Evenings Inside an American General Store, 1880s | History for Sleep

In 1885 an Ohio farm hand earned $15 a month and his board, and the general store in his town carried most families on credit for a whole year, settled once the harvest sold. Eggs came across the counter in baskets, were candled one by one at a tin box with a lamp inside, and went off to the cities 30 dozen to a crate. A letter now cost 2 cents an ounce, a postal card 1 cent, and the evening mail came up the road in one leather bag. Far away in New York, one dinner plate at Delmonico's cost about $12, the same as 1,440 of those eggs. So what did the man behind the counter know about his neighbors, and what did he carry up the stairs each night? Subscribe to the channel: @oldamericanights In this video, we talk about evenings inside an American general store in the 1880s, including the porch and the loafers' bench, the long room and its famous smell, the hanging kerosene lamp, the red coffee mill and the platform scale, the cheese wheel and the cracker barrel, penny candy and a five cent slice of tobacco, brown paper and the twine in its iron holder, calico measured on brass tacks, the daybook and the great ledger, paying in eggs and butter, candling eggs by lamplight, a farm hand's wage beside a Delmonico's dinner, the post office corner and the star route mail, Montgomery Ward's wish book, the patent medicine shelf, the checkers game around the stove, closing up for the night, and the storekeeper's family asleep above the dark shop. 🔔 Subscribe so the next long night in old America finds you without any searching. 💬 Comment where in the world you are listening from, and which corner of the old country store you would have lingered in longest. 📢 Share this with anyone who loves drifting off to history, on Facebook, Reddit, or a quiet group chat, because you are the reason these long nights keep getting made. Chapters: 00:00 Opening 15:19 The ceiling hung with everything 35:07 Paper, string and the iron holder 55:45 What the ledger knows 1:15:57 Twelve dollars a plate 1:37:16 The wish book from Chicago 1:57:54 Ducks, comets and the new president 2:18:21 The last customer and the till 2:38:58 What the ledger never wrote Sources: Gerald Carson, Holiday Time at the Old Country Store, American Heritage (1954) https://www.americanheritage.com/holi... The Henry Ford, History of the J.R. Jones General Store https://www.thehenryford.org/collecti... The Henry Ford, Shopping at an 1880s General Store https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/... Smithsonian National Postal Museum, Account Book of Alden Station, Ohio https://postalmuseum.si.edu/collectio... Smithsonian National Postal Museum, Moving the Mail: Star Routes https://postalmuseum.si.edu/moving-th... U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wages of Farm Labor in the United States (1892) https://archive.org/stream/wagesoffar... South Dakota State Historical Society, Trading Posts and General Stores https://history.sd.gov/museum/docs/Tr... DISCLAIMER: This video is based on real historical events and figures, drawn from the sources listed above alongside primary archives, biographies, court records, period press, and leading historical scholarship. While every video is heavily researched, occasional minor inaccuracies in dates, quotes, or specific details may occur — historical sources sometimes disagree, and interpretation is sometimes required where the historical record is silent. Any errors are unintentional. #OldAmericaNights #HistoryForSleep #SleepHistory #GeneralStore #CountryStore #OldCountryStore #1880s #1885 #Ohio #SmallTownAmerica #RuralAmerica #AmericanHistory #SocialHistory #NineteenthCentury #CrackerBarrel #PostOffice #StarRoute #MontgomeryWard #Delmonicos #BedtimeHistory #SleepStory #RelaxingHistory