1760 -- DUPUI'S STORE
              RE-OPENED TO THE PUBLIC

Of the 117 customers at Dupui's store that transacted business on credit terms prior to the onset of the French & Indian War, only 5 had purchases recorded in the Dupui ledger after the war's conclusion.

The rest had either all been killed, or if lucky, had fled to the relative safety of the Jersies, or were thereafter among the few attached to the military.  Daniel Brodhead, John McMikle, John McDowell, James Hyndshaw, Hugh Pugh and William McNab were the only locals to survive this war.

Clearly, that many dead or missing creditors signified an astronomical financial loss for Dupui.  So how did Dupui manage to recover?  The 1760s only saw purchases transacted on a credit basis by two families, the Brodheads and the Pughs.  Dupui had learned from the experience of war that credit could no longer be broadly extended, that the vast bulk of customer transactions would henceforth need to be made primarily on a non-credit Day Book basis. 

Additionally, during the 1760s one surprisingly begins to find a new category of ledger entries emerging -- costs associated with "actions" being posted, as in:  "to an action of James Martin", or "to an action of William Jane".  At a relatively low unit cost, usually at one shilling and six pence each, more than a dozen such "actions" had been recorded in Dupui's ledger.  The operative presumption is that Dupui could well have added to the services that he offered by also functioning as a conduit into the area's court system (charging a modest fee for his role as a processor of "actions" that were laid before the clerk of the court).   

Dupui had started offering delivery "services" during the prior decade.  Examples included:  "to 4 bushels of wheat brought to his house," "to the use of a horse to the Mill,"  "to the use of a wagon and horses," "to straw and carrying it to your house," and "to 3 Journeys by a Boy and Horse to his House".  These services to creditors were apparently suspended during the 1760s.  Replacing them was a newly conceived merchandise rental service illustrated by this entry:  "to the use of a crosscut saw."

As to how Dupui's remaining creditors paid their bills, one notes that Dupui accepted "work" in lieu of other payment arrangements, namely:  fanning and hauling wheat, raking and bundling oats, weighing flour, mending a wagon, cutting grass, making plows, priming wagon wheels, killing hogs, or cutting wood.