A Sale In 1849

newspaper clipping amanda shafer scrapbook
Princeton paper March 9 1927

Below is an account of a sale which took place near Versailles, Kentucky in 1849. It was taken by my grandfather (then a young man) from the Livestock Reporter, a primitive paper of that day.
He gave the paper to a daughter who gave it to me when a young girl. Many people were leaving for Oregon Territory about that time, and all the sales, I have heard that grandfather said, were large and of plentiful amount. This sale reads as follows:
"Having sold my farm and am leaving by ox team for Oregon Territory onMarch 1 1849 I will sell all my personal property except two ox teams, Buck and Ben, and Lon and Jerry. The property consists of the following: two milk cows, 1 grey mare and colt, 1 pair of oxen, 1 yoke, 1 baby yoke, 2 ox carts, 1 iron plow with wood mole board, 800 feet of popular weather boards, 1000 feet of three-foot clapboards, 1500 ten foot fence rails, 1 60 gallon soap kettle, 85 sugar troughs made of white ash timber, 10 gallons maple syrup, 2 spinning wheels, 30 pounds mutton tallow, 1 large loom made by Jerry Wilson, 100 split hoops, 100 empty barrels, 1 32gallon barrel of Johnson-Miller Whiskey 7 years old, 20 gallons apple brandy, 1 40-gallon copper still, 4 sides of oak-tanned leather, 1 dozen woolen pitchforks, a one-half interest in tan yard, 1 32-calibur rifle made by Ben Miller, 50 gallons of soft soap, hams, bacon, and lard, 40 gallons of sorghum molasses, 6 head of fox hounds all soft-mouthed but one.
"At the same time I will sell my negro slaves-two men, 35 and 50 years old, two boys 12 and 18 years old, two mulatto wenches, 40 and 30 years old. Will sell all together to the same party as I will not seperate them.
"Terms of Sale-cash in hand or note to draw 4 percent interest with Bob McConnell security. My home is two miles south of Versailles, Kentucky on McConnel Ferry pike. Sale will begin at eight o'clock sharp. a.m. Plenty to eat and drink." J.B. Graves, from a Texas paper.