Contractor Makes Find At Old Lawrence Co. Farm

The Herald-Advertiser – December 11, 1966

Submitted by Lorna Marks

IRONTON, Ohio – A Flatwoods, Ky. Contractor, engaged to move an old barn near Union Landing in Lawrence County, O., came up with an unusual find.

Paul BAILEY now displays a notebook filled with pages from two ledgers which date back to 1851. They are records of a store, once located along the Ohio River, on what is known as the Goldcamp farm, near Ironton.

Alfred F. GOLDCAMP of Union Landing says that the ledgers were filled by General KELLY, who operated the store. Mr. Goldcamp noted that the store building has vanished, but that the Goldcamp homeplace still stands, although vandals have practically wrecked it.

It was in the two-story brick house that the ledgers were recovered by Mr. Bailey, a collector of historical material.

The entries on the well-preserved pages of the store records would turn today’s housewife green with envy.

A gallon of molasses cost 40 cents, 1-3/4 pounds of cheese cost 25 cents, a bar of soap went for a dime, and a wooden bucket brought 33 cents. Coffee was 15 cents a pound, and 15-1/2 pounds of choice meat cost $1.55.

For the quaffers of whisky, six gallons cost $4.50 and 8-1/2 pounds of codfish brought 60 cents. Ten pounds of bacon went for 80 cents.

A man, who came to board at the Kelly home in 1851, was paid $24.50 for driving the horses, or 50 cents a day. He paid his board of $10.26 and 50 cents for his washing.

The Kelly store came into the Goldcamp family after a succession of owners.

The huge riverside home, built in 1852, has nine rooms, and suffered damage in the floods of 1913 and 1937. Mr. Goldcamp, whose service in World War I is chronicled in several letters accompanying the old ledger pages, noted that the Ohio Power Co. has acquired 650 acres in the area for future development of an electrical generating plant. The site of the old house is included in the transaction, which was announced in November 1954.

Returning to the old Kelly store, Mr. Goldcamp observed that business was brisk, according to entries in the old books, that a man’s credit was good during the boom years of the Hanging Rock area when charcoal furnaces turned out iron ore, relying on the rich deposits in the western Lawrence County area.

Mr. Goldcamp, the last of nine children, now lives about half a mile from the old house.

In addition to the attraction of an ancient, empty house, the area has been a hunting ground for persons interested in Indian lore. Many "finds" in Indian arrowheads and other artifacts have been reported along the shore and riverbanks.

Mr. Goldcamp watches over an old cemetery, though, and reports that he has chased persons away from the burial ground for fear they might desecrate the old cemetery.