Ox-Cart Library

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The oxcart Library (English: ox carts Library ) is a book collection in the village of North Olmsted in Ohio , USA . It is considered to be the former Connecticut Western Reserve's first lending library . The books were transported on ox carts through more than 1,000 kilometers of wilderness - wrapped in blue paper envelopes for protection. Nevertheless, they arrived at their destination partly dirty and softened by the rain. The residents of the area could borrow them.

Captain Aaron Olmsted , who had become wealthy in the maritime trade between China and New England , was one of the 49 investors who, in 1795, bought a large part of the "Western Reserve" of Connecticut , a then almost unpopulated area. His stake of $ 30,000 (out of a total of $ 120,000) made him the owner of several thousand acres of land.

These areas are now called North Olmsted , Olmsted Falls, and Olmsted Township ; at the time of purchase they were known as Lenox . Olmsted rode there in 1795 to see his country without settling there. He died in 1806. In 1826 Aaron's son Charles Hyde Olmsted offered the Lenox settlers a donation of 500 volumes from his father's personal collection if they would rename the area "Olmsted". The offer was accepted.

The city library, the North Olmsted Branch Library , is exhibiting the remaining 159 originals in a display case. Many of them are still in the blue dust jackets.

literature

  • Arthur L. Paddock: The Background and Beginnings of Olmsted Township and Olmsted Falls . Ohio 1956.

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