Hunter's Store Records - Pendleton, South Carolina
Collection
Identifier: Mss-0130
The collection includes business records of the blacksmith and of Hunter's Store from 1851-1922. These records include 20 ledgers (1847-1918); Indices for three of the ledgers: Volume 12 (1893-1896), Volume 16 (1903-1907) and Volume 18 (1907-1910); four cash books (1904-1918); four guano account books; and eight folders of copies of customers invoices and correspondence (1861,1896-1922)pertaining to the business of the store. There are entries in several ledgers for Ashtabula Farm which list names of people rather than merchandise purchased. Many of the volumes are oversized and are in poor condition. A miscellaneous ledger dated 1850 and entitled C.H. Anderson is in the collection. There are no ledgers for 1857, 1873-1880, 1882-1884, 1887-1892. There is a ledger (volume 5) covering the period from 1858-1889, with only the account of John. B. Sitton.
In Pendleton SC James Hunter began blacksmithing by 1847 and opened a blacksmith shop on Mechanic Street by the 1850's. Mr. Hunter continued the blacksmith shop at that location until 1889. He began the operation of a store with a man named Mr. Long in 1870. The store known as Hunter and Long was located in a two story brick building which was built circa 1850 on Queen Street. The building is still known as Hunter's Store. In 1873 Mr. Hunter bought full interest in the store and it was known as James Hunter - Dealer in General Merchandise. Later he and two of his sons, James T. Hunter and Miles M. Hunter, ran the store as James Hunter and Sons. After his death in 1889 it became James Hunter's Sons - Dealers in General Merchandise. Later Miles M. Hunter bought full interest and ran the store as M. M. Hunter - General Merchandise, Fertilizers and Cotton and about 1916 it became M. M. Hunter - Dealer in General Merchandise and Cotton. In 1929 a new building was built across a side street and the original building was used as a warehouse. After the death of Miles Hunter in 1939 three of his sons, Benjamin Gaillard (B.G.) Hunter, Ralph Hunter and Miles Hunter, operated the store as Hunter's Store, Inc. until 1962 when the assets were liquidated. In 1967 the property of the original Hunter's Store which is located across from the town square in Pendleton was purchased from H. L. Dunlap by the Pendleton District Historical Commission in order to be used as a tourist center, museum and its headquarters.
4.15 Cubic Feet (31 volumes and 8 folders)
English
The records of the Hunter's Store document the operations of a family blacksmith and then general store, 1840's - 1920's, in Pendleton, South Carolina. The records were donated by Gaillard Hunter in 1964 and one ledger was added by purchase in 2024. They were formerly cataloged as 64-1.
The collection was prepared by Nancy Keller in April 1992.
Part of the Clemson University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Repository