{"id":414,"date":"2025-09-09T15:43:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/?p=414"},"modified":"2025-09-09T15:43:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:43:23","slug":"history-of-share-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/librarycompany.org\/librarycompanypapersproject\/2025\/09\/09\/history-of-share-15\/","title":{"rendered":"History of Share #15"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Library Company share #15 was first issued to Samuel Hale<\/strong> on November 22, 1731.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1731, Hale was obviously acquainted with Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) and his fellow Junto members. That group drew up \u201cArticles of Agreement\u201d on July 1, 1731 to found a library, and Hale was among the first group of shares issued four months later. These subscribers each invested forty shillings and \u201cpromised to pay ten shillings a year thereafter to buy books and maintain a shareholder\u2019s library.\u201d[i]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Library Company records provide no further information about Hale. He may have been the potter in Philadelphia who advertised in the Philadelphia Gazette<\/em> on June 27, 1734 for information about a servant who had run away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He maintained the share for the next fourteen years, until it was acquired by Christian Grassold<\/strong> on April 18, 1745.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grassold was a tailor, and he maintained the Library Company share for the next seventeen years.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Image: Detail from <\/em>Share Record Book A<\/a>, volume 171, Library Company of Philadelphia records (MSS00270).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grassold sold the share to Townsend White (1704-1791)<\/strong> on January 29, 1762.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White was a merchant according to the Library Company\u2019s share records. He maintained the share for nineteen years, until he sold the share to his son John White<\/strong> on June 16, 1781.[ii]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John maintained the share for more than a decade, until he sold the share to Rowland Evans<\/strong> on August 19, 1793. That same day, Evans immediately sold the share to Abraham Lott (1760-1793)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lott was a merchant in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, he died just two months after becoming a shareholder, one of many victims of a terrible Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia.[iii]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Lott\u2019s death, his estate administrator Peter Gordon eventually sold the share to Lott\u2019s business partner, Joseph Higbee (1761-1829),<\/strong> on June 10, 1797.[iv]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to taking over Lott\u2019s share, Higbee was deeply involved in wrapping up Lott\u2019s affairs after his death. In fact, Lott\u2019s gravestone in St. Peter\u2019s Episcopal Churchyard includes the text, \u201cThis stone is erected by his friend Joseph Higbee.\u201d[v]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within a year, Higbee sold the share to Joseph Kirkbride Milnor (1775-1828)<\/strong> on February 20, 1798. A \u201cJos. Milnor\u201d was among the debts assumed by Higbee from previous shareholder Abraham Lott\u2019s estate, according to his estate paperwork, but it is unclear if this subsequent share transfer was related to that debt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milnor too was a merchant, and he and Higbee had become partners sometime before 1803. In fact, Milnor named one of his children \u201cJoseph Higbee Milnor,\u201d and gave Higbee as a middle name to several other children. However, the two men placed an advertisement in the Philadelphia Gazette<\/em> on May 3, 1803 that their partnership was ending, and that the business would continue by Higbee alone.[vi]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milnor maintained his Library Company share for fifteen years total, and then he sold the share to James Martin<\/strong> on May 8, 1813.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1813 Philadelphia directory lists three men named James Martin: one was a bookbinder and seller based on High (or Market) Street; one was a junior grazier based on South Second Street; and one was a merchant based on North Front Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whichever Martin owned the Library Company share, he maintained it for the next twenty-one years. He eventually sold the share to Uriah Hunt (1796-1867)<\/strong> on January 3, 1834.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunt was a bookseller, according to the 1835-1836 Philadelphia directory. He was also a publisher, according to multiple items in the Library Company\u2019s collections.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Image: Shareholder Uriah Hunt published this school book in the Library Company\u2019s collection. Charles M. Ingersoll, <\/em>Conversations on English Grammar (Philadelphia, 1835).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunt did not keep his Library Company share for long. He sold the share that same year to Peter Wright (1791-1856)<\/strong> on September 6, 1834.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wright is listed in the 1835-1836 Philadelphia directory as a \u201cChina merchant.\u201d He maintained the share for the next eleven years. During that time, he brought his two oldest sons into his business, which became Peter Wright & Sons.[vii]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He sold the share to Edward Taylor Randolph (1815-1876) <\/strong>on February 7, 1845.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randolph owned the Library Company share for the rest of his life, but his estate then maintained the share for another fifty-one years. It is unusual for a share to remain associated with an estate for so long, but the trustee for Randolph\u2019s estate eventually sold the share to Norman Dunning (1893-1962)<\/strong> on July 7, 1927.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1930, Norman was working as secretary at an ice plant according to the U.S. Census that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is likely that the \u201cice plant\u201d was part of Standard Ice Co.; his father George A. Dunning (1858-1950) served as its president. Norman\u2019s stepmother, Martha Binney Dunning (1866-1954), was well-known both in Philadelphia high society and as a Pennsylvania leader in the women\u2019s suffrage movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norman maintained his Library Company share for twelve years, and eventually sold the share to George Dunning<\/strong> on June 8, 1939.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are at least two men with that name who could have been the new shareholder. Norman\u2019s seventeen-year-old son was named George A. Dunning, II (1922-2001), but it seems more likely that Norman sold the share to his father George A. Dunning (1858-1950). Library Company records indicate that the share was relinquished on July 18, 1950, which is less than four months after the death of the elder George Dunning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Share History:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n