Ebenezer Bathurst Davis personal ledger

MLMSS 11948/Box 1X

fonds

1914-1921

9675601

0.17 metres of textual material (1 outsize box) - manuscript

Ebenezer Bathurst Davis was born on September 4, 1867. He worked at ‘The Last Chance Mine’ in King’s Plains and in 1895 married Ellen (Nell) Gertrude Bate. Ebenezer and Nell went on to have four children of whom only one survived, Elsie Isabel (born 1901, died 2001). They moved to Sydney and started a poultry farm in Fairfield, on the site of what is now the Fairfield Hospital. The farm was a financial failure and the family moved to rented accommodation in Warrawee where Ebenezer worked as a ‘tapper’ checking electricity poles for white ants. In 1918 they acquired a delicatessen in Lane Cove, a mixed business selling cold cuts and serving hot meals. Throughout his adult life, he kept a detailed hand-written ledger recording every penny he spent. Only the final ledger (1914-1921) remains. Having been diagnosed with silicosis, Ebenezer died on 9th October, 1921.

References:
Compiled from the Library’s acquisition file.

By descent from Ebenezer Davis to his granddaughter Dorothie Secker

Consists of one ledger recording in detail the amounts spent by Ebenezer Bathurst Davis from 1914 to 1921. Everything from foodstuffs to garden equipment to clothing and postage stamps were entered in the ledger by Davis.

Out of copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales