Graves Hardware Store records

The Graves Hardware Store records comprises ten volumes of financial records (two account books, four journals, and four ledgers) covering operations of the store, and its predecessor, Graves & Meyer, in Oak Harbor, Ohio from 1910 to 1936.

The series of account books is continuous from 1910 through 1921, providing a picture of people in the economic community of Oak Harbor. The journals, which give information on the commodities bought at the store between 1910 and 1926, have one gap from August 1913 through August 1916. The cross references from the journals to the corresponding entry in the account books provide access to information on the purchasing history of each customer. The ledgers provide more comprehensive financial information, starting in 1912 and extending well into the Depression era in 1936, with one gap between 1916 and 1918. These volumes, too, have cross references to the account books.

While the collection does not include any correspondence or other background material on Graves Hardware, the coordinating relationship between the volumes does give some view of the local economy of Oak Harbor during the first third of the 20th century.