successful agent and he was put in charge of the agency department.
Under this partnership the business gradually became systematized in
departments. One partner had in charge the reading of manuscripts and
the placing of accepted works in book form, one had charge of the
manufacture of books from plates provided by the first, and one of
finding a market for the books. At the first organization of the firm of
Wilson, Hinkle & Co., Mr. Wilson was the literary manager as well as the
director of agency work. Mr. Hinkle was the manufacturer, having control
of the printing and binding, and Mr. Van Antwerp had charge of the
accounts. Mr. Beer was brought in to relieve Mr. Wilson in the direction
of agents. But Mr. Beer died suddenly, January 3, 1870, and the
surviving partners soon sought for another competent and experienced man
to take his place.

[Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co.]

Mr. Caleb S. Bragg had for years acted as the agent for a list of books
selected by him from the publications of two or three publishers and was
a partner in the firm of Ingham & Bragg, booksellers of Cleveland, Ohio.
Mr. Bragg sold his interest in the business in Cleveland and became a
partner in Wilson, Hinkle & Co., on April 20, 1871; and at the same
time Henry H. Vail and Robert F. Leaman, who had for some years been
employees, were each given an interest in the profits although not
admitted as full partners until three years later. Mr. Hinkle's eldest
son, A. Howard Hinkle, was brought up in the business, and the contract
for 1874 provided that he should be admitted as a partner, with his
father's interest and in his place, when that contract expired in 1877.
The contract of 1874 was preparatory to the voluntary retirement of both
Mr. Wilson and Mr. Hinkle. Consequently, on April 20, 1877, the firm of
Wilson, Hinkle & Co. was dissolved and the business was purchased by the