General Israel Putnam, a shareholder of the United Library Association in Pomfret, Connecticut, amassed a large collection of books called the Putnam Family Library. After his death in 1790, the collection was divided among his heirs. In 1795, his son, Colonel Israel Putnam, brought part of that collection to Washington County, Ohio. Education was a foremost concern to settlers in the Ohio Country and was reinforced in article three of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. The Putnam family's collection then circulated among neighbors and provided the means of education for the people of Belpre and surrounding communities. By 1796, a group of subscribers paying ten dollars a share fully organized a public library. Later known as the Belpre Farmers' Library, it was the first library established in the Northwest Territory, and it operated under the management of the shareholders until 1815.