Includes: Ten account books and ledgers from James Alexander’s Oswego Brewery and related commercial operations, covering the period 1852-1864. * Two books of check stubs from the Oswego period. * Two indexes to ledger books from the Oswego period. * Five account books and ledgers from James Alexander’s Geneva Brewery and related commercial operations, covering the period 1866-1881. * One book of check stubs from the Geneva period. * Two indexes to ledger books from the Geneva period. * Approximately 300 loose receipts, business letters, revenue forms and related items, nearly all from the Geneva period. The ledger books are mostly leather-backed marbled boards, a few full leather.
Fascinating and important commercial record of the breweries of James Alexander in upstate New York, covering a period of thirty years. The ledgers include both accounts payable and receivable, payments to employees, itemized listings of supplies purchased, and of course the beer, ale and porter sold. Also included are records of various batches of beer brewed, with the quantities of hops, yeast and malt used, the gravity, etc. One of the ledger books from the Geneva period gives Alexander’s accounting to the government, being records “of Materials used and Fermented Liquors made and sold or removed for consumption or sale at the Brewery carried on by James Alexander in the Village of Geneva County of Ontario in the State of New York.” Alexander’s brewing operations were quite extensive, and significant in the business and commerce of the region. An article in the May 8, 1858 issue of the Oswego Commercial Times gives a fairly detailed outline of the brewery, in part: “Mr. James Alexander’s Brewery, on West Fourth Street, is certainly one of the best arranged and most convenient establishments for the purpose we have seen. Everything in the concern is in perfect gradation from the loft, which receives the barley, to the cellar which stores the beer… Mr Alexander is a scientific and practical brewer and maltster, and can turn out a superior article when he gets an equivalent price. He showed us some samples in his cellar of Pale Ale, equal to the far famed Nottingham, as clear as amber and sparkling as champagne. His family is of different qualities to suit various tastes some dark and heavy, and others light and pale, but all with a body that has good weight to it. Mr. Alexander first started a small brewery here many years since, which he sold out and erected a large and extensive concern on his farm, three miles up the river, which, when just put into operation, was unfortunately burned down, and being uninsured, Mr. Alexander sustained a most serious loss, which threw him out of the business until he was able to commence his present building, which he did only two years since on a small scale, which, at the close of the past year he found necessary to enlarge very considerably, to meet his increasing business. His new concrete malting floor is a model for the purpose, and his stock cellar is constructed with the main view of equable temperature at all season…”