oung Men’s Mercantile 
 Library Association 
 
 T 835- x 905 
 
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 YOUNG MEN’S MERCAN- 
 TILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 
 
 BY 
 
 > 
 
 Murray E. Merrihew 
 
 To which is added lists of new 
 books to be found in the Library 
 
 Cincinnati 1905 
 
Board of Directors 
 
 John E. Bruce, President 
 Allen Collier, Vice-President 
 Lewis Hood, Secretary 
 W. W. Brown, Treasurer 
 Wm. B. Carpenter 
 D. McKim Cooke 
 Max C. Fleischmann 
 
 E. G. 
 
 F. W. Hinkle 
 Godfrey Holterhoff 
 Harry W. Hutchins 
 David M. Levy 
 Jesse Lowman 
 Asa B. Morgan 
 Geo. H. Warrington 
 
 ScHRIEFER 
 
 Board of Real Estate Managers 
 
 Stephen R. Burton Earl W. Stimson 
 
 Reuben A. Holden, Jr. Chas. B. Wilby 
 
 Wm. B. A. Taylor, Librarian 
 ASSISTANTS 
 
 Alice McLean Jacob Tuechter 
 
 Caroline Gaither Robert Stevenson 
 
 Cataloguer 
 
 Grace Goodale 
 
 Library hours, 9 a. m. to 9 p. m. daily. 
 
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 0 11 + 
 
 05 hrv\ 
 
 To The Citizens of Cincinnati: 
 
 The Young Men’s Mercantile Library has labored 
 under a great handicap in the lack of necessary quar- 
 ters, but now it lies within our power to welcome you 
 to our permanent home. 
 
 We have a rare heritage in the books that are ours, 
 and with our new steel stacks and other library equip- 
 ment we are ready to take a share of the real library 
 work of the city, and we believe that this institution, 
 standing as it has stood for culture, and identified with 
 the history of Cincinnati for seventy years, still deserves 
 your recognition. 
 
 Suggestions for making the library more useful are 
 invited, and also recommendations of desirable books. 
 With your co-operation we trust that the Young Men’s 
 Mercantile Library will speedily grow into the affec- 
 tions of all its patrons. 
 
 Wm. B. A. Taylor. 
 
 3 
 
 14208 
 
Early History of the Young 
 Men’s Mercantile Library 
 Association.* 
 
 To trace the early history and organization of the 
 Mercantile Library from its beginning to the present 
 time, to speak of the men of commercial distinction and 
 national reputation, who have been its presidents and 
 members of its Board of Directors, of all the move- 
 ments, mercantile, literary and social, concerning the 
 city’s growth and importance, that it has fostered and 
 advanced in the past seventy years, would take me far 
 beyond the scope of your kind invitation. For the pur- 
 pose of this short talk, I shall confine myself to the inci- 
 dents and facts of greatest interest. That some one 
 must have suggested the thought of establishing a place 
 where the young men of the city, engaged in mercantile 
 pursuits, the artizans, the clerks and the bookkeepers, 
 might spend their evenings profitably, and that the 
 merchant’s clerk as well as his employer, should be an 
 educated man and a lover of books, there can be no 
 doubt. Diligent search through the early annals of 
 the Library brings to view the name of one man as the 
 most active worker and orginator among that little band 
 of forty-five young men, who met for the first time on the 
 18th of April, 1835, in the second story of the old engine 
 house on the north side of Fourth Street, a few doors 
 east of Christ Church. His name was Moses Ranney; 
 he was its first president, and it is proper to say the 
 father of the Association. Some eighteen hundred dol 
 lars was raised, seven hundred books bought, and with 
 * Delivered before the Wotnan's Club , November 10, 1904> 
 
 4 
 
less than fifty members the Library was first located at 
 Daniel Ames’, on the west of Main, below Pearl Street. 
 The directors served in turn to open and shut the room, 
 sweep it and trim the lamps ; there was no gas in town 
 at this time. As cash in those days was scarcer than 
 it is now, during the summer of this year, not having 
 the means of hiring a librarian, the Library was tem- 
 porarily closed, but opened again in the fall, in the 
 second story over Eoss & Geyer’s cabinet shop on Fourth 
 Street, east of Main. Cincinnati at this time contained 
 a population of about 40,000. 
 
 In 1840, the Library moved from Fourth Street to 
 the Old College Building, on this site; from the south 
 end of the College to Fourth Street there was a beau- 
 tiful garden with shrubbery and trees. 
 
 In 1841 the first catalogue was prepared, showing 
 some 3,000 volumes and about 600 members. Among 
 the notable events in which the Association participated 
 in a body was the funeral of President Harrison in this 
 year, and the laying of the foundation of the Mt. 
 Adams Astronomical Association Building in 1843, 
 when the oration was delivered by Ex-President John 
 Quincy Adams. 
 
 An event in the history of the Library was the intro- 
 duction of gas, in 1843; previous to that time the 
 Library, like the community at large, depended for 
 light upon the use of tallow candles and lard oil. As 
 early as 1839 the Mercantile Library started the first 
 movement to establish a Chamber of Commerce in Cin- 
 cinnati, and thus to supply a long-felt want among the 
 merchants and business men of the mercantile com- 
 munity. K. M. W. Taylor, John W. Hartwell and 
 Moses Eanney were selected as a committee who pro- 
 posed a preamble and resolution, which is the first 
 action of the present Chamber of Commerce; that com- 
 
 5 
 
mittee was composed of men who were among the most 
 active members of the Library. The quarterly report 
 of October, 1846, gives a history of its Change Depart- 
 ment of the Library as follows: 
 
 “The project of a Merchant’s Exchange was sug- 
 gested in the winter of 1843 by a number of the old 
 merchants of the city, and at their urgent request its 
 entire management was undertaken by the Board of 
 Directors of this Association; active exertions were at 
 once made to carry out the plan, a subscription paper 
 was put into circulation and a sufficient number of sub- 
 scribers having been obtained the necessary prelimin- 
 aries were effected and an Exchange Boom opened on 
 the first of May ensuing; owing either to the want of 
 concert of action in those interested, or to the fact that 
 the business of the city did not require its adoption, one 
 object of the institution — the establishment of regular 
 Change hours — was not attained. The reports of the 
 arrival and departure of steamboats, of the exports and 
 imports to and from the city by the river, canals and 
 railroads, and of the arrivals at the principal hotels, all 
 of which were recorded daily in books kept for the pur- 
 pose, open to the examination of the subscribers, were, 
 however, deemed of sufficient importance as valuable 
 commercial statistics to justify a continuance of the 
 department, and to this end its organization has been 
 maintained from year to year by the several Boards of 
 Directors until the first of September last, when it was 
 transferred to the more legitimate guardianship of the 
 Chamber of Commerce.” 
 
 In grateful recognition of services rendered in the 
 past, the Chamber of Commerce has always tendered to 
 the Library the use of its magnificent hall on the occa- 
 sion of the annual elections of the Library. 
 
 6 
 
The Mercantile Library was the first organization 
 in the city to establish a course of lectures, and perhaps 
 the earliest institution in the West to encourage and 
 advance the cause of woman. Invitations to lecture were 
 extended by the Association to Harriet Beecher Stowe 
 and Miss Eliza Logan. Home talent was secured at 
 first, and efforts were made to get lecturers from the 
 eastern cities, but the time, fatigue and expense of trav- 
 elling were so great that it was impossible to accomplish 
 it. It required from five to seven days to travel from 
 Hew York to Cincinnati. 
 
 The Herald of Truth of February, 1848, says: 
 “There is at this time an unusual degree of intellectual 
 activity in Cincinnati. The Mercantile Library have 
 a course of very able lectures in progress, which are 
 attended by a large portion of the first minds of the 
 city.” At the start lectures were given by Ormsby M. 
 Mitchell, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Judge Timothy Wal- 
 ker, Salmon P. Chase, Bishop McElvaine, while at a 
 later period these were followed by Robert Dale Owen, 
 Horace Greeley, Alexander Campbell, Ralph Waldo 
 Emerson, W. M. Thackeray, Miss Eliza Logan, Wendell 
 Phillips, Edward Everett, and many others. 
 
 On January 18, 1845, the old College Building was 
 destroyed by fire. The College Trustees were unable to 
 rebuild and asked assistance from the Library. By lib- 
 eral donations of its members and merchants generally, 
 the Library raised the sum of $10,000 — a very large 
 amount of money for those days. This was paid to the 
 Trustees of the College, and in return the Library 
 received a lease for its room in the building to be con- 
 structed on this site for the full term of 10,000 
 years free of rent, also the heating of the room during 
 this period free of charge, and some minor but import- 
 ant privileges. This lease is the most valuable asset the 
 
 7 
 
Library possesses; it was drawn by Judge Alphonso 
 Taft and bear the signatures of John W. Hartwell, 
 President, and Joseph C. Butler, Recording Secretary, 
 and is dated January 1, 1849. 
 
 In 1882 a propositon to sell the lease to the College 
 for $40,000 — a price that the College was willing to 
 pay — was put to a vote of the Association, and resulted 
 as follows : Against sale of lease, 1,722 ; in favor of sale, 
 48, thus attesting in the most emphatic manner the 
 high esteem and gratitude in which the distinguished 
 jurist, who made the lease, and the successive Boards of 
 Directors and Real Estate Managers, who have guarded 
 and preserved it, were held by the members of the 
 Library. The Library has been the recipient of many 
 bequests and donations. In 1867 Andrew MfeArthur 
 bequeathed a handsome sum to purchase rare and use- 
 ful books. These have been placed in the alcove known 
 as the McArthur Library. David B. Lawler, Timothy 
 C. Day, John F. Dair, T. C. Kirby, F. D. Lincoln, Geo. 
 T. Harrison have enriched its shelves with works of 
 priceless value. The Timothy C. Day bequest is being 
 used to purchase memberships, that are distributed an- 
 nually among the meritorious pupils of the Public 
 Schools of the city. Some twenty-five hundred young 
 men and young women have thus been given access to 
 its books through the generosity of Mr. Day. 
 
 The Library has been fortunate in the selection of 
 its seven or eight Librarians, men who have united a 
 thorough knowledge of books with executive ability. 
 Upon the death of Mr. M. Hazen White in 1878, after 
 twelve years of faithful services, he was succeeded by 
 Mr. John M. Newton, who for nineteen years gave to 
 the Library the best results of a well trained literary 
 mind. Kindness and courtesy to all with whom he 
 came in contact marked his daily life. He died in 
 
 8 
 
1897 at his post of duty in the Library, among the 
 books he loved so well. 
 
 Many interesting events in the history of the Library 
 might bementioned at this time; perhaps the greatest and 
 most remarkable has been the progress made within the 
 last few years and the changes that have taken place 
 from the old Library of the past to the new Library of 
 to-day. Commencing with some 700 volumes it now 
 contains over 66,000, the result of years of intellectual 
 labor in their selection. From the small room it occu- 
 pied over the cabinet shop on Fourth Street in 1835, to 
 its permanent home in the Mercantile Library Build- 
 ing, on Walnut Street, where its members enjoy the 
 advantages of the best lighted and most conveniently 
 arranged reading room in the city. In its consultation 
 room is to be found a complete set of Cincinnati papers, 
 beginning with Liberty Hall and the old Cincinnati 
 Gazette in 1829, to the present time. As a library of 
 reference these files are unequalled and the only com- 
 plete record in the city. Some ninety magazines, the 
 best periodicals and pictorial publications, domestic and 
 foreign; seventy of the leading daily and weekly news- 
 papers of America and Europe; a well-equipped chess 
 room for those who love the game; a neatly furnished 
 room has been provided by the present Board of Direct- 
 ors for ladies engaged in the preparation of special 
 papers and essays or other matters connected with lit- 
 erary work. 
 
 As has been said by another : “From these brief out- 
 lines it will be seen that the Library Association has 
 been particularly active to further the best interests of 
 the city. It has also probably been productive of more 
 mental benefits than any other institution in the city, 
 save perhaps the schools, and even the schools, admir- 
 able as they are, are but helps to understand and profit 
 
 9 
 
by the treasures heaped up in a well selected library. 
 The educating power of such books as it has upon its 
 shelves can not be measured. It sustained for a long 
 time the lectures which have delighted and instructed 
 Cincinnati. It originated the Chamber of Commerce 
 and the Merchant’s Exchange. The attraction of its 
 pleasant reading room has furnished to two generations 
 of our young men a safeguard against vice and dissipa- 
 tion. It has been productive of a pure morality in the 
 silent teachings of its books and promoted as high a 
 degree of culture as any other institution in Cincin- 
 nati.” Murray E. Merrihew. 
 
 10 
 
FICTION. 
 
 ALTSHELER. Guthrie of the Times. 
 
 ARNIM. Adventures of Elizabeth in Ruegen. 
 BARBOUR. Kitty of the roses. 
 
 BARNES. Unpardonable war. 
 
 BARR, A. E. Belle of Bowling Green. 
 
 BARR, R. Chicago princess. 
 
 BARRETT. Never-never land. 
 
 BELL, J. J. Later adventures of wee Macgregor. 
 BELL. L. L. At home with the J ardines. 
 
 BENSON. Challoners. ' 
 
 BLUNDELL. Lychgate hall. 
 
 BRUDNO. Fugitive. 
 
 BURNETT. In the closed room. 
 
 BURNHAM. Jewel’s story book. 
 
 CAINE. Prodigal son. 
 
 CARRYL. Transgression of Andrew Yane. 
 CHAMBERS. Young man in a hurry. 
 
 CHURCHILL. Crossing. 
 
 CONNOLLY. Out of Gloucester. 
 
 CONNOR. Prospector. 
 
 CONRAD. Nostromo. 
 
 COOK. Wellesley stories. 
 
 CORELLI, M. Pseud. God’s good man. 
 
 COTES. Imperialist. 
 
 CRAWFORD. Whosoever shall offend. 
 
 CROCKETT. Loves of Miss Anne. 
 
 DAYIS. Falaise of the blessed voice. 
 
 DILLON. Rose of Old St. Louis. 
 
 EGGLESTON. Captain in the ranks. 
 
 FIELD. Little Miss Dee. 
 
 FOWLER. Kate of Kate Hall. 
 
 FOX. Christmas eve on Lonesome. 
 
 FRENCH. Susan Clegg and her friend Mrs. Lathrop. 
 GILSON. Flower of youth. 
 
 11 
 
GRANT. Undercurrent. 
 
 GREENE. Deacon Lysander. 
 HAGGARD. Brethren. 
 
 HARBEN. Georgians. 
 
 HERRICK. Common lot. 
 
 HEWLETT. Queen’s quair. 
 
 HOPE. Double harness. 
 
 HOUGH. Law of the land. 
 
 HOUSMAN. Sabrina Warham. 
 HOWELLS. Son of Royal Langbrith. 
 HOYT. Nancy’s country Christmas. 
 HUME. Red window. 
 
 I SHAM. Black Friday. 
 
 JACOBS. Dialstone lane. 
 
 JAMES. Golden bowl. 
 
 JEPSON. Admirable tinker. 
 
 JEROME. Tommy and Co. 
 
 KIPLING. Traffics and discoveries. 
 KIRK. Apology of Aylilfe. 
 
 LANE. Nancy Stair. 
 
 LEWIS. President. 
 
 LINCOLN. Cap’n Eri. 
 
 LITCHFIELD. Letter D. 
 
 LONDON. Sea-wolf. 
 
 LONG. Sixty Jane. 
 
 LOOMIS. More cheerful Americans. 
 LORIMER. Old Gorgon Graham. 
 McCarthy. Lady of Loyalty House. 
 McCUTCHEON. Beverly of Graustark. 
 MACGRATH. Man on the box. 
 MALLOCK. Veil of the temple. 
 MARTIN. House of Fulfilment. 
 MERRIMAN. Last hope. 
 
 MICHELSON. In the bishop’s carriage. 
 MORRISON. Green diamond. 
 
 32 
 
NICHOLSON. Zelda Dameron. 
 
 N ORDAU. Morgantic. 
 
 O’NEILL. Loves of Edwy. 
 
 OPPENHEIM. Survivor. 
 
 OVERTON. Captains of the world. 
 OXENHAM. Hearts in exile. 
 
 PAGE. Bred in the bone. 
 
 PARRISH. My lady of the North. 
 
 PARKER. Ladder of swords. 
 
 PEMBERTON. Beatrice of Venice. 
 
 PHELPS. Trixy. 
 
 PHILLIPS. The cost. 
 
 PHILLPOTTS. Farm of the dagger. 
 PIDGIN. Letter H. 
 
 PORTER. Freckles. 
 
 POST. Flight of a moth. 
 
 POTTER. Flame-gatherers. 
 
 RICKERT. Reeper. 
 
 RIVES. Castaway. 
 
 ROBERTS, M. Rachel Marr. 
 
 ROWLAND. To windward. 
 
 RUFFIN. North star. 
 
 SINCLAIR. M. Divine fire. 
 
 SEDGWICK. Paths of judgment. 
 
 SINCLAIR. Manassas. 
 
 SMITH. Promoters. 
 
 STEPHENS. Bright face of danger. 
 STEVENS. Sign of triumph. 
 
 STEVENSON, B. E. Cadets of Gascony. 
 STOKER. Jewel of seven stars. 
 
 STREETER. Dr. Tom, the Coroner of Brett. 
 STUART. River’s children. 
 
 THRUSTON. Masquerader. 
 
 TRACY. Pillar of light. 
 
 TRUSCOTT. Mother of Pauline. 
 
 13 
 
ULLMAN. Gingham rose. 
 
 VOYNICH. Olive Latham. 
 
 WALLER. Woodcarver of Olympus. 
 
 WATANNA. Love of Azalea. 
 
 WATSON. Bethany; A story of the South. 
 WEBSTER. Traitor and loyalist. 
 
 WIGGINS, and OTHERS. Affair at the inn. 
 WILLIAMSON. Princes Passes. 
 
 WILSON. Seeker. 
 
 WINTER. Vanities of Mrs. Whittaker. 
 
 WINTHROP. Mr. Waddy’s return. 
 WOMAN-ERRANT. 
 
 YEATS. Orrain. 
 
 TRAVELS- 
 
 ARMSTRONG, W. N. Around the world with a king. 
 1904. 
 
 BEVERIDGE, A. J. Russian advance. 1903. 
 BISHOP, Mrs. I. B. Korea and her neighbors. 1898. 
 COLQUHOUN, A. E. China in transformation. 1898. 
 CURTIS, W. E. To-day in Syria and Palestine. 1903. 
 CURTIS, W. E. Turk and his lost Provinces: 
 
 Greece, Bulgaria, Servia and Bosnia. 1903. 
 
 DE WINDT, H. From Paris to New York by land. 
 1904. 
 
 DRAGE, G. Russian affairs. 1904. 
 
 FENN, G. M. Khedive’s country; the Nile Valley and 
 its products. 1904. % 
 
 GANZ, H. Land of Riddles; Russia of to-day, tr. 
 
 from the Ger. by H. Rosenthal. 1904. 
 
 GRIFFIS, W. E. Corea the hermit nation. 1904. 
 HAMILTON, A. Korea. 1904. 
 
 HEARN, L. Japan; an attempt at interpretation. 
 HEWLETT, M. Road in Tuscany. 2v. 1904. 
 HOGARTH, D. G. Penetration of Arabia. cl904. 
 (Story of exploration ser.) 
 
 14 
 
HOSIE, A. Manchuria. 1904. 
 
 HOWE, M. Beata Eoma. 1904. 
 
 JOHNSON, C. Highways and by-ways of the South. 
 1904. 
 
 KNOX, G. W. Japanese life in town and country. 
 1904. (Our Asiatic neighbors ser.) 
 
 LAUT, A. C. Pathfinders of the West. 1904. 
 
 MILTOUN, F. Dumas’ Paris. 1905. 
 
 PALMER, F. With Kuroki in Manchuria. 1904. 
 
 NICHOLAS, F. C. Around the Caribbean and across 
 Panama. 1903. 
 
 SCIDMORE, E. R. Winter India. 1903. 
 
 SHOEMAKER, M. M. Heart of the Orient; saunter- 
 ings through Georgia, Armenia, Persia, Turko- 
 mania and Turkestan to the vale of Paradise. 1904. 
 
 STUNTZ, H. C. Philippines and the Far East. 1904. 
 
 TAYLER, C. J. D. Koreans at home. 1904. 
 
 WHITE, S. E. Mountains. 1904. 
 
 Story of an interesting trip taken by Mr. White 
 through the Sierra Nevadas. 
 
 WYON, R. Balkans from Within. 1904. 
 
 BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 ADAM, J., L. (Mme. Edmond.) My literary life. 
 1904. 
 
 BUCKLEY, R. J. Sir Edward Elgar. 1904. 
 
 BURTON. Romance of Isabel Lady Burton told in 
 part by herself. 1904. 
 
 BUELL, A. C. History of Andrew Jackson, pioneer, 
 patriot, soldier, politician, president. 2v. 1904. 
 
 BUELL, A. C. William Penn as the founder of two 
 commonwealths. 1904. 
 
 CONWAY, M. D. Autobiography, memories and ex- 
 periences. 2v. 1904. 
 
 DOBSON, A. Fannie Burney. 1903. (Eng. men of 
 letters.) 
 
 15 
 
FIRTH, J. B. Augustus Caesar and the organization 
 of the Empire of Rome. 1903. 
 
 GOSSE, E. W. Jeremy Taylor. 1904. (Eng. men 
 of letters.) 
 
 HALE, E. E. Memories of one hundred years. 1904- 
 
 HARE, C. Most illustrious ladies of the Italian 
 renaissance. 1904. 
 
 HAWTHORNE, J. Hawthorne and his circle. 1903. 
 
 HIRST, F. W. Adam Smith. 1904. (Eng. men of 
 letters.) 
 
 LAWLESS, E. Maria Edgeworth. 1904. (Eng. men 
 of letters.) 
 
 LEUPP, F. E. Man Roosevelt; a portrait sketch. 
 1904. (Appleton’s historic lives.) 
 
 MEYNELL, W. Benjamin Disraeli; an unconven- 
 tional biography. 1903. 
 
 MORRIS, W. O. Wellington, soldier and statesman, 
 and the revival of the military power in England. 
 (Heroes of the nation.) 
 
 OGDEN, R. Wm. Hickling Prescott. (Am. men of 
 letters. ) 
 
 OWEN, MRS. M. (Du P.) Imperator and rex, Wil- 
 liam II. of Germany. 1904. 
 
 PRYOR, SARA A. R. Reminiscences of peace and 
 war. 1904. 
 
 RIIS, J. A. Theodore Roosevelt, the citizen. 1904. 
 
 ROGERS, J. M. The true Henry Clay. 1904. 
 
 SIGMA. Personalia. Intimate recollections of famous 
 men. 1903. 
 
 SPENCER, HERBERT. Autobiography. 2v. 1904. 
 
 STERLING, ADA. Belle of the fifties; Memoirs of 
 Mrs. Clay, of Alabama, covering social and polit- 
 ical life in the South. 1904. 
 
 TALBOT, MRS. E. A. S. C. Armstrong; A Bio- 
 graphical study. 1904. 
 
 16