Exactly 230 years ago today – on January 4, 1792 – and ad appeared in the New Jersey Journal published in “Elizabethtown” for a store owned by William Holmes and Israel Crane.
Visitors to the Crane House and Historic YWCA learn that Israel Crane was quite the entrepreneur, with a general store, the Newark Pompton Turnpike, rock quarry, and cider, woolen and cotton mills.
This ad, one of the earliest one we’ve seen, offers proof that four years before he built his home, when he was just 18 years old, he was in a business venture with Mr. William Holmes. The ad also provides an interesting glimpse into life in the late 18th century.
It begins, “For SALE at their Store in CRANE-TOWN, the following articles, viz.
The advertisement, which is nothing like Madison Avenue designed advertisements today, is a dense 30+ line long list of “a large assortment of” items (see below).
Need fabric for a dress? Rather than weave it yourself, you could buy chintzes, callicoes [sic] muslin handkerchiefs and aprons, plain lawns, black and white gauzes, satins, corduroys, velvets, broad clothes, purple and chintz shawls, and more. While you’re shopping, don’t forget to grab all the accessories, too, such as ribbons, tapes, and sewing threads. The ad also lists fabrics we’re not as familiar with 230 years later: “sarsenettes,” “muslinettes,” “moreens,” and “camblets” to name a few.
The housewares list hints at what the 18th century kitchen might have included: knives and forks, cutteau [a large carving or fighting knife], penknives, razors, shears, scissors, shoe and knee buckles, chest locks and hinges, smoothing irons, frying pans, brass kettles, griddles, pots, snuff and tobacco boxes, table and tea spoons, pint and quart pots, basons [sic], porringers, spectacles, a large assortment of glass, crockery and earthen wares, window glass 7 by 9, 8 by 10, looking glasses [mirrors].
No liquor needed at the Holmes and Crane establishment. The groceries list begins with spirits – Jamaican spirits, New York rum, elder spirits, peach brandy, case and draft ginn [sic], wine, cherry, &c. Next they list the non-alcoholic products: hyson souchong and bohea teas, sugar, molasses, pepper, ginger, allspice, chocolate, coffee, indigo, redwood, allum copperass [used to set dyes], brimstone [sulfur], powder and thor [hunting items], starch, rice, genuine Harlaem oil [a cure-all], camphire [analgesic and insect repellent], and salts. This list also included three items we couldn’t identify, pink rock packing and blown salts.
And fear not, according to Misters Holmes and Crane, “there are also a variety of other articles which cannot be enumerated in an advertisement.”
By November 1793, William Holmes was advertising his store without Israel Crane’s name. The first we see of Israel Crane as a proprietor of his own store wasn’t until 1806 – 13 years later.
