The fact that the University of Michigan’s library was able to acquire the personal library of the Heidelberg economics professor Karl Heinrich Rau (1792-1870) in 1871 and thereby increase its holdings by an estimated 20-25% has fascinated me. I was curious to find out more about the man who paid $1200 (gold-basis) for Rau’s books and pamphlets. The collection is described and the story is told by Z. Clark Dickinson in his paper “The Library and Works of Karl Heinrich Rau” in Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft/Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, Bd. 114, H. 4. (1958), pp. 577-593.
For this posting I include an image of one of the book labels from the collection, an announcement of the acquisition in the 1871 report of the President of the University of Michigan to the Board of Regents, and an excerpt from Philo Parsons’ brother’s privately printed Genealogy of the Family of Lewis B. Parsons. (Second) from 1900 that provides some biographical detail about Philo Parsons, who among other career accomplishments was the founding president of the First National Bank of Detroit.
One puzzle remains. There was a small steamship (136 feet), owned by Selah Dustin and named the Philo Parsons, that ran a regular schedule between Detroit and the southern ports of Lake Erie, including Sandusky. The Philo Parsons played a featured role in Civil War history after Confederate agents highjacked the side paddle wheel packet steamer in a failed plot to free confederate prisoners held on Johnson Island in Lake Erie, near Sandusky, Ohio. Why the ship bore that name is something I haven’t been able to figure out (yet). Perhaps the fact that Philo Parsons’ brother, Lewis B. Parsons, served as Major General in the U.S. Army during the Civil War as the Chief of Rail and River Transportation could have played a role?
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THE “PARSONS LIBRARY.”
Until the beginning of the present year no considerable donation has ever been made to the University library. Since that time, however, a very large and valuable private library has been purchased and presented to the University by Philo Parsons, Esq., of Detroit. It consists of the entire collection of the late Professor Rau of Heidelberg, made during his long service of fifty years as Professor of Political Economy in Heidelberg University, and embracing all the most valuable literature contained in the European languages on political science and kindred topics. The number of volumes in this collection is 4034, and of pamphlets more than two thousand. While this munificent gift is of great importance on account of the intrinsic worth of the collection, it is not less valuable as an example which cannot fail to find imitators.
Many of the volumes, as is almost always the case in libraries of this kind, are unbound, or require rebinding before they can be placed on the shelves and catalogued. Mr. Parsons, I understand, has already made arrangements for the binding necessary to be done.
The Librarian has prepared a general description of this collection as a part of his report on the General Library. It is undoubtedly as nearly perfect as a library can be made on the specialty which it represents. And it was the well authenticated statement of this fact, which influenced the authorities at Yale to send an order for the purchase of it before it was known to have been secured for this University.
While, however, it possesses this specific character, it contains also a large number of works of inestimable value on other subjects. The most important of these is the series of volumes issued by the Academy of Vienna, and those on the original sources for the history of the house of Hapsburg; a work of great importance in the study of European history. The languages represented in the Parsons library are German, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Greek, Hollandish, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Servian [sic], Polish, Hungarian, Russian, and the Slavic languages of the Lower Danube. A perfect university library must contain, first, all the standard literary productions, or classics, of all polite languages, and, second, all works in all languages necessary to the investigation and treatment of every special branch of science and learning. The building up of such a library is of itself a great work, not indeed to be perfected by one generation. Nothing, however, can contribute so much to its consummation as the acquisition from time to time, as opportunity may offer, of those complete topical libraries, so often collected in these days by eminent German and English savans, and not unfrequently offered for sale after their decease. At the same. time it should be observed that a university library which is known to be perfect even in one branch of knowledge, has gained much in the estimation of the literary public.
Source: President’s Report to the Board of Regents for the Year Ending June 30, 1871 published in Proceedings of the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan from January, 1870, to January, 1876 (Ann Arbor, 1876), pp. 115-116.
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TRIBUTE BY JOSEPH L. DANIELS OF
OLIVET COLLEGE, MICHIGAN,
TO
PHILO PARSONS.
Mr. Philo Parsons was born at Scipio, N. Y., February 6th, 1817. He was the second in a family of ten children. His father, Lewis Baldwin Parsons, was born at Williamstown, Massachusetts, April 30th, 1793, and died at Detroit, Michigan, December 21st, 1855. He was a man of rare native gifts, uncommon energy and force of character, independent and positive in his religious belief, yet catholic and tolerant toward all. His whole life was one of systematic benevolence and he left most of his property for the founding of Parsons’ College at Fairfield, Iowa.
He was married November 10, 1814, to Miss Lucina Hoar, a member of the famous Hoar family which migrated to this country in 1640 and located at Concord, Massachusetts. She was born at Brimfield, Massachusetts, October 31st, 1790, and died at Gouveneur, New York, October 3d, 1873. Mrs. Parsons was a woman of even temperament and self-poise, a devoted mother, an intelligent and earnest Christian, maintaining a lively interest in affairs of church and state, even to the advanced age of 83 years. Her pastor, Reverend Joseph R. Page, describes her as a “Mother in Israel, and a model in all the relations of life and of all the Christian graces.”
From such an ancestry with a record traceable back to the founders of Massachusetts was Mr. Philo Parsons descended. His early years were spent in Gouveneur, Homer and Perry, New York. At the latter place he entered into business with his father under the firm name of L. B. Parsons & Son. And he also married there in 1843 Miss Ann Eliza Barnum, Their long and happy married life was terminated in 1893 by the death of Mrs. Parsons, Mr. Parsons following her three years later, dying at Winchenden, Massachusetts, January 20, 1896. Eight children were born to them, of whom seven survived their parents. In 1844, Mr. Parsons removed to Detroit, Mich., and entered upon the grocery business under the firm name of Parsons & James. A few years later he established a private bank. In 1861, when the Government created the National banking system as an aid in carrying on the war, Mr. Parsons was the leader in organizing the First National Bank of Detroit, and was its first president and for many years one of its directors. He did much to promote the commercial prosperity of Detroit. He entered heartily into the project for bringing the Wabash Railroad into the city, was an active member of the Board of Trade, and for a time its President. For many years he represented his own city in the National Board of Trade and was honored repeatedly as one of its Vice-Presidents. His discussions in these National Conventions show a wealth of information, a candor and breadth of view and a discrimination akin to prophesy. He was an ardent lover of his own city and State, and yet on one occasion explained his vote, apparently against their interests as “for the greatest good of the greatest number.”
Mr. Parsons was active in the municipal affairs of Detroit, and for a time was a member of its council. The State, too, more than once conferred upon him honors and trusts; notably as Commissioner to the Yorktown Centennial, and as chairman of the Commission to secure the statue of General Lewis Cass to be placed in the Capitol at Washington. He brought to this work all the enthusiasm of a lifelong friendship and a patriotic pride for the honor of his beloved State. The statue, almost vocal with life, crowned his many months of toil and effort, and was one of the joys of his life. He honored himself in honoring the State.
Yet political offices and honors he did not seek. He even declined to consider them when they merely appealed to his personal ambition. Too much Puritanic and Revolutionary blood flowed in his veins to ever regard public offices as anything but a sacred trust, a patriotic service. Mr. Parsons had a lively interest in agriculture, was an active member of the State Agricultural Society of Michigan and served most acceptably as its President. He was an enthusiast in horticulture and fruit culture, and found relaxation and pleasure in personal work in his own garden, one of the finest in Detroit. He was a royal entertainer and was never happier than when sharing the hospitality of his elegant home with his friends.
His benevolence was a matter of principle. He took special delight in aiding young men who were preparing for the work of the Christian ministry. He was one of the largest and most systematic givers to the cause of missions. He was an enthusiastic believer in education.
While several institutions were looking with eager eyes toward the Ram [sic, Rau is correct] Library at Heidelberg, Mr. Parsons bought and donated it in its entirety to the Michigan State University [sic, University of Michigan is correct]. In keeping with his father’s spirit, he was especially devoted to the Christian College. He early became interested in Olivet College, Michigan. For thirty-six years he was a member of its Board of Trustees. He built his name into the history and even the very walls of the College. Parsons Hall and the Parsons Professorship are honored words to-day. Not only his munificent gifts, but his wise counsels and his lifelong devotion to the work at Olivet are gratefully remembered. And no less were these deeds of benevolence a grateful remembrance to Mr. Parsons himself. They were his glory and joy in his later years of illness. He found a rich reward in the satisfaction of building himself into institutions of education and religion. Olivet College grew dearer to him. His home church, the First Congregational Church of Detroit, grew dearer. His beloved pastor and his intimate friends at Olivet received frequent letters full of gratitude and joy for what he had been permitted to do, and full of trust and hope in prospect of a blessed immortality. In this spirit, he entered into rest. His death was literally a sleep. He slept on earth to awake in Heaven.
Source: Genealogy of the Family of Lewis B. Parsons. (Second). Parsons-Hoar (St. Louis, 1900), pp. 48-51