Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

Permission to publish material from the Kent's Store Records must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Kent's Store Records, Ms89-004 - Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Acquisition Information

The Kent's Store Records were purchased by Special Collections in 1989.

Processing Information

The processing, arrangement and description of the Kent's Store Records commenced in June, 2008 and was completed in October, 2008.

Biographical Information

James Madison Kent, son of John and Elizabeth Baskett Kent, was born in Virginia in 1819. In 1845, Kent purchased from Longston Mosby a tract of land in Fluvanna County, Virginia and built a residence and store near what is today the intersection of Route 601 and Kents Store Way. By 1868, Kent had partnered with his future brother-in-law, Booker Parrish, to form Kent & Parrish, and in 1870, he married Elizabeth Parrish. The couple would have two sons, George Henry and James Aubrey Kent.

Kent & Parrish grew quickly, and by 1870, it had become one of the largest general mercantile stores in Virginia, selling primarily household goods but also catering to the wagon traffic that stopped there en route to deliver tobacco and other products to the James River Canal at Columbia.

George Henry Kent, oldest son of James and Elizabeth Parrish Kent, was born in Fluvanna County on March 6, 1853. He established the Kent's Store post office in 1874, thus giving the community an official name. Upon the death of his father (August 25, 1883), Kent continued to serve as postmaster while he and his younger brother James assumed operation of the store under the name G. H. Kent & Company. George H. Kent married Florence Mary Wood in 1881, and the couple had seven children.

Records within the collection indicate that under Kent's management, the store expanded into pharmaceutical and fertilizer sales and began the wholesale buying and selling of locally produced goods (farm crops, livestock, animal skins, etc.).

G. H. Kent & Company seems to have passed into trusteeship under S. M. Shepherd in 1903, with the remaining store inventory sold to H. R. Adams. The records within the collection indicate that George Kent purchased the store's pharmaceutical inventory and continued to operate a shop there, doing business under his own name. Following Kent's death (November 16, 1936), the business apparently continued to be operated by family members as late as 1947.

Scope and Content

This collection consists of financial records maintained by Kent & Parrish, G. H. Kent & Company, and G. H. Kent, successive owners of a general mercantile store at Kent's Store (Fluvanna County), Virginia. The majority of the collection is comprised of daybooks, journals and their corresponding account ledgers, but it also includes other types of business records such as bill books, cash books, and petty ledgers, relating not only to the store's operation but to several related enterprises, including a post office, pharmaceutical sales, fertilizer purchases and sales, a blacksmith's shop, and a livery stable. The collection also contains records relating to the administration of James M. Kent's estate.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged by item type, then chronologically, within the following series:

SERIES I: DAYBOOKS, 1869-1903. This series contains daybooks maintained by Kent & Parrish and G. H. Kent & Company. Recorded within the day books are all of the transactions at the store for each day of operation. Each entry provides the customer's name, items purchased, and amounts owed or paid. Entries for credit transactions were marked with a check and copied to the corresponding journal for that date. The final book for Kent & Parrish commences in 1883, the year of James M. Kent's death, and runs through 1901, with later entries detailing the settlement of existing accounts. Daybooks for G. H. Kent & Company commence immediately upon assumption of the store's operation in August 1883 and continue through 1903, when the company went into trusteeship and the use of daybooks was discontinued. The series is arranged chronologically.

SERIES II: JOURNALS, 1868-1947. This series contains business journals maintained by Kent & Parrish, G. H. Kent & Company, and G. H. Kent. Like the daybooks, the journals contain records of the store's daily transactions. While the daybooks recorded every transaction, however, only credit transactions were copied to the early journals. The journals sometimes record the details of the transaction but often only summaries, including customer name and amounts owed or paid. Accompanying each entry is the page number on which the customer's account may be found in the corresponding account ledger. The final journal for Kent & Parrish concludes in 1899, as accounts continued to be settled long after James M. Kent's 1883 death. The G. H. Kent & Company journals commence in 1883, running through 1903, when the store was placed under the trusteeship of S. M. Shepherd. The trusteeship journals span the years 1903 to 1910. Journals from 1906 to 1947 were maintained by G. H. Kent, conducting business under his own name, and by his heirs after his death in 1936. Beginning in 1906, the journals also include the store's cash transactions. The series is arranged chronologically.

SERIES III: ACCOUNT LEDGERS, 1868-1926. This series contains store ledgers maintained by Kent & Parrish, G. H. Kent & Company, and G. H. Kent. The credit transactions recorded within the daily journals are reconciled here in the account ledgers. The accounts of each credit customer are detailed, including names, dates of purchases, and amounts owed and paid. The accounts are not arranged in any logical order within the ledgers, but each volume includes an alphabetical index, arranged by customer name. A single customer's account may span several pages within an individual ledger and may continue for many years through several volumes. The account ledgers for Kent & Parrish continue through 1895, as accounts continued to be settled long after ownership had passed to G. H. Kent & Company. Likewise, two G. H. Kent & Company ledgers commenced in 1903 continue long past the company's dissolution and were used for the final settlement of existing accounts. Finally, the G. H. Kent ledgers, which commence with Kent's purchase of the store's pharmaceutical inventory in 1906, continue through 1926. The series is arranged chronologically.

SERIES IV: OTHER BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL RECORDS, 1874-1934. This series contains other business and personal financial records of the Kent family. Most of these records relate to the operation of Kent & Parrish and G. H. Kent & Company, as well as a few records relating to the administration of James M. Kent's estate, and other financial / legal matters.

Included in the series are such materials as bill ledgers, cash books, and an 1886 inventory, all relating to the store's operation, as well as records tracking the transactions of a number of related businesses. Among these is a volume relating to pharmaceutical sales that lists customers for various poisons, venereal medications, and paregoric). Also included within this series are records relating to the purchasing and selling of apples and fertilizer, a livery stable, mill work, and the store's post office. The series contains a single accounts ledger for blacksmith James Parrish, who seems to have leased his shop from the Kents. The series also contains three ledgers which seem to be related to the store but remain unidentified.

Also within this series are volumes not directly relating to the store's business, including several concerning the administration of the estates of James M. Kent and Rev. Stephen Eastin. Another ledger details the accounts of the Byrd Chapel Building Committee. Completing the series are a few fragments from other related records. The series is arranged by document type, then chronologically.

OVERSIZE MATERIALS, 1871-1907. Contained here are materials too large to fit in their respective series.