On This Day in 1846...

179 years ago, my great great grandfather Richard Sherman sat down at his desk (or maybe it was the kitchen table) to start a monthly accounting for the money he made from selling eggs from his farm.  I know the accounting was done over the month by the different inks, and even a pencil, he used.  This is a photo of that page in his common book dated "February the 1st" paired with a photograph of him.  Of course, eggs have been in the news lately, the cost and scarcity of them due to the bird flu, so I thought I would do a little math.  The most he received for a dozen eggs was 16 cents.   Doesn't sound like much but factoring inflation over the last 179 years, that is the equivalent of $6.56 a dozen today which is much more than I pay.  Just 3 years later in California at the height of the Gold Rush, eggs were selling for, wait for it, $3.00 EACH!  Wouldn't Grandpa Sherman have loved that!