History

This original ledger was used by the E. W. Chapman Ranch to keep track of their employees time spent working, starting in July of 1876 and running through June of 1878 . Generally the amount worked are either indicated by a check mark for a day of the month, or 1/2 to indicate they worked only half a day. What a day’s work was is never mentioned, but traditionally it could be as long as sunrise to sundown. The job employed for is also not mentioned. You would consider these employees as day laborers, and many of them may have also worked for other ranches and farms. The type of information provided in this document is the name of the employed, the days of the month they worked, the total days, wages per day, amount paid, amount due, and total amount.