Business Records: Mississippi: "Fourth annual Fair of the Monroe Agricultural and Historical Society", 1844 - 1860

The business records series is the largest, comprising the financial correspondence and receipts and invoices documenting the business activities of Absalom Blanchard and his son William A. Blanchard, William T. Lenoir and his wife Mary, and their children. The family being cotton planters, there is extensive documentation on the cotton trade in their correspondence. There are also various documents, including bills of sale, related to the slaves the family owned. Along with receipts and invoices for goods and services provided to the family, there are also tax receipts, including some from the Civil War period, the bulk of which relate to Monroe County property but also to other counties in Mississippi and Texas. In addition, the series contains some bank books, soil conservation documents from 1936, and miscellany including William S. Lenoir, Sr.’s 1886 visitor’s ticket for the Mobile Cotton Exchange. The series is divided into two subseries: Mississippi and Texas.