Ohio History Journal

THE COONSKIN LIBRARY.

 

BY SARAH J. CUTLER, MARIETTA.

 

Among the hills of southern Ohio in that portion now in-

cluded in the county of Athens the sound of the woodman's

axe broke oftentimes the forest quiet during the winter of

1797-98. A vigorous pioneer was making a clearing upon a

few acres of ground and building a log cabin to which to bring

his family.

For miles around the unbroken forest stretched away.

Huge sycamores traced the courses of the streams, while beech,

oak, maple, hickory and walnut covered the lowlands and hill-

sides with their vigorous growth. To make the preliminary

clearing was no light task. The sturdy arm of Lieutenant George

Ewing, the wielder of the axe, needed to use all its strength

against the giant hardwoods of this primeval forest. Under

this luxuriant growth, the quick eye of a young New Englander

had seen a year before the fertile properties of the soil. From

a little settlement on the Muskingum River twenty miles to the

northeast he had cut a bridle path through the woods to this

place where he owned a large tract of land. This vigorous man

of thirty-two years, Ephraim Cutler by name eldest son of

Dr. Manasseh Cutler of Hamilton, Mass., had come to the

western country in 1795, and now determined to make a perma-

nent settlement on this spot which he found "exceedingly fertile

and well watered."

The lands were in the Ohio Company's purchase in that

section which is now Ames Township of Athens County. They

lay along the course of a tributary of the Hockhocking River

which having thirteen branches received from early explorers,

so runs tradition, the name of Federal Creek, suggestive of the

thirteen colonies now united in one nation.

Ephraim Cutler had engaged in his scheme of settlement

Lieutenant George Ewing and Capt. Benjamin Brown, and as

(58)

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The Coonskin Library.               59

we have seen, Lieut. Ewing built his cabin and moved his family

there in March, 1798.

The next year in May, Ephraim Cutler and Capt. Brown,

having cleared their little plots of ground and prepared tem-

porary shelter, brought thither too their wives and children.

From spring rains the waters of the creeks had been raised

sufficiently to solve some problems of transportation. Goods

and furniture were loaded on to pirogues and sent to the new

home by way of the Muskingum to the Ohio, downward on

this river to the mouth of the Hockhocking River, from thence

up this stream and Federal Creek to within two miles of the

new clearing. The distance traversed by this circuitous route

was eighty miles and the time consumed in the journey six or

seven days.

The families were brought across country from Waterford

twenty miles by a newly cut path through the wilderness, a path

which led across creeks swollen in freshet and involved the

little party in perilous experiences.

Neighbors, these three families of Brown, Ewing and Cutler

called themselves, though from one to two miles apart. But

paths were soon cut through the woods to the different homes

and in the kindly helpfulness of pioneer life they were closely

united.

To the new settlement thus started there came frequent ad-

ditions until two years later there were in the township, by that

time incorporated under the name of Ames, one hundred and

sixty-one persons, and steady increase came in the years follow-

ing. This growing population consisted not alone of men and

women, for in the scattered cabins boys and girls were growing

up with that vigor of physical development which healthy labor

and free range of woods and hills gave in remarkable degree.

Many an anxious thought, however, did parents give to the men-

tal training of their children. They secured, whenever possible,

the services of a teacher, and as early as 1801 a school was

taught by Moses Everett, a young graduate of Harvard, in a

room of Ephraim Cutler's house. The subsequent terms of

school no doubt were irregular, but one term we know closed

on April 13, 1803, for then a quaint little testimonial was drawn

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60       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

up by the pupils, giving to their teacher, Charles Cutler, another

Harvard alumnus and a brother of Ephraim Cutler, their

"tribute of thanks", speaking with innocent pride of "the prog-

ress we have made under the disadvantages which both you and

we have had to encounter", attributing this progress to their

teacher's "uncommon skill and unwearied diligence", and con-

cluding with the assurance that "while the vital spark continues

to warm our hearts the name of Mr. Cutler shall be had in

grateful remembrance by us".

The little group of twenty signed it, the oldest a young

man over twenty, but the most of them doubtless lads and

lasses of the early teens and the names they subscribed were

these: Geo. Ewing, Jr., Abigail Ewing, Sally Ewing, Rachel

Ewing, Hannah H. Ewing, Thomas Ewing, John Brown,

Richard Lenox, Samuel Brown, Aphia Brown, Patience Brown,

Anna Steine, John Boyles, Eleanor Lenox, Joseph Brown, Mar-

tin Boyles, Jane H. Ewing, Abraham Lenox, John Lenox, James

Lenox.

Some of these no doubt had learned to read during the term

just passed, but scanty opportunity would they have to exercise

their newly acquired accomplishment.

It is true that Ephraim Cutler took the United States

Gazette published in Philadelphia, but that "except by fortunate

accident did not arrive much oftener than once in three months,"

and being by no means even a sixteen page issue, the numbers

hardly sufficed for the intellectual food of the settlement though

it was loaned far and wide with the liberality of pioneer custom.

Not many books could be brought in the toilsome journey

over the mountains and down the rivers to this wilderness. The

Bible doubtless was to be found in the scattered cabins, where

no other book was owned. Young Thomas Ewing read until

he knew almost by heart Watts' Psalms and Hymns and the

Vicar of Wakefield; but with all his eagerness to read he could

find little else to interest him.

A few spelling books and arithmetics would be a necessity

in the school room, though uniformity was not rigidly enforced

and a pioneer teacher must perforce use a flexibility in the mat-

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The Coonskin Library.               61

ter of school room equipment that would horrify a modern

educational precision.

Recalling her early experiences as a country school teacher

in the early decades of the last century, an old lady long after

used to tell with quiet amusement of a little boy who was sent

to school with a theological treatise on predestination as the

book from which he was to be initiated into the mysteries of

reading and spelling. "And did you do it?" was the astonished

query. "Yes", she answered with a little satisfied nod of the

head and the ring of triumph in her voice. "Yes, I did it. I

taught him to read."

The intellectual need of their growing community was

prominent in the thoughts of these busy pioneers. This became

evident at a public meeting in the autumn of 1802 called

primarily to devise means to improve their roads. This im-

portant matter was enough to engross their undivided attention.

Their nearest outlet to the older settlement was twenty miles

away at the mills on Wolf Creek near its entrance into the

beautiful Muskingum. The way thither was as yet but little

more than a pack horse trail. Some eight miles west a little

settlement was springing up on the banks of Sunday Creek,

a tributary of the Hockhocking River, and with these friends

and neighbors they particularly desired communication.

The difficulties to be overcome in perfecting these high-

ways and the measure of their own resources therefor needed

to be thoroughly canvassed, but nevertheless, their discussions

took a wider range.

They had brought with them from their eastern homes

those ideas embodied in the famous clause of the Ordinance of

1787. "Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to

good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and

the means of education shall forever be encouraged."

Schools they were indeed ready to sustain whenever prac-

ticable, but something more they desired, and to secure for

themselves and their children the more liberal culture coming

from acquaintance with literature, the suggestion was made

that a public library be founded.

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62       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

It may seem to us now a simple enough proposition, but

recalling in imagination the setting given by circumstances we

may more justly term it an audacious project. The sturdy men

of this group with bronzed faces and toilworn hands, toughened

in sinew by wielding the axe and saw, had come to this meet-

ing doubtless wearing their every day homespun and buckskin

garments. There was about them no atmosphere of the cloister

or study. The log cabin where they met, even though it were

the acme of pioneer splendor, a hewn log house, would suggest

little connection with art or literature. The forest edge could

not be even yet far removed from the house, and happy would

be that settler from whose few acres of clearing the giant

stumps were all removed.

The nearest neighbors doubtless came on foot, the paltry

two or three miles from their homes, but the horses of the more

distant travelers from seven or eight miles away would be

tethered here and there to the nearby saplings. Incongruities

indeed there were between the facts of outward circumstance and

this scheme of a public library.

One might suppose, too, that pioneer life would leave little

leisure for the use of books if they could be obtained. These

pioneers were busy toilers. They had to wrestle against the

luxuriance as well as the contrarieties of nature. The wild

beast of the forest must be subdued, and guard kept against

the depredations of Indian hunters. Their wants must be sup-

plied by domestic manufacture, the emergencies of their new

life met by their own ingenious contrivances. In spite of all

this, however, they would find time to read because they hungered

for it, the parents because of what they remembered in their

eastern homes, the children because of what they had heard

from their elders. They knew that the long winter evenings

always came in course when, though many hands must be kept

busy with household work, the younger ones could exercise their

accomplishments and read aloud to the busy fireside group.

And into those cabin kitchens, if candles perchance were lacking,

pine knots from the forest could be brought for their lighting.

The greatest practical difficulty was to get any money with

which to buy books.

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The Coonskin Library.                63

It is hard for us to realize the scarcity of money among

these pioneers.  Their personal wants were supplied by the

products of the forests and the cleared acres. There was but

little surplus, and for that little there was no market. All the

small settlements about them were in the same condition. What-

ever money they obtained must be used for taxes or applied

on payments for their land for which many were still in debt.

A lad of the settlement, A. G. Brown, said in later years: "So

scarce was money that I can hardly remember ever seeing a

piece of coin till I was a well-grown boy. It was with difficulty

we obtained enough to pay our taxes and buy tea for Mother.

As for clothes and other things, we either depended on the

forests for them, or bartered for them or did without." The

commercial transactions of the settlers were carried on by

exchange. It was a notable business venture when a young man

raised a little crop of hemp and took it by canoe a distance of

some sixty miles on a circuitous route by Federal Creek into

the Hockhocking River, down this stream to the Ohio, then up

its current to Marietta, where the first colony in the North-

west Territory had been planted some twelve years before. No

doubt the small sum of money received therefor seemed to him

and his companions a little fortune.

So the financial side of the library project was a very serious

matter. Among the plans to solve this problem one proposal

met with peculiar favor, especially with the younger men. This

suggestion came from Mr. Josiah True of the Sunday Creek

settlement. He proposed that they catch coons and send their

skins to Boston for sale by Samuel Brown who expected to go

East in a wagon before many seasons. The plan was feasible.

The skins of bears, raccoons and other animals would find a

ready sale for cash. The young men were skillful hunters and

wild animals still haunted the adjacent forests in sufficient abun-

dance for their purpose. Indeed the country adjoining the set-

tlement on the north and west was visited by hunting parties of

Indians for ten years after this. So, with hopeful plans to

busy their thoughts, the little company separated to seek their

scattered homes and no doubt the project was one much dis-

cussed during the coming months. Thought and speech resulted

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64       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

in vigorous action. The suggested fur-hunts were carried out

and by the time Esquire Samuel Brown was ready for his trip

eastward in his wagon, there was some money collected to be

put into his hands, and a quantity of peltry to be disposed of

for the benefit of the library fund. Thomas Ewing, a lad of

fifteen, told in after years that he contributed all his available

wealth - "ten coon skins."

So far in this sketch the facts stated are based upon the

testimony, recorded in after years, of some of the founders of

the library; the local color is in accordance with portrayals of

pioneer times given by early settlers. The facts are reliable

for accuracy, but very naturally there is a slight confusion as

to dates. That meeting of settlers beginning with a road's pro-

ject and ending in a library discussion is attributed by different

authorities to three dates, viz.: the fall of 1801, of 1802, and

of 1803. Whichever date is correct it is certain that the care-

ful savings, the venturesome efforts involved in securing money

and furs could not hastily be carried through. At this point

however we begin to have the evidence of original documents

in the history of this library, and a record of dates which is

unimpeachable. A battered, timeworn record book with less

than a score of yellowed leaves has survived this more than a

hundred years and keeps guard yet over its ancient companions

on the library shelves. The front page is adorned with a pen

drawing where the name of the association and date are given,

embellished with scrolls, with trailing vines of rosebuds and

leaves and a pile of books in careful perspective. This was

drawn by the clerkly pen of Moses Everett, a young graduate

of Harvard University and cousin of Ephraim Cutler. With his

neat penmanship, too, the laws and regulations are inscribed

on the succeeding pages.

Minutes of business transacted at various times are recorded

in this book until 1820. After that the stubs of cut out leaves

furnish us only with curiosity as to what was recorded thereon,

and regret for the ruthless shears. A second blank book takes

up the records in 1824 and continues them as long as the library

had a public existence. Turning these yellow leaves we find the

history of this intellectual venture spread out before us.

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The Coonskin Library.                 65

 

The preamble to the laws of the association appears in

the following words:

"Considering the many beneficial effects which social

libraries are calculated to produce in societies where they are

established both as a source of rational entertainment and instruc-

tion; we, the subscribers wishing to participate in these bless-

ings agree to form ourselves into a society for this purpose under

the title of the Western Library Association in the Town of

Ames."

The formal title of the library, The Western Library As-

sociation, is here given, but in Ohio it is at present better known

by the sobriquet of "The Coonskin Library." It is not known

when this title was first bestowed upon it in popular speech.

It is, of course, unofficial. Some interested in the library have

resented the term, but it is not in the least derogatory. Rather

does it give in suggestive phrase a swift vision of that condition

of "high thinking with plain living" which was the glory of the

early days of our republic. The library was not purchased

wholly with coonskins it is true, but the picturesque epithet

conveys a truer idea of the peculiarities of its origin than the

sedateness of its official title could give us.

It seems by the entries in this record book, that at a meet-

ing held at the house of Christopher Harrold on February 2d,

1804, twenty-five articles were adopted as the rules and regula-

tions of the society.

Very full and precise are these regulations. The value of

the shares is placed at $2.50. An executive committee of three,

one of whom was to be the librarian was to be elected annually.

The manner in which future members shall be received is care-

fully specified.

Subscribers are entitled to draw books to the value of two-

thirds of their share or shares, the price of each volume being

marked upon it. The books are to be drawn out quarterly from

the first day of May to the last day of October and monthly

thereafter to the last day of April, thus recognizing the busy

time of the pioneer and the greater opportunity for reading in

the long winter evenings.

Vol. XXVI-5

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66       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

To keep up the funds an annual tax of twenty-five cents

was laid on the members. The adjusting of fines and penalties

make the subject of many of the articles. The regulations seem

rather drastic. For instance, a member who shall lend a book

to a non-subscriber shall be fined fifty cents for the first offense,

suspended from the privilege of drawing books, for the second,

and for the third offense shall forfeit his share.

Burns, grease spots, and torn places are rigidly fined accord-

ing to their dimensions. Thumb marks and ordinary soiling,

turned down leaves and fire cracks were given due penalty.

A refusal to pay these fines at the annual meeting of the

Association would subject the offender to the loss of his

privileges until all arrearages were made up, and if he failed

to do this within one year he would forfeit his share.

Failure to return books exactly at the appointed time

brings the unhappy delinquent under the fine of fifty cents, no

small sum in those days, but probably with a just appreciation

of the difficulties of backwoods traveling and the knowledge

that with his best efforts the shareholder from seven or eight

miles away might be delayed by swollen creeks, fallen trees or

bottomless mud holes the provision is made that shall a mem-

ber "feel himself aggrieved by the decision of the committee

he may appeal to the meeting which shall consider of his excuse

and may remit the fine." Each member is allowed as many

votes as he holds shares and it is also permitted that votes may

be given by proxy in all cases" - another side light on the dif-

ficulty anticipated in getting to the place of meeting. The money

earned by such strenuous efforts to pay for shares was not to

be lightly regarded, but held as an investment, so article six

provided for the orderly transfer of shares, if desired, to any

other resident of the township.

On the whole a more business like and methodical set of

regulations could hardly have been drawn. One wonders how

rigidly they were afterwards enforced, whether every tear and

grease spot was duly measured, and one suspects that with the

departure soon after of zealous young college-bred Moses

Everett much of the rigor of the rules fell into abeyance. The

records show however that sometimes penalties were duly im-

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The Coonskin Library.                67

posed and fines paid. Judging from the condition of the original

books which have come down through these many decades the

books were handled with due respect and care by their readers.

On the second day of February, 1804, these articles were

adopted. On April first five persons paid for their shares, viz.:

Ephraim Cutler, four shares; Jason Rice, two shares; Sylvanus

Ames, two shares; Benj. L. Brown, one share; David Boils (or

Boyles), one share. These payments therefore amounted to

twenty-five dollars. The rest of the subscribers, apparently,

expected to pay for their shares by the sales of furs made for

them by Samuel Brown in his proposed trip eastward, for we

do not find any receipt of further money until December 17th,

1804, when a long list appears.

Before the middle of August, Samuel Brown was in Boston

and its vicinity and had delivered his letters of introduction to

the Rev. Thaddeus Harris and the Rev. Manasseh Cutler. These

men, well fitted for their task, made selection of the books

for the new library. According to the record the purchase was

made August 15th, 1804. The number of volumes purchased

was fifty-one, the money paid, including some incidental ex-

penses, amounted to $73.50.

Having finished his business in Boston, Mr. Brown started

on his return journey to the Ohio, bearing with him the books

so eagerly awaited in the scattered cabins on Federal Creek.

As Mr. Brown brought other articles than the books with

him, it is likely that he was still using his light wagon as he

passed through New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It is possible,

however, that on reaching the Ohio he transferred his luggage

to a flat boat for transport down the river to Marietta, whence

he might go with horses the rest of his homeward way. At

any rate, in the recollection of Thomas Ewing years later he

recalled the event, the books finally reached the Ames settlement

in a sack on a pack horse. "I was present," he says, "at the

untying of the sack and the pouring out of the treasure." The

date of the arrival of the books is not recorded, but at a regular

meeting of the Association held at the house of Sylvanus Ames

on November 17th, 1804, it was formally voted, "to accept

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68       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

fifty-one books purchased by Samuel Brown as common prop-

erty of the Association."

At this meeting twelve men are credited with paying for

their shares, four paying for two shares each. That so many

subscriptions could be paid up at this time is probably due to

the settlement which Samuel Brown doubtless made on his

return with those who had sent furs by him to the eastern

market. The number taking shares the first year was twenty-

four.

The following names compose this list to which are added,

seven who paid for shares a month later. Daniel Withes [Wee-

thee], Josiah True, Timothy Wilkins, William Green, Martin

Boils, Benj. A. Brown, Samuel Brown, Esqr., Samuel Brown, Jr.,

George Ewing, George Ewing, Jr., Simon Converse, Christopher

Harrold, Edna Dorr, Geo. Ewing, Sr., George Wolfe, Nat.

Woodbury, Ezra Green and Ames Linscott.

That some of those whose names appear in this list were

mighty hunters is well established by trustworthy tradition. A

story related in Walker's History of Athens County of Josiah

True, the young man who first proposed the sale of skins as

a means to raise money for the library, is typical of that pioneer

life. "Josiah True and another young man chased a bear into

a cave where they succeeded in shooting the animal in a narrow

passage, and having fastened a hickory withe to his nose, were

about to drag it to the open air. Mr. True entered the cave

and got behind the dead bear to assist Tuttle in shoving it out

when another bear hitherto unobserved came rushing from the

rear end of the cave directly on and over True's back, crush-

ing him down on his face with great violence, and so made its

escape out of the cave."

At the meeting of the Association December 17th, 1804,

votes were cast for librarian, and to Ephraim Cutler fell the

honor of being elected the first incumbent of that office. It

must have been a moment of exceeding interest, when, according

to vote, the members drew for the order of choice of the books.

Who it was who felt the thrill of exultation in drawing first

choice, or what he chose, can never be known. The entries

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The Coonskin Library.                 69

giving such information were on the pages long ago cut out

from the record book.

On Jan. 7th, 1805, the first annual meeting in due course

was held at the house of Ephraim Cutler, the new librarian.

His short tenure of office was lengthened to extend through

the year, and Daniel Weethee and Benj. Brown were elected

to share with him the duties of the standing committee, whose

members by the constitution had entire charge of the library

during their tenure of office.

After this orderly beginning the records are given year

by year, with but two or three omissions of stated meetings of

the Association.  Modifications of their original regulations

were found necessary more than once, such modifications arising

often, it is apparent, from the difficulty of getting about in a

country still heavily timbered, with its newly cut roads almost

impassable from mud in the winter season.

That taxes and fines were not always promptly paid is

quite evident, and resolutions concerning the collection of ar-

rearages not uncommonly appear in the reports of the action

of the directors, while lists of delinquents occupy considerable

space from time to time in the records. In 1813 at the January

meeting it was resolved: "that the shares of all delinquent

shareholders failing to settle their arrearages within six months

shall be sold at auction," and the order is given for the notifica-

tion to the shareholders concerned. In course of time it came

about that arrearages of several dollars were settled by notes

given to the directors.

Honorable and worthy names make up these lists of delin-

quents and in due time, no doubt, the good folk bearing them

paid their just debts, but time was short and hill roads were

long, harvest days were busy and winter daylight brief in span

while the lure, too, of an ever westering frontier caused

removals even from the midst of so young a settlement as

Ames. So it is that appreciation of the intelligent interest in

the library manifested by the records is more just than criticism

of certain failures, and no students of the records now whose

ancestors were shareholders, do well to cherish a pharisaic con-

tempt toward these delinquents, for the chances are exceedingly

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70       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

strong that in these lists will be found the names of these same

ancestors. The price of shares first fixed at $2.50 was raised

to $4.00 in 1819, then to $5.00 in 1842.

By the time of the annual meeting in 1807 the need for

a bookcase was recognized and it was voted to provide one from

the funds of the society. At a much later date, in 1853, a vote

is recorded to buy a new case, but no record can be found that

the resolution was carried out, so it is uncertain whether the

case now containing the books was purchased under the first

resolution or the last. In its plain severity of outline it might

belong to either period.

The record of four years is missing as stated before, but

in the fifty-three years of which record is preserved, the

librarians appear as follows: Ephraim Cutler, John Brown,

Benj. Brown, Ezra Walker, Geo. Walker, Nathaniel Shepard,

Sabinus Rice, Henry Brawley, Jason Rice, Geo. Walker, Jr.,

J. T. Glazier.

Three directors and a treasurer each year were elected

and sworn in. Different members of a family frequently served,

and the same name often appears. The list viz.: Cutler, Brown,

Weethee, Green, Hamilton, Beaumont, Fuller, Ames, Ewing,

Walker, True, Boyles, Boarman, Rice, Glazier, Wolf, Henry,

Dean, Dickey, Fulton, M'Dougal, Brawley, Howe, Wyatt, Carter,

represents in most cases, many, many re-elections and years

of faithful service. An occasional fine for non-attendance is

charged against an officer, but the meetings were regularly

held the first of each year as long as the library had public

existence, as attested by the records. No doubt the zeal of its

first days abated somewhat, for there is no evidence that the

rigorous article 9 of the constitution requiring the committee to

meet on the first Monday of May and August and from Novem-

ber to May, the first Monday in each month precisely at nine

o'clock A. M. to examine books, lay fines and do other business

of the society and prepare for the draft which shall begin

precisely at one o'clock P. M. was for long obeyed. It was

voted in January, 1808, to allow to librarians "such compensa-

tion as they think proper", but no further entry is made on

this subject, and it is not known whether this was done.

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The Coonskin Library.                71

 

At the annual meeting in 1808 the directors elected are

instructed to take such measures as they see fit to have the library

incorporated. Among the archives is found a copy of the "Act

to incorporate the Western Library Association." This is dated

February 1₉th, 181O, and duly constitutes the library in the

depths of the Ohio forests, "a body politic and corporate in

law," capable of suing and being sued, pleading and being im-

pleaded in any court in this state." And the names of Edward

Tiffin, speaker of the House and Duncan M'Arthur, speaker

of the Senate, give official sanction to the document.

Some years after the founding of the library, changing con-

ditions led to a swarm from the original literary hive.

Some eight to ten miles west of the lands on Federal Creek

first cleared in 1798, a creek known as Sunday Creek found its

way between forested hills to the Hockhocking the "bottle river"

of Indian nomenclature, and thither as early as 1799 two hardy

young men, Daniel Weethee and Josiah True found their way

through the woods guided by their compasses, began to clear

the ground and build their log cabins. These young men and

their brides whom after three years of lonely life they had

persuaded to share their remote homes, took an active interest

in the formation of the library, and their names still stand in

the faded list of original proprietors.

These westward settlements on Sunday Creek grew and

in 1811 the district was organized as a separate township to

which was given the name of Dover. Other proprietors of the

library had come hither. The difficulties of the trail back to

Federal Creek were hardly at all decreased and it is not sur-

prising to find an entry appearing in the records of 1816, direct-

ing that one of the directors should be chosen from among the

shareholders resident in Dover and that "provided the number

of shareholders reached twelve, a certain proportion of books

should be kept in his care for their use with provision for

changing the set of books every six months.

This plan was presumably carried out but its disadvantages

were many, and fourteen years later at the annual business

meeting, it was resolved: "That the shareholders of this society

living in Dover be allowed, on forming a new library Society

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72       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

to withdraw their equal share of the books and other funds

of the society." Arrangements were made also to call in all

the books of the Association and to make an equitable division

thereof. So it came about that the Dover Library Association

was formed and incorporated. Daniel Weethee, Alanson Hib-

bard, Azariah Pratt, Josiah True, John B. Johnson, William

Hyde and John Pugsley became the incorporators.

The first librarian of the Dover Library Association was

E. Hibbard, and following him Azariah Pratt, D. Hibbard, John

True and Josiah True. When the last named died in 1855, the

books were at his house and continued under the custody of

his son Austin True for many years. There had been additions

to the 104 volumes sent over to Dover in 1830, some as late as

the time of Dickens' publications, but the bulk of the books

bore an ancient look indeed when in the fifties young Hiram

True, grandson of Josiah True, sought books to read in the time-

honored collection.

Within recent years, this Hiram True, an honored physician

Mc Connelsville, Ohio, has recorded his impression of the

substantial leather bound volumes. Frayed edges and loosened

covers gave evidence of use in times gone by. The thick, porous,

coffee-colored paper with the clear type, the long "s" and the

lower corner catch word all spoke of past fashions in printing

and book making. When the Centennial Exposition of 1876

turned attention in unusual degree to the relics of pioneer days

east and west some of the books of the Dover Library Asso-

ciation were taken by Gen. Thos. Ewing (son of Hon. Thos.

Ewing) to the Exposition at Philadelphia and there placed in

a suitable department for exhibition.  Returned in due time

to Gen. Ewing at his home in Yonkers, N. Y., the box of books

was there when the house was destroyed by fire.   Though

rescued, the volumes when the box was opened, were found

so scorched and water soaked as to be almost ruined. Those

in the best condition were taken out by Mrs. E. S. Martin,

granddaughter of Hon. Thos. Ewing, and have since been pre-

served by her in her home at New Straitsville, Ohio. The

portion of the library remaining in Dover township was finally

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The Coonskin Library.                73

 

given into the custody of the Athens County Pioneer Associa-

tion and is kept in the library of the Ohio University at Athens.

Energy, ingenuity, method and carefulness certainly were

displayed in the inception and subsequent management of this

pioneer library, but what, we may ask, were the books for which

so much effort was expended? Some analysis of the first pur-

chase and subsequent additions must hold interest for us.

This original purchase was selected, be it remembered, by

two clergymen of Boston or vicinity, Rev. Dr. Cutler and Rev.

Thaddeus M. Harris, men fitted by general information and

education to make wise choice. Dr. Cutler, too, knew well the

character of the future readers. As an agent for the Ohio

Company he had not only been instrumental in making pur-

chase of the lands and securing for colonists of the northwest

territory an ordinance for their government, of exceptional

merit, but his personal acquaintance among the pioneers was

intimate and extended. Not only books but readers would be

considered by these men selected to make the purchase.

It is with some interest that No. I in the original catalogue

is inspected after the lapse of more than a century since the

numbering was made. It is a small, leather bound volume of

somewhat less than two hundred pages bearing the title:

 

The History of America

Books IX and X

Containing

The History of Virginia

To the Year 1688

And of New England

To the Year 1652

By William Robertson, D.D.

At the bottom of the title page is the statement:

Walpole, New Hampshire

Printed for Thomas & Thomas

By David Carlisle

1800.

History thus led the way in the Coonskin Library and

works of an historical nature formed always a large part of

• 16
 

74        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

the book list. Ten volumes among the fifty-one of the first

purchase bear the name of Goldsmith, still thirty years after

his death a popular author. Among them would be found his

poetry, as well as his histories, and his "Animated Nature".

Ramsey's History of the American Revolution would be eagerly

read by the old soldiers who had come in such numbers to

retrieve their fallen fortunes in the new country. Playfair's

"History of Jacobinism" had the interest of current events in

those times so near the French Revolution, while short biog-

raphies of Columbus, Cortez and Pizarro would appeal readily

to these new American pathfinders.

Some half dozen volumes contained sermons and religious

reflections and Burgh's "Dignity of Human Nature" was a good

example of the moral essays read and assimilated by our fore-

fathers with patient thought and sturdy comprehension. As

the leaves of this latter volume are turned today, the question

will intrude, whether many readers of the present would as

faithfully peruse its pages. The book shows signs of use. In-

deed the investigation into condition provided for by the article

nine of the constitution seems in this case to have been duly

performed, for on a blank leaf are written varying statements

by which one learns, for instance, that on page 81 is a "grease

spot" that page 236 is "torn 1/2 inch in in the side margin" that

page 283 was marked by "two spots" with more items following

which show that the "Dignity of Human Nature" created in-

terest enough among the dwellers in scattered farmhouses to

leave suggestive tokens of perusal on the tough yellow pages.

For the inquisitive seeker of facts there was ready Harris'

"Minor Encyclopedia" in four volumes while Morse's Geography

and his Gazetteer with their maps supplied any student with a

vast amount of information concerning the world as then known

to travelers.

The same shelves that bore the sedate histories and sober

philosophies, displayed also a few works of fiction, only one of

which perhaps is known even by name to the present generation.

Miss Burney, however, and her novel "Evelina" will be recog-

nized by any student of English literature as marking a certain

stage in the history of fiction, and it will be acknowledged that

• 17
 

The Coonskin Library.                75

among the stories of the day it was a good selection. True, one

can hardly avoid thinking of the contrast between the robust, alert

pioneer maiden, accustomed to the labors of kitchen and spin-

ning wheel and loom, perchance of field and garden, who knew

the howl of wolves, the track of the bear and the signs of

Indian hunters, and the helpless languishing beauty of London

drawing rooms and Bath promenades. Doubtless the maiden

of the backwoods could not realize that the clear vigor of her

common sense, her readiness to act wisely in emergencies was

far and away more picturesque and admirable than poor Evelina's

propensity to get herself into awful scrapes from which the

least glimmering of common sense might have saved her.

An early purchase by the committee was a selection most

natural to former revolutionary soldiers-the "Life of Wash-

ington" by Chief Justice Marshall. Later addition brought such

old time standard works as the "Spectator" where readers could

grow familiar with the limpid purity of Addison's English; as

Bacon's Essays and Pope's poetry, and Plutarch's sketches of

Greek and Roman heroes.

Mr. Charles Shipman, merchant of Athens in 1825, pur-

chased for the library in Philadelphia books, the bill for which

amounted to $61.771/2. Among these books were the works

of Hume, Bollin, Gillies, Robertson, the poet Thomson and

Samuel Johnson. These authors are rarely read now it is true,

but they were in the front rank ninety years ago when they were

first laid on the library shelves.

It is the tradition that the forty-four volumes of the

Waverly Novels, were the gift to the library before 1830 of

one man, Mr. William Walker. Here, too, we must needs put

ourselves back in imagination to the literary world of that day

to understand the great impression made by such an acquisition.

The Wizard of the North threw his witching spell over the

dwellers in the farm houses of Ames township as surely as

over fashionable readers in London or Edinburgh.

The year 1826 seems to have been a good reading year,

and the record of books drawn out stands at four hundred

sixty-two. Daniel Weethee leads the way in this list with thirty-

six, but Polly Green is not far behind with thirty-three.

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76       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

It will perhaps be noticed that nothing has been said as

to a place of priority for this old library. There are other

claimants for that distinction. The circumstances surrounding

the origin of the Western Library Association are sufficiently

interesting in themselves to claim our attention and to inspire

respect for its sturdy founders. Certainly their methods had

enough originality to give the impression of force and initiative.

Let it be remembered too, that plans for the library were started

only four years after the first blow was struck in the forest to

make a clearing for settlement. Those familiar with the family

history of Athens County bear strong testimony to the beneficent

influence of this library upon the community where it was estab-

lished. Walker's "History of Athens County" affords interesting

reading in this connection. The young people growing up when

the library was in its prime were intelligent, progressve, anxious

for education.

The Hon. Thomas Ewing has been quoted. His eager mind

fed upon these books and going from that backwoods settle-

ment, he earned money for a college course and became in due

time, the first graduate of Ohio University at Athens, indeed

the first to receive a diploma within the bounds of the state

of Ohio.

So far as the records show the high tide of interest in the

Western Library came within the first thirty-five years of its

existence. By the close of that period rivals had come into

every home in the shape of newspapers and magazines. Per-

haps, too, the necessity was not recognized of keeping up the

library by adding books by high class modern authors. Cer-

tainly the later purchases are of inferior value. In the last

twenty years recorded it is evident that but few cared to draw

books. In 1861 the directors sold the library to three men of

the community, E. H. Brawley, A. W. Glazier and J. T. Glazier.

Reduced by an auction sale of old and defaced books and doubt-

less by some losses the volumes at this time numbered 208. In

1862 these three purchasers sold the library to William P.

Cutler for $73.50 and it was sent from Athens county to the

Cutler homestead which Ephraim Cutler had built on the banks

of the Ohio river when he removed in 1806 from Amesville to

• 19
 

The Coonskin Library.                77 the new location six miles below Marietta. Both as historical relic and family heirloom the old black walnut case with its leather bound volumes has been cherished in that household ever since. Throughout a wider circle however it is believed that in- terest will be felt in these annals of an enterprise mingling so picturesquely the adventures of daring hunters, the glow of the old cabin firesides and the hardships of pioneer life valiantly met, with the refinements of historical and literary studies. Of such elements was woven the romance of "The Old Coonskin Library."

• 20