Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a great deal, a large amount.

1833		C.A. Davis Letters of Major J. Downing (1835) 167: Now just see about the Bank [...] with its hundred cord of specie, and its cart load of books.
1847		J.M. Field Drama in Pokerville 13: Manager Dust was just nat’rally bound to make ‘a corde of money’.
1850		‘Ned Buntline’ G’hals of N.Y. 201: ‘Lots o’ tin – ’ ‘Cords of it!’.
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 174: He possesses, I think, the evidence of it in a cord or two of bonds and stocks.