Ohio History Journal

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THE LIBRARIES OF PADDY'S RUN

THE LIBRARIES OF PADDY'S RUN.

 

 

BY S. R. WILLIAMS.

The first State School Commissioner of Common Schools

of Ohio called attention to a library founded in a community

in the state by the contributions of its pioneer settlers. "To the

inspirations from this library" to quote the Commissioner, "some

of the first names in our annals owe the impulse to a distinguished

career."

The history of this library and its successors follows.

At the opening of the country west of the Great Miami for

settlement the community of Paddy's Run, or Shandon as it is

now, (twenty miles northwest of Cincinnati) was established in

large part by a group of emigrants from Wales seeking to bet-

ter themeselves financially, intellectually and spiritually. The

most of the incoming settlers from Virginia and the Carolinas

were of the same type, and one of the first deeds of the infant

community was the founding of a church-a Congregational

church which celebrated its centennial in 1903.

The next move was the beginning of a private school. Wil-

liam Bebb, one of the pupils in this first school, established one

of his own, the Bebb school which did its share towards educat-

ing the boys of the near by town of Cincinnati.

The third step was the starting of a library.

In the old library record book the first dates of withdrawal

are in the year 1817. There are many entries in 1818. The

library so flourished that on February first, 1812, we find an

agreement of the Union Library Company of Morgan and Crosby

townships which contains 18 articles and is signed by twenty-

five men.

This document is endorsed further as follows:

State of Ohio Seventh Circuit.

I, Joshua Collett, President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas

for said seventh Circuit approve of the within articles of Association.

August 29, 1821.               (Signed) Joshua Collett.

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