One can deduce the presence of an area tinsmith by noting the range of goods not carried at Dupui's establishment, namely pails, buckets, pots, pans, bowls, tubs, flagons, lanterns, teapots, pitchers, spoons, ladles, funnels or plates (all of which would have been fashioned by such a smith). 

Dupui never sold such merchandise but did receive some of these items by way of payment: pails received in 1783, tubs (including meal tubs and washing tubs) beginning in 1784, a strain bowl and penny dishes in 1786.

Clearly, Dupui opted to safeguard the efforts of another area merchant by deliberately not carrying a competing range of product.  As to the identity of this merchant, one can only hazard an informed guess by way of a review of Dupui’s ledger with an eye toward which individual maintained the single largest credit balance (indicative of a fellow merchant’s relative wealth). 

With a £93 running balance – almost twice that of the next possible contender – John McMichael (also appearing under the name John McMikle in the ledger, with both such ledger pages referencing earlier folio #114), was likely the merchant of record. 

A final indicator suggesting that McMikle was indeed the area’s tinsmith is based on geographic and historical considerations.  His property was immediately adjacent to that of sawmill operator James Hyndshaw on the other side of the Bushkill Creek at the Pike/Monroe county line.  At that precise location is what local planning commission officials have described as the “Old Tin Smith Shop”.