1829 Woodville, Mississippi -- A traveling peddler's license under scrutiny

1829 Mississippi stampless folded letter from Woodville, Wilkinson County, addressed to the Auditor of Public Accounts at Jackson. Mi. is an early abbreviation for Mississippi. The contents explicitly identify the state and county.

  • Woodville Mi - Nov 11, 1829

    John Ashley, signing as a Wilkinson County justice of the peace, reports examining the credentials of a merchant named Lewis whom he saw selling goods as a peddler. The license was obtained from Woodson Wren, clerk of the court for Adams County, earlier that year, for twenty dollars. These are readings from the document; Wren and Lewis have not been independently identified. The text records supervision of itinerant commerce and reporting to the state accounting office. It does not establish an offense or an unpaid tax.

  • Partial red abbreviated Woodville town marking,

    Consistent with the WOODE.MI. type in the ASCC extract: E and I high, 1829-1847, approximately 32 mm, red and blue. The diameter has not been physically verified. The day appears 29; the month remains indistinct. November 11 and November 19 in the filenames are not independently confirmed postal dates. The enclosure appears dated October 11, 1829; the exact day remains provisional. Manuscript 12 1/2 cents at upper right. Under the 1825 postal schedule, this corresponds to a single-sheet letter carried over 80 and not exceeding 150 postal miles. The contemporary route and actual mileage have not been established. The upper-left script is not securely identified as a separate postal endorsement. No paid or free treatment is established.

  • "To the Auditor of Public Accounts - Jackson"

    John Ashley, signing as a Wilkinson County justice of the peace, reports examining the credentials of a merchant named Lewis whom he saw selling goods as a peddler. The license was obtained from Woodson Wren, clerk of the court for Adams County, earlier that year, for twenty dollars. These are readings from the document; Wren and Lewis have not been independently identified. The text records supervision of itinerant commerce and reporting to the state accounting office. It does not establish an offense or an unpaid tax. The auditor correspondence finding aid at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History identifies Hiram G. Runnels correspondence for 1828-1829. Runnels later became governor. Destination described as the office of State Auditor Hiram G. Runnels; the cover addresses the office, not the man by name. A genealogical compilation identifies a John Ashley who served for many years as a Wilkinson County justice of the peace, a plausible candidate for the signer.

  • Woodville Mi - Nov 19 1829 - 051025-D

    The State of Mississippi -- To the auditor of Wilkinson County public accounts Agreeable to Law I have examined the Licence of a Mr Lewis whom I saw selling goods as a pedler in Said County and find them to be a licence to sell by horse or foot and that he obtained them from Woodson Wren clerk of the Court for Adams County Some time in the first of the present year and that he paid twenty Dollars for the Same given under my hand this 11th day of October 1829 John Ashley J P 1825 postal act, section 13, rate schedule https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/United_States_Statutes_at_Large/Volume_4/18th_Congress/2nd_Session/Chapter_64