R.A. Lewis entered store accounts in Notre Dame, Indiana, from January 1 to April 26, 1883. On May 1, he formed a partnership in Cincinnati, Ohio, with J.A. Lyons and T.E. Howard furnishing the capital. The purpose of the J.A. Lyons and Company mercantile firm was to conduct a grocery and domestic shipping business; the entries here document it for the next three months. They shipped goods, often by steamboat, to New Orleans, Galveston, Pittsburgh, New York, and Chicago. The Cincinnati accounts end on May 30; on June 1, business was being conducted in St. Louis, Missouri. The last entry is July 22, 1883.

Bound ledger used for several different purposes; the last third of the book is blank. The first 29 pages contain financial entries for the grocery business of J.A. Lyons and Company in 1883. Incoming payments are registered, as are outgoing payments for store rent, office supplies, and the clerk's salary. Prices and quantities for groceries bought and sold are given. The most common items are flour, sugar, wheat, corn, salt, silk, calico, dry apples, bacon, coffee, tea, codfish, and butter. Reference is made to the loss of one of their shipments to Galveston, when the steamboat sank in the Gulf of Mexico.