finally led to its removal from the city. The history of the matter is thus described by Dr. Phœbus:*

During the Conference year of 1802, Mr. Cooper visited three Annual Conferences, and sought to advance the interests of the Church in the sphere to which he was appointed. The spirit of opposition to his remaining in Philadelphia was still increasing, and within the year became so decided that the preachers of the Philadelphia Conference, as well as some of the laymen in Philadelphia, determined, if it were possible, to have him and the Book Concern removed. One of the grounds for the advocacy of such a course was that he had now been stationed in Philadelphia five years, and as his brother-ministers were subject to more frequent removals, according to the itinerant plan, he should stand in the same relation as they to the itinerant plan of appointment. The matter was laid before the Philadelphia Annual Conference, held at Smyrna, Del., May 19, 1803, and there it was resolved with great unanimity that the Book Concern should be removed to Baltimore, and there be carried forward under the supervision of Mr. Cooper. He declined at once to make the change, and by that action called forth a letter from Bishop Asbury, urging him to comply with the action of the Philadelphia Conference. The following is the first part of the letter:

MY DEAR BROTHER: As the executive of the Conference, and your friend, I think it my duty to tell you that I think it your duty, in obedience to the Conference, to move to Baltimore about the first of October.

Mr. Cooper positively refused to submit to this strange demand, though coming from such high sources, and he gives the following among other reasons for his refusal:

1. It is not for the interest of the Book Concern.

2. The Philadelphia Conference had no authority to order the removal, as his last appointment was made by the General Conference.

3. Neither the people nor preachers of Baltimore have asked for the transfer.

In the meantime the publishing business was becoming surprisingly prosperous. By 1804, when the final leave was taken from the city in which the house was established only fifteen years before, the debts no longer haunted them, and a net capital had been accumulated adequate to immediate demands. It is very evident, if Philadelphia parted with the Book Concern. without regret, New York held no jubilee of welcome on its * Light on Early Methodism, p. 279.

arrival. So far as it appears it came unsought. Dr. Atkinson, in his admirable book, The Centenary of American Methodism, gives the following summary of the wanderings of the Book Concern from place to place until 1830, when five lots were purchased on Mulberry Street, where the manufacturing is still carried on. These facts the diligent author found in an editorial of The Christian Advocate of October 11, 1833.

In 1804 the Book Concern was removed from Philadelphia to New York. In the General Conference of that year Baltimore and New York were competitors for the Concern, and the latter was chosen as the place of its future location by a majority of only two votes. It was established in one small room in Gold Street, New York, and Mr. Cooper, in addition to performing the duties of his agency, served the society in Brooklyn as pastor. In 1808 the Rev. John Wilson, who was Mr. Cooper's assistant the previous quadrennium, was elected Agent, and his assistant was Daniel Hitt. That year the business was removed to a small house in Pearl Street, in which Mr. Wilson also had his residence. He died in 1810. From 1810 to 1812 the business of editing, publishing, selling, and packing was done in one room on the corner of Church and White Streets, under the superintendency of Mr. Hitt. Thence the Concern was removed to John Street, where it occupied two lower rooms. After some time there was another removal to Chatham Square, where also two rooms were occupied. During the sojourn in Chatham Square, the Agents, Nathan Bangs and Thomas Mason, opened a bindery, in 1821, in the basement of the Wesleyan Academy buildings, 14 Crosby Street. This was thought to be a bold venture by many, but it was successful. In 1824 a printing-office was opened, and the business was once more removed, this time to Fulton Street. In 1825 the academy buildings were purchased, and the business was chiefly conducted there until October, 1833, when it entered upon the occupancy of the new buildings, erected expressly for its use, on lots purchased in Mulberry Street.

From the ordinary stand-point of human judgment the prospect of the friends of our publishing house was doubtless one of supreme satisfaction. A building adequate to the demands. of a prosperous and rapidly increasing business had been at last obtained after wandering in the wilderness over forty years! The Mulberry Street house was opened in September, 1833. On the 18th of February, 1836, it was burned to the ground, involving a loss of $250,000! Undaunted faith is again demanded.

Only a small part of the insurance could be collected, as many of the companies had recently become bankrupt by severe losses

in the city, but the friends of the house rallied to its relief, and contributed $89,994 98 to aid in erecting a new structure. The new building with improved facilities arose in a few months which has stood the tests of over half a century, and which, in connection with the Western house, has turned out over $50,000,000 of products.

As a matter of historical interest we place in this record the names of the Agents of the Book Concern at New York during the one hundred years of its existence. It will be observed that all of the long list have passed away except one, Dr. John Lanahan, and those now in charge:*

1789, John Dickins. 1799, Ezekiel Cooper. 1804, E. Cooper, John Wilson. 1808, J. Wilson, Daniel Hitt. 1812, D. Hitt, Thomas Ware. 1816, Joshua Soule, Thomas Mason. 1820, Nathan Bangs, T. Mason. 1824, N. Bangs, John Emory. 1828, J. Emory, Beverly Waugh. 1832, Beverly Waugh, T. Mason. 1836, T. Mason, George Lane. 1840, T. Mason, G Lane. 1844, G. Lane, C. B. Tippett. 1848, G. Lane, Levi Scott. 1852, Thomas Carlton, Zebulon Phillips. 1856, T. Carlton, James Porter. 1860, T. Carlton, J. Porter. 1864, T. Carlton, J. Porter. 1868, T. Carlton, John Lanahan, Eleazer Thomas. 1872, Reuben Nelson, John M. Phillips. 1876, R. Nelson, J. M. Phillips. Dr. Nelson died February 20, 1879, and the vacancy was filled by the election by the Book Committee of Sandford Hunt, March 3, 1879. 1880, 1884, 1888, J. M. Phillips, S. Hunt.

THE WESTERN BOOK CONCERN.

In 1820 a branch house was opened in the city of Cincinnati. This was deemed necessary on account of the difficulty of transportation and the condition of the currency in the West. Books must be sent from New York to western purchasers by wagons over the Alleghany Mountains to Pittsburg, and thence down the Ohio River.

The following historical item appears in the Appendix to the Report of the Western Agents to the General Conference of 1888:

In a single small room, on the corner of Fifth and Elm Streets, in the city of Cincinnati, the Rev. Martin Ruter, under the authority of the General Conference of 1820, began the sale of Methodist books. The fifteen by twenty feet of space was ample for the books of the "General Catalogue" at that time,

Alas! since the above was written we must add the name of J. M. Phillips to the list of the departed.

namely, the Works of Wesley, Fletcher, Clarke, and Coke, Asbury's Journals, and the Hymn-book and Discipline. The stock was sent by wagon from New York through Philadelphia to Pittsburg, and shipped thence to Cincinnati by river. The Agent combined in himself the functions of manager, buyer, stockkeeper, salesman, entry clerk, book-keeper, packer, and shipping clerk. It was doubtless not then intended to establish a publishing house in the West, but the business grew rapidly, and successive General Conferences, recognizing the demands that came with the marvelous spread of Methodism in this region, continued to enlarge the facilities of the Western house until finally, in 1839, it was chartered under the laws of the State of Ohio as The Western Methodist Book Concern.

And yet at the establishment of the house in Cincinnati the Agent was not allowed to print either books or papers. Martin Ruter, the enterprising Agent, did venture to print two books-A Scriptural Catechism and A Primer—but he did this on his own personal responsibility. It was not until 1836 that authorization was given to manufacture books. At the session of the General Conference which was held in Cincinnati the following was inserted in the Discipline:

They [the Agents] shall have authority to publish any book in our catalogue when in their judgment and that of the Book. Committee it shall be deemed advantageous to the Church, provided that they shall not publish type editions of such books as are stereotyped in New York.

Under the inspiration of the authority thus given the house leaped into new life, which it has maintained with increasing vigor ever since. With the acquisition of a separate charter in 1839, its relation as a branch of the New York house was dissolved. The tide of emigration to the "West" set in with great rapidity, and the demand for the publications of the Church proved that the preparations for the supply in that great center of trade had been made none too soon. The center of population was marching with steady step westward, and now the Queen City lies east of the center of population in the United States.

From the small beginning on Elm Street the sales have increased from year to year until a net capital has been acquired of $739,161 18. During the last quadrennium the sales amounted to $2,582,464 91. Aside from the accumulation of capital "The Western Book Concern" has done its share in

meeting General Conference expenses and the support of Bishops and dividends to Annual Conferences. It lost by fire in Chicago in 1871 $102,221 48, and paid by order of court 392,926 61, as the result of the suit of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. It maintains in vigorous life the Western Christian Advocate, founded in 1834; the Christian Apologist, started in 1839; the North-western Christian Advocate in Chicago, which sent out its first number in 1853; and the Central Christian Advocate at St. Louis, which was established by order of the General Conference of 1856. Besides these there are papers smaller in size in the Sunday-school and German departments, but by no means smaller in circulation or less useful as a part of Church literature.

From the three great centers, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis (the last two as depositories) trains loaded with solid Methodist literature are sent forth every week into every part of the West and North-west. New fields are opening every year as new States are cut out of the vast territories which stretch to the Pacific Ocean, and Cincinnati will soon be as far east of its patronizing territory as New York was east of Cincinnati when its publishing house was established.

The following Agents had charge of the Western House. Besides the present Agents only two are now living, Dr. Luke Hitchcock and Bishop Walden:

1820, Martin Ruter. 1824, M. Ruter. 1828, Charles Holliday. 1832, C. Holliday, John F. Wright. 1836, J. F. Wright, Leroy Swormstedt. 1840, J. F. Wright, L. Swormstedt. 1844, L. Swormstedt, John T. Mitchell. 1848, L. Swormstedt, John H. Power. 1852, L. Swormstedt, Adam Poe. 1856, L. Swormstedt, A. Poe. 1860, A. Poe, Luke Hitchcock. 1864, A. Poe, L. Hitchcock. 1868, L. Hitchcock, J. M. Walden. 1872, L. Hitchcock, J. M. Walden. 1876, L. Hitchcock, J. M. Walden. 1880, J. M. Walden, W. P. Stowe. 1884, 1888, Earl Cranston, W. P. Stowe.

METHODS.

The methods of business employed by the Book Concern have been, from the necessities of the case, peculiar, and sometimes men ignorant of the relations of parties most in interest have not been tardy in offering their suggestions and criticisms.

A denominational house has both advantages and disadvantages. If there is an assured market within the denomination