These records document the financial history of the Piper family hardware business from 1882 to 1972.  The records are arranged chronologically by the type of document.  There are business accounts, day and cash book registers for the years 1891-1960 (1916-1935 are missing), account ledgers and check registers for 1919-1963, and payroll and weekly time books for 1937 to 1970.  The Oregon store is noticeably documented only for the years 1950-1952 in the form of a check register, monthly account ledger, and weekly time books, but may be mentioned in some of the Byron store ledgers.  Although only a small amount of correspondence exists to complement all the financial documentation, a number of hardware catalogs (1925-1971) have been included in the collection as supplementary material.

Additional account books dealing with the threshing and shelling business are also housed in the collection. Business files containing correspondence, building plans, contracts and estimates detail various plumbing and heating jobs handled by Piper Hardware form 1896 to 1923, though the bulk of the files date 1907-1923.

Researchers should note that the Center’s holdings include the Jordan Hardware Company Records (RC 166) located in Ottawa, Illinois.