By Mick Woodcock

Have you ever wondered what things cost back in the "Good Old Days"? Perhaps that's a question only museum curators ask, but it can be a difficult thing to find out. There is a very little information in the newspapers of the past regarding prices. Stores advertised types of goods for sale in their regular ads and occasionally would put in a special announcement if an important shipment came in. These tell us what was being offered for sale, but not the cost.

Store ledgers are a valuable window into the merchandising past because they generally contain the prices of goods sold. It is unfortunate that more of these have not survived the march of time. Several do exist from the C. P. Head & Co., a Prescott firm that also ran the Sutler's Store (kind of like a commissary) at Fort Verde. The Verde Valley Historical Society, Fort Verde State Historic Park and Sharlot Hall Museum have copies of various years of these ledgers. Time spent examining these pages reveals the amount and types of goods available to the pioneer settlers in this area. 

Of course, knowing what something cost over one hundred years ago does not tell the whole story about life back then compared to our modern existence. While you can find out that $1.00 in 1873 would be worth $14.94 in the year 2002, it is difficult to equate horse and buggy travel and pre-electric power living with what we have today. With that said, lets look at the cost of some things from the 1873 Fort Verde Sutler's Store "On Account" book. 

The only two artificial methods of lighting the interior of a building back then was candles or coal oil, which we now call kerosene. There is no record of what a kerosene lamp cost, but we do know that a replacement globe was 50 cents, a new wick was a quarter and a gallon of kerosene was $3.50. The coal oil was kept in a special tin container that itself cost $2.00. Candles cost anywhere between 33 1/3 cents a pound and 75 cents per pound, presumably depending on how many were purchased. A tin candlestick was 50 cents. To top it off, a package of matches was 75 cents. 

Household chores were done without benefit of electricity. A new broom was $1.50 and a whisk broom cost $1.00. Soap could be bought by the pound at 20 cents per pound or in smaller quantities of three bars for a dollar. Castile soap, which was a better grade, cost 50 cents a bar. A washboard was $1.50, 14 clothespins sold for 50 cents, three-quarters of a pound of starch cost 38 cents and a one gallon tin bucket was $3.00. You also had to occasionally take care to the cooking and heating stoves. Emery cloth and stove polish added up to 75 cents for that chore. 

A lack of electricity also would hamper your ability to communicate with the outside world: no telephone, no computer, no television, no radio. The military telegraph did come to Fort Whipple, outside Prescott, in 1873, but since the Army ran it, any civilian messages had to wait until all military business was done. You would have been relegated to writing letters. A bottle of ink cost 50 cents and writing paper between 50 cents and a dollar. Envelopes themselves would run in the same price range unless you wanted stamped envelopes, which would be a dollar. Lead pencils were six for a dollar as were pen holders. The pen nibs for the pen holders themselves cost $2.50 for a gross (144). Postage rates adopted in 1851 set each half-ounce letter at three cents up to 3,000 miles or six cents to mail over 3,000 miles. This would change in 1883 when postage was lowered to two cents and four cents respectively. The common three cent postage stamp for the 1870s was green and had a bust of George Washington looking to the left. Stamps had gummed backs and came in perforated sheets. 

Although clothing could be purchased at the store, it was mostly men's garments. 
A shipment of ladies blouses, however, brought the following prices: 3 Blouses $4.00, 1 Linen blouse $1.50, 3 Linen blouses $9.00, 1 Gingham blouse $2.00, 1 Check blouse $2.00. Ladies shoes were running between $4.00 and $4.50 per pair. Two pair of ladies hose were $1.50. A pair of children's shoes cost $1.50 and a pair of child's hose was 50 cents. Ten yards of material, enough to make a dress, cost between twenty and twenty-five cents per yard for calico and 40 cents per yard for lawn. 

Alpaca wool was 50 cents per yard. You could buy four spools of black silk thread for $1.00, two spools of red thread for a quarter, two spools of thread for fifty cents, and three skeins of thread for fifty cents. Pins were fifty cents a dozen and a paper of needles cost a quarter. Braid was fifty cents, hooks and eyes a quarter. Buttons were variously priced. Five dozen buttons were sixty-three cents, six dress buttons for a quarter, some buttons were a penny apiece and eighteen pearl buttons were $1.12. If you needed a new thimble it would be a quarter while a new pair of scissors was $1.00. 

While this is not a complete list of all things available, it does give you some idea of what it was like to live in 1873. 

(Mick Woodcock is a Curator at the Sharlot Hall Museum) 



Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (ledger book #1). Reuse only by permission.