The business records in this collection chronicle the commercial and financial transactions of J.C. Satterthwaite and family in the period of 1844-1874 (with the bulk falling in the 1850s and 1860s). Though there are some records prior to the period when Satterthwaite had control of the "Raisin Mills," the great majority of records document the various commercial activities of the Satterthwaite family. Concerned with the routine of daily business life in Raisin and Tecumseh, Michigan, the daily transactions offer a microcosm of small town commerce in nineteenth-century Michigan.
The collection has been arranged by the different kinds of enterprises in which the Satterthwaites were involved: the grain and flour mills, a warehouse (or possibly warehouses), and a retail store. For each of these, Satterthwaite maintained day books, ledgers, and journals. The day books document the daily register/receipts of the grain mill, retail establishment, and warehouse. These volumes encompass the years 1844-1865, with an emphasis on the activity at the grain mill.
The ledgers contain the running documentation of individual customer accounts with an emphasis on accounts established at the warehouse. In addition to ledgers for the grain mill and warehouse, the collection contains two which list railroad freight accounts. These last, seemingly unrelated to any of the other businesses, are presumably evidence of J.C. Satterthwaite's additional career as a railroad freight agent.
The cash books record the cash flow of the various establishments, with, as in the day books, an emphasis on the grain mill transactions. Somewhat unrelated to the rest of the collection is a cash book related to the selling of plaster. Its connection with the other Satterthwaite business records is unclear.
The day books, in particular, offer insight into the bulk quantities of staples purchased by individuals at that time, while that of the retail store reflects other, smaller necessities purchased regularly by the townspeople of Raisin and Tecumseh. The collection concludes with a miscellaneous series consisting of the personal financial documents of J.C. Satterthwaite, coupled with two folders of loan documents and receipts, which together suggest an active borrowing and loaning of funds outside of the confines of the Bank of Tecumseh.
Several volumes in the collection have illegible pages due to their later use as scrapbooks. These scrapbook pages contain contemporaneous newspaper clippings consisting of poetry, caricatures, and inspirational stories.
The Satterthwaite family, headed by Samuel Satterthwaite and his son Joseph (J. C.), were proprietors of various mercantile enterprises in the city of Raisin, near Tecumseh, Michigan, during the mid- to late-nineteenth century. Samuel Satterthwaite was the founder of the flour and lumber mills, known as the "Raisin Mills," and established in 1847 and 1838 respectively. His partner in the flour mill was Aaron Comfort, whose surname appears frequently in Satterthwaite's journals and ledgers. Almost nothing is known of his partner in the lumber mill, Tilton Curtis. The name "Raisin Mills" refers to the location of the mills on the River Raisin, one and one-half miles southeast of Tecumseh. Unfortunately, there is no information regarding the warehouse or retail operations which figure prominently in Satterthwaite's collection. In 1864, J.C. Satterthwaite suffered business setbacks due to unpaid debts. Though giving up proprietorship in the mills to another member of the Comfort family, Woolston Comfort, Satterthwaite seems to have continued working there.
