1780 -- THIRD IMMIGRATION
              WAVE COMMENCES

The 1780's saw the rapid influx of a new wave of area settlers.  Unlike earlier generations whose first credit-based purchases at Dupui's general store were typically for everyday necessities such as rum, textiles and apparel, this newest wave of homesteaders made it their business to procure lots of... buckwheat.  Buckwheat?  Over the course of their first forty years of business, the Dupui family hadn't even sold two full bushels of buckwheat, but now, sales were going through the proverbial roof. 

So what was the attraction?  Was it likely the prospect of enjoying a delicious stack of buckwheat flapjacks, a pioneering staple?  Perhaps.  But another suspicion comes to mind... Buckwheat can also be used in the same way as barley to produce a malt that can form the basis of a mash that after fermentation and distillation transforms into a buckwheat whiskey.  This suspicion is further informed by the fact that Dupui's ledger indicates that in the early 1780s he began receiving customer payments tendered in pints of whiskey.

This wave of settlers can also be differentiated from prior groups by their high interest in the custom weaving services offered by the Dupui family.  One notes orders for 17 yards of weaving, for 19 yards, for 20 1/2 yards, for weaving 18 and 20 yards of linen (with prices ranging from 6 pence per yard to a shilling per yard).  Of course, this raises the question as to how many yards of fabric were required to make colonial garments.  The following table tells the tale:

Petticoat Shift Apron Gown Cloak Breeches

3 yd. 3.5 yd. 1 yd. 7 yd. 4 yd. 3 yd.

Shirt Waistcoat Coat Suit Great Coat Blanket

3.5 yd. 2.25 yd. 4 yd. 7 yd. 5 yd. 6 yd.

As noted by one researcher:  "An essential woman's wardrobe and the minimum amount of cloth needed to make it might thus consist of one good gown, one petticoat, one good cloak, two bodices or short gowns, two aprons, two shifts, and a coarse cloak, totaling 37 yards. 

As this time period does not reflect the sales of any pre-woven textile products whatsoever at Dupui's store, one has to assume that Dupui's general store operation likely reinvented itself after the Revolutionary War (becoming an agricultural supply service).  The ledger confirms this assumption by way of the purchase entries noted; the complete list of products sold:

Buckwheat Hempseed Pork Veal Breeches Planks

Candles Indian Corn Rice Hog skin Cow Cap

Flax Seed Fish Net Shoe soles Colt skin Seed Corn Whiskey

Rye Oats Straw Hay Midlings Tobacco

Butter Turnips Potatoes Pine Board Hoop Poles Stockings

Additionally, one notes the following entries:  "To Rent of Corn and meadow Ground @ £2-0-0,"  and "To 3 Months board and pasture for his Horse".