The Marietta Register, June 19, 1879
For the Register.
The library formed in 1804 at Amesville, in what was then Washington County, now Athens, is a matter of general knowledge. It has been often referred to as a signal instance of the beneficial effects of good books in a community. That township has produced some remarkable men, as Bishop Ames and Thomas Ewing; and many of the families resident there at the beginning of the century, like the Browns, Cutlers, Walkers and others, have been noted for their intelligence and elevated character. The formation of that library is a matter of familiar history, and the descendants of those who founded it may well be proud of the part their ancestors took in establishing such an association.
Another library formed by the early settlers in another part of the Ohio Company's purchase is not so well known. When the writer prepared the centennial historical sketch of Washington County, three years ago, he was ignorant that such an association had existed. His attention was arrested by seeing among some old memoranda of early times preserved by Colonel John Stone of Belpre, a receipt for money paid for a share in a library in Belpre in 1796. He at once wrote asking for information respecting that library and for the facts presented in this article he, and the public, are indebted to Colonel Stone.
In the "Lives of the Early Settlers," by Dr. Hildreth, there is an allusion to the library of General Israel Putnam, from which the inference is possible that Colonel Israel Putnam, son of the General, might have brought with him to Ohio a number of books from the collection of his father, and that these became the nucleus of a public library. However this may be, there is abundant evidence of the existence of such a library at Belpre at a very early day. The receipt referred to above, and which is before me as I write, is as follows:
"Marietta, 26th Oct. 1796. Received of Jonathan Stone by the hand of Benj. Miles ten dollars for his share in the Putnam Family Library. W. P. Putnam, Clerk."
Here was a library organization with its stockholders and officers, the value of a share being ten dollars. The organization had probably been recently effected, as the Indian War was not ended till 1795. Captain Jonathan Stone, father of Colonel John Stone, was doubtless one of the original shareholders, and this receipt was for the payment for his stock. In the records of the Probate office of Washington County, among the items in the inventory of the estate of Jonathan Stone, dated September 2, 1801, is this: "One share in the Putnam Library $10.00."
In the Ohio Historical Collections, by Henry Howe, under the head of Meigs County is an account of pioneer life written by Amos Dunham, who settled in Washington County about 1802 and afterwards removed to Meigs. He says: "The long winter evenings were rather tedious, and in order to make them pass more smoothly, I purchased a share in the Belpre library, six miles distant. . . . Many a night have I passed in this manner (using pine knots in place of candles) till twelve or one o'clock, reading to my wife, while she was patcheling, carding, or spinning."
Have we any testimony as to the library from those now living? Mr. Edwin Guthrie has distinct remembrance of his father's having books taken from the Belpre Library. Colonel Otis L. Bradford remembers that the library was kept at the house of their nearest neighbor, Isaac Pierce, Esq. Mrs. Smith, of Pomeroy, remembers her mother saying that her husband (Amos Dunham, mentioned above) could always find time to attend the Belpre Library meetings regardless of hurrying work.
Colonel John Stone recollects that Esquire Pierce was the Librarian and kept the library at his house. He remembers attending at several times the meetings for drawing books, and has a distinct recollection that the association was dissolved by common consent, that he was present at the sale or distribution of books and selected the Travels of Jonathan Carver. The time of dissolution he cannot give precisely, but thinks it was about 1815 or 1816. He is probably the only person now living who was present at that time.
But if the organization was thus dissolved and the books distributed, cannot some of them be found? Mr. George Dana reports six volumes among his books. John Locke's Essays concerning the Human Understanding, London, 1793, has "Putnam Family Library, No. 6," which is crossed, and underneath is written "Belpre Library, No. 29." The Practical Farmer, title page gone, but dedicated to Thomas Jefferson in 1792, has "Putnam Family Library, No. 5," which is crossed, and underneath is written "Belpre Library, No. 6." He has also Robertson's History of Scotland, 2 vols. inscribed "Belpre Farmers' Library, No. 24," and Johnson's Lives of the English Poets, 3 vols., inscribed "Belpre Farmer's Library, No. 10." Both the last two works were published in 1811. It would seem that the name was changed from Putnam Family Library, as the inscription on some of the books is Belpre Library, and on others is Belpre Farmers' Library.
Mr. I. W. Putnam writes that there are in his family, The History of Vermont, 1794, 1 vol.; Bassett's History of England, 4 vols.; Hume's History of England, 6 vols.; and Goldsmith's Animated Nature.
In the family of Mrs. O. H. Loring are 5 volumes of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, published in England in 1783. Some of these contain the name of Wanton Casey, as well as the words "Belpre Library." Mr. Casey married the daughter of Major Goodale and returned to Rhode Island, probably before 1800.
There are then in these three families twenty-three volumes belonging originally to the Belpre Library and inscribed with one or the other of the designations mentioned above.
Se have thus documentary evidence of the existence of this library, which is confirmed by the testimony of living witnesses, and by the production of more than twenty volumes having upon them the original library mark. How many volumes were in the library is not now known. One of those referred to above bears the number 80. From the titles quoted it will be seen that the works were solid and good. The library was established as early as 1796 and continued in operation for twenty years or more.
That the settlers of the Ohio Company thus established two libraries at a very early day cannot be disputed. And the communities where they were established were both such as we might expect in intelligence and character. A large number of the present families of Belpre are the descendants of the early settlers. The ancestors of all the families in whose possession are the old library books were in Farmers' Castle at Belpre during the Indian war. And so were the ancestors of nearly all whose names are mentioned in this article.
I. W. Andrews.
Marietta College, June, 1879.
