Here’s a true piece of Huletts treasure! An actual bill from the hotel dated in 1889.
This is a quite a find, thanks to Lane DeMuro.
Here’s some of the back-story. In 1889, the hotel was owned by W. Howard Bender and only had roughly 100 rooms. To illustrate how early this was in the history of the hotel, in 1889 “the hotel” would have been just the annex to the original Hulett farm house. Bender had purchased it around 1882 from railroad executive C.W. Wentz. Bender’s manager, for the first time that year, was Henry W. Buckell. Buckell would go on to purchase and expand the hotel and even serve as Dresden Town Supervisor down the road. Bender’s signature can be seen on the lower right side of the bill.
The bill was made out to David W. Phillips, who would go on to live in Huletts for many years afterward and may have been Irene Phillip’s grandfather or great uncle. It looks like the entire bill was for $8.10.
Many thanks to Lane DeMuro for emailing me a copy of this.
Click on image to see full-scale.