Killingly Connecticut (2 results)

4 pages. Folded sheet, 8x5". Pageant, Chorus, Misses Frills, Dancers, List of Graduates. Creased, soiled, G.

4to. 8 x 6 inches. 78 leaves (156 pages), 41 leaves in manuscript, final 37 leaves blank. The first leaf includes the index for the first part (library) which is partially covered by medical clippings dated 1861. Leaves toned and foxed. In the original newsprint covered boards, leather spine. Binding shaken with burn marks on covers. Top edge of rear board burnt and gnawed, with loss of board and top blank margins of final 6-8 leaves. Deaccessioned institutional copy with bookplate on front pastedown. Housed in a clamshell box with ties, gilt lettered spine. Good. According to the 'American Libraries before 1876' database at Princeton University Library, the earliest known library in Killingly was established in 1745, as the 'United English Library for the Propagation of Christian and Useful Knowledge'. This was followed by 4 other social libraries beginning in 1801. There is, however, no other information regarding these libraries and the first and last references to them are recorded in the same year, suggesting perhaps a very brief existence or accounts that did not survive. This ledger contains the minutes of a meeting, held at School House District No. 1. In October 1830, for the establishment of a library in the North Parish of Killingly. It includes the resolves, constitution, list of members, (officers) librarians, committees of selection and inspection, amendments to the constitution, list of books purchased, prices, book numbers, names of members who borrowed books and dates and an account of damages and fines (Dec. 9, 1830, to Sept. 5, 1837). A Feb. 28, 1839, entry records the dissolution of the library, naming Calvin Warren as the auctioneer tasked with selling the library for cash (96 cents per book). The money was then returned to the subscribers by H.W. Hough. Some of the subscribers and officers include, Leonard Ballou, Jabez Amsbury, George Weatherhead, Mowry Amsbury, Dr. Robert Grosvenor, Dr. William Grosvenor, Waldo Eddy, Calvin Warren, Silas Tucker, Delight Moffit, Chandler Spaulding, and others. Nearly all were connected to Providence, Rhode Island, either by birth or trade. Killingly, CT is 25 miles west of Providence and was settled by a number of families from that city who were involved in the wool/cotton trade, establishing woolen and cotton mills on the banks of Quinebaug River, Whetstone brook and the Five Mile River. One such mill was established by Comfort Tiffany, the father of Charles Lewis Tiffany, the founder of Tiffany & Co. Leonard Ballou's daughter, Lydia, married Charles Lewis Tiffany's partner, John B. Young, whose sister, Olivia, married Charles Lewis Tiffany. They were the parents of Louis Comfort Tiffany. This modest library contained 40 titles which included several sets, bringing the total book count to 86. The most expensive purchase by far was a 6-volume set, The works of Franklin which cost the subscribers $12, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, MacKenzie's 5000 receipts, Wilkins' Astronomy, Life of Washington by Bancroft, Silliman's Travels in Europe, etc. The second part includes a large number of curative recipes including cough mixtures, gastric remedies, laxatives, for habitual constipation, absorbent mixtures for children, for those with worms, Emplastrum Camphoratum, tinctures, pills, ointments, balsam for chapped nipples, smallpox, several for gonorrhea, etc. Few have the names of the authors while others were prescriptions for named individuals "Prescription for Mrs. Leavin". A U.S. Army Hospital paper prescription receipt (Rx), dated 7/4/1865, for a wounded soldier by name of Hughes, signed by the physician is pasted in. It is not clear how this travelled to Exeter, New Hampshire for Captain Nathaniel Gilman to sign, but it is possible that the prescriptions were the work of Dr. William Grosvenor (named above), who was a partner in the Grosvenor & Chace, a wholesale drug company in Providence, Rhode Island. [Killingly, Conn. - History] [Early American Libraries - History].