Kate’s Notes: Old store ledgers can be valuable resources for genealogists. In this article of local interest, published nearly 130 years ago, we find the name of John Gilliland among the list of those who traded with the Nisbet brothers in the latter part of the 1700’s. I would love to examine the original ledgers for details of these transactions but their whereabouts are unknown to me. Also, the list of customers published in the article was quite long so I have only furnished John’s name for the purpose of this transcription, though I have handwritten notes with the complete list.

From The Carolina Watchman
Salisbury, NC
29 June, 1882

   For the Watchman.  William and David Nisbet had a store in Salisbury as early as 1767 and outwards. David lived in Montgomery county, and died about 1790. William died 1800. They carried on a very extensive business in Salisbury. There are memoranda of large quantities of silver money “steel  yard weights,” some of it was cut silver; that is they made change  by cutting large pieces with a chisel into halves and quarters – it not long since one of these was found in the garden at the old Nisbet place in Iredell – there is a record of sums of money deposited under the hearth and under the stairs of their house in Salisbury.
    Some of the names on their books of those who traded with them, beginning at or before 1767, are, . . . John Gilliland. 
    John Nesbit the brother of Wm. And Thomas, had a store, four miles above Statesville, for many years, up to the time that town began, about 1790. It was the greatest center of business for a long time; the house is still standing. Mr. Nesbit died in 1817.
                                                                              E. F. R.  

-transcription by Kate Maynard, 2011