Samuel Bernheimer, son of Simon and Bella Bernheimer, was born in Austria on September 12, 1812. He became a clerk at the age of twelve, and when he immigrated to the United States, he found employment in a mercantile business on Grand Street in New York City. He later moved to Charleston, South Carolina, and then to Liberty, Amite County, Mississippi, where he again worked in a mercantile business. Bernheimer married Henrietta Cahn (1827-1904), who was born in Germany, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Bernheimers were living in Port Gibson, Claiborne County, Mississippi, by April of 1847. Samuel Bernheimer soon opened his own mercantile business, which he at first operated out of his home. Union general Ulysses S. Grant later used the Bernheimer home as his Port Gibson headquarters during the Civil War. The Bernheimers had six children: Carrie, Clara (d. 1889), Jacob, Louis (b. 1848), Marcus, and Sidney. Besides general merchandise, Bernheimer sold imported luxury goods from Austria, England, Italy, and Switzerland.

Between 1851 and 1852, Samuel Bernheimer formed a business partnership with his brothers, Adolph and Jacob, naming the firm S. Bernheimer and Brothers. Jacob Bernheimer died of yellow fever in Port Gibson on September 19, 1853, and he was buried at Grand Gulf, Mississippi. Shortly thereafter, William Cahn, a brother of Henrietta Cahn Bernheimer, was admitted to the firm, but after several years, he withdrew and established his own business elsewhere. Samuel Bernheimer owned one slave and property valued at twenty thousand dollars in 1860, and Adolph Bernheimer owned property valued at fifteen thousand dollars in the same year. Adolph Bernheimer left S. Bernheimer and Brothers to join his nephew in a mercantile store in Mobile, Alabama, in 1865.

S. Bernheimer and Brothers suffered heavy financial losses during the Civil War. However, Marcus Bernheimer helped his father to recover from debt in subsequent years, and Samuel Bernheimer eventually retired from an active role in the business, allowing his sons, Jacob and Sidney, to take over its management. Samuel Bernheimer died on October 23, 1888.

Marcus Bernheimer was born in Liberty in 1847, and he was educated in Port Gibson; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and at a military institute in Marietta, Georgia. He entered Confederate military service with the Georgia cadets, later serving in the quartermaster corps under Major L. O. Bridewell. Bernheimer entered Soule College in New Orleans in 1867, and after graduating, he returned to Port Gibson to assist his father in the mercantile business. He left S. Bernheimer and Brothers to join Nicholas Scharff, formerly of Vicksburg, Mississippi, in a business in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1875. Scharff and Bernheimer (later Scharff, Bernheimer, and Company) sold groceries, grain, and farming implements. Marcus Bernheimer married Ella Heyman, who was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, and educated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They had four children. Bernheimer later became president of the Merchants’ Bank of St. Louis. His sister, Carrie, married Nicholas Scharff, and the couple had seven children.

Louis Bernheimer was born in Port Gibson on November 11, 1848. After completing his education in Columbus, Ohio, he became a partner of S. Bernheimer and Brothers. He and Max M. Bodenheimer, a former employee of Scharff and Bernheimer, opened Bernheimer and Company, a grocery and mercantile store in St. Louis, in 1881. Bernheimer later became a partner of Scharff, Bernheimer, and Company, in St. Louis. He married Blanche Trounstine of Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 1, 1884. Louis Bernheimer died around 1885.

Sidney Bernheimer was born in Port Gibson on May 30, 1858, and he was educated at Springhill College in Alabama. He married Fannie R. Goetter on January 8, 1888, and they had at least one daughter. Bernheimer became chief business manager of S. Bernheimer and Sons in 1891, but in July of that year he withdrew from the company.

Jacob Bernheimer was born in Port Gibson on October 8, 1863. After completing his education in Mobile, Alabama, Bernheimer became a partner of S. Bernheimer and Sons in 1881. When Sidney Bernheimer withdrew from the company in July of 1891, Jacob Bernheimer gained sole control of the business. He served on the building committee of the Jewish synagogue that was built in Port Gibson between 1891 and 1892, and he was a benefactor of Chamberlain-Hunt Academy in Port Gibson. Jacob Bernheimer died in 1911.

This collection consists of four accounting ledgers of S. Bernheimer and Sons and a 1900-1901 "Index to City Ledger A." Several of the ledgers lack covers. The first ledger begins with a note that the balance is brought forward from a previous ledger.

Most of the purchases recorded in the ledgers are for goods such as fabrics, groceries, and nails. Large numbers of families from the Port Gibson and Claiborne County area and beyond are listed. Accompanying the ledgers are envelopes, business stationery with calculations, and three loose pages that list horses and mules in 1898 and 1899. In the back of the 1898-1900 ledger is a record of leases for 1898 and 1899.

The "Index to City Ledger A" is alphabetically arranged, and it at least partially matches the pagination of the 1900-1902 accounting ledger.

1. Accounting Ledgers. 1891-1904. 4 boxes.

   Box 1: 1891-1893.
   Folder 1: pages 1-320.
   Folder 2: pages 321-660.
   Folder 3: pages 661-920.
   Box 2: 1898-1900.
   Box 3: 1900-1902.
   Box 4: 1901-1904.

2. Index (City Ledger A). 1900-1901. 1 folder.

   Box 4