THE TRUTH ABOUT CINCINNATI'S FIRST
LIBRARY
By DOROTHY V. MARTIN
This essay proposes to lay a ghost--not
a very important one,
but in its day, its brief day, a ghost
that aroused partisans and
parties, and involved men in high
places.
It is the ghost of Cincinnati's first
library. We might doubt
that it ever existed, even as a mere
proposition, outside of legend,
except for three meager records which
have managed to survive
for more than a century. Two of these
are brief notices of meet-
ings of a group of citizens, published
in the Western Spy and
Hamilton Gazette,1 Cincinnati's
weekly newspaper which so
rarely printed local news; and the other
is a document, brown with
age, which was drawn up at the first
citizens' meeting and cir-
culated as a subscription list.2 These
three records seem to say:
In February and March of 1802,
Cincinnati's patriotic and cul-
tivated citizens assembled and did duly
establish a public library
of the subscription type.
The most weighty of these records is the
subscription list.
When, in the 1860's, Robert Clarke,
publisher and book seller,
came into possession of this
subscription list, he was thrilled as
bookmen rarely have the opportunity to
be thrilled. The list was
thrilling to him from any one of a number
of points of view, not
least of which was the happy chance of
its survival from the
rough frontier days.
To the autograph collector it contained
as fine a collection of
signatures as early Cincinnati could
have produced. Leading off
the list was the graceful, flourishing
"Ar. St. Clair" of the North-
western Territory's governor, and there
followed the signatures
of such men as Peyton Short, son-in-law
of John Cleves Symmes;
Jacob Burnet, whose many political
offices included that of judge
1 Western Spy and
Hamilton Gazette, Feb. 13, and March 6, 1802.
2 Robert Clarke MSS., Vol. 2, p. 141
(Library of the Historical & Philosophical
Society of Ohio).
193
194 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of the Territory, on the one hand, and
that of recorder of the town
of Cincinnati, on the other; Cornelius
R. Sedam, founder of
Sedamsville, soldier and civil officer;
John Reily, school-teacher
and secretary of the territorial House
of Representatives; Jona-
than Smith Findlay, editor and publisher
of the Western Spy;
Martin Baum, the German immigrant who
became Cincinnati's
first man of great wealth and who built
the house on Pike Street
now known as the Taft Museum.3
Genealogically it was a roster of
Cincinnati's first families.
The Burnets were represented by Judge
Jacob Burnet; the Yeat-
mans by Griffith Yeatman, at whose inn
every sort of public
gathering took place; the Findlays by
General James Findlay, re-
ceiver of public money at the Land
Office, president of city coun-
cil and representative to Congress; the
Wades by Deacon David
E. Wade, pillar of the Presbyterian
church.4
The distinguished character of the
signers becomes further
evident in an analysis of their
official connections. In January,
1802, the Town of Cincinnati was granted
its first charter, and
on its first council under the new
charter were seven members
of the projected library--Burnet was
recorder, Wade, Charles
Avery, Reily, William Stanley and
William Ruffin were trustees,
and Joseph Prince was assessor. Four
others, James Findlay,
Sedam, Isaac Van Nuys and Griffin
Yeatman, held offices in the
township government. St. Clair was, of
course, governor of the
Territory, and Burnet, James Findlay,
Reily and Charles Kill-
gore were, or at one time had been,
members of the Territorial
Legislature.
There is discernible here, a possible
motive for the projection
of a library. Eighteen-two was a great
year for Cincinnati and
the western country. The district of
Ohio felt itself to have come
of age and was struggling to achieve
statehood, and Cincinnati,
3 Ibid. The complete list of signers is as follows: Ar.
St. Clair, Peyton Short.
Corns. R. Sedam, Sam. C. Vance,
James Walker, Ls. Kerr, James Findlay, Jerh. Hunt,
Griffin Yeatman, Martin Baum, C. Killgore, P. S.
Stuart, W. Stanley, Jacob White,
Patrick Dickey, C. Avery, John Reily, John R.
Mills, Jonathan Smith Findlay, William
Ruffin, Joseph Prince, David E. Wade,
Isaac Van Nuys, Joel Williams.
4 When one considers the scarcity of
money in a frontier community and the pur-
chasing power, in that day, of ten
dollars (the price of a share in the projected
library), the subscription of three hundred and forty
dollars for the purchase of books
was no mean indication of the
community's affluence; a comment first made by the
person who, sometimes in the 40's, added
a penciled note to the back of the subscrip-
tion paper. See below, page 196.
CINCINNATI'S FIRST LIBRARY 195
too, legally outgrew its status as a
frontier village and became an
incorporated town. It was only natural
that in the wave of local
patriotism and civic pride, every means
of adding lustre to the
city's name should have been employed.
That there was already borrowing and
lending of books is
evidenced in such advertisements as that
of William Ruffin, post-
master, in the Spy of September
10, 1800, in which he requests
the return of Brackenridge's History of teh Western
Insurrection
(a current best seller); and that of
Judge Burnet in the Spy of
August 19, 1800, in which the judge gave notice that "the person
who has borrowed of the subscriber the
3d vol. of the United
States Laws, stamped 'Territorial
property' is requested to re-
turn it." The townsmen had, from a
comparatively early day,
shown their cultural interests by making
a good stock of books
a profitable sideline for the general
stores, as can be seen by the
advertisement of James Forguson (or
Ferguson) in the Spy of
August 13, 1799, who was leaving the
territory and proposed
selling his entire stock of dry-goods,
groceries, and books.5 So
it does not seem strange that public
spirited citizens should have
projected plans for a library early in
the town's history.
It would be interesting to know which of
the twenty-five
signers of the subscription list
inspired that meeting at Yeatman's
Tavern on the evening of February 13, 1802. The city fathers
were young men in those lays, though it
is hard for the imagina-
tion to restore youthful smoothness and
bloom to the bent,
wrinkled and toothless portraits
adorning their memoirs. (The
Jacob Burnet of the etching of 1807,6
with the classic profile, the
trim queue, and lacy shirt front, looks
scarcely father of the grim
and careless oldster of the 1840's.)7
They were young, and added
to their patriotic enthusiasm for the western country was their
classical heritage from the East. They were frontiersmen who,
while adapting themselves to the
wilderness, were at the same
time citizens of an outpost of a
civilization with which they never
5 Western Spy, Aug.
13, 1799. Quoted by E. A. Henry, "Cincinnati as a Literary
md Publishing Center, 1793-1880,"
in Publisher's Weekly (New York, 1937), CXXXII,
22-4, 110-12.
6 Historical & Philosophical Society
of Ohio, Journal [and transactions] (Columbus,
1839). I, pt. 2, front.
7 Jacob Burnet, Notes on the
Early Settlement of the Northwestern Territory (Cin-
cinnati, 1846), front.
196
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
lost touch, whose institutions they
brought with them to be
planted in the first clearings. To men
of Latin and legal training,
books were necessary even on the
frontier, and the subscription
library as an institution of organized
borrowing was known to
them in the world from which they came.
The notice which was read by
Cincinnatians in Saturday's
Western Spy that thirteenth of February, 1802, was, however,
unsigned, and carried only the simple
message:
Such persons as wish for the
establishment of a public
library in this town are requested to
meet at Mr. Yeatman's at
6 o'clock this evening.
Enough such persons were present to form
a preliminary
organization, and a committee consisting
of Messrs. Jacob Burnet,
Martin Baum and Lewis Kerr was appointed
to seek subscrip-
tions. The paper they circulated, a
folded sheet of rag paper
such as the Spy was printed on,
was dated February 15, 1802,
and they were ready to make their report
by March 6, as they in-
formed the public by a second notice in
the Spy of that date.
This notice was headlined
"Cincinnati Library" and read:
The subscribers to this institution, and
others who may be desirous
of encouraging it, are requested to meet
at Mr. Yeatman's on Monday eve-
ning next at 6 o'clock, to receive the
report of the committee appointed on
the 13th ult. and proceed thereon.
By order of the committee, Lewis Kerr.
The following penciled and barely
legible note on the back
of the subscription paper, added many
years later, concludes the
documentation of the existence of
Cincinnati's first library:
The first Library Company founded here
was originated with the fol-
lowing subscription list. It went into
operation March 6, 1802. Lewis Kerr,
Librarian. Taking into view the scarcity
of money at that period it was an
exceedingly liberal subscription
amounting to three hundred and forty dol-
lars. As far as known but four of the
signers survive. John Reily now of
Hamilton, Griffin Yeatman, Jacob Burnet
and Jacob White of Kentucky.
This note must have been written
sometime between 1842, when
Deacon Wade died, and 1849, the year of Griffin Yeatman's
death.8
8 Reily died in 1850; Burnet in
1853. The date of White's death has not been
ascertained.
CINCINNATI'S FIRST LIBRARY 197
Upon these three meager documents rests
the evidence of the
founding of a public library in
Cincinnati in 1802.
The subscription paper probably came to
light in the 1860's
among the papers of that indefatigable
collector of historical
ephemera, James McBride, of Hamilton,
Ohio, when Robert
Clarke, the publisher, was editing
McBride's Pioneer Biogra-
phies.9 McBride, in his sketch of John Reily of Hamilton,10
made brief mention of the 1802 library, to
which Reily was a
subscriber, and pointed out that at the
time of Reily's death in
1850, Jacob Burnet, since dead, was its only surviving
member.11
Clarke, in his capacity as editor, added
an appendix to
the sketch of Reily,12 in
which he quoted the subscription paper,
including the list of names and noticing
the penciled note on the
back. He prefaced the quotation of the
subscription paper with
the direct statement that the Cincinnati
Library preceded by nearly
two years the "celebrated
'Coon-skin Library,' . . . [which] has
always had the credit of having been the
first public library in
the Northwestern territory."
Now the "Coon-skin" Library,
as the Western Library Asso-
ciation was nicknamed, was founded at the
village of Ames, in
Athens County, Ohio, on February 2, 1804, after a
year or so
of preliminary discussion. It was
another six months before its
books were actually in circulation, but
from November, 1804, to
the year 1861 the Western Library
Association faithfully served
the people of Athens County, and, as
Clarke stated, had always
been believed to be the first public
library in the Northwest
Territory.13
In the same year that he published
McBride's Pioneer Biog-
raphies, Clarke also published A History of Athens County,
Ohio,
by C. M. Walker, in which the story of
this famous library was
related, and its claims to priority
asserted.
Clarke, however, as a result of his
discovery of the subscrip-
cion paper, felt he had reason to
believe otherwise, and his
9 James McBride, Pioneer Biographies (Cincinnati,
1869), 2 vols.
10 Ibid., I, 1-105.
11 Ibid., I, 43.
12 Ibid., I, 104.
13 Dorothy V. Martin, History of the
Library Movement in Ohio to 1850 . . .
unpublished master's thesis, Ohio State
University, 1935).
198
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
editorial statement in the appendix to
the sketch of Reily was the
first time such a claim for Cincinnati had appeared in print,
although probably in the same year
Clarke had offered this sug-
gestion in a paper read before the
Historical and Philosophical
Society of Ohio.14
It was this statement which raised the
little ghost of Cincin-
nati's first library. It is not without
irony that, in two simulta-
neous publications from his own press,
Clarke should have raised
a ghost which has not yet been laid, and
precipitated an historical
tempest in a teapot which had to be
quieted by the deliberations
of three wise men.
It was nearly ten years, however, before
the events involving
the three wise men took place.
In 1876 the United States Commissioner
of Education issued
a special report entitled: Public
Libraries in the United States.
The well-known teacher, writer and
scholar, William Henry Ven-
able, contributed the article on Cincinnati
libraries.15 In his dis-
cussion of the 1802 library he followed
the Clarke appendix in
McBride, and offered the further
suggestion that it might have
been incorporated into the Circulating
Library Society of 1814,
which actually did flourish for several
years. He drew forth per-
haps the first protest from Athens County by his categorical
statement that "the Cincinnati
Library went into operation March
6, 1802, thirteen years after the town
was begun, and two years
before the formation of the famous 'Coon
Skin' Library at Ames,
Athens County, Ohio, for which priority
of origin has been mis-
takenly claimed."
The secretary of the Athens County
Pioneer Society, A. B.
Walker, read this special report, and
took exception to Venable's
statement in a letter to the
Commissioner of Education, written
November 8, 1877, in which he
argued that this claim rested solely
upon the subscription paper, "the
original of which was in the
hands of Robert Clarke," and that
it was not only impossible to
show that books had been purchased and
circulated, but that it
14 Clarke MSS., vol. 2, p. 140;
and Historical & Philosophical Society of Ohio,
Record of the Society minutes, May 23, 1868 - Nov. 4, 1882, pp. 77-83.
15 W. H. Venable, "Public Libraries of Cincinnati,"
in U. S. Bureau of Educa-
tion, Public Libraries in the United
States . . .(Washington, 1876), 898-9.
CINCINNATI'S FIRST LIBRARY 199
would have been physically impossible in
any case, judging from
the experience of the Western Library
Association, to inaugurate,
organize and stock a library within the
short period of three
weeks.16 The Commissioner,
having corresponded with Clarke on
this subject while the special report
was in preparation, turned
Walker's letter over to him for his
reply.17
Clarke, as has been said, had the
original subscription paper
in his possession, and thus challenged
he searched the Western
Spy for 1802 and found the
two newspaper notices calling for
the library's organization. He accounted
for the fact that no
other notices appeared by saying,
"It [the library society] was
doubtless fully organized at this last
meeting [of March 6], and
needed no further advertising, so it
disappears from the news-
papers." For the problem, whether or not, and where, books
were purchased, Clarke offered as a
solution the advertisement
of a book auction to be held February 2 under the
auspices of a
certain A. Carey. Of this advertisement
Clarke says, "I find
[in it] not only the source from which
the books were obtained
but I have no doubt, also the exciting
cause of the formation of
the Library and of the haste in
obtaining subscriptions," and he
thought, furthermore, that the idea
might have been suggested by
Carey himself. "These
advertisements," said Clarke, "with the
original manuscript subscription list,
show that the project was
hastily conceived and promptly carried out,
doubtless in order to
take advantage of the presence of Carey
and his 'handsome col-
lection'."18
Clarke took it for granted that the A.
Carey of the adver-
tisement was a member of the
Philadelphia firm of Mathew
Carey & Sons, publishers, although
nowhere in the advertisement
is it so stated. It is as easy to
believe that he was Abraham Carey,
a Cincinnatian of several years'
residence, who served several
terms as constable of Cincinnati
Township and overseer of the
16 A. B. Walker to John Eaton, Nov. 8,
1877, in Clarke MSS., vol. 2, p. 120.
One of a series of 11 letters which
passed between Clarke, Walker, the U. S. Com-
missioner of Education, John Eaton, the
State Commissioner of Education, J. J. Burns,
and the jury of three appointed by
Commissioner Eaton to weigh the claims of the
conflicting libraries.
17 Eaton to Clarke, March 26, 1878, in
Clarke MSS., vol. 2, p. 122.
l8 Clarke to Eaton, Apr. 13, 1878, in Clarke MSS., Vol. 2,
p. 124-125. (The
advertisement of Carey's book auction
appeared in the Western Spy for Jan. 30, 1802.)
200
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
poor, and was sergeant at arms in the
Territorial Legislature in
1799. In that day, it was not unusual
for the wandering publisher
to arrive in town with a stock of books
which he offered at auc-
tion sale, after which he went on
without establishing any per-
manent local connections, and the Careys
of Philadelphia were
among the first publishers to build up
this kind of trade. But
neither was it unusual for a western
man, on concluding a visit to
the East, to bring back a stock of some
readily marketable goods,
by the sale of which he hoped to defray
the expenses of his trip.
This, however, is a matter beyond proof,
and so is the con-
nection between A. Carey's book auction
and the first call for the
organization of the library, although
Clarke was convinced that
such a connection existed and that it
strengthened his claim. But
if this connection did exist it would
appear that Carey's book
auction was not particularly successful,
as nearly two weeks
elapsed between the date of sale
(February 2) and the date of
the first citizens' meeting (February
13).
In conclusion, Clarke pointed out that
the library must have
existed if only because "such men
as Arthur St. Clair, Jacob
Burnet, and others whose names are on
the list . . . were not the
men to put their names to such an
enterprise and not carry it
out." "However short a life it
may have had," said Clarke, "I
have no doubt it was established, and
was the first public library
in the Northwestern Territory."
Walker of Athens County refused to
accept the results of
Clarke's investigations as proof of
Cincinnati's priority over the
Coon-skin Library, and solicited a legal
opinion of General C. H.
Grosvenor of Athens, who, like Walker,
was a member of the
Athens County Pioneer Society. General
Grosvenor19 wrote a
long and learned reply, arriving at the
conclusion that while it
could be proved that steps were taken to
organize the Cincinnati
library, it could not be proved that
books were ever purchased
and circulated.
Clarke did not deign to reply to this
opinion, a copy of which
General Grosvenor sent him, but laid
before the October meeting
19 Grosvenor to A.
B. Walker, May 27, 1878, published in the Cincinnati Gazette,
Oct. 29, 1878.
CINCINNATI'S FIRST LIBRARY 201
of the Historical and Philosophical
Society of Ohio, the challeng-
ing letter of Walker, Eaton's letter of
transmittal and his own
reply, and all these were published in
the Cincinnati Gazette,
under the banner:
Cincinnati Ahead. The First Public
Library in the West
Established there. Proof that it
Antedated the Noted Coonskin
Library of Ames Township, Athens County,
Ohio.20
Naturally this drew forth a protest from
General Grosvenor,
who sent to the Gazette an open
letter of a column and a half,
addressed to Robert Clarke, in which he
reminded Clarke of his
unanswered letter of the previous
spring, reviewed the evidence,
and proposed that the controversy be
referred either to Judge
Ranney, Judge Waite, or to the Honorable
Samuel Shellabarger,
upon whose decision the case might
stand.21
Walker made the same proposal to
Commissioner Eaton, who
thereupon returned to each of the
protagonists all his statements
regarding the matter, in order that they
might be submitted to
such referees as might be agreed upon.22
Clarke testily replied that he had
become involved in the
problem in the first place because by
accident he possessed the
subscription paper, that he was
convinced that the library did
function, however briefly, and that
further research in the files
of the Western Spy, if such files
were available, would un-
doubtedly reveal that such was the case.
He referred to a notice
in the Western Spy for May 8, 1813,
calling a meeting of the
Trustees of the Cincinnati Circulating
Library, which had been
brought to his attention by his friend,
H. A. Rattermann, and
this, said Clarke, was undoubtedly the
same society, which some-
one with plenty of time for the
necessary research could no doubt
verify. As for himself, he had devoted
as much time to the ques-
tion as he could spare from a busy life,
and declined having any-
thing more to do with it!23
Walker and his Athens associates were
persistent, however.
20 Cincinnati Gazette, Oct.
7, 1878, p. 5, col. 1-2.
21 Ibid., Oct. 29, 1878, p.
5, col. 1-2. Clarke, in his letter of Nov. 18 to Eaton,
says that he replied to Grosvenor
through the columns of the Gazette for Nov. 7, but
no such reply was found.
22 Eaton to Clarke, Nov. 16, 1878, in Clarke MSS., Vol.
2, p. 125.
23 Clarke to Eaton, Nov. 18, 1878; and
Clarke to Walker, Dec. 6, 1878, in
Clarke MSS., vol. 2, p. 122 and
130.
202
OHIO ARCHAEPOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The jury of referees (J. J. Burns, State
Commissioner of Com-
mon Schools, Attorney General Isaiah
Pillars, and President Ed-
ward Orton of Ohio State University) was
appointed,24 and after
a year of investigation and weighing of
facts, reported their
findings.25
These upset all claims of both sides.
The Cincinnati library of 1802, they decided,
was certainly
projected in 1802, but proof of its having functioned did not seem
to exist. The so-called Coon-skin Library certainly came into
existence in 1804, and gave satisfactory
service for a number of
years. But the first public library in
the Territory North-west of
the River Ohio was the Belpre Library,
which was established
in 1796 and flourished till 1815 or
1816. Legal proof of this lay
in a receipt for the purchase of a share
of stock in the library,
for the sum of ten dollars, dated
October 26, 1796, and in an
inventory of the estate of Captain
Jonathan Stone probated at
Marietta, dated September 2, 1801, both of
which had been un-
covered by President I. W. Andrews of
Marietta College, in the
preparation of an article on the Belpre
library which he wrote
for the Marietta Register,26 as his contribution to the controversy.
Thus the question, what was the first
public library in the
Northwest Territory, was definitively
settled, but the question of
priority between the Cincinnati and
Coon-skin libraries still re-
mained in doubt.
The findings of the jury of referees
were published in the
Columbus Daily Times and Ohio
Statesman; and in the Marietta
Register (reprinted in the Library Journal) under the
caption:
"The Oldest Library in the
North-West."27 Strangely enough
these findings were not published in the Cincinnati Gazette, which
had carried Clarke's and Grosvenor's
correspondence of 1878,
perhaps because Clarke neglected to
offer the press his manu-
script copy of the report, although he
filed it, with the rest of his
24 Eaton to J. J. Burns, May 6, 1879, in Clarke MSS., vol.
2, p. 132. Burns
notified Clarke of the appointment of
the jury in a letter of May 19, to which Clarke
(letter of May 22) reiterated his desire
to withdraw from the controversy.
25 Edward
Orton, Isaiah Pillars, and J. J. Burns to Eaton, Mar. 15, 1880, in
Clarke MSS., vol. 2, p. 136.
26 I.
W. Andrews, "The Belpre Library of the Early Days," in Marietta Register,
June 18, 1879.
27 Columbus Daily Times and Ohio
Statesman, Apr. 14, 1880; Marietta Register,
Apr. 18, 1880; and Library Journal (New York),
May, 1880, V, 145-6.
CINCINNATI'S FIRST LIBRARY 203
correspondence on the subject, in the
archives of the Historical
and Philosophical Society of Ohio.
At any rate the matter received no local
publicity, and the
Fords,28 writing in 1881,
followed Clarke and Venable in their
discussions of the city's library
history, giving continued currency
to the idea first set forth by Clarke in
1869. So also did two of
the three twentieth century historians
of Cincinnati. N. D. C.
Hodges, librarian of the Cincinnati
Public Library, writing his
article for Greve's Centennial
History of Cincinnati 29 was cau-
tious, and did not claim precedence, but did venture to follow
Venable and Clarke in supposing the 1802
library to have had
a continuous life and to have been
merged into the 1814 library.
But Goss, in 1912, stated that
"there was founded in Cincinnati
in 1802, the first public library in the
Northwest Territory,"
though, he admitted, "It is
probable that the existence of this
library was brief," 30 and, as late as
1927 Leonard wrote, "The first
public library in the great Northwest
Territory was established
in Cincinnati in 1802,"
though, he too, admitted, "The history of
this organization was evidently brief,
for it is known of record
that certain citizens in 1809 presented
a petition to the Legisla-
ture for an act of incorporation, but
for a reason now unknown
this request was denied." 31
The question of whether or not the 1802
library ever went
into operation was still open for lack
of evidence, and Clarke, in
the letter to the Commissioner of
Education in which he dis-
avowed any further responsibility, hit
upon the reason for this
lack when he said that further research
in the files of the Western
Spy, if such files were available, would be necessary. The truth
was that in 1878 and 1879 there was no
complete file of Cincin-
nati's pioneer newspaper which was
available to Mr. Clarke.
Now that such a file is available 32 it is possible
to say that
Clarke's guess was wrong. A search of
the papers for the years
28 H.
A. and Mrs. Kate Ford, History of Cincinnati, Ohio (Cleveland, 1881),
258-64.
29 N. D. C. Hodges, "The Public
Library and its Precursors," in C. T. Greve,
Centennial History of Cincinnati (Chicago, 1904), 1, 906-908.
30 C. F. Goss, Cincinnati, the Queen
City (Chicago, 1912), II, 419.
31 L. A. Leonard, ed., Greater
Cincinnati and Its People (New York, 1927), II, 707.
32 See files in the library of the
Historical & Philosophical Society of Ohio; for
1799, only 3 issues are missing; for
1800 and 1802, only 2 each; for 1803, 16; for
1804 and 1805, 2 each, etc.
204
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
1802
and 1803 reveals no further mention of a public library in
Cincinnati. Continue the search through
1805 and there is still no
mention of such an institution. The
probability that the organi-
zation of 1802 was still-born is
supported by an announcement in
both the Western Spy and the Liberty
Hall and Cincinnati Mer-
cury for February 17, 1806:
Such gentlemen of this town, and its
vicinity, as wish to promote a
CIRCULATING LIBRARY, are requested to
meet at the house of
Mr. GRIFFIN YEATMAN, on SATURDAY the 22d
instant, at 6 o'clock
in the evening, in order to form the
most expedient plan for carrying the
design into execution. It is unnecessary
to expaciate [sic] on the advan-
tages to be derived from so useful an
institution, as it is universally
admitted to be of great utility, both to
the present and rising generation.
Here the existence of a predecessor is
not acknowledged,
though Mr. Yeatman, patron of the
meetings of 1802, again opens
his house in the interests of culture.
Had he actually paid his
ten dollars for a share of stock, and
did he hope by reviving the
library project to see it serving some
useful purpose? However
that might be, the second attempt must
have been even less fruit-
ful than the first, not another word
about it appearing in either
the Spy or Liberty Hall, and
not another name being connected
with it. When in 1816 the directors of
the Circulating Library
Society of Cincinnati issued their Systematic
Catalogue of Books,
they traced the history of their society
back only to the autumn
of 1808, and did not seem aware of the
two earlier efforts at
founding such a society.
Of those twenty-five men who signed the
subscription paper,
almost nothing in the way of personal papers
or memoirs sur-
vives. Burnet was the only author of
published books among
them, and Reily's biography at the hands
of McBride is the only
contemporary account, outside of the
eulogistic and uninforma-
tive newspaper obituaries. Judge Burnet,
by the time he was
reminiscing about the pioneer days, had
forgotten his youthful
pledge of ten dollars in the cause of
learning, and in fact had
little to say about educational
institutions of any kind in early
Ohio. His "Notes on the Early
Settlement of the Northwestern
Territory" were almost wholly
concerned with the political and
CINCINNATI'S FIRST LIBRARY 205
military phases of early settlement.
Even when, in the forties,
Charles Cist was prodding the public
mind for pioneer recollec-
tions for his weekly column,
"Cincinnati Miscellany," in the
Western General Advertiser, no memories of the 1814 library
were turned up, let alone of the 1802
library. If such memories
did exist and were written down, they
were then and still remain
in private hands.
In spite of other lack of evidence,
however, it is not unreason-
able to suppose that an institution for
which officers were ap-
pointed really did function, and the
note on the back of the sub-
scription paper says that the library
did go into operation, on
March 6, 1802, with Lewis Kerr as
librarian.
Who was Lewis Kerr? Is it possible to
find in his career
the history of the fate of the 1802
library?
Lewis Kerr was an adventurous Irishman
who came to Cin-
cinnati sometime early in 1801,
at least as early as March, 1801,
when he was admitted to the Cincinnati
bar.33 His first appearance
in the public prints occurred in March,
1802, when there was
published in the Spy the second
notice of a library meeting, to
which his name was signed. His second
appearance was in May,
1802, when a communication of the Republican Corresponding
Society of Cincinnati, bearing the name
of Lewis Kerr as chair-
man, was published.34
The Republican Corresponding Society had
met to consider
the report of the "committee of
Congress lately appointed to
deliberate on the expediency and means
of erecting certain parts
of this territory into a state to be
incorporated in the Union."
The Society stood for the erection of a
state nearly within the
present boundaries, and was opposed
politically to the Federalist
followers of Governor St. Clair. The
report of the Society's
deliberations unleashed a series of
"communicated" pieces in the
columns of the Spy, written by
members of the Federalist party,
in which were attacked not only the
principles of the Society,
but especially the personality of its
chairman.35
One correspondent, calling himself
"Peter Squibb," was par-
33 Western Law Journal, 1843/44, II, 94.
34 Western Spy, May 1, 1802.
35 Ibid., May 8, 15, 22, 29, June 5, 12, 26, July 3, 17,
1802.
206 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ticularly scurrilous in his attacks on
Kerr, incidentally disclosing
the fact that Kerr was neither a native
American nor a natural-
ized citizen, that he had arrived in
Cincinnati not more than
fifteen months before, and that he had
come to America from
Calcutta, but was a native of Ireland.
Throughout June these letters continued,
filled with invective
against the person of Kerr; then they
became more general though
none the less filled with vilification,
until finally on July 17 the
editors of the Spy concluded that
every side had had its chance
to be heard and refused therefore to
publish any more personal
attacks.
Such pot shots at personality, whether
or not accompanied
by physical demonstrations of hostility,
might well have ruined
a man's chances, even in those days when
political feeling com-
monly ran high, and it is not
surprising, therefore, to learn, by a
long letter from Kerr himself in a Western
Spy Extra on July 24,
1802, that he was now departed from
Cincinnati. His letter was
dated from Louisville, June 19, and in it he tendered his resigna-
tion as chairman of the Republican
Corresponding Society because
of business which might take him from
the territory for many
months. He expressed surprise and sorrow
at the flood of vilifica-
tion which his chairmanship had called
forth, and declared, "True
it is, I drew my first breath in the
kingdom of Ireland, not many
miles from the British shore; but
gentlemen, it is equally true,
that I have not imported to this country
one particle of attach-
ment to the European corruptions of
government, nor one senti-
ment inimical to the constitution of the
United States." With a
truly graceful style he enlarged upon
the privileges and duties of
citizenship and wished success to the
cause of the Republican
Society--all this "in a few
intervales [sic] of leisure which [he]
could but badly spare from the attention
necessary to the naviga-
tion of [his] boat."36
36 See numerous references to Kerr in U.
S. Secretary of State. Territorial Papers,
V. Mississippi, and
IX, Orleans; and in Dunbar Rowland's edition of The
Misississippi
Territorial Archives (Nashville, 1905).
Kerr's subsequent career proved equally
full of adventure. Naturally he never
returned to Cincinnati. He
floated on down to Natchez, where he ingratiated himself
into the favor of Governor W. C. C. Claiborne of
Orleans territory. Claiborne took
Kerr into his official family and by
1804 had appointed him Sheriff of New Orleans,
"conceiving that . . . that
important office should be filled with one who personally
CINCINNATI'S FIRST LIBRARY 207
Lewis Kerr said nothing, in the letter
in which he resigned his
chairmanship of the Republican
Corresponding Society, about re-
signing his position as librarian of the
Cincinnati library. It must
be granted that such a position must
have been a purely honorary
one as regards salary. Furthermore his
letter was directed, not
"To whom it may concern," but
to the members of the Society
whose chairmanship he was resigning.
Nevertheless this letter reveals the
significant fact that the
only known official of the Cincinnati
library of 1802 remained in
Cincinnati only a little over three
months after the supposed
establishment of the library. If this
institution had really been
a going concern when Kerr left in June,
so suddenly that he had
to send back a letter from Louisville
announcing his departure,
a meeting of the stock holders should
have been called to select
his successor, and no notice of such a
meeting was published in
the Western Spy.
There seems to have been only one person
who in later years
remembered about the 1802 library, and
that was John Reily.37
What was his real connection with the
organization?
Reily came to Cincinnati's sister
village of Columbia in De-
cember, 1789, and the next summer opened
a school there, in
partnership with Francis Dunlevy. In
1793 he gave up teaching in
order to improve his lands near where
the suburb of Carthage
now stands, but finding this occupation
uncongenial, moved to
Cincinnati, where he held various
political offices, among them
clerk of the Territorial Legislature
from September, 1799, till
1802. He served as trustee of
Cincinnati's first council in 1802,
and in November of that year went to
Chillicothe as a delegate
from Hamilton County to the
Constitutional Convention. Some-
time early in 1803 he received
appointment to the post of recorder
of Butler County, whereupon he moved to
Hamilton and lived
there until his death in 1850.
enjoyed [his] confidence, & was
himself possessed of legal Information." One of Kerr's
commissions from Claiborne was the task
of compiling an "Exposition of the Criminal
Laws of the Territory of Orleans,"
which was published in 1806.
But the appeal of political intrigue was
too strong for Kerr, and in 1808 he was
brought to trial on charges of
complicity in the Burr conspiracy. His American career
was now forever ruined. Claiborne,
writing to the Secretary of War in April, 1808, to
report upon the activities of the
conspirators, said that Kerr proposed to return to
Ireland. There, no doubt, he found new intrigues ripe
for his talents.
37 McBride, Pioneer Biographies.
208
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The subscription paper, as has been
said, probably came to
light in the 1860's, among the papers of
James McBride of Ham-
ilton, Ohio, friend and protege of John
Reily. It may be sup-
posed that when Reily went to Hamilton
he took with him the
subscription paper, which along with
other historical documents,
such as the Minutes of the Territorial
Legislature, had floated into
his hands. There, one may believe, it
lay among his papers until
James McBride, taking notes on the
pioneers sometime in the
forties, talked to the old man about the
old days, and helped him
rediscover it. Reily was then in his
eighties (he died at the age
of eighty-seven) and perhaps he recalled
intention as if it were
accomplishment. The note on the back of
the subscription paper
was no doubt put there at this time. At
any rate, into his biog-
raphy crept the modest statement that a
library was organized
in Cincinnati in February and March of
1802--a statement which
grew into a lively ghost during the
1870's under the sponsorship
of Clarke. But it was merely the ghost
of an idea.
The truth probably is that there was no
library in Cincinnati
until 1814, when the Circulating Library
Society of Cincinnati
began to issue books. The evidence of
the subscription paper is
evidence of earnestness of intention,
but the silence of other rec-
ords cannot be interpreted as evidence
of accomplishment. The fact
that Kerr, who was an officer, and Reily
who became custodian
of the subscription list, left
Cincinnati, never to return, within
the year (Kerr within three months),
argues, if nothing else, for
a brief, brief life. The fact that four
years and again six years
later, there were unsuccessful attempts
at the same object, neither
of which took cognizance of the 1802
effort, shows such a lack of
vitality in that first effort that it
seems impossible to conclude
otherwise than that it died at birth.
There is one more conclusive
fact--nobody to this day has been able
to produce a book with
a book plate of the Cincinnati Library,
1802.