Ohio History Journal
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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