822-1894) was on the first ship to find the narrow entrance to Humboldt Bay in 1849 and was one of Eureka's earliest European settlers. Bound in leather and stamped in gold. Leather peeling in a few places, edges and corners worn. Marbled page block and endpapers. Ledger manufacturer H. S. Crocker Company's sticker on front pastdown. A large, heavy book.