Abraham
Harley Cassel - My great-great-great-grandfather
JUMP
TO: Excerpt from “The Genealogical History of the
Cassel
family in
America” (1896) by Daniel Kolb Cassel
JUMP
TO: Abraham Harley Cassel – Dunkard Bibliophile
(By
Roy
. C. Kulp
; Pennsylvania Folklife, Spring 1960; vol 11; no. 1)
Abraham
Harley Cassel was my maternal grandmother's great grandfather and the
great-great grandson of
Christopher
Saur (2.21.1695-1758), and whose son was Christopher Saur II (9.26.1721
- 8.26.1784), the noted colonial printer.
Both
Saurs, as Saur I's wife Maria Christina
arrived
by ship
in
Philadelphia on
October
19, 1724. First settling in Germantown,
PA. Christopher Saur II is buried at
Buried
at Methacton
Mennonite Cemetery
in
Pennsylvania.
AHC was born September 21, 1820 in Harleysville, PA.
He
later married a Quaker orphan, Elizabeth Rhodes, and
later amassed one of the
largest
private libraries in the country.
(Elizabeth Harley Cassel is Ella Booz Baugher's grandmother.)
Cassel
died April 23, 1908 and is buried at
Buried at Kline
Meeting House in
Harleysville,
Pennsylvania:
His son Yellis died less than five years later at age 69
Excerpt from “The Genealogical History of the
Cassel
family in
America” (1896) by Daniel Kolb Cassel
FIRST
IMPULSE OR MOTIVE OF THE CASSELS EMIGRATING TO AMERICA (page 13)
William
Penn made his first visit through
Germany
in 1671 as a missionary, and only followed the example of his brethren in faith
and stopped at
Emden
, Crefeld and
Westphalia
.
His
second visit he made in the year 1677, in the thirty-third year of his age, and
not yet known as the founder of Pennsylvania. Four years later, it appears, he made a third trip; and from the city of
Cassel
he gave notice of a meeting he proposed to hold at Frankfort. From Frankfort
he went to Kriesheim, where he arrived
August 23, 1681, and intended to preach. A meeting had been previously announced for that
purpose, but upon the urgent request of a Calvinist minister, all preaching was
forbidden by the bailiff's deputy. However, a silent meeting was held, in which
all took part; also, those from Worms, who followed them in a wagon. Penn, however, got permission from Count Karl
Ludwig to preach again. Consequently, on Sunday, August 26th, Penn traveled on
foot from Worms
to Kriesheim, a distance of six miles, and preached to the people of Kriesheim
in a barn. Count Ludwig quietly entered the barn and stood behind a door
listening, but Penn did not know it. Ludwig afterwards reported to the Calvinist
minister that nothing of a heretical nature occurred, but, on the contrary, all
that he heard was actually very good. Penn preached in the German language,
which he had learned from his mother, she being a Dutch woman from
Rotterdam
. During his discourse he pictured the then raging persecutions of the
non-resistant Christians; how they were denied the right to worship God
according to the dictates of their conscience, and how they were driven from one
place to another and their property confiscated.
He
further explained their principles of faith regarding swearing an oath, and
waging war, and of revenge, which corresponded very nearly with that of the
Mennonites, and gave great satisfaction to those present. Among them were
Heinrich Cassel, Johannes Cassel and Yillis or Julius Cassel members of the
Mennonite church, who were so well pleased with his remarks that, as soon as the
meeting closed, they took him by the hand and embraced him as a brother in the
faith, and invited him to go with them, which he did. They then had a long
consultation about matters of religion. He told them that he had a large tract
of land in America, which had been granted to him by King Charles II, March 4,
168l, and made it free by purchase, to enable the conscientiously scrupulous to
settle and enjoy their religious opinions without restraint. Thus by promising
them perfect freedom and liberty to worship God according to the dictates of
their conscience, was given the first impulse or motive of the Cassels
emigrating to
America
.
CASSEL
FAMILY
The
first family of Cassels that emigrated to this country, came from Kriesheim, in
the
Palatinate
, in the year 1686, November 20, in the ship "Jefries," and settled at
Germantown
, near
Philadelphia
, then a small town; at this place the Mennonites, of which the
Cassel
family were members, had a church and regular preaching. An incident occurred
about this period going to show, in a very striking manner, the simplicity of
the church at this time. A letter came from
Europe
to the Cassels that a large legacy was left them by the death of a relative
amounting to nearly a million of dollars, and that they should send out and get
the treasure. A church council was called, and the matter freely discussed, when
it was decided by a unanimous vote not to receive the money, as it would have a
tendency to make them proud. Simplicity of manner, plainness of dress,
frugality, honesty and economy, were some of the characteristics of this people.
- Harris’ Biographical History of
Lancaster
.
Yelles
or Julius Cassel was a native of the
Palatinate
, Pfalz. He suffered considerably on account of his religion, during the Thirty
Years War. He was a member of the Mennonite Society, and a minister; he had to
flee from one country to another, during which time he wrote a number of German
poems in accordance with the circumstances, some of which have been brought over
by his descendants, and are now in the hands of Abraham H. Cassel, of
Harleysville Montgomery county,
Pa.
He was born before 1618, and died
about 1681.
Excerpt from “The Genealogical History of the
Cassel
family in America” (1896) by Daniel
Kolb Cassel
ABRAHAM
HARLEY CASSEL (page 72)
The
following sketch was prepared by George R. Prowell, of York
county, Pennsylvania: Abraham Harley Cassel, antiquarian and bibliophile, founder of the
Cassel
library, was born in Towamensing township,
Montgomery
county. Pa., near Union Square, generally called White's Corner, on
September 21, 1820
, and lived there until the year 1834. [Then
his father, Yelles Cassel, bought a farm in
Lower Salford
, above Harleysville, Montgomery
county. Pa., and moved there, Abraham going with him. It is on this place where his well
known library is located, the collections of which he commenced about
1830.—AUTHOR.]
Though
he has spent almost his entire life at this secluded spot, six miles from any
railroad, following the occupation of a farmer, he is well known in this country
and in
Europe
for his remarkable literary attainments and his great success as a collector of
rare books, pamplets, papers and manuscripts. Having acquired a vast fund of
valuable information by his own individual efforts from the many thousands of
books he has collected, and never happier than when inspiring others with his
own thirst for knowledge, or when dispensing the contents of his books to his
many guests, for many years his country home has been the favored resort for
editors, authors, learned men, and students of history, from all over this
country and parts of Europe. On the paternal side he is a descendant of Hupert
Cassel, a nephew of the pioneer, Johannes Cassel, Mennonites, who with many
early German emigrants, by the personal invitation of William Penn, came over
and settled at
Germantown
near
Philadelphia
, in 1686. On the maternal side he is a great-great-grandson of the first
Christoph Saur or Sower, the celebrated scholar and printer of
Germantown
, and of Peter Becker, the first elder of the
German
Baptist
Church
in
America
. From these men noted in the colonial history of
Pennsylvania
, Mr. Cassel doubtless inherited his great thirst for knowledge and taste for
historical and classical literature. Many of the unlettered Germans in his state
and neighborhood, in consequence of a supposed attempt in a previous generation
to proselyte their children by compelling them to attend schools in which the
religion of rival sects was taught, were averse to giving, a boy an opportunity
of gaining more than the rudiments of an education. This view was held by his
stem father, who endeavored to crush the son's desire for private study and
reading by imposing upon him an extra amount of farm work. But Abraham seemed to
have been born with a love for books; as a little child his attention was
attracted to a book more than any other plaything. An elder sister taught him to
read in his eighth year, by the side of her spinning wheel.
His only additional advantage was six weeks' attendance at a country
school near his home; but he employed all his leisure time; from his labors on
his father's farm in diligent study of such books as came within his reach. His
fondness for books developed in a wonderful degree, and he even spent much of
the night, wrapped up in the covers of his bed, sitting in a cold room by the
dim light of a tallow candle, eagerly obtaining a comprehensive knowledge of
their contents. Being strongly endowed with mental concentration and a retentive
memory, he soon learned to absorb from a book its most valuable features,
without the assistance of others, and he thus became a complete example of the
self educated man. By his own efforts he obtained a thorough knowledge of German
and English, and became quite familiar with Latin and Greek. At the age of
eighteen he began to teach school and continued in that avocation from six to
eleven months in each year, for eight years, and then engaged in farming at the
paternal homestead, where he still resides. Mr. Cassel prospered as a farmer.
Early in life he became interested in colonial literature and began to collect
rare and valuable books. While teaching school he learned the whereabouts of
those now priceless works, which the religious enthusiasts who settled
Pennsylvania
, brought across the
Atlantic
. In after life, in search of rare volumes, he made many a long trip, partly on
foot through
Pennsylvania
,
Maryland
,
Virginia
,
Ohio
, and the west of the
Mississippi river
and beyond. On one of these tours he traveled over 6,000 miles. His sole object
in bringing together these literary treasures was a love for books and his
desire to study them. So the wonder grew until this plain, unpretentious farmer
astonished the historical societies and learned men, when it became known that
he owned a library of over 50,000 valuable books, pamphlets, and
documents—historical, theological, and scientific. He brought together
probably the most complete collection of the
Franklin
, Saur, Ephrata, and Swenkfelder publications in
America
. His library establishes the fact that the early Germans in
Pennsylvania
were the most prolific publishers of books in this country, previous to the
revolution. He has many original documents of the literature of the reformation,
and first editions of the works of all the principal reformers, the earliest
Bibles in many languages, first issue of all the leading newspapers in the
American colonies, and a great variety of works on ancient philosophy and
archeology. For half a century he wrote for German and English periodicals and
furnished a vast amount of valuable historical information to local histories in
Pennsylvania
and elsewhere. Early in life he was the companion of Watson the annalist, and
of I. D. Rupp, the historian, and furnished to them much information. Fearing
that his priceless volumes might some day be scattered through many libraries
and their value lost to the investigator, Mr. Cassel gave about 28,000 books and
documents to the Brethren's Collegiate Institute, at Mount Morris; 111., and
contributed to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania,: about 3,000 valuable
books and papers relating to the early history of that state; besides making
liberal donations to Bridgewater College, Virginia, and a College in Ohio. His
library now contains about 8,000 volumes and about 16,000 pamphlets and
miscellaneous documents. Mr. Cassel is a very prominent and influential member
of the German Baptist-or
Dunkard
Church
, and has long held a commanding position in its conferences, but he
persistently refused to enter the ministry in answer to the earnest appeals of
his brethren, because he loved his studies so much, and because he thought he
was not "called of the Lord." For half a century he has been a wise
counsellor in his church, and his decisions on important questions are generally
accepted as final. He is universally recognized as the historian of his church.
He declined lucrative situations offered him by merchants and by a bank, and
twice refused to accept public office. He is the personification of benevolence,
and has a gentleness of manner and kindliness of heart which win for him
recognition among all classes of people, who find in him a worthy friend and
charming companion. Crowning all his
noble qualities, is the spirit of humility which shows itself in all his daily
acts. He has a certain simple eloquence of speech which is made impressive by
his earnestness, and to which is lent an added charm by a slight German accent.
He dresses in the plain habit of his brethren, and possesses a clean-cut face
which is lit up with intelligence and kindled with enthusiasm when he discourses
on his favorite themes. It is one of the best evidences of the complete
development of Mr. Cassel's mind and character that he is held in the highest
esteem by his prosaic neighbors who care little for books, and everything for
the crops and for thrift and economy. This is partly due to the fact that he has
thrived by holding the plow himself, and has accumulated a competency, but the
universal respect in which he is held by a large circle of acquaintances in all
classes of society is mainly due to his sincere and noble character.
The
atmosphere of piety pervading his home, the beautiful simplicity of his manners,
the endurance of his friendship, and the story of his remarkable career, have
kindled a love for him, which is not bounded by the county or the state, but
which even extends to foreign lands.
The
following is taken from the "Norristown Herald":
"Born
and bred among the simple country-folk who make up the population of the German
districts of the county, Abraham Harley Cassel is one of the most remarkable men
that
Montgomery
county has produced. He has, strongly developed, the qualities of originality,
acquisitiveness and persistence, as may be learned from the story of his life.
"Surrounded
by his books in his
Lower Salford
home, remote from the centres of learning and culture, he presents a most
striking personality, indeed. An affection of the eyes prevents him from that
close application, to his beloved books which would be his choice, and which
would be the solace of his old age.
“He
can still read a few minutes at a time, glancing in an hour, perhaps, at what
would have occupied him ten minutes when his sight was perfect. In this way he
is still able to enjoy to a certain extent the accumulations of a lifetime.
“His
books and other literary rarities are stored in the upper rooms of his dwelling,
which is occupied by himself, his wife, his sister and an unmarried daughter.
Visitors' mount old-fashioned back stairs, and are ushered at once into
one of the rooms containing his treasures. The room is long, low and narrow,
containing many thousand volumes. Both sides are lined with drawers to the
height of three feet. Above are bookshelves extending entirely around the room.
At the ends are Mr. Cassel's worktables, between which extends a sort of
partition in the middle of the room, lined on both sides with books, classified
into various kinds; In this room there is scarcely space to turn for books.
"The
drawers mentioned are filled mostly with books, placed on their edges in rows,
for economy of space. In these are also pamphlets and other documents, all
disposed so as to take up as little room as possible. In another room adjoining
is a somewhat similar arrangement of literary treasures, numbering thousands.
"In
the course of a long life Mr. Cassel has received and written many letters. He
opens drawer after drawer and shows all that have come to him, fifteen or twenty
thousand, preserved and filed away with the most scrupulous care! They are from
more than 1200 correspondents, many of them men and women distinguished in the
world of letters. He is a most indefatigable collector, as everything around you
indicates.
i
"Unassuming,
and gentle as a woman, Mr. Cassel is a delightful talker. In listening to him
you can imagine that he has familarized himself thoroughly with the best
thoughts of the multitude of books before you- He is one of the best informed
men of his day and he can converse intelligently on almost any subject. His
countenance bears the impress of the innocence and simplicity of the Dunkard
faith in which he is an earnest believer. You do not attempt to carry on a
conversation in the ordinary sense of the term. You simply listen while he tells
you, his eye lighted up with enthusiasm, of his matchless collection of books.
He takes down reverently a King James Bible, a commentary, or other work,
religious, scientific or medical. He shows you that electricity is not the
entirely modern science that you believed it, and that there are a hundred
English Grammars older than Lindley Murray.
"You
listen enthralled to the flow of words from one who is thoroughly familiar with
his subject, knowing more, perhaps, about rare books than any man in
America
. He hands you down from his shelves old volumes bound in vellum, in parchment,
in hog-skin. You take hold of another volume with a shiver, for you .feel that
there is something weird and uncanny about it as soon as you see it -and he
informs you that it is bound in human skin. He goes on, showing you his
treasures until night falls, and you regret that the time has come to part with
one who impresses you as a man of wonderful patience and industry and learning
and wisdom and gentleness.
"He
still detains you in conversation, and you find yourself, like the listener in
Coleridge's 'Ancient Mariner,' held by his ' glittering eye.', He talks of the
men he has known, of the various experiences of his long life, of his passion
for books and other topics. You finally bid him farewell and go away, wondering
where you will find another like him. You
have been charmed with the visit, which has opened directly to your eyes that of
which you had formed but a faint conception from what you had read or
heard."
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Abraham Harley
Cassel – Dunkard Bibliophile
By
Roy
. C. Kulp
Pennsylvania
Folklife, Spring 1960; vol 11; no. 1
The
largest private collection of eighteenth and nineteenth century Pennsylvania
Germaniana during the last century was Abraham Harley Cassel's. In 1893, when
Professor Oswald Seidensticker published his "The First Century of German
Printing in America," he dedicated it to Cassel, "whose unselfish zeal
and inspiring example have been of eminent service to German-American
bibliography."
For
more than fifty years, historians interested in
Pennsylvania
's early roots wended their way to the modest two-story brick farmhouse along
the Indian Creek, near the
village
of
Harleysville
in
Lower
Salford
Township
,
Montgomery
County
, to see the famous A. H. Cassel library and to chat with its interesting and
learned owner.
Our
bibliophile was born on
the 21st of September, 1820
, in
Towamencin
Township
,
Montgomery
County
, the son of Yellis and Mary Cassel. His mother was the great-grand-daughter of
the famous eighteenth century printer, Christopher Saur of
Germantown
, and of Elder Peter Becker, the first minister of the Church of the Brethren
(Dunkers) in
America
.
After
traveling thousands of miles, often on foot, and as far west as the
Mississippi River
, he brought together more than 50,000 items, consisting of books, pamphlets,
and manuscripts. His library was particularly rich in the publications of the
Franklin, Saur, and Ephrata presses.
Cassel
acquired seventeenth century religious manuscripts, some of them brought to
this country by his own ancestors. Among these is a little volume, containing
poetry written by Yellis Kassel, Mennonite minister from
Kriesheim
,
Germany
; it depicts the trying conditions and horrible persecutions which the early
Mennonites had to endure during the Thirty Years' War.
His
collection included many fine eighteenth-century account books, journals,
diaries, and documents written by some of the early
Pennsylvania
pioneers. Among these are two documents [in the
Juniata
College
library] signed by
Dan
iel Pastorius; they pertain to the naturalization of sixty-two "High and
Low Germans,' written in 1691; also a three-page manuscript concerning the
laying out of
Germantown
. Another interesting document is a contract for the sale of land near the
Wissahickon Creek, written by Johann Kelpius, the "Hermit of the
Wissahickon."
The
account book and diary of Alexander Mack, Jr., 1712-1803, a weaver and bishop of
the
German
Baptist
Church
in
Germantown
, from 1748 to 1803, was owned by
Cassel
. Martin G. Brumbaugh in his "German Baptist Brethren" wrote,
"Before me, as I write lies the private diary of this pious man. It is in
manuscript and has never been published. What a mine of gold!
When its full contents are made known, the memory of this godly elder
will be cherished in every believing heart."
Brumbaugh,
in his history, mentions another outstanding journal in the
Cassel
collection. It is the Poor Book of the German Baptists at
Germantown
. It is the official record of money received and paid by the deacons,
1747-1806. In this journal, Christopher Saur's signature appears many times.
One
of the rarest and oldest books in the
Cassel
library was the writings of Menno Simons, printed in
Holland
in the year 1539; this is at present a part of the
Cassel
collection at
Juniata
College
in
Huntingdon
,
Pennsylvania
.
A
small but especially valuable part of the
Cassel
library consisted of a collection of nearly fifty newspapers, which date from
1872 to 1908 and attest to the popularity of this unpretentious Dunkard farmer.
Most of them carry a front page story telling about his unusual collection of
books. Some of them are from as far west as
Omaha
,
Nebraska
;
Cedar Rapids
,
Iowa
; and
Ashland
,
Ohio
.
What
with so extensive a library, it is readily understandable why so many of
Pennsylvania's notable historians spent days and even weeks at Cassel's home
searching through his collection and listening to the mild-mannered
collector—such men as John F. Watson, I. D. Rupp, Abraham R. Horne,
Dan
iel K. Cassel, William J. Buck, Henry S. Dotterer, Oswald Seidensticker, P. C.
Croll, Samuel W. Pennypacker, Theodore W. Bean, Horatio S. Jones, and Martin S.
Brumbaugh.
Gathering
all these books was many times a hardship and a real challenge for
Cassel
. As a boy he had a yearning for books and he dreamed that some day he would
have his own library, but we find that his Plain father was violently opposed to
his son's desire for knowledge, and did whatever he could to hinder his son's
worldly ambition, allowing him to receive only six weeks of schooling. He wanted
to bring up his children in "Pious Ignorance."
Cassel
gives us an interesting account [From the
December 31, 1875
, issue of the Norristown Daily Herald] of his early childhood:
“As
soon as I could read and write a little I became the possessor of a small
Walker
's Pronouncing Dictionary, which I had occasion to use more than any other book
in my life. I had no opportunity of hearing or learning English, except from the
Dictionary, and had made it a point never to pass by anything without fully
understanding it, which made it necessary to look up the commonest words, and
when the Dictionary was not at hand I would frequently write long strings of
words on slips of paper to look up, when I had the chance. I also wrote slips of
definitions to commit to memory. In this way I soon understood the language well
so far as the meaning of words was concerned. I could read it intelligently
without much difficulty, but as I had no opportunity of learning to speak it, it
was a long time the same to me as a dead language.
“The
next difficulty was the want of suitable books. We had no English books in the
house, and but very few German, except the Bible and a few hymn books. There
were also but very few books in the neighborhood that I could borrow, until Dr.
Fronfield and a few other kind friends heard of my case; they kindly gave me
what assistance they could, but, as they lived so far away, it did not amount to
much. Still I managed to get the most necessary text-books. But now the most
serious of all my difficulties arose. Father was so opposed to my studying that
he tried by various means to prevent me as much as possible. The most effectual
was to keep me so closely at work as to leave me no time.
“I
might say the love of books was born with me, for, from my earliest
recollection—even long before I could read, nothing attracted my attention so
much as hooks—and my parents used to say that even when I was a mere infant
sitting in the cradle, or on the floor, that no plaything would interest me
except a book, but with a few old books I would amuse myself for hours, and even
when sick or in pain, they would quiet me above anything else.
“This
fondness for books seemed to grow with me, so that by the time I could read I
had a perfect mania for books, and every penny that I could command, was
invested in them. Although I loved candy and sweetmeats as much as any child,
above all I preferred books. Every scrap of printed matter was so carefully
preserved that I might say the foundation of my great library was laid before I
was eight years old, and the acquisitions to it were constantly continued under
the greatest imaginable difficulty. My parents were as much opposed to my
getting books as they were to my studying them, therefore they would hardly
allow me any money—the other children would often get a few pennies as an
encouragement for being smart. In their estimation I never was smart, and
because I would spend it for books such reward was generally withheld from me.
“No
time was allowed me to do anything for myself, except on Sunday. I would often
work harder than on any other day of the week, picking cherries for the
neighbors, grubbing roots and gathering herbs for Dr. Fronfield, for which he
often paid me double and treble their value, because of the laudable use I made
of the money. I also gathered nuts and acorns and whatever else I could, besides
cultivating beans, etc., in the fence corners and between the rows of corn, to
realize a little money to get books. Later in life when I had more means to buy
them, I was so sternly forbidden not to bring any more into the house, that when
I got a book—to escape a severe scolding—I was obliged to hide it somewhere
in the barn or under the stack until some favorable opportunity appeared, either
after the rest had gone to bed, or on Sunday when they were from home. To
prevent me from getting more books they also kept me very scant; in clothes, so
that I really had none fit to put on to go from home, saying that I might save
some of my book money and buy myself clothes.
By
the time he was nine years old, he could read and write both German and English,
and when only twelve he could cipher and had mastered mathematics. His Cyphering
Books, which have been preserved, are evidence of his ability and knowledge in
mathematics.
On
the 12th of October, 1840, Cassel accepted an invitation to teach in the local
township school, which he continued doing for several years, when he decided to
go into another township; here he was once again a great success, attracting
much attention because of his popularity with all the pupils. He had a special
method of instruction which made him a popular schoolmaster.
He was always introducing new studies—children even passed by schools
nearer home so that they could attend Mr. Cassel's school. Many local well-to-do
parents even preferred his school over a nearby private boarding school. He was
heard to say many times, "I put my whole heart into teaching."
On
the first of April, 1843
, he was married to Elizabeth Rhoads, a Quaker, whom his parents objected to
strenuously because of her religious affiliation, even though she accepted the
Dunkard faith. They had eight children. Some of
Cassel
's grandchildren have a wonderful story to tell about their grandfather, how he
tried continuously to encourage them to have a special interest in books. He was
always delighted in having them come to see him and willingly allowed them to
use his library, but he always wanted to see what the title of each book was
before he would give them permission to read them, mainly because some of his
books were mystery and murder stories; these he forbade them to read. They also
recall seeing various notable people coming to see their grandfather's library,
such as Governors Samuel W. Pennypacker and Martin G. Brumbaugh who would sit
and chat for hours in his upstairs library, talking about old times and books.
Clayton
Stauffer, a grandson, used to recall how he and his brother, as boys, one time
helped their Grandpop Cassel chop and pile wood. Mr. Stauffer said, "The
following day Grandpop came to our house and gave my mother two cents for each
of us boys for helping him. The next day ho returned and told mother, 'I made a
mistake yesterday; I gave the boys too much money. I only wanted to give one
penny to each of the boys.' My mother thereupon returned two pennies to Grandpop."
Even
though Cassel never penned any voluminous treatises, he did occasionally write
for some of the local newspapers, and at various times he was a contributor to
some church papers on subjects close to his interest: family history, church
history, and old books and Bibles. The last thirty years of his life he suffered
from failing eyesight, becoming totally blind the last year of his life.
As
Cassel grew older he became concerned about the disposal of his valuable
collection of books, desiring that they should be kept together as much as
possible. In 1882, he sold to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
approximately two thousand volumes, the best of his collection; a few years
prior to this Mt. Morris College in Illinois received more than twenty-seven
thousand volumes; and most of the remainder of his library went to Juniata
College. [Martin G. Brumbaugh was responsible for having the remainder of the
Cassel library going to Juniata College, at a price of $2,500. See Donald F.
Durnbaugh’s article “Abraham H. Cassel and His Collection” in the
Pennsylvania History, vol. XXVI, no. 4, October 1959.] In spite of this
disposition, many of Cassel's books, bearing his nameplate, are still being
found. Some of the best parts of his library have, in fact, recently been
offered in the book market. Some mystery attaches to their source.
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Copyright© 2003-2010
John
Bryer
