Morris Stock was born in Morsbach, Germany circa 1827. He immigrated to the United States in the mid-1800s and, by 1860, was a merchant in Corvallis, Oregon. In the late 1860s Stock and his wife, Sofia, briefly relocated to New York City where he operated a shoe store. Ultimately, Stock returned to Oregon where he opened Stock's Cash Store on Corvallis' Main Street (now the intersection of Second Street and Madison) and established himself as a prominent member of the local Jewish community. Clara Stock (born 1862), one of Morris' nine children, took over operation of the store in the mid-1880s. Morris Stock died in 1898 in Portland, Oregon and is interred at the Congregation Beth Israel Cemetery in Portland.
Ledgers 1 (July 1880-March 1889) and 3 (November 1895-April 1897) are comprised of several thousand transactions, including purchases, sales, and payments of business expenses in chronological order. Each entry includes an account name and number, an itemized listing of goods sold (price and quantity), and records of payments made to vendors and other entities. Ledger 2 (January 1891-January 1895) is comprised of records for all active customer and vendor accounts and is arranged by account name. It does not include records of individual items purchased or sold, but does reflect all credits and debits to each account during the active period. Also included is an 1881 letter from Ira A. Miller to Ben Janis requesting payment to M. Stock & Co. and a 1893 receipt for sale of goods to James Martin.
The ledgers document the sale of goods in Corvallis including food items (meat, coffee, tobacco, sugar, eggs), household goods (oil, candles, cleaning products), dry goods (calico, muslin, lace, ribbon), clothing, building materials, hardware, and more. The Stock's Cash Store Records represent transactions conducted by hundreds of Corvallis-area residents and businesses including the Oregon Agricultural College and College presidents John McKnight Bloss and B. L. Arnold. Vendors include Hirsch, Elson & Co., Meier & Frank Co., the Sach Brothers & Co., and the New York & San Francisco Collar Co.
The collection is open for research.
Stock's Cash Store Records (MSS Stock), Oregon State University Libraries Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
The Stock's Cash Store ledgers were donated to the OSU Archives in two accession in the 1960s. The collection now resides in the OSU Special Collections & Archives Research Center.
This collection was originally titled the "Corvallis General Store Records." Upon preparation of the finding aid, the collection was renamed to more accurately reflect its contents.
Materials relating to other Oregon businesses include the