Oliver Parsons and James Cooley to Thomas Jefferson, 29 January 1823
From Oliver Parsons and James Cooley
Granville (Mass.) 29th Jany 1823
Respected Sir,
The undersigned, a Committee of the Dickinson Library Company in Granville, County of Hampden & Commonwealth of Massachusetts, present to your Excellency our best respects, and beg leave to state that there is established in this Village a respectable Classical School, and by the liberality of a Gentleman in our vicinity, a Library has been formed; and we have also been the beneficiaries of several authors, and editors of periodical publications, among whom we mention, with just pride, Mr Adams, late President of the United States, who has recently honored us with a copy of his works—
Feeling, Sir, a desire to have among our archives some memento of the great and venerable men of our Country we have presumed to address your Excellency for a copy of your works or such other work as shall be agreeable to yourself thus to appropriate—
Humble and remote as we are, perhaps our solicitations1 may appear presumptious, but Sir, obscure as we are, the fame of Thomas Jefferson has reached us, and humble as we are, we have the arrogance to beleive ourselves capable in some measure to appreciate it—
| Oliver Parsons |  |
Committee of the Dickinson Library |
| James Cooley |
RC (MHi); in Cooley’s hand, signed by Parsons and Cooley; at foot of text in Cooley’s hand: “Hon. Thomas Jefferson Esqr Monticello”; endorsed by TJ as received 8 Feb. 1823 and so recorded in SJL.
Oliver Parsons (ca. 1779–1827) was born in Connecticut. He was postmaster of Granville, Massachusetts, by 1806, and later also a town magistrate. At his death he owned real estate worth $925 and personal property valued at $464.50 (Hartford, Conn., American Mercury, 25 Sept. 1806, 2 Oct. 1827; A Register of Officers and Agents, civil, military, and naval, in the service of the United States, On the Thirtieth day of September, 1816 [Washington, 1816], 24; A Register of Officers and Agents, civil, military, and naval, in the Service of the United States, on the 30th of September, 1823 [Washington, 1824], 41; Hampden Co., Mass., Probate Court Records, case no. 8717).
James Cooley (1779–1851), attorney and public official, was born in East Granville. He studied law first under Tapping Reeve and James Gould in Litchfield, Connecticut, and later with John Phelps in Granville. Cooley was a paymaster for the Massachusetts state troops during the War of 1812. Admitted to the Hampden County bar in 1814, he practiced law in Granville, where he also served as town clerk for nine years between 1811 and 1827 and was on the board of selectmen in 1816 and 1829. Cooley represented Granville in the lower house of the Massachusetts legislature for four sessions, 1816–19, 1825, and 1829, and he sat for one term in the state senate in 1850, representing the Hampden district. In 1850 his real estate was valued at $4,000. Cooley died in East Granville (Albion B. Wilson, History of Granville Massachusetts [1954], 94, 129, 312, 313, 316, 318, 328; , 7; William T. Davis, Bench and Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts [1895], 2:170; The Massachusetts State Record and Year Book of General Information [1850], 4:45; DNA: RG 29, CS, Mass., Granville, 1850; Boston Daily Atlas, 27 Sept. 1851).
A Dickinson Library committee consisting of Parsons, Cooley, and Timothy M. Cooley wrote to John Adams on 9 Jan. 1823 requesting a copy of his book entitled A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America (London, 1787; , no. 3004). On 4 Feb. 1823 Parsons and James Cooley acknowledged receipt of that work from Adams (both in MHi: Adams Papers).
1. Manuscript: “solitations.”
Index Entries
- Adams, John; and Dickinson Library Company search
- Adams, John; Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America search
- classics; education in search
- Cooley, James; and Dickinson Library Company search
- Cooley, James; identified search
- Cooley, James; letter from search
- Cooley, Timothy M.; and Dickinson Library Company search
- Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America (J. Adams) search
- Dickinson Library Company (Granville, Mass.) search
- Granville, Mass.; Dickinson Library Company search
- libraries; Dickinson Library Company search
- Parsons, Oliver; and Dickinson Library Company search
- Parsons, Oliver; identified search
- Parsons, Oliver; letter from search