HISTORY NEBRASKA MANUSCRIPT FINDING AID
RG3959.AM: William Thomas Seymour, 1852-
Account books: 1889-1892
Stromsburg, Polk County, Neb.: Restaurant owner; farmer
Size: 2 folders
BACKGROUND NOTE
William T. Seymour was born in Maryland in December of 1852. His wife, Eva, born in 1855, was a native of Pennsylvania. The Seymours had five children, born between 1873 and 1885. From census reports, it can be ascertained that the Seymour family lived in Stromsburg, Polk County, Nebraska, from at least 1879 through 1885. Other evidence shows that he farmed in Stromsburg until 1888, when he rented out his farm and moved to Adams County, Pennsylvania. Here he purchased and managed a flour, feed, grocery and meat market.
William Seymour and his family returned to Stromsburg, Nebraska, in October of 1889. Almost immediately he opened a restaurant and confectionary, next to the Park Bank. Seymour’s advertisements in The Stromsburg Headlight, a local newspaper, read, “Oyster or a square meal at W.T. Seymour’s Southside.” A mouth after opening, the newspaper reported that Seymour “had opened up a first-class restaurant and confectionery. The building has been refitted, papered, and supplied with new and appropriate furniture, and is already a popular resort.”
In March of 1890, Seymour added a bakery. A year later he moved his family onto a farm, but he and his wife continued to run the businesses. In June of 1892, a soda fountain was added. Later that month, however, he sold the bakery, soda fountain, confectionery, and restaurant business to A.P. Buckley. Seymour apparently returned to farming, as the 1900 census records him as a farmer in Stromsburg Precinct.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE
This collection consists of photocopies of two volumes (in two folders) of account books dating from 1889-1892. This material relates to the restaurant, confectionery, and bakery businesses of William T. Seymour of Stromsburg, Nebraska. The account books record all purchases made by customers of William T. Seymour. Entries show the date of purchase, the item bought, and the amount paid. Although an index is not provided and names are not arranged in alphabetical order, the account books do provide illuminating financial records of a restaurant/confectionery business of the late 1880s an early 1890s in Nebraska.
The collection was loaned for copying by Louise Johnson in 1979.
INVENTORY
Volume (folder)- Account book, 1889
- Account book, 1889-1892
Subject headings:
Bakers and bakeries — Nebraska
Polk County (Neb.) — Businesses
Polk County (Neb.) — History
Restaurants, lunchrooms, etc. — Nebraska
Seymour, William Thomas, 1852-
Stromsburg (Neb.) — Businesses
AIF 12-12-1979
11-09-2009 Revised TMM/tmm