Woodbridge Mercantile Company Records
Collection
Collection Number: A&M 1455
These are the records of the Woodbridge Mercantile Company and related businesses operated in Marietta, Ohio from the years 1743 to 1882. Woodbridge began the business, which included trade up and down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia to Kentucky and points in between. George M. Woodbridge’s business dealt in real estate, and so indicates the growth of the area west of Marietta. The growth of river trade and the types of goods traded are described extensively in the collection. Other topics include aspects of life in the early nineteenth century Ohio River Valley, real estate, and other business concerns. Prominent names in the collection include D. Woodbridge, George M. Woodbridge, and Harmon Blennerhasset.
Subjects found in collection:
Ships and shipbuilding – Volumes 1, 6, 8, 14, 31, 37, 53, 132
Transportation of goods, overland and by river (Ohio and Muskingum) – Volumes 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 123, 124
Harmon Blennerhasset and Blennerhasset Island – Volumes 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25
Land values and transaction of land – Volumes 56, 79, 81, 89, 131
Bank of Marietta – Volumes 2, 6, 9, 98
No special access restriction applies.
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.
10.9 Linear Feet (10 ft. 11 in. (21 document cases, 5 in. each); (3 document cases, 2 1/2 in. each); (4 small flat storage boxes, 3 1/2 in. each); (1 small flat storage box, 5 in.); 1 reel of microfilm)
English
Letter and account books, clipping scrapbooks, and miscellaneous family papers of a pioneer, Ohio Valley, general merchandise firm founded by Dudley Woodbridge, Sr., at Marietta, Ohio, and operating under various names for a period of more than sixty years. The collection also includes the account books of Daniel, Richard, and John Greene, 1808-1844; account books of F.B. Loomis, 1842-1844; a medicinal formulary book; the estate records of John Brody; records of a pension and bounty land claims agency operated by George M. Woodbridge, 1861-1864; and justice of the peace accounts, 1832-1863. Subjects include the development of river markets, transportation, and the livestock industry in the early Ohio Valley; fur trade and commerce with England and Europe; the Marietta and Susquehanna Trading Company; Kanawha and Sciota salt works; Ohio Company lands; Woodbridge-Harman Blennerhassett partnership; ginseng trade; Wheeling Cotton Manufacturing Company; ropewalk and shipbuilding in Marietta; military land warrants; estate of George Morgan; career of William Woodbridge, United States senator and governor of Michigan; pioneer education; Meadville Seminary; Ohio University; Miami University; Marietta Collegiate Institute; Belpre, Ohio; American Catholic missions; early history of Marietta; the American Colonization Society; Washington County Colonization Society; churches; Washington County Tract Society; recruiting in Marietta during the Civil War; impact of the War of 1812 on westward migration and labor; and Woodbridge family affairs. Letters are addressed to merchants in London, France, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Charleston (West Virginia), Lexington and Louisville (Kentucky), Cincinnati, St. Louis, New Orleans, Washington, Detroit, and Baltimore. Correspondents include Lewis Cass, Philip Doddridge, and Benjamin Reeder.
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown, WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / Fax: 304-293-3981 / URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/
Part of the West Virginia and Regional History Center Repository