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READING INTERESTS AND THE BOOK TRADE IN FRONTIER MISSOURI PDF

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Preview READING INTERESTS AND THE BOOK TRADE IN FRONTIER MISSOURI

The undersigned, appointed by the Dean of the Graduate Faculty, have examined a thesis entitled READING INTERESTS AND THE BOOK TRADE IN FRONTIER MISSOURI presented by Harold Holmes Dugger a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and hereby certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance. (dJ jJU/UZ~~ (jLckiA*. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. READING INTERESTS AND THE BOOK TRADE IN FRONTIER MISSOURI A D issertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School U niversity of M issouri In P artial Fulfillm ent of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by Harold Holmes Dugger, M. A, August 1951 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The writer wishes to express his appreciation to Professor Lewis E. Atherton for his patient guidance in the preparation of th is study and to Dean Elmer E llis and Professor William H. Peden for helpful suggestions. Libra­ rians and county o ffic ia ls have rendered courteous and ef­ ficien t aid in making m aterials available. 642375 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OP CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. CULTURAL BACKGROUNDS OP THE EARLY MISSOURIANS. . 1 II. PREVALENCE AND SIZE OP EARLY PRIVATE LIBRARIES . • 55 III. CONTENT OP PRIVATE LIBRARIES, WITH SPECIAL AT­ TENTION TO SMALL COLLECTIONS ....................................... 110 IV. CONTENT OP LARGER GENERAL COLLECTIONS.............................l £8 V. CONTENT OP PROFESSIONAL LIBRARIES.......................................198 VI. A SHELF OP FAVORITES . ................... 250 VII. BEGINNINGS OP SEMI-PUBLIC LIBRARIES..................................268 VIII. THE SOURCE AND NATURE OP READING PREFERENCES . . 306 IX. THE EARLY BOOK TRADE..................................................................337 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................. 372 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER I CULTURAL BACKGROUNDS OP THE EARLY MISSOURIANS The fir s t four decades after the cession of Louisi­ ana to the United States saw the population of M issouri grow from nine or ten thousand in 1801^ to 20,81|5 in 1810, 66,586 in 1820, lij.O,l}.55 in I83O and 383,702 in 18^0. By 1850 it had reached 682,OijJLj.. The slave population averag­ ed something over fifte en per cent, reaching a peak of 18.27 per cent in 1830, then declining to 13.2 per cent by 1850? Already in a m ajority by l 8olj., Americans from the eastern states furnished most of the additions to the pop­ ulation that came about through immigration. Most of them were English speaking—English, Scotch, Irish —although Germans came in considerable numbers, either from the 1. Jonas V iles, ’'Population and Extent of Settlem ent in M issouri before 180I4.," The M issouri H istorical Review, V (July, 1911), 212-213. 2. The Seventh Census of the United S tates: 18£0, compiled by J. D. B. DeBow. "“(Washington, Robert Armstrong, Public Printer, 1853), 665. i 3. Ibid. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 eastern states or direct from Germany.^" G enerally, set­ tlem ents grew fir s t along river valleys, both because of the rich bottom land and the avenues of transportation which the streams offered.^ The M ississippi and M issouri marked the way for most settlers in the earlier days, but immigrants soon ventured up tributary streams, and by-the m id-forties a ll sections of the state were settled to some extent, although few had reached certain parts of the Ozark country. Towns grew comparatively slowly u n til w ell into I).. A number of studies, concerning parts or a ll of the period dealt with in th is study, treat the subject of population movement into M issouri. Among them are the previously cited a rticle by Professor Jonas V iles, "Population and Extent of Settlem ent in M issouri before l80l}.," The M issouri H istorical Review V (July, 1911)» 189-213; V iles, "Missouri in 1820," The M issouri His­ torical Review. XV (October, 1920), 36-52; H attie M. Anderson, ''Missouri, l80lj.-l828: Peopling a Frontier State," The M issouri H istorical Review, XXXI (January, 1937)» lfjb-lbO; W illiam 0. Lynch, "The Influence of Population Movement on M issouri before 1861," The M issouri H istorical Review, XVIII (July, 1923)7306- £16; James Fernando E llis, The Influence of Environment on the Settlem ent of M issouri. St. Louis, Webster Pub- TTshing Company,19^9; and Henry J. Burt, "The Popula­ tion of M issouri. A General Survey of Its Sources, Changes, and Present Composition," U niversity of Mis­ souri, College of A griculture, A gricultural Experiment Station, Research B ulletin 188. Columbia, M issouri, May* 1933~ ^he basis for generalizations here and else­ where regarding population movement into and distribu­ tion in M issouri, not sp ecifica lly credited, can be found in these studies. E llis points out that in southeastern M issouri the set­ tlers tended to push back from the rivers out of the • swampland. The Influence of Environment on the S ettle­ ment of M issouri. 73. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 the th ir tie s, but they were important as trading centers and as.the places of residence of a large portion of the growing professional and business groups. At one time or another, from the beginnings of Amer­ ican movement into M issouri about the time of the Revolu­ tionary War, the state attracted settlers from a ll sections of the area to the eastward. Among the earliest were German-Americans from Pennsylvania who established them­ selves along the Meramec River in the early 17701 Others of the same national extraction, but largely from North Carolina, furnished a large portion of the early pop­ ulation of the Cape Girardeau area, establishing themselves about the turn of the century and in the follow ing years.? Throughout the period, however, Anglo-Americans furnished the greater part of the new blood for M issouri. They came from a ll the eastern states, but in greatest numbers from the area between Pennsylvania and South Caro­ lin a . Those who came d irectly from the coastal states were, for the most part, from the back country areas.® The most common process of westward movement to M issouri was, 6. E llis, The Influence of Environment on the Settlement of M issouri. 68. 7« Ibid. . 69; Anderson, "M issouri, l80lj-l828: Peopling a Frontier State," 158. p. V iles, "Missouri in 1820," _________________________ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. k apparently, riot th is direct immigration from the coastal states, but transfer by stages by way of the states lying between, especially Tennessee and Kentucky and, to a lesser extent, Ohio, Indiana <uid Illin o is. The length of sojourn in these middle states varied from a few months or years to a generation or more.9 Although decidedly in the m inority, another group of M issouri settlers must not be ignored. These were the immigrants from the New England states, who took a prominent part in religiou s, professional, education­ al and in tellectu a l affairs in their adopted state. Probably it w ill never be possible to determine, with any great degree of accuracy, the relative proportions of M issouri’s population furnished by the various eastern states prior to l 8£0, the date of the fir s t census to re­ port the place of birth of the population. Of the £20,826 white and free Negro*1’0 population at that time, 277»60lj. had been born in M issouri and 2l}3,222 in other states and territo ries. 1 The greatest number of the latter group, 69, 69!}-, liste d Kentucky as their birthplace, Ijlj.,970 were from Tennessee and i|.0,777 from V irginia, while 17,009 were from North Carolina, but only 2,919 from South Carolina. 9. V iles, "Missouri in 1820," 1^3-iii}.; Anderson, "Missouri, l80l}.-l828: Peopling a Frontier State," 17q.. 10. Only 2,6l8 free colored persons were reported by the census. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 In other words, the four sta tes, Kentucky, Tennessee, Vir­ ginia and North Carolina were the birthplaces of approxi­ mately seventy per cent of the native American population of M issouri born outside the state. By th is date the next largest contributors to M issouri's population were Indiana, Ohio and Illin o is, with 12,752, 12,737 and 10,917 respec­ tiv ely . Pennsylvania contributed 8,291, New York If.,OI4.O and Maryland ij.,253 • Only 3, 2li]_ had been born in the New Eng­ land sta tes, with M assachusetts furnishing 1,103 and Con­ necticut 714-2 .11 There is no information as to the proportional con­ tributions of the other states to M issouri's population at earlier dates. It seems probable, judging from newspaper accounts and known origins of individuals, that New England and the Middle A tlantic states may have contributed more heavily in.th e earlier period before feelin gs on the slavery question became extreme. No inclusive study of reading in terests in the areas 11. The Seventh Census of the United S tates; 1850, XXXVI. The same source shows that of the 139,112 native pop­ ulation of Kentucky born out of the state, 92,596 were contributed by V irginia, Tennessee and North Carolina; 55-, 695- of them being from V irginia. Sim ilarly, of the 17®*571 native American inhabitants of Tennessee born out of the state, 133,855 came from North Carolina (72,027), V irginia (5.6,631) and South Carolina (l5,197i. Next as a contributor came Kentucky with 12,609. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 from which M issouri1 s people came has been attempted. How­ ever, local studies of th is particular phase of in te lle c t­ ual in terests and general inform ation regarding cultural a c tiv itie s afford some idea of the background of those who moved westward. Prom the early colonial period, New England led the other sections in efforts to educate its general populace. The clergy's insistence upon general education furnished the impetus for the growth of a common school system, and the relatively compact nature of New England settlem ent ✓ made the task of creating such a system easier than in the colonies farther south where distances between residences long remained an obstacle. As early as l6i}.2 a Massachusetts law stipulated that a ll children should be instructed, either by parents or schoolm asters, and charged those in control of the affairs of each town with the resp onsib ility of seeing that the instruction was given. This law proving in large measure ineffectu al,, another act in I6I4.7 required every township of fifty householders to maintain an ele­ mentary school and each town of 100 or more households to provide a grammar school in order to f it students for the i F Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

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