Captain Carter kept groceries for sale on Eagle street, in the brick building afterward well known as the "brick meat market," which was near the site of the Catholic church.

Dr. Cummings, in 1810, purchased the house and lot on Church street on the site of S. Blackinton’s residence, and soon after built a store in front of the house then located there. The store stood very near the corner. About the year 1826 the store was removed down Main street, and was afterward owned and occupied by James Brolly as a store, though it was completely remodeled in 1858.

W. E. Brayton, in 1822, built a store and and carried on the mercantile business. It is the same building now occupied by Dr. H. J. Millard as a drug store on Main street. It is said Mr. Brayton would refuse to take butter into the store at ten cents per pound and pay for the same in goods at a handsome profit, there being no home market for the article and much uncertainty in sending it to the cities.

Edward Richmond, in 1825, erected a store and kept it on the site of where G. & C. W. Billings’ store now is on Main street.

Ezra D. Whitaker, in 1823, erected the store which he still owns, which is occupied by L. Childs, and followed merchandizing therein, opposite the Berkshire House.

J. Q. Robinson & Soil, about 182 7, built a store oil their lot, corner of Alain and Marshall streets, and carried on trade for many years. They had previously done all extensive business at South Adams.

The tide of enterprise was now beginning to flow a little more strongly in this part of the town.

About 1816 J. Q. Robinson, Esq., then extensively engaged in merchandizing in Adams, opened a store in what is now the middle of State street, between the Richmond House and Martin block. The building was removed to Marshall street and converted into a shoe shop, now forming a barn in rear of B. F. Robinson’s house. Nehemiah Allen, afterward Judge Allen, kept this store as a clerk for Mr. Robinson, about one year, with a fair stock of goods.

In 1826, Caleb B. Turner built and occupied a brick store at the corner of Eagle and Union streets. This was the first store on Eagle street, and was then the best built one in the village.

1778, when Adams was first incorporated, to 1827, nearly half a century, all the stores which had been kept in the village at different times numbered only thirteen. In 1825 there were only five stores, kept by the following persons: Dr. James Cummings, W. E. Brayton, Edward Richmond, Ezra D. Whitaker and Michael Cheesbro.

The early and long-continued scarcity of money necessitated a general system of bartering. The tradesmen and farmers went “swap, swap, swapping,” everywhere and in almost everything. Most of the circulation was silver and copper coin, and an old-fashioned “ninepence,” now so rarely seen, but then one of the most common pieces, looked nearly as large in the eyes of many persons as the pewter platters from which they ate their frugal meals. Money was most emphatically a “cash article.” No bank of issue was in operation nearer than Troy or Northampton, the first bank in Berkshire county, the Agricultural of Pittsfield, not being chartered until 1818, and the Greenfield bank not until 1822. A man with $25 in his pocket was looked upon as a citizen gloriously favored by the goddess of fortune. The usual resort for many years of those who were compelled to raise so small a sum as $10 for immediate use was to sell a promissory note to one of their more wealthy neighbors at Williamstown. There were no capitalists here. Every man was actively conducting business and making each dollar of his profits earn him another dollar as quickly as possible. He had seldom any money to lend, or rather he considered it more advantageous to invest his small funds in his own business than to loan the same to others, and was therefore apt to be “short.” Whether or not it is creditable to own up to such tight squeezes, we are stating nothing but what our old residents recognize as facts. They deserve to be told for the benefit of many of the present day, who, as they scatter change and display bank notes with a lavish hand, seem apparently to have not the slightest appreciation of the tolls, anxiety and self-denial that weighed down the lives of the early settlers.

Capt. Edward Richmond came to this village in the year 1803. Only two stores were then kept here, one by Marshall Jones, on the hill west of Main street bridge, and the other by Dr. Jas. Cummings, in a building he had just erected on the site of where Dr. H. J. Millard’s drug store now is.