Joseph Douglas Eads was born on a farm in Monroe County, Virginia (now West Virginia), on March 23, 1817. He was the son of William Lovern Eads (1783-1871) and Susan Elizabeth Douglas Eads (b. 1793). Both grandfathers of Eads served in the American Revolution. After studying law in Ohio, Joseph Douglas Eads was later admitted to the Indiana bar in 1840. He was among the first settlers of Carthage, Leake County, Mississippi, in 1843, and he began a law practice there that would continue for approximately fifty-three years. Eads married Callie Harper in 1846. She was the daughter of Logan Harper, another early settler of Leake County. Callie Harper Eads died in childbirth sometime before 1850, but her daughter, Callie, survived and later married W. H. Colbert.

James Treadwell, the father-in-law of Joseph Douglas Eads, was born in Georgia around 1797. He later moved his wife, Mary (b.ca. 1803-1854), and family to Calhoun County, Alabama. The Treadwells had at least seven children, including Amanda, D., Elizabeth, Francis, James, M. A., and Margaret Jane. Treadwell was farming in Leake County, Mississippi, by 1850, and he owned over six hundred dollars in real estate. He was still farming in Leake County in 1860, and he owned six thousand dollars in real estate and personal property. Treadwell died at the residence of Joseph Douglas Eads on November 22, 1871, and he was buried at Old Bethesda Cemetery.

Margaret Jane Treadwell was born in Walton County, Georgia, around 1827. She married Joseph Douglas Eads on October 22, 1850, and they had three children: Ellen Douglas, Josephine Douglas, and Margaret (Maggie) Treadwell Eads. The Eads family belonged to the Carthage Methodist Church, and Mrs. Eads was the first member to sign the earliest register of that church in 1848.

Joseph Douglas Eads was a justice of the peace in Carthage in 1852. He probably co-owned Eads and Treadwell, a Carthage mercantile store, with a member of the Treadwell family, and this store was in business from at least 1857 to 1861. Eads was commissioned as Leake County treasurer from 1858 to 1864, and as alderman for Carthage from 1860 to 1862. He helped to make the original map of Carthage, and he recorded all land transfers in Leake County from the time of its organization. Eads was unable to fight during the Civil War because of a dislocated shoulder. He was elected as mayor of Carthage after the war. Following the death of his second wife in 1889, Joseph Douglas Eads married Callie M. Hooks on October 31, 1893.

Pearl River Lodge No. 105 of the Masonic Order was chartered in Carthage on January 17, 1849. Joseph Douglas Eads was master of the lodge for a number of years. An Eastern Star chapter was established in Carthage in 1938, and it was named for Eads.

This collection consists of three accounting ledgers of Joseph Douglas Eads, W. J. Treadwell, and E. V. Glover and Company; two Eads daybooks; and an Eads and Treadwell daybook. One accounting ledger and two daybooks concern the mercantile businesses of Eads or Treadwell. Two accounting ledgers and a daybook record the fees Eads collected as an attorney or as a justice of the peace in Carthage.

A bound accounting ledger bearing the name of W. J. Treadwell of Carthage records mercantile accounts from 1859 to 1860 on an almost daily basis. Customer names are listed, and the sales are for items such as cloth, nails, and tobacco.

There is a bound, paginated daybook inscribed "Eads and Treadwell Journal, 1860-1861" on the front cover. Customer names are listed, and sales are recorded from 1859 to 1861 on an almost daily basis for items such as nails, saddles, and tobacco.

There is a bound, paginated daybook inscribed "Joseph D. Eads Day Book" inside the front cover. It is dated 1864, and the location of Carthage is specified. Eads recorded information from 1864 to 1881, including mercantile accounts, unusual weather, and several brief, handwritten obituaries such as one for James Treadwell on page 211. For a number of years, Eads recorded the names and death dates of people from Carthage. Several temperance pledges were entered at the end of the daybook and signed by numerous people.

There is a bound accounting ledger that was used for two different purposes. E. V. Glover and Company of New Orleans apparently kept the first part of the ledger, and these accounts are arranged chronologically by invoice. Most of the sales are for clothing purchased from 1836 to 1839. The second half of the ledger was kept by Joseph Douglas Eads to record the fees he collected as a justice of the peace in Carthage. The accounts are listed chronologically from 1851 to 1859, and Eads noted the outcomes of several related court cases.

There is a bound, paginated accounting ledger inscribed "J. D. Eads Judgment Docket, 1852" inside the front cover, along with the location of Carthage. Eads recorded the fees he collected as an attorney in Carthage between 1851 and 1879, although several years are omitted. The back page of the ledger contains a partial index to the court cases. Several items accompany the ledger, including an 1865 note about a Leake County school fund and two fliers advertising Carthage druggist Dr. W. O. Williams.

There is a bound, paginated, and indexed daybook inscribed "Joseph D. Eads Day Book, A.D. 1847." The location of Carthage is specified, and most of the entries concern legal cases that Eads worked on. Accounts are listed chronologically, but some years are omitted. Several items accompany the daybook, including a page of genealogical information on Catharine Collier and George Hicks; an undated, annotated election ticket listing Democratic candidates; an undated, annotated election ticket listing Union candidates; several receipts from 1845 to 1852; several legal documents from 1851; and a newsclipping concerning pea farming from 1853.

1. Accounting Ledgers. 1836-1839; 1851-1879. 3 bound volumes.

   Box 2 (1851-1879; n.d.)
   Box 3 (1859-1860)
   Box 4 (1836-1839; 1851-1859)

2. Daybooks. 1845-1881; n.d. 3 bound volumes.

   Box 1 (1859-1861)
   Box 1 (1864-1881)
   Box 3 (1845-1853; n.d.)