USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume I > Part 70
USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume I > Part 70
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"Riverside, you know, has come to be regarded as a city of personality, as a different city. It is up to you to increase this distinction and to make it like unto no other city upon which the sun shines."
An interesting feature not on the regular printed program was the presentation of some of the old pioneers. L. C. Waite was presented as the man who had lived longer in Riverside than any other, who wrote the first article of incorporation for a church, and who was the first lawyer and judge and school teacher and Mr. and Mrs. Waite as the first married couple of Riverside.
John Brown, whose father drove an ox cart over the plains and desert in 1849 and landed in the San Bernardino Valley, was the last speaker. Mr. Brown is the secretary of the Pioneer Society of San Bernardino.
We was warm in his praise of the golden jubilee of Riverside and said "San Bernardino County is proud of Riverside, her fairest daughter."
The program came to a close with "I Love You California," by the band, and the singing of "Home, Sweet Home," and "The Last Rose of Summer," by Madame Piana, and the community singing of "Auld Lang Syne" and "Star Spangled Banner," led by Miss Boardman.
The grounds and bandstand were appropriately decorated and the Riverside service flag was displayed.
CHAPTER XXVIII
SCHOOLS AND LITERARY ORGANIZATIONS
The schools of Riverside have always been noted for their excellence and that has been an inducement that made many make their homes here. It is well known that a great many who came here came in search of health and that in a majority of cases it has been gained completely and the recipients spared to many years of usefulness and enjoyment. We have in this way got a better class of teachers than we could under ordinary conditions of climate. It is a well recognized fact that roads and schools are a pretty good index of the standing of a people. No one wishes to make his home in a settlement and among people where roads and schools are in a poor condition. Hence Riverside because of these favorable indications has always been able to secure a better class of people than she would have had under ordinary conditions.
When we reflect that 44 per cent of all the money paid in taxes by the residents of the City of Riverside goes for schools and that no one has ever made any protest against this heavy expenditure on this account, the citizens of Riverside may well feel proud on account of this record.
From the fact one block of two and a half acres of land was first set apart for school purposes we can see that education was looked on as being one of the necessities. The colony was originally laid out with the idea that 10,000 people would be the limit in regard to population and that no serious thought was given to any other idea no one supposed that within twenty-five years Riverside would be a city with more than 10,000 population and that in fifty years she would have over 20,000 people and with a demand that could not be readily supplied for more and more new houses for homes.
From the very earliest day the cry has been for more school accom- modations and that demand has been met year after year by voting special taxes to meet the rapidly increasing demand. Before Riverside was organized as a city and at a time when state provision was very inadequate for school purposes in a settlement such as Riverside, special taxes were year after year voted almost unanimously to give better provision for edu- cation and school purposes. This was very different from the usual per- functory was in school districts of taking what was provided by law and making it suffice, frequently cutting down the school year by two or three months. The school trustees in Riverside only had to say how much money was needed and it was promptly granted. In this way we had a high school and a high school building years before we otherwise would have had them. The state has, seeing the need in a progressive state like California, passed much more liberal laws in regard to education (guided by the example of Riverside) than were contemplated under earlier con- ditions and scantier population. From the very first, graduates of the high school were privileged to enter the State University without any further examination. Under more recent legislation weak school districts are combined with stronger ones whereby children are conveyed by free busses or other vehicles so that the smaller districts get all the advantages of stronger and better schools. For instance Corona, a large and growing city during the school year 1920-21 paid out $6,000 to convey school children from weak districts to the city schools to the manifest advantage of both.
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One hundred and seventy-five teachers are hired for the Riverside school year beginning September, 1921, with a strong probability that the number will be increased before the year is out. The present accom- modations are already out-grown and arrangements are being made to have new buildings to meet the demand. Over 5,000 were enrolled during the past year and a large percentage of increase for the coming year is indicated. Nearly twenty different schools are represented in our public schools ranging from the Polytechnic High, embracing the Riverside Junior College, the Manual Arts school, down to the kindergarten. Advantage has been taken of a new state law providing for vocational education which will greatly aid our young people after their entry into active business life. The part time law will also be a great benefit to those who under straightened circumstances are unable to give their whole time to school studies. The crowded condition of our schools will be for the time being rather inconvenient, but it is a cheering condi- tion for all concerned and one that will be met in the spirit of the founders of the Southern California Colony Association.
In addition to all of these we have what is somewhat of a rarity, a Library School where young people can be trained in library work. This we owe to J. F. Daniels, an efficient librarian who for many years labored to make the Riverside Public Library what it is today.
Strictly speaking, the Library and Library School for training librarians are not state institutions, but by recent changes in the school law libraries like that of Riverside at the county seat can be converted into what is equivalent to each community outside having a library of its own, for all who wish can draw on the central library for supplies of books. There are supposed to be in California three library schools in the state. Owing to the extensive familiarity Mr. Daniels had with library methods, the Riverside library school ranks with the best and has had students from all over the United States and some from foreign lands.
The recent untimely death of Mr. Daniels is a loss that will be hard to replace, but the school will be continued on lines established by him.
EAST SIDE LITERARY SOCIETY. It might be thought by reading what has gone before in this history that the question of bread and butter had such a place in the daily lives of the people of Riverside in the early days that there was no place for anything else. Pioneer life has always in the past been barren of opoprtunities to minister to the intellectual life of the individual side of the farmers life. Even the farmer in older communities was cut off by reason of poor roads and his own isolation from many of the advantages that the dweller in the towns enjoyed and to a certain extent he was entitled to the designation of ignoramus. Today no such epithet as "hayseed" or "clodhopper" is applicable in any degree for to run a farm in modern times requires a high order of capital and intelligence on a variety of subjects. No more may the tiller of the soil attend to his daily duties from early day until late in the night and attend to his religious ones on Sunday without any relief from the daily grind. California under its small farms with intense cultivation and with attrac- tive homes on a small tract of land gives all the benefits of country life with everything that the city has to offer in a mental or social way. The automobile abolishes distance and what before demanded days to accom- plish can now be gone through with in as many hours.
Riverside, however, by its system of small farm homes began to enjoy the advantage of community settlement before its possibilities were seen in other places. In this way we had the literary society before the
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library and had attained the extended proportions and use it has today.
The East Side Literary Society (when the East Side assumed prom- inence under the Gage Canal system) maintained its importance and interest for a great many years. Founded by Rev. W. H. Randall, a retired minister of the Baptist Church, it flourished for many years and until his failing health compelled him to withdraw from active participa- tion in its proceedings. The removal from the locality by some and the death of some of the older members so weakened it in its later years that its proceedings came to a termination. But while it had an active exist- ance it filled a very useful, and I might say, necessary place in the lives of its members. Perhaps one of the reasons for its suspension lay in the excellent reports of its meetings in the newspapers which were read with interest and as some who were interested said they did not need to attend for the newspaper reports made a good substitute for personal attendance. This finally limited the attendance at the meetings.
It was in no sense a debating society for generally the proceedings were opened by some one competent to do so by a paper or essay on some live topic of the day or life of some celebrity of his time or some important event of the past. In this way the members were kept active. Frequently some one was appointed to give a review of current events which made every one alive to passing events. Not the least interesting features were the meetings at the members' houses and getting acquainted with one another. Music or a song was an added pleasure and the light refreshments at the close all accentuated the enjoyment. In this way many an evening was passed pleasantly and acquaintances made that would not have been made in any other way. The automobile has been substituted for this and many other pleasant gatherings and the question of importance now to be solved is whether the substitution will be ample to fill the place of the other things that meant so much to the older generation. Time may tell and it may be that other phases of life are necessary to the further development of the rising generation. The reaction is from the idea that all the older people were capable of was work until the physical was worn out and the capacity for enjoyment outside of the daily life was lost sight of. It may be that the pendulum will assume a more moderate position as time goes on and it will be seen that life in this world even should be happy until the end.
The Present Day Club has in a measure superseded the Literary Society in many features, but as the Present Day Club is a men's institu- tion the social features of the Literary Society are missing, but again the Woman's Club and other women's organizations may make up in a social way what was furnished by the Literary Society.
THE PRESENT DAY CLUB has assumed such large proportions that it well deserves a chapter by itself. It was organized on February 20, 1902, at a meeting called by some of the leading citizens, mainly at the instiga- tion of Dr. W. F. Taylor, pastor of the First Baptist Church, modeled after a similar institution he was acquainted with during his ministerial life in an eastern city. It was at first limited to 125 members, but became so popular that the membership was enlarged and the list of members for October 1, 1920, was 700. The rules of proceedure are so peculiar that the organization can be best illustrated by giving two clippings from the letterheads of the club and the "Principles of the Present Day Club" from the membership roll.
"An organization of 700 men who seek to keep abreast of an age when men speak strong for brotherhood, for peace and universal good:
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when miracles are everywhere, and every inch of common air throbs with tremendous prophecy of greater marvels yet to be."
A TOAST By Rev. Dr. Fred M. Preble
"Here's to the Present Day Club of Riverside; to the club unique among the clubs of men in all the land; club without constitution or by-laws and yet its members bound together by chains as genuine as gold and as strong as steel; club without fads or frills or follies, but withal a club of vision wide and clear, of speech plain and strong, of activities sensible and benevolent; club where recreation is not dissipation and where free discussion is not inimical dissension; club of yesterday, historic, pleasing and enduring ; of today, alive, vigorous and progressive ; of tomorrow, expectant, eager and hopeful. Here is, I say, to the Present Day Club of Riverside and may its days to come be many and useful, glad and glorious."
Principles of the Present Day Club: No Constitution, By-laws, Par- liamentary Rules, "Previous Question," Initiation Fee. No Preaching, Profanity, Personalities, Party Politics, Puns, Post-prandial Naps. No Full Dress, "Dudes," Mutual Admiration, Flowers, "Encores," Defam- ation. No Grand Reform, Gush, Can't, Formality, Humbug. No Long Speeches, Late Hours, Scandal, Conventionality, Cliques, Coteries. No "Boss," Salaries, Debts, Red Tape, Free Dinners, "Pie." No deviation froni the above. Simply Rational Recreation, Tolerant Discussion.
The Present Day Club is something unique in its way. The meetings are always preceded by a banquet gotten up by the ladies of some of the churches. The board of directors consists of seven members, two of which drop out each year, their places being filled by the remaining mem- bers. There are also some musical features sometimes by outside talent.
The last meeting of the season each member is entitled to bring one lady guest. At ordinary meetings each member is privileged to bring a friend from out of town. The meetings are always adjourned at ten o'clock. Frequently some notability from out of town is brought in to talk on a specialty. After the opening each member has the privilege of speaking on the subject for five minutes. Nothing is ever settled as no vote is taken on the proceedings.
THE PUBLIC LIBRARY. It was but natural that a people who travelled so far to build up a city and settlement of homes and engaged in pursuits that required some mental effort would also be a reading people. Even Louis Rubidoux the first real settler who brought his family to settle on the Jurupa ranch brought a large collection of books and Judge North, the founder of the colony, had a good library which he was always ready to loan. The original idea as outlined by Judge North was to lay out a town in a convenient locality so that "as many of the subscribers as pos- sible can reside in the town and enjoy all the advantages which a first- class town affords. We expect to have schools, churches, lyceum, public library, reading room, etc., at a very early day and we invite such people to join our colony as will esteem it a privilege to build them."
Where in Southern California was a settlement founded with such anticipations as Riverside and where has the invitation been responded to so fully and carried out so ardently as in Riverside? It took time amid the multifarious duties of the early settlers to get a start and it was 1878 before the nucleus was formed. A small fund was collected at first by offering a premium for subscriptions to the Riverside Press and
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through the efforts of A. S. White and E. W. Holmes the Riverside Pub- lic Library Association was formed. Any settler was entitled to become a member by paying $3 and such dues and fines as should from time to time be ordered to provide for the maintenance of the library. To help increase the fund a club was organized which presented the first drama ever presented to a Riverside audience. The Odd Fellows building, then not quite completed, was fitted up for the performance and a two nights' presentation of the play "Better Than Gold" was successful in raising $150 towards the library fund. The cast included E. W. Holmes, Frank Emerson, Frank A. Patton, R. P. Waite, D. C. Ross, Miss Marion H. Harris, Mrs. G. M. Skinner and Mrs. W. P. Russell, all well known citi- zens of that time. The music was furnished by Dr. C. W. Packard. D. C. Strong, John Bonham and W. E. Keith, all good musicians. D. S. Strong having been a cornetist in the war of the rebellion.
The first meeting for organziation was held July 15, 1879, the man- agement being placed in the hands of A. S. White, E. W. Holmes and A. J. Twogood. James Roe was appointed librarian with about one thou- sand volumes. The books were kept in Mr. Roe's drug store until Mr. Roe sold out when they were transferred to Mr. Hamilton's drug store with Mr. Hamilton librarian with a prosperous career until the library building was burned and many volumes injured when they were stored for a time.
When Riverside was incorporated as a city in 1883 under the author- ization of the stockholders of the library, the books were offered to the city upon condition that the city should organize and maintain a free ' public library under a recent statute giving municipalities power to take such action. The gift was promptly accepted and a board of trustees appointed of which Rev. George H. Duere was chairman, which office he held for fourteen years. Two small rooms were set apart for the use of the library and Mrs. Mary M. Smith was appointed librarian, in which position she was largely successful, with Mrs. Frank T. Morrison as assistant.
At the outset no reading room was provided and the library itself was open on only three afternoons and one evening of each week. Later on, when more commodious rooms were occupied by the city officials, a reading room was provided and the library open at all times during library hours. The circulation of books was always exceptionally large. The steadily increasing use of the library and reading room by the read- ing public and the liberal appropriations made by the city trustees demon- strated so thoroughly its value to the community that the need of a building devoted exclusively to its use was fully realized.
Dr. Deere, Lyman Evans and others sought through friends to secure aid from Andrew Carnegie towards the erection of a library building. Through application to the noted philanthropist the gratifying response was received that he would give $20,000 with which to erect such a building upon conditions such as had already been met by the city. On September, 1901, the city trustees pledged themselves to carry out the conditions of the gift. A quarter block was secured on the corner of Seventh and Orange streets and a fine building in Mission style was erected thereon by J. W. Carroll of Riverside, under the supervision of Burnham and Bliesner, architects of Los Angeles.
The completed building proved exceptionally satisfactory, exteriorly and the interior as well, especially the large, well-lighted and artistically decorated reading room, 40 hy 80 feet in area. with all possible stock- room, offices, workrooms, etc. The extensive basement under the whole building furnishes much more accommodations than appears to view
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from the outside. In less than ten years on additions $7,500 of the Carnegie funds was secured, which, with a large appropriation from the city, gave a great deal more room.
The city was fortunate in securing librarians and everything pros- pered, but the greatest success was achieved when Joseph F. Daniels was secured as librarian. Mr. Daniels experience as a librarian and exten- sive acquaintance with noted men and rare books and library methods immediately gave the library such a start that the Riverside Library assumed State if not National importance.
In addition to the main building a commodious library building and reading room was erected at Arlington, which enjoys all the privileges of the main library.
LIBRARY SCHOOL BUILDING PLANNED
STORY OF DEVELOPMENT OF CARNEGIE LIBRARY AND COUNTY FREE SERVICE; UNIQUE SITUATION IN TRAINING YOUNG PEOPLE FOR SERVICE
(FROM RIVERSIDE ENTERPRISE, MARCH, 1921)
(By Joseph F. Daniels) 1
For several years the Board of Directors of the Riverside Public Library have worked and planned for a library school building and for additions to the main library building. After years of patient effort those things have been obtained. The adjacent buildings and lands, known as the Allatt and Humphrey properties, extending 89 feet along Seventh Street, have been added to the library property owned by the City of Riverside. The Allatt house it to be remodeled for library school. Plans have not yet been made for the Humphrey house.
The extension to the main library will be made at an expense of about $30,000. With the Allatt-Humphrey properties costing a little over $30,000. the total for both projects is something under $65,000. Twenty- five thousand dollars of the money for the addition to the main library is from the Carnegie Corporation, the remaining $5,000 was given by interested friends and visitors in Riverside City.
When the Riverside Library Service School is housed in its own building, sometime next summer, it will be the only library school in the United States in a building of its own.
It is planned to complete all of the improvements during 1921. It will be interesting to note what the whole plant is now worth; the Car- negie ยท Corporation originally gave $20,000 for the main building, and, approximately $10,000 was added by the city in 1903. In 1908-09 the Carnegie Corporation gave $7,500 for an addition to the library and there was added from the library fund about $4,000 to complete the addition, so that the whole plant, land and improvements will represent with the present plans about $130,000. The land extending from the corner of Orange along Seventh Street will be 254 feet and 160 feet deep. Some day a great building will be erected on this ground, but that is a long way ahead. It is good, however, to have space in a growing city like River- side, which, without exaggeration, may be called "the inland library center of Southern California."
The Riverside Public Library is governed by a board of five directors appointed by the mayor. It contains about 90,000 volumes and its inventory now amounts to about $170,000. including the Arlington Vol. 1-34
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building (about $12,000). It serves nearly ninety branches and stations over an area of about 8,000 square miles. It serves about 55,000 people, of whom about 10,000 are registered borrowers. The circulation of books for home use is about 215,000 a year.
More than 500 persons enter through the doors of the main building every day. Sixty per cent of them draw books for home use and twenty per cent use the reference collection which is unusually good and well operated. The other twenty per cent read the papers and magazines or use the building as a meeting place or resting place.
At this time about 20,000 books are out at branches and stations or in the hands of borrowers.
Ten years ago the total book stock of the library was hardly 20,000 volumes.
Population in all Southern California increases rapidly and service must keep pace. Service demands increase with people, but there are other reasons. The American public library has become a great supple- mentary institution to the whole system of education. It does more than
RIVERSIDE PUBLIC LIBRARY
a correspondence school and does it at less cost. It has become con- spicuous as the only informal institution of education that satisfies the public. Socially and intellectually the public library in the United States has become a great educational force and it is just beginning its active community work.
The Riverside Library operates four forms of service.
1. The city library.
2. The county library.
3. The library service school.
4. The extension work.
The financial support comes from several sources.
The city levies a tax of 12 cents on the $100 of assessed valuation, which yields less than $13,000. The county pays $9,000 from the general fund under a contract for county branches. Thirty-five school districts pay about $2,500 under contracts for special school service. Library school students pay about $2,000 a year for instruction and the remainder of the income is taken in as fines, loss and damage, etc., etc. The total income ranges from $23,000 to $24,000, approximately.
The Library School students spend from $11,000 to $12,000 a year in Riverside and the Library School costs the city nothing ; on the contrary
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