Table Of ContentThe 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.
