John Boylan, also known as Captain Bullion, was a natural businessman. He owned and operated in Pluckemin, NJ, the largest and most successful general store for miles around. Its patrons included Bedminster and Bernards township residents and those from many other communities. John also owned stores and taverns in Liberty Corner, Vealtown (now Bernardsville) and Vanderveer Mills. Some think he came to be called Bullion because of his financial genius.[1]
Who were his customers, what did they buy, and what did they pay? We can get answers to these questions from the daybooks Boylan used to record all transactions in his stores. One of the most well preserved is an original daybook from 1773-1774 now in the possession of the Clarence Dillon Library.[2] This daybook kept a record of all transactions at Boylan’s Vanderveer Mills store during that period. A copy of the front page is shown above. The “Story of An Old Farm” also has a snapshot of a Boylan daybook from 1789.[3] Familiar family names, such as Mellick, Teeple, VanArsdale and Eoff, are frequent customers. As the attached page shows, flour, corn and buckwheat were popular items at the Vanderveer Mills store. Rum, coffee and chocolate were also purchased.
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[1] Bernardsville History Book Committee, Among the Blue Hills (1991), p. 45; James P. Snell, The History of Hunterdon and Somerset Counties (1881), p. 712.
[2] Download available from NJ Digital Highway.
[3] Andrew D. Mellick, Jr., The Story of An Old Farm (1889), p. 581.
