Information Sheet

 

 

R         McCanse Brothers.

355                  Records, 1886‑1933.

                                    Six volumes.

 

MICROFILM

 

 

 

These are journals, cash books, and ledgers from the mercantile opera­tions of the McCanse family at Mount Vernon, Lawrence County, Missouri.  Included are rec­ords of the firm styled McCanse Brothers, 1886‑ca. 1899, and those of Charles A. McCanse, ca. 1899‑1933.

 

The McCanse brothers were sons of William Alexander McCanse (1821-­1911), a promi­nent early merchant of Lawrence County, Missouri.  Charles A. (1864‑   ), George A. (1860‑1934), and William Cotter McCanse (1856‑  ) formally organized the firm McCanse Brothers on 29 April 1887.  Its stated purpose was “the prosecution of a hardware and house fur­nishing goods business” in Mount Vernon.  The new combination appears to have been an ex­pansion of a pre­viously exist­ing partnership in the general merchandise trade.  Charles A. McCanse seems to have taken over George’s interests in 1890, and was sole operator by 1899.

 

The McCanse records reflect typical general merchandise operations in small Missouri towns at the turn of the century.  The records con­sist of standard financial records of the Mc­Canse broth­ers operation at Mount Vernon, and, later, those of Charles A. McCanse. Some vol­umes include records of both.  Volume 2 bears a notation regarding the partnership of the McCanse Brothers.  Entries in Volume 5 indicate the changes leading to sole operation by Charles A. McCanse.  Par­ticu­larly useful are the statements of loss and gain, assets and liabili­ties, and dividends recorded in Volume 3 for the period 1889‑1932.  They reveal a prosperous en­terprise at Mount Vernon which sustained a loss only in 1891, caused by fire.

 

The original volumes are part of a collection of mercantile records held by the Lawrence County Historical Society at the Jones Memorial Chapel near Mount Vernon, Missouri.  Earlier re­c­ords from this collection, including some for William Alexander McCanse, have been micro­filmed as Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Rolla numbers R315, R332, R333, and R345.

 

 

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