Jacob Post, Sr. Order to Joel Coe ca. 1808: A Document Relating to the Towns of Aurelius (later Fleming) and Scipio

An "Order" Issued by Jacob Post, Sr.

Jacob Post, Sr. operated a tannery and grain mill on what is now Stone School Road in the Town of Fleming, Cayuga Co., New York during the first several decades of the 19th Century. Note that Fleming was part of the Town of Aurelius before 28 March 1823. Among the loose papers found in the accounts ledger for the tannery was an "Order" for $0.98 issued by Jacob Post to Joel Coe. The Order directs Joel to pay $0.98 to his son - presumably Nathaniel Coe - in return for Jacob reducing Joel's debt on Jacob's account books by an equal amount. Jacob Post apparently owed $0.98 to Joel's son for the "school rate," essentially a school tax. Nathaniel Coe, Joel's younger son, was known to have been a School Teacher in later years and may have been working in a similar capacity at the time of Jacob's Order. The Order somewhat ambiguously references Joel's purchases of 28 March 1808, probably meaning Jacob's undated Order was issued at a later date but perhaps in the same year.

Images of the Order

Reverse side of an "Order" for $0.98 issued by Jacob Post, Sr. of Aurelius (later Fleming), Cayuga Co., New York to Joel Coe of Scipio, Cayuga Co., New York ca. 1808

Text of an "Order" for $0.98 issued by Jacob Post, Sr. of Aurelius (later Fleming), Cayuga Co., New York to Joel Coe of Scipio, Cayuga Co., New York ca. 1808

Transcription of the Order Text

"Mr. Joel Coe please to pay your son Ninety Eight Sents for my School rate and this will Settel so much on your account from yours March 28, 1808 - Jacob Post"

Bill of Exchange

Trading debt as a means of exchange is interesting in and of itself. The example of Joel Coe having debt held by Jacob Post and Jacob having a debt to Nathaniel Coe, and the respective debts being at least partially settled by Joel paying Nathaniel, appears to be efficient. Other examples can be found of such balancing of accounts during the early 19th Century. Jacob Post, Sr.'s Order to Joel Coe appears to be a financial instrument called a "Bill of Exchange," based on the following definition and explanation.

"The fore-runner to the modern cheque was the bill of exchange, originally a private transaction involving a money-lender. It was described by Robert Goodacre in A Treatise on Book-Keeping adapted to the use of Schools, published in 1818, as follows:   

'A bill of exchange[:]  written order drawn by one person A, on another person B, directing B to pay, on his account, a certain sum of money, therein specified, according to the direction of a third person, C.' 

The person ordering the exchange (A) was known as the 'drawer'. The person receiving the order (B) - the third party - was called the 'drawee'. The drawee would already have money on deposit from the drawer, or would be confident that the money would be repaid to him. Bills were usually endorsed (written on) by the drawee to indicate his acceptance of the bill. (C) was the 'payee', although this did not mean that he would always be paid the money in person. The payee 'directed' the payment of the money, meaning that it could either be paid to him, or he could order it to be paid to somebody else - for instance, in part-payment of one of his own debts. In such a case, the bill was endorsed by the payee with details of to whom the money should be paid, and transferred to that person." 

-- Manuscripts and Special Collections:  Cash Substitutes. University of Nottingham, UK - China - Malaysia.
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/researchguidance/accounting/cashsubstitutes.aspx

Thus, Jacob would be the drawer of the Bill, Joel would be the drawee, and Nathaniel would be the payee. Jacob did not have money on deposit with Joel, but by canceling an equal amount of Joel's debt, Jacob effectively repaid Joel.

Joel Coe

Joel Coe and his family had come into Scipio, Cayuga Co., New York from Chester, Morris Co., New Jersey in 1795 and settled near Scipio Center. The account in Storke (1879) gives the location as about "three-fourths of a mile north of Scipio Center where Wm. Akin now [1879] lives." In fact, the location of William Akin's residence was slightly over 1 mile north of Scipio Center on Lot 16 as shown on an 1875 map of Scipio. Joel took up 640 acres at 1 shilling per acre, according to one account. Joel apparently sent some of his grain to market in the form of whiskey because Elisha Barnes, a somewhat later settler of Scipio who came in from Pharsalia, Chenango Co., New York in 1812, went to work for Joel in his distillery for a year before establishing his own operation in East Scipio in 1813. The account about Elisha Barnes places Joel Coe's distillery about 2 miles north of Scipio Center, but it seems more likely that it would have been on Joel's property and the distance not quite so far north.

We have to wonder why Joel Coe had to travel to Jacob Post's mill and tannery in an adjacent township, a distance of perhaps 6.5 miles. Joel could have been purchasing tanned leather. On the other hand, it is more amusing to speculate that Joel needed some malt ground for his whiskey-making operation. If we could only sample it now!