A Neighborly Request from Hinton: The 1884 Debt of Laban Guinn

“Although you agree to pay me 12% I cant wait on you longer than the 1st day of August.”

Pulling a piece of history out of its envelope can feel a bit like shaking hands with a ghost, and this little treasure from July 1884 is no different. We have here a single sheet of lined stationery, yellowed with age but still in remarkably good condition, featuring a professional printed letterhead from the Office of John Cooper, Dealer in General Merchandise in Hinton, West Virginia. You can see the distinct fold lines where it was tucked away long ago, and the dark ink of Mr. Cooper’s cursive handwriting still stands out bold and clear against the paper.

The letter tells a story that many of us can relate to, even today. It seems Mr. Cooper was a patient man, but even patience has its limits when bills need to be paid. He was writing to Laban Guinn about a balance due on a note for a fellow named B.B. Burkes. By the 17th of the month, that debt was going to hit exactly $232.18. Even though Laban had agreed to a pretty steep twelve percent interest rate, Mr. Cooper needed that cash in hand by the first of August. He wasn’t being mean; he simply explains that he was compeld to have the money for his own needs, asking Laban to hear from him at once.

Life in the 1880s in a place like Hinton was built on these kinds of personal exchanges. There were no big corporate banks to hide behind; it was just one merchant writing to another man, trying to balance the books of a general store. It reminds us that behind every historical ledger and every old receipt, there was a person trying to make ends meet and keep their business afloat. It is a very human look at the mechanics of the past.

When we look at this letter today, it serves as a gentle reminder of our shared human experience. We all have deadlines, we all have obligations, and we all have to ask for what is owed to us sometimes. Holding this piece of paper is a way to bridge the gap between the late nineteenth century and now, showing us that while technology and towns change, the honest, sometimes difficult work of doing business remains very much the same.

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