A. Merril Smoak, Jr., Miscellaneous Hymnals & Tunebooks, &c.

A Hymn on Creation. New-York: Printed and Sold by Mahlon Day, 1824. [8979]

No wrapper, crude sewn repair at fold, small 8 cm (3 1/8 x 2 inches). 16 pp., with 14 small wood engravings, last leaf torn and missing 1/2 inch at bottom, affecting one line of the recto. Good. Pamphlet.

The printer's address is "At the New Juvenile Book-Store, no. 372, Pearl-street."

Mahlon Day (1790-1854), b. Morristown, NJ; d. at sea in the sinking of the SS Arctic off the coast of Newfoundland. Day was an Orthodox Quaker and traveled with Joseph John Gurney in his ministry chronicling in his diary their trip through the West Indies and the Caribbean in 1839-40. His press produced many tracts for New York Yearly and Monthly Meetings. He was a trustee of the African Free School and a manager of the New York Institution for the Blind.

"Mahlon Day was one of two printers who dominated the New York City children's book publishing scene in the early 19th century (the other being Samuel Wood). Day published entertaining and educational books that, like most others of his time, focus on piety, virtue, and morality." - New-York Historical Society website.

A Hymn on Creation. New-York: Printed and Sold by Mahlon Day | Stereotyped by James Conner, New-York, ca. 1830. [8978]

Printed yellow wrapper, crude sewn repair at fold, small 9.5 cm (3 5/8 x 2 1/4 inches). 16 pp., complete, with 15 small wood engravings, publisher's advert of back with different address - 374 Pearl St. Tattered edges to back of wrapper. Good. Pamphlet.

The printer's address is "At the New Juvenile Book-Store, no. 376, Pearl-street." We know from a different imprint of his that he was at this address in 1828, and further research has him at this address between 1825 and 1833.

Mahlon Day (1790-1854), b. Morristown, NJ; d. at sea in the sinking of the SS Arctic off the coast of Newfoundland. Day was an Orthodox Quaker and traveled with Joseph John Gurney in his ministry chronicling in his diary their trip through the West Indies and the Caribbean in 1839-40. His press produced many tracts for New York Yearly and Monthly Meetings. He was a trustee of the African Free School and a manager of the New York Institution for the Blind.

"Mahlon Day was one of two printers who dominated the New York City children's book publishing scene in the early 19th century (the other being Samuel Wood). Day published entertaining and educational books that, like most others of his time, focus on piety, virtue, and morality." - New-York Historical Society website.

Crane, John. A Discourse, delivered at Upton, March 15, 1810, at Grafton, April 12, 1810, and at Sutton, (N. P.) March 13, 1811. At Public Meetings of a Number of Singers, who had been improving themselves in Sacred Music; Published at the Particular Request of the Singers in Sutton, North-Parish. Sutton, (Mass.): Printed by Sewall Goodridge, 1811. First Edition. [8977]

Removed, no wrapper, recent stab-sewn string re-enforcement at fold. 8 1/2 x 5 inches, small hole in first two leaves affecting some letters, 16 pp. Printed in old font with the long "s". Good. Pamphlet.

A discourse on James 5:13, "Is any merry? let him sing psalms." The author does not seem to us to be limiting the definition of "psalms" to the Psalms in the Bible, but includes Christian hymns as well. He speaks to the singers of their duties and dangers based upon Biblical examples and exhortations.

John Crane, D.D. (1756 -1836), b. Norton, MA. Crane graduated at Harvard College in 1780, and in 1782 began preaching at Northbridge, Mass., remaining there as pastor until his death in 1836.

[Pickering, David]. Hymn Book for the Use of Universalists and Restorationists Sabbath Schools. Providence, R. I.: Published and Sold by Samuel W. Wheeler, 1834. Third Edition. [8972]

Printed yellow wrapper, wrapper stiffened by being pasted to end papers, presumably as issued. 11 cm (4 1/4 x 2 1/2 inches), "Universalists and" on front inked over with black ink. Ink stamp, "Medway Sab. School Lib." on ffep. 64 pp., complete, text very good. With a plain envelope, as found. Very good. Pamphlet.

OCLC with no locations. We find other reference to a copy held by the Boston Public Library. Frank Robertson's Early American Universalist Religious Education Materials at pacificuudotorg has the author as the Rev. David Pickering.

This rare item represents a short period of Universalist history in New England. In 1831 a small group of ministers and laymen left the General Convention of American Universalists over disagreement with Hosea Ballou's position that there is no punishment for sin after death. He taught that all of the woes of sin are experienced in this life, and that all who die will be saved. His cousin, Adin Ballou, promoted the idea that there is limited punishment for sin for some after death, ultimately leading to a restoration to God. Hence the name of this group was the Massachusetts Association of Universal Restorationists. The group dissolved by 1841 over differences between hardliners and moderates and by the pressing demands of other interests, such as abolitionism, temperance and utopian socialism.

"Adin's break with Universalism was part of a resurgence of the Restorationist controversy. In 1830, preaching in Medway, Massachusetts, he gave a pro-future punishment sermon, 'The Inestimable Value of Souls.' His hearers so liked the sermon that they sent it to Boston to be printed on the press of the Universalist periodical, the Trumpet and Universalist Magazine. When the Trumpet's editor, Thomas Whittemore, a disciple of Hosea Ballou, read the sermon, he instituted a campaign to have Adin Ballou removed from the Milford pulpit. Under fire in the denominational press and in his church, Ballou joined the Providence Association, recently founded by Pickering as a haven for Restorationists...In 1831 Adin Ballou, David Pickering, Paul Dean, and a small group of other ministers formed a new denomination..." - Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography.

Notice how this little hymnal ties the above together: It was owned by the Medway congregation where Adin Ballou preached his controversial sermon, it was published in Providence, R. I., the refuge of the Restorationists, and it was compiled by David Pickering, one of the leaders of the Restorationists and the founder of the Providence Association. The hard feelings that developed between the two groups is represented by the blacking out of "Universalists" on the front of the wrapper.

82 selections with an index of first lines, words only.

David Pickering (1788-1859), b. probably at Richmond, NH - his family moved there from Salem, MA., about that time. He was converted to the Free Will Baptist faith when about 17 years of age, and changed to the Universalists under the influence of the preaching of Paul Dean soon after. In 1809 he was ordained and installed over a Universalist congregation in Barnard, VT. He served in three other New England congregations before settling at Hudson, NY, from 1818-1823. He may have suffered a nervous breakdown after the death of his first wife from tuberculosis (1816). 

"In late 1822 six Universalist ministers, calling themselves Restorationists, endorsed a manifesto which implied that 'ultra' Universalists, like Hosea Ballou, were not Christian insofar as they denied a period of punishment in the afterlife before final restoration to God. Among the six were Pickering's mentor Paul Dean. On the subject of the afterlife Pickering's position was then midway between the extremes of the contending parties....As these negotiations were going on, Pickering was beginning a new pastorate with the recently organized First Universalist Society in Providence, Rhode Island, his longest and most productive settlement." - ibid.

The publisher was Samuel Warren Wheeler (1790-1857), of Providence, Rhode Island. Wheeler also published Lectures in Defence of Divine Revelation, delivered at the Universalist Chapel, in Providence, R. I., by David Pickering (1830). A letter of his to William Lloyd Garrison informing him of some New England views on slavery (1854) is held by the Boston Public Library.

Wolcott, T. A Selection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, for those who wish to praise God. Portland, [Me]: Rinted [sic] by A. & J. Shirley, 1817. [8976]

Plain oatmeal wrapper with crude sewing over the fold, "By Daniel L. Celley" written on front, 15.25 cm (6 x 3 3/4 inches). 36 pp., text complete. All leaves tattered with a tear in the middle of the fore-edge (see pics). Small slip laid in, "Lent by Capt. D. P. Celley". Fair. Pamphlet.

Words only, no music. 27 evangelical hymns by such authors as John Newton, Joseph Swain, and John A. Granade, and many that are unattributed. Granade was a Southern author, and several of the hymns seem to have a Southern origin. This little hymnal is not recorded at hymnary.org.

The Penn State University library catalogue attributes this to Talcott Wolcott (1772-1825), b. East Windsor, CT; d. Hartford, CT. "He moved to Hartford about the year 1806; was Justice of the Peace." - Wolcott, Chandler, The Family of Henry Wolcott, One of the First Settlers of Windsor, Connecticut (1912), p. 169. There was also a Talcott Wolcott (probably the same person) involved with establishing two steam boat companies in Hartford, 1818 and 1824.

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