thirty-eight acres in the southern section of the city, supposed to be worth more than $1oo,ooo. Besides the $50,000 or so given to Swarthmore College several years before, the sum of $80,000 was added in 1888, which the trustees used in founding "the I. V. Williamson Professorship of Civil and Mechanical Engineering."
Of the larger charities, also, were the Mercantile Library, the Merchant's Fund, and the House of Refuge. His active interest in the Mercantile Library dated back to 1873 or earlier, when one of the directors who knew Isaiah V. Williamson approached him on the subject of giving $10,000 to establish a "Williamson Fund," the annual income to be used in the purchase of new books of interest to mechanics and tradespeople, with Williamson's name printed on the inside label as the donor, thus keeping his generosity before the patrons of the Library. He replied that the notion was "all rubbish," and he could not allow his name to be used in that manner. The disappointed director gave it up and went home. However, Williamson "thought it over" in his usual way, and in a few days
