ill is shown in the
lists of persons whose names appear in Appendix A, which is a census of
the heads of families in the Meeting in the year 1761; added to which is
a list of names which appear in the minutes of the Meeting in years
immediately following. These lists show the growth of the population
under study, in the years from 1761 to 1780, for there are whole
families omitted from the list of 1761, who are named in the minutes in
succeeding years. An instance is that of Paul and Isaac Osborn, who came
from Rhode Island in 1760.[7]

As this list of members of the meeting shows the actual size of the
population resident upon the Hill in 1761, the other list published in
Appendix B, containing the names of those who traded at the Merritt
store in 1771, exhibits, with startling vividness, the importance of
Quaker Hill at that time. Little as the place is now, and geographically
remote and hard of access always, it was evidently in the years named a
center of a far-reaching country trade. This list is published in full,
exactly as the names appear on Daniel Merritt's ledger, to convey this
impression; and by contrast, the impression of the shrinkage in the
years since the railway changed the currents of trade. It is published
also as a basis of this study, being a numerical description, in the
rough, of the problem we are studying. And a third use which such a list
may serve is that of information to those interested in genealogy. It is
a veritable mine of information, suggestion, and even color, of the life
of that time--as indeed are the ancient ledgers, bound in calf, and kept
with exquisite care, by this colonial merchant. In these old records are
suggested, though not described, the lives of a hard-working, prosperous
population, filling the countryside, laying the foundations of fortunes
which are to-day enriching descendants. It was a community without an
idler, with trades and occupations so many as to be independent of other
communities, hopeful, abounding in credit, laying plans for generations
to come, and living bountifully, heartily from day to day.

Every item in these mercantile records is of interest and full of
suggestion, from the names of the negro slaves, who had accounts on the
books, to the products brought for sale by one customer after another,
by which they liquidated their accounts; from the "quart of rum" bought
by so many with every "trading," to the Greek Testament and Latin
Grammar bought