Talk:Randolph County, Illinois

This is great info! Thanks for sharing it! I'm going to move parts of your text to the section about Libraries and Societies on the main Randolph County, Illinois page. Lise 11:56, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

The Chester Library in Chester, (Randolph County) Illinois has a digitized copy of William Morrison's Ledger Book on their website. According to the information on their website: The William Morrison Ledger is a handwritten ledger listing the transactions conducted at his Kaskaskia Store. The ledger includes the customer's name, items purchased, and amount owed. The 655-page ledger covers the years 1805 to 1831, offering glimpses of early merchandising methods. It lists over 1200 early settlers who pioneered or traveled through Kaskaskia (Randolph County, Illinois).

In a separate book, presumably one of Morrison’s clerks compiled a handwritten index of the ledger. The ledger was also digitized as part of the project. However, it is in very fragile condition and several pages have sections missing.

Morrison’s descendant, another William Morrison, gave the ledger and many other Kaskaskia Store account books to the Chester Public Library.

The FHL has a copy of the index, which is included in the ledger. The ledger can be accessed at: http://digsrvr.shawls.lib.il.us/cht/ to see information about the ledger or at http://digsrvr.shawls.lib.il.us/cht/search.php to actually search the ledger.