Green’s Drug Store, 1864-1965 – MS006
Provenance: Gift of James Barclay, owner of the Peirce Block. Barclay found the records in a vault above the drug store in 1986 and donated them to the Athenaeum.
Citation: Green’s Drug Store Records , MS006, Portsmouth Athenaeum
Size: 12 linear feet
Access: No restrictions
Processed by: Carolyn Eastman in 1990
Summary
Ledgers, correspondence, inventories, sales records, prescription books, and other records (1882-1965), including prescription books, narcotics prescriptions, and opium order books, of Green’s Drug Store; records (1864-1888) of Thacher’s Drug Store; records of the confectionery business of Green’s brother, Ralph Green; inventory (1957) of the estate of Frank McMahon; and other records.
Scope and Content
The Green’s Drug Store records consist almost entirely of the store and financial records of three businesses: J. H. Thacher’s Drug Store, Green’s Drug Store and Ralph Green’s Confectionary business; the collection is separated into these three subgroups. There are 23 archival boxes of material and 23 record books in phase boxes.
The Joseph Haven Thacher records (1864-1888) consist of store and financial records, including prescription books, store purchases and accounts, and sales books. One record book contains accounts with Dickman’s and Littlefield’s, maker of court plaster, for whom Thacher seems to have been a supplier.
The records of Green’s Drug Store (1882-1965) make up the bulk of this collection, and contain primarily the store, financial, and prescription records of the business. There are four series: Store and Financial (1882-1965), including account records and books, accountant’s statements, supplier’s accounts, a store inventory, tax records, wage books, sales records, and bills and receipts; Correspondence (1896-1907), consisting of business correspondence from suppliers, advertising circulars, and letters from individuals requesting prescriptions (most correspondence from the period 1896-1897 is addressed to J. H. Thacher); Prescription Records (1889-1964), which includes prescription books, narcotics prescriptions, and opium order books; and Miscellaneous (1957, 1963), consisting of the 1957 inventory of the estate of Frank McMahon and a 1963 census of business.
There are two items in the third subgroup containing Ralph Green’s Confectionary records (1891-1893): an income and expenses book, and a daily sales book.
Biographical Notes
Joseph Haven Thacher (February 10, 1825 – January 5, 1892), the son of Henry S. Thacher of Biddeford , Maine and Elizabeth Haven Wardrobe, began his druggist’s business at the corner of State and Pleasant Streets before 1851 (according to directories). In 1860 he purchased his brother Nathan Parker Thacher’s business as 12 Market Square , though Nathan continued to operate it until his death in 1867. J. H. Thacher also owned a store at 51 Congress Street , which was operated by F. B. Coleman from 1873 and purchased by Coleman in 1886. Thacher was married to Anna M. Thompson. He was buried in Harmony Grove Cemetery .
Benjamin Green (April 26, 1867 – ca. 1952-1955) was born in Portsmouth , the second son of Ephraim and Leah Fellerman Green, both Jewish immigrants from Poland . He married Josephine Bodge (d. October 17, 1927 ) of Greenland on October 29, 1891 in the Greenland Congregational Church by Rev. Robie. They had one son, Phillip Bodge Green (February 18, 1895 – December 18, 1934). They lived at 142 State Street until 1897, moving to 381 Middle Street . Green graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1882 and worked as a clerk in J. H. Thacher’s drug store at 12 Market Square . In 1888 he purchased Thacher’s business and shortly thereafter remodeled the store, installing a soda fountain. In 1898 he moved the business to 1 Market Square , completely remodeling the store. The new store was described in detail as “one of the most elegantly equipped drug stores east of Boston ” by the Portsmouth Herald ( 6/18/1898 ). Green retired in 1939, selling the business to Frank McMahon, who had been a clerk for Green since about 1903 and the pharmacist since about 1934. Green was a proprietor (share 88) of the Portsmouth Athenaeum from 1922-1949.
Ralph Green (August 10, 1869 – 1942), the third son of Ephraim and Leah Felleman Green, married Elizabeth Anne Gardner (1871-1939), daughter of Samuelo and Albina Gardner, on October 15, 1895 , married by Episcopalian minister Henry E. Hovey. Their daughter, Ruth Gardner Green Copeland, was born April 29, 1901 . At the age of twelve, Green was taken out of school and sent to Boston to serve as an apprentice to a German caterer named Roebeck. He opened his own catering business in Portsmouth and catered the affairs connected with the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905. At that time, Green also had a second hop in the old Octagon House in York Harbor . In 1894 Green wrote and publish Receipt Book, a collection of his recipes. He died in Portsmouth .
Series List
I. Joseph Haven Thacher’s Drug Store
II. Green’s Drug Store
A. Store and Financial Records
B. Correspondence
C. Prescription Records
D. Miscellaneous
III. Ralph Green Confectioner’s Records
I. Joseph Haven Thacher’s Drug Store
Box 1
Folder 1 Store Purchases and Account Book, 1864-1877 and Supplier Accounts with Dickman’s and Littlefield’s, 1884-1888
Folder 2 Sales Journal Book, 1878-1886
Folder 3 Ledger, undated
Phase Box 1-2 Prescription Books, 1866-1876
II. Green’s Drug Store
A. Store and Financial Records
Box 2
Folder 1 Waste Book, 1887-1889
Folder 2-5 Distribution of Sales Books, 1933-1957
Folder 6 Petty Cash Book, 1937-1941
Box 3
Folder 1 Petty Cash Book, 1942-1951
Folder 2-3 Store Accounts Books, 1944-1953
Folder 4 Annual Finances Book, 1939-1959
Folder 5 Accountant’s Annual Statements, 1948-1949
Folder 6 Accountant Correspondence, 1957-1958
Folder 7 Wage Book, 1943
Box 4
Folder 1-2 Wage Books, 1944-1959
Folder 3 Taxes: Profit and Loss Statements, 1953-1957
Folder 4-5 Taxes: Summary Sheets, 1956-1965
Folder 6-7 Taxes: Employer’s Returns, 1956-1963
Folder 8 Taxes: Excise Tax Forms, 1956-1964
Folder 9 Taxes: Report of Liability Adjustments, 1957
Folder 10 Tax Correspondence, 1957-1965
Folder 11-13 Bills and Receipts, 1893 and undated
Box 5
Folder 1-9 Bills and Receipts, 1893, G-W
Folder 10-16 Bills and Receipts, 1901, A-N
Box 6
Folder 1-6 Bills and Receipts, 1901, O-Y
Folder 7-16 Bills and Receipts, June-August 1906, A-W
Box 7
Folder 1-10 Bills and Receipts, September-December 1906, A-Y
Phase Box 3 Supplier’s Accounts, 1882-1889
Phase Box 4 Store Inventory, 1912
Phase Box 5 – 10 Cash Books, 1939, 1941-1945
Phase Box 11 – 20 Voucher Books, 1940-1953
B. Correspondence
Box 7
Folder 11-18 Correspondence, 1896-1899, B-U
Box 8
Folder 1-2 Correspondence, 1896-1899, W
Folder 3-11 Correspondence, 1906, A-Y
Folder 12-16 Correspondence, 1907, A-C
Box 9
Folder 1-16 Correspondence, 1907, D-X
C. Prescription Records
Box 10
Folder 1-2 Prescription Books, 1900-1904
Box 11
Folder 1-2 Prescription Books, 1906-1909, 1911-1913
Box 12
Folder 1-2 Prescription Books, 1914-1920
Box 13
Folder 1-2 Prescription Books, 1920-1926
Box 14
Folder 1-2 Prescription Books, 1926-1936
Box 15
Folder 1-2 Prescription Books, 1936-1943
Box 16
Folder 1-2 Prescription Books, 1943-1946
Box 17
Folder 1-2 Prescription Books, 1946-1949
Box 18
Folder 1-2 Prescription Books, 1949-1951
Box 19
Folder 1-2 Prescription Books, 1951-1955
Box 20
Folder 1-2 Prescription Books, 1955-1964
Box 21
Folder 1 Prescription Books, 1964
Folder 2 Narcotics Prescription Book, 1939-1940
Box 22
Folder 1-5 Narcotics Record Book, 1919-1937
Folder 6 Exempt Narcotics Register, 1940-1941
Folder 7-8 Opium Order Books, 1920-1923
Box 23
Folder 1-10 Opium Order Books, 1930-1940
Phase Box 21 – 23 Prescription Books, 1889-1901
D. Miscellaneous
Box 23
Folder 11 Inventory of Estate of Frank McMahon, 1957
Folder 12 Census of Business, 1963
III. Ralph Green, Confectioner’s Records
Box 24
Folder 13 Income and Expense Book, 1891-1893
Folder 14 Daily Sales Book, 1891-1893