MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Two "daybooks," the records of daily transactions in general stores in Middletown in 1886 and 1894, will be on display at the open house of Hidden Valley Lake's historic Stone House on Saturday, April 13.

Because the daybooks are so rare and so fragile, they are rarely available to the public.

The earliest is believed to show transactions recorded by Wirt and Baxter Young, eldest of the three sons of Charles M. Young, one of the founders of Middletown and builder/owner of the famed Lake County House hotel.

The Youngs owned a general store from the time of the town's founding in 1872 until about 1898.

The "newer" 1894 book records the sales and purchases of a store owned by Burmister & Lewis.

Few mentions of these two early pioneers have been unearthed as yet.

George Samuel Burmister, age 30, and Chester Orlando Lewis, 39, are listed in the 1866-1898 register of voters, both as native Californians and as clerks in Middletown.

Stone House, the oldest building in Lake County, will be open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 13. Non-HVL residents may enter Hidden Valley at the Hartmann Road gate.

Further information is available at 707-987-2349 or 707-987-7370.