Casto, Nicholas. The Social Songster: A New and Choice Selection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, designed for all Denominations. Cincinnati: Applegate, Pounsford & Co., 1868. [11184]
Full leather, gilt lines to spine, front board detached, rear held on by a primitive thread repair, 4 1/2 x 3 inches. 246 pp., the text is complete. Three color ephemera items affixed to the paste-downs, including a Union military flag with "1861" in pencil written on it. "Mrs. Sarah Joannah Bohon her book" in blue ink on the final free end paper. Fair. Hardcover.
The copyright is 1866. 170 hymns, words only, with an index of first lines.
Rev. Nicholas Casto (1825-1913), b. & d. in West Virginia, a member of the Methodist Protestant Church. "Nicholas was a man of intelligence and progress, and lived on Tug Fork. He was a Captain of Home Guards, Member of Legislature, Justice of the Peace, and three times President of Board of Supervisors, also Publisher of "Social Songster" Hymn Book." - entry at findagrave online.
With a signed provenance card from the music collection of A. Merril Smoak, Jr., DWS.
