1790 PA German Debt Note Adam Bollender John Beaty Farm Accnt Revolutionary War For Sale

Offered here is an original late-18th-century handwritten Pennsylvania German financial document recording several years of farm, household, and debt transactions between men in the Northumberland County / Buffalo Valley region of Pennsylvania.

The manuscript is written partly in German Kurrent script and partly in English. It preserves a running account from approximately 1786 through 1789, followed by an interest calculation in 1790 and a clear English settlement stating:

“John Beaty is to Pay to adam Bollender the Sum of 11 5 7”

This represents £11, 5 shillings, 7 pence in the pounds–shillings–pence system still commonly used in Pennsylvania commerce after American independence.

The German entries appear to include a prior settlement of accounts, using the phrase “abgerechnet worden”, meaning that the accounts had been reckoned or settled.

Additional entries from 1788–1789 appear to include:

• 2 bushels of wheat
• corn and/or oats
• blacksmith work
• an axe forged
• a second blacksmith/axe entry
• two milk cows
• additional running farm-account charges
• interest carried into 1790
• totals calculated in pounds, shillings, and pence

This is precisely the kind of everyday working paper that rarely survives: a record of grain, livestock, skilled labor, credit, and interest exchanged among neighbors in the early American republic.

Adam Bollender, also found under spellings including Bolender, Bolander, Bohlender, and similar variants, was a Pennsylvania German settler associated with the Northumberland County region of Pennsylvania.

The Bolender family belonged to the large stream of German-speaking immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania during the colonial era and established farming communities in the interior of the state.

Adam Bollender appears in county administrative and estate records during the 1780s and 1790s. Records show him acting as a surety and administrator in estate matters, suggesting that he was a locally established and trusted member of his community.

He appears in connection with:

• the estate of Lorentz Arnold in the early 1780s
• the estate of Leonard Dell
• the estate of John Fisher
• other local legal and financial matters in the early 1790s

That background fits this document extremely well. The account shows Bollender not merely as a farmer, but as someone involved in credit, settlement of accounts, and the handling of money between neighbors.

His family is well documented in the greater Northumberland / Snyder County region, where later generations continued to live and farm.

The debtor is named clearly in English as:

John Beaty

The surname also appears historically as Beatty, a common spelling variant.

The Beatty family was established in the Buffalo Township / Buffalo Valley area of Northumberland County during this same period.

An important 1787 will for Alexander Beatty Sr. of Buffalo Township names sons including:

• John Beatty
• Hugh Beatty
• Alexander Beatty
• James Beatty

Later records also place men of the Beatty family in East Buffalo Township and the surrounding region.

There is additionally a Captain John Beatty associated with Revolutionary-era ranger service in Northumberland County.

That possibility is historically interesting, but this listing does not claim that the John Beaty named in this account is definitively the same man. There were multiple Beatty family members in central Pennsylvania, and further research would be needed to establish an exact military identification.

What can be said with confidence is that the name belongs to a documented local family in the right region and period.

One of the most appealing features of this manuscript is its bilingual character.

The working account is written in German Kurrent, while the final debt statement is written in English.

That reflects an important cultural transition in late-18th-century Pennsylvania.

German remained the everyday language of many farming families and communities long after the Revolution, while English increasingly became the language of:

• courts
• legal papers
• formal debt statements
• government records
• commercial transactions

This manuscript captures both worlds on one surviving piece of paper.

Although the account itself dates primarily from 1786–1790, it comes from a region that had only recently emerged from the disruptions of the American Revolution.

Northumberland County and Buffalo Valley were frontier areas during the Revolutionary period.

Settlers in the region experienced:

• militia mobilization
• ranger service
• supply shortages
• frontier raids
• temporary abandonment of farms
• postwar rebuilding

By the late 1780s, families were restoring farms, buying livestock, settling old obligations, and rebuilding the rural economy.

This document gives a ground-level view of that recovery.

Instead of politics or military orders, it records the real mechanics of daily life:

wheat, cows, oats, blacksmithing, credit, debt, and interest.

This manuscript combines several features that make it more desirable than a routine period receipt:

• original 18th-century manuscript
• Pennsylvania German Kurrent handwriting
• English financial notation
• named early Pennsylvania settlers
• multi-year accounting
• wheat and grain entries
• livestock
• blacksmith work
• forged axes
• 1790 interest calculation
• final legal-style debt statement
• clear debtor and creditor identification
• connection to the Northumberland County / Buffalo Valley settlement region

It is a particularly tangible artifact of the everyday economy of the first generation of Americans living after independence.

Original period paper with expected age-related wear including:

• toning
• fold lines
• handling wear
• minor staining
• edge wear
• light creasing

Writing remains legible in many areas.

Please review all photographs carefully, as they form an important part of the condition description.

An excellent piece for collectors of:

• Pennsylvania German history
• Pennsylvania Dutch manuscripts
• early American financial documents
• Northumberland County history
• Buffalo Valley history
• 18th-century manuscripts
• early American agriculture
• genealogy
• Revolutionary-era Pennsylvania
• early republic history
• antique handwritten documents

A compelling original survival from rural Pennsylvania, preserving the names, goods, debts, and daily business of ordinary people during the first years of the United States.