THE LIBRARY OF AN EARLY OHIO FARMER
by ROBERT H. IRRMANN
Assistant Professor of History and
Government, Denison University
Though not among the "founding
fathers" of Blendon Town-
ship in Franklin County, Gideon W. Hart
is noted by William
Martin, one of the county's early
historians, as among those who
"subsequently" settled there
after the initial waves of migration in
1806 and 1808. Born in Hartford,
Connecticut, on July 16, 1785,
Hart first came to Franklin County in
1816, and settled there per-
manently by 1818. He took up 380 acres
of government surveyed
land in section one, on Big Run, and
there turned to farming, apple
growing, and running a sawmill.1
By profession Hart was a surveyor and
through interest an
amateur militiaman. He was a colonel of
the militia and also served
many years as a justice of the peace.2
He was first elected to serve
as one of the two justices of the peace
for the township in 1824.
Re-elected to his justiceship in 1827,
he resigned within the year.
He stood for the same office the
following year, and was a suc-
cessful candidate. In the elections of
1831 and 1834 he was re-
elected, and served until his last term
expired in 1837. In all he
served his township in this capacity for
over twelve years.
In his survey of Ohio, about 1830, John
Kilbourn remarked
that Blendon was "fertile and well
watered by Alum and Big Wal-
nut creeks, both of which run across its
whole extent from north
to south. Along these streams are some
mill seats already improved,
and numerous fertile and well cultivated
farms."3 The population
of the township as recorded by the
census of 1830 was 666 inhab-
itants.4
1 William T. Martin, History of
Franklin County (Columbus, 1858), 235; W. A.
Taylor, Centennial History of Columbus and Franklin
County, Ohio (Chicago and Co-
lumbus, 1909), II, 360-363; Williams
Bros., pubs., History of Franklin and Pickaway
Counties, Ohio ([Cleveland], 1880), 470.
2 Williams Bros., op. cit., 470.
3 The Ohio Gazeteer; or Topographical Dictionary [of the]
State of Ohio (10th
ed., Columbus, 1831), 91.
4 Warren Jenkins, The Ohio Gazetteer, and Traveler's Guide; containing
. . .
General Register (1st rev. ed., Columbus, 1837), 82.
185
186
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Gideon Hart was one of the more
prosperous members of the
Blendon community. He was both a farmer
and, during the 1820's,
'30's, and '40's, owner and operator of
a sawmill.5 In the years
from 1832 to 1844 he kept rather
detailed accounts of his milling
business, and his "day-book"
reveals the extent of some of his farm-
ing activities as well.6 Preserved
in this daybook are some sixteen
miscellaneous papers and fragments,
among them a catalog of
Hart's library in 1824-25.
The nature of his library gives some
insight into the man's
interests. In 1825 the library consisted
of some 142 volumes, val-
ued in their owner's estimation at
$514.75. The original catalog
consists of four pages (one folded
sheet) of closely written nota-
tions, four inches by six and one-half
inches, browned and stained,
but written in a very legible hand. That
Gideon Hart was an edu-
cated man is apparent from his use of
precise English, his accuracy
in spelling, and his care in preserving
the record of his library.
That he was a careful man is attested by
his exact record of books
loaned, the borrower, the date of the
loan, and the ultimate fate of
the book. Unfortunately, in his listing,
he did not deal with such
details as the author in every instance,
nor with the date of publi-
cation or edition of the book.
In broadest terms, Hart was apparently
well versed in con-
temporary medical speculation and
exposition, and interested as
well in military history and practice.
His library also reveals what
we today would call an interest in
agronomy, and (if he had read
what he possessed) more than a passing
interest in religion and
philosophical speculation. Without an
extensive and detailed prob-
ing into like sources of
"cultural" history of individuals and fam-
ilies of the period from 1820 to 1825,
it is hard to estimate whether
Hart stands as a unique figure in his
intellectual interests, or
whether he is typical of his group in
Blendon and the larger Co-
lumbus community. As previously noted,
Hart came from the New
England area and had a worthy cultural
background on which to
draw.
5 "Mr. Hart owned the first sawmill
in Franklin county, erecting it in 1819,
but it was destroyed by fire the same
year, and he replaced it in 1820, there sawing the
lumber needed for his own home. The
second mill was also burned in the latter part
of 1820." Taylor, op. cit.,
II, 362.
6 Manuscript day-book in the possession
of the author.
AN EARLY OHIO LIBRARY 187
"Culture" such as the frontier
exhibited to a curious onlooker
was an urban, and not essentially a
rural, product.7 It was in Cin-
cinnati that the greatest concentration
of enlightened life could be
viewed in Ohio in the 1820's.8 Columbus
was growing in import-
ance, and its leadership as a
book-publishing center was not the
least of its attractions to those eager
to learn.9 Against such a
background of activity of the mind and
the pen, it is hard to place
Hart, the rural Solon and Socrates, in
proper perspective, largely
because of failure to offer comparison
to his immediate neighbors
and contemporaries.
By comparison with the general milieu of
the pioneer, Gideon
Hart rises above the crowd, marked off
by his interests and attain-
ments. As Rusk pointedly notes,
"The whole output of the West-
ern press . . . though perhaps
surprisingly large for pioneer pub-
lishing houses, did not afford a large
quota of books for a popula-
tion of four millions. Even with the
addition of what must have
been a comparatively small amount of
importations, the bulk of
reading matter was not great."10
By deduction, a man owning 142
volumes, if not unique, was above the
average in interests and own-
ership in late pioneer Ohio. Hart might
well have been one of
those to whom Dixon Ryan Fox alluded
when he remarked that
"some culture . . . was sent
forward by organized missionary im-
pulse . . . but most of it was carried
by pioneering quite as indi-
vidualistic as that of the first
settlement. It was heroic pioneering
too, for many a pioneer of culture was
despised and rejected in the
new country."11
By vocation a successful farmer and
sawmill operator, Gideon
Hart was either a frustrated practitioner
or a sensible man, well
prepared for the dangers of frontier
life. There are listed some
45 volumes dealing with medical practice
and opinion. Some are
purely expository, some are very
practical. Hart might well have
preferred to keep his fate in his own
hands, rather than trusting
to the situation so pointedly made in
their dedication to The Mid-
west Pioneer by authors Pickard and Buley: "To the Pioneer Doc-
7 R. L. Rusk, Literature of the
Middle Western Frontier (New York, 1923), I,
27-28, 29.
8 Ibid., I, 29-30.
9 Ibid., I, 30.
10 Ibid., I, 71.
11 D. R. Fox, ed., Sources
of Culture in the Middle West (New York, 1934), 10.
188
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
tor who boldly faced the wilderness; and
to the Pioneer who bravely
faced the Doctor."12 To
be able to meet medical exigencies on home
territory, Hart possessed some nine
volumes of the Medical Reposi-
tory, the first American medical journal, begun in 1797 and
pub-
lished spasmodically until 1824. Early
emphasis was placed on
epidemics, relationship between climate
and personal health, and
diet. In time it took other scientific
fields such as agriculture, geog-
raphy, and natural history into account
within its pages.l3 Several
volumes of a more practical and
immediate nature were on Hart's
shelves: the Edinburgh New
Dispensatory, a Medical Dictionary,
Rullen's Materia Medica, and a
volume listed lonesomely as "pills."
There were several more
scholarly-seeming treatises on health
and its preservation and on the general
diagnosis or prognosis of
disease: Joseph Townsend's A Guide to
Health, later designated as
Elements of Therapeutics, "being cautions and directions in the
treatment of diseases"; Robert
Thomas' The Modern Practice of
Physic, "exhibiting the characters, causes, symptoms,
prognostics,
morbid appearances, and improved method
of treating the diseases
of all climates"; and James
Makittrick Adair's Commentaries on
the Principles and Practice of
Physic, "Illustrated by
pathological
tables and practical cases. Being an
attempt, on a new plan, to
connect the several branches of
medicine, and to place the practice
of it on a rational and solid
foundation. To which is prefixed, an
essay on the education and duties of
medical men." Had Gideon
Hart thoroughly digested this last
treatise, he might well have felt
himself an amanuensis of Hippocrates and
Galen if not an ac-
cepted disciple.
Hart seems to have found a great
interest in fevers, owning
two volumes on this subject-not a usual
possession for a pioneer
homeopathic practitioner-Robert
Jackson's Treatise on the Fevers
of Jamaica, "with some observations on the intermitting fever
of
America," and M. Alibert's Dissertation
sur les fievres pernicieuses
ou ataxiques intermittentes. In his catalog Hart noted this as "Ali-
bert on Malignant Intermittents,"
but it might have been the French
copy that he possessed. Perhaps his
volume on French Pronuncia-
12 Madge
E. Pickard and R. Carlyle Buley, The Midwest Pioneer. His Ills,
Cures, and Doctors (Crawfordsville, Indiana, 1945), Dedication.
13 Ibid., 155.
AN EARLY OHIO LIBRARY 189
tion was an aid in deciphering Alibert's contribution to
medical
knowledge. Sir John Pringle's Observations
on the Diseases of the
Army was also part of Hart's medical treasure hoard, and of
espe-
cial interest in view of his high
standing in the Ohio militia.
Several very specialized works were
included, in addition to
the works on "fevers." Among
these were William Heberden's
Commentaries on the History and Cure
of Diseases; Baron Boyer's
Treatise on Surgical Diseases, and
the Operations Suited to Them;
Nicholas Robinson's early
eighteenth-century discourse on A New
Method of Treating Consumptions; a volume of Benjamin Rush's
Lectures . . . upon the Institutes
and Practice of Medicine, and the
same author's Inquiry Into the
Effects of Ardent Spirits upon the
Human Body and Mind, with an Account
of the Means of Prevent-
ing, and of the Remedies for Curing
Them. Last, but not least,
among Hart's medical library was old
Erasmus Darwin's Zoonamia;
or, the Laws of Organic Life. Here was to be found "a catalogue
of diseases distributed into natural
classes according to their prox-
imate causes, with their subsequent
orders, genera, and species, and
with their methods of cure." Of a
very practical nature was the
third part: "the articles of the
materia medica, with an account of
the operation of medicines." Not
listed, either in title or subtitles,
was an offering that would have
astounded many a pioneering
fundamentalist: that of organic
evolution. What Hart's reaction to
Darwin's progressive thinking could have
been we will probably
never know. Yet, had he read his Darwin
with care, he could hardly
have overlooked the concept. Coldly,
however, he merely listed
this pioneer "eye opener" as Zoonamia,
two volumes, valued at
$4.00.14
The interests of Gideon Hart were not
alone with the "chem-
istry" of the human body; he was
also interested in the chemistry
of the soil and of everyday affairs, in
so far as contemporary sci-
ence commented upon them. Erasmus Darwin
was again repre-
sented in the collection of books: Phytologia,
"or, the philosophy
of agriculture and gardening. With the
theory of draining mo-
rasses and with an improved construction
of the drill plow."
14 There has been great diffculty in identifying some of Hart's volumes,
for his
catalog listings are most meager, as for
example Zoonamia. Since he omitted all biblio-
graphical data it has been impossible to
identify editions or dates of publication. The
chief source for identification has been
the Library of Congress Catalog of Printed Cards.
190
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Chaptal's Chemistry is another brief notation in the catalog. This
could be either Chemistry Applied to
Arts and Manufactures, or it
might have been his Chimie appliquee
a l'agriculture. If the latter
work, Hart certainly read it in French,
for the first American
translation was not published until
1835, ten years after the library
was cataloged. Thomas Ewell's Plain
Discourses on the Law or
Properties of Matter was also among Hart's books. This was far
from a text on the subject; rather it
dwelt on the "elements or prin-
ciples of modern chemistry; with more
particular details of those
practical parts of the science most
interesting to mankind, and
connected with domestic affairs." The
Agricultural Journal and Re-
pository was also on the shelves. It is not surprising to find
such
volumes in a pioneer library. Miller, in
his Genesis of Western
Culture, notes the variety of publishers' offerings as outlined
in
their book lists, and there is a great
emphasis on works on chem-
istry, both theoretical and applied.l5
An interest in grammar, English and
foreign, was apparent in
this pioneer library. Abner Alden's Grammar
Made Easy, "a
practical grammar of the English
language" was there; the afore-
mentioned volume on French
Pronunciation, Noah Webster's Gram-
mar and a Latin Grammar were also included in the
library. So
too was Conderius' Colloquies, undoubtedly
a guide to learning.
Grammar was not the sole extent of our
farmer's general educa-
tional interests. Webster's Geography
was his, as was that standard
of the early nineteenth century,
Jedidiah Morse's The American
Universal Geography, "or, a view of the present state of all the
kingdoms, states and colonies of the
known world." Samuel John-
son's Dictionary is among the
listings, and chief among Hart's
possessions was Rees Cyclopedia of
47 volumes, which he valued
at $400. His estimates of the worth of
his volumes ran very high;
his cyclopedia was valued at more than
twice what its value in
sheets plus binding would have been.16
The practical side of Gideon Hart's
interests were mirrored in
his books. His post as a justice of the
peace and his interest in
the militia are reflected in his
library. He owned four volumes of
15 J. M. Miller, The Genesis of
Western Culture (Columbus, 1938), 147-149.
16 In the catalog Hart noted the same
set sold for $90 in sheets at an auction in
New Orleans. He estimated binding at $1.75 per volume.
AN EARLY OHIO LIBRARY 191
the Laws of Ohio, and two of the Journals
of Ohio (sic). He also
had three copies of the Militia Law
of Ohio, a copy of Smith's Late
War (noted as "guerre french"), two copies of the
Ohio Gazetteer
(probably John Kilbourn's), a volume on Ohio
Justice, and such
purely military items as Jackson's
Campaigns, Infantry Exercise, a
Military Dictionary, and the Compendium of U. S. Tactics. Remem-
ber too that he owned Pringle on the
Army (sic).
Recalling Rusk's comment on the lack of
quantity and general
variety in the literary fare of the
midwest pioneer, Hart indeed seems
to be among the "unusuals,"
both as to quantity and subject matter.
Rusk further noted that "as to the
kind (of reading matter) most
in demand, it was clearly of a
controversial type, either political or
religious."17 Gideon
Hart was not outside the realm of the general
climate of opinion. Few items of this
nature were in his holdings,
but two distinct items were there: one
was Jonathan Edwards' A
Careful and Strict Enquiry into the
Modern Prevailing Notions of
That Freedom of the Will, Which Is
Supposed To Be Essential to
Moral Agency, Virtue and Vice, Reward
and Punishment, Praise and
Blame; the other was Isaac Watts' Logick, "or, The
right use of
reason, in the inquiry after truth; with
a variety of rules to guard
against error in the affairs of religion
and human life, as well as in
the sciences." This truly should
have been Hart's vade mecum!
Gideon Hart owned few items that could
be considered as pure
"pleasure reading." Artrue
[sic] on Children, Smith on the Nerves,
Official Papers, Clark's
Introduction, Tyler's Anatomy, Hamilton's
Report to the Committee of Congress
on Manufactures, Caldwell's
Cullen, Underwood on the Diseases of
Children, Zimmerman on Ex-
perience, or Brown's Philosophy on the Human Mind can
hardly be
thought of as diversionary reading.
There were several books for
pleasant pastime however. There was the Philadelphia
Songster, a
volume on Literary Characters, the
Juvenile Mentor, and, on the
slightly more sober side, Robins
Journal (sic) and Birds Sermons
(sic). Lord Chesterfield's Economy of Human Life was
available
to Hart's family and friends, and so was
that truly western product,
Modern Chivalry, by Hugh Henry Brackenridge. This was a
picaresque story, a la "Don
Quixote," of Captain John Farrago and
17 Rusk, op. cit., I, 71-72.
192
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
his servant, Teague O'Regan, in frontier
society and politics.18
Though long and tedious by modern
standards, it gives a true-to-life
view of frontier life and draws
realistic pictures of pioneer charac-
ters, types, and life. As contemporary
comment, it must have given
amusement to a more sophisticated
pioneer society looking back on
the preceding "crude"
generation, just as Mark Twain was to do for
American sophisticates two generations
hence.
Like his fortunate fellow book owners,
Gideon Hart lent his
treasures on occasion. He was careful to
note borrowers and the
fate of books borrowed. Miller has
commented that "the borrow-
ing of books may not be an indication of
the presence of the cul-
tural urge but the advertisements for
the return of borrowed books
indicate the tastes of the
borrowers."19 The tastes of Hart's bor-
rowers ran more to the medical and the
military than to the pleas-
urable reading. James Cook twice
borrowed Tyler's Anatomy;
Dr. Copeland borrowed Alibert on
Intermittents, Dr. Randall bor-
rowed the first volume of Zoonamia, and
Dr. Maynard Rush on the
Mind. Benjamin Bell, constable of Harrison Township, was the
borrower of a reprinted edition, and one
revised edition, of the
Laws of Ohio,20 and George Osborn borrowed the United States
Compendium of Military Tactics. Both Rhoda Lee and J. Jumenis
(sic) borrowed Robins Journal; one W. Moerhein had the
chance
to improve himself through the loan of
the Art of Speaking, Latin
Grammar, and French Pronunciation. Though three volumes
were
borrowed, by August of 1824 only two had
been returned. J. Taylor
alone sought the delights of Modern
Chivalry; his apparently was
the lightest mind among the recorded
borrowers of Gideon Hart's
books.
To assess Hart's position as culturally
"usual" or "unusual"
among the pioneers of Franklin County is
well-nigh impossible.
Unless other private library catalogs
were at hand for comparison,
no valid conclusions could be concretely
drawn. The general opin-
ion of literary historians, however, is
that private libraries in the
early nineteenth-century Middle West
were not too common. The
famous "Coonskin" Library in
Ames Township, Athens County,
18 Miller, op. cit., 160.
19 Ibid., 150.
20 He also borrowed the second volume of
Morse's Universal Geography.
AN EARLY OHIO LIBRARY 193
when inaugurated about 1805, contained
the following: Goldsmith's
Works, Ramsey's History of the
American Revolution, Playfair's
History of Jacobitism, Burgh's Dignity of Human Nature, Harris'
Minor Encyclopedia, and Morse's Geography and Gazetteer. By
comparison, and even allowing for the
lapse and progress of two
decades, Gideon W. Hart seems to have
possessed privately what was
a surprising library.