USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Weston > Weston, a Puritan town > Part 9
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The Weston Town Library, 1857
In a survey of the history of the Weston Town Library from the Fall of 1857 to the one-hundredth anniversary in 1957, two outstanding facts appear; first, the personality and faithfulness of the Trustees, and second, the devotion and industry of the Librar- ians and all Assistants.
In the winter of 1856-57, the citizens of Weston met in the Town House and decided by vote, "that the general intelligence of the Town could be most economically and effectually secured by a free public library." A committee of three men was appointed, Isaac Fiske, Esq., Dr. Otis E. Hunt, and the Rev. Calvin H. Top- liff, "to initiate the movement at a suitable time."
In the early summer following, by request of this Committee, the benevolent societies of the several parishes, the Baptist, the First Parish, and the Methodist, nominated twelve persons, "five gentlemen and seven ladies, to consult together and determine what plan of procedure would most acceptably and efficiently accom- plish the object in view". One midsummer evening in 1857, these people met in the Town House and, "after mature deliberation and mutual conference decided that the only feasible way of proceed- ing would be by voluntary contributions of our people." They supervised a subscription in the six school districts that totalled about $500 in money and a donation of books valued at $70.
Upon this report, the Town in a legal Town Meeting held November 3, 1857, "established a Library for the use of all in- habitants of a specified age, to be called the Weston Town Library, and chose a committee who were authorized to receive donations; all property given for the creating of a library to be delivered to them." The important by-laws were: "I. For delivery
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and return of books, the Library shall be open every other Satur- day from three to five, and every Saturday from seven to nine; it shall be open every Town Meeting day, at the same hours. 2. The age limit shall be sixteen years. 3. The salary of the Librarian shall be forty dollars per annum." This library was shelved in a small room in the Town House that was built in 1847 and stood just across the square from the present Library building, facing south. The first Librarian was Mr. John Coburn, a descendant of early Weston settlers. He served ably and devotedly for thirty-six years, 1857-1893.
Beginning with 1859, through the years, gifts have been made to the Library or have been left by will, the income to be spent for books and periodicals and other Library purposes. For twenty years, from 1889-1909, Mr. Francis Blake gave his salary as Select- man for the purchase of books, and since 1887 the yearly dog license refund has been voted to the Library. In 1887, this refund amounted to $278.10; in 1956, to $1807.35; in 1960, to $1878.59.
The annual reports of the Library Trustees are most interesting, even fascinating reading, not only as records of the loyal labors of our citizens, but because of the moral instructions they often con- tain. The Board itself always has been composed of three members, including often a minister of one parish or another.
According to the first published list, in 1861, books were classi- fied under these divisions: Agriculture (Weston was still a farm- ers' town), Biography, Fiction, History, Juvenile, Religious and Moral, Scientific, Travels. Under Agriculture are many alluring titles: Ten Acres Enough, Illustrated Horse Doctor, The Mysteries of Beekeeping, and always, United States and Commonwealth Agri- cultural Reports. Under Fiction are the good friends, Thackeray, Dickens, Stowe, Hawthorne, Bulwer-Lytton, Holmes, Trollope, with Mrs. Southworth's The Fatal Marriage; and J. S. Saunders' Shadow in the House, and Struggle for Life, that might have been "whodunits." "In this year, (1861), besides 174 new books pur- chased with money donated, somewhat more than 200 volumes have been given." As early as 1861, there are comments "that fic- tion is more generally read than any other division of the Library.
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... In selection of these books, the Committee have used con- siderable discrimination. We believe that most of these novels have literary merit, and exert a salutary, elevating influence, while none of them are directly immoral or vitiating. Let fictitious works have their proportion of time, and they refine, amuse, and instruct; let them absorb the entire attention, and they debilitate the mind, morbidly excite the sensibilities, and render their devotee nervous and impractical. We caution readers against their disproportionate use." In 1861, also, "the room that now contains the library is too small for that purpose. It does not furnish space for all to stand on, who are sometimes present on library days; much less for any considerable number to sit. A library room is not only for delivery of books, but for social intercourse and friendly greeting, and should be furnished with settees enough to accommodate all who desire to sit."
From the rather long report of 1862, is this item: "At the an- nual inspection of books in April, the library contained 2,100 volumes, from which we laid aside forty-six that needed rebinding. Some books bore marks of harsh usage. Some were defaced and injured by pencil marks upon the leaves. If persons who do not value the library enough to prevent them from marring and defacing the books, would be kind enough not to use it at all, they would confer a favor on the community who not only prize a good book, but are pained to see that it has been wantonly injured."
The plea for larger space continues in 1863, when there were listed 2,200 volumes, "several hundred books are now piled, packed, and tucked away, inaccessible to the public." However, these were the Civil War years. In 1865, "The number of books added the past year is much smaller than usual, from the fact that our funds have been diminished, while the price of books has nearly doubled. A great and pressing want is suitable room for the bestowal of the books."
At last, in 1867, is a report of the "Committee for the Enlarge- ment of the Town House, and Erection of a Marble Tablet in Memory of Fallen Soldiers." A 20-foot extension had been added, the total expense, $4120. And the Library Committee writes: "In
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submitting our Annual Report, we are happy to say that the pressing want which has been the burden of many preceding reports, has, by the generous action of the Town, been fully met. A room has now been provided sufficiently ample, not only for the present use but for the prospective requirements of the Library. We are also exceedingly gratified to know that the citizens heartily approve of the action of the Town in providing a room for the Library by additional funds from a social gathering and fair, amounting to $400, for carpeting and furnishing the room. We have now a place to which we can take our visiting friends with a commendable feeling of pride, to show them in what estimation a free Library is held by the people of Weston."
In 1871, the Trustees are still worrying for fear the citizens may go light-minded. "The market is flooded with works of fic- tion, some of which will be of more than transient interest, but most of which will soon be forgotten. Sometimes a work is called for which is making a sensation in reading circles, and it is worth while to buy it and read it for the sole purpose of learning what the popular taste is and on what thin pabulum its cravings are satisfied. There are people who will read story books merely for the excitement of the story itself, and because such reading re- quires no intellectual or moral effort. We doubt whether such reading tends to any other result than confirmed moral indolence and emptiness of both heart and brain. We believe, however, that there is a growing interest in historical reading. There certainly ought to be."
In 1880, the Trustees wrote that there was not so high a percent- age of fiction circulated. "This is a good exhibit; it shows an in- creased demand for books of a high intellectual order, which is in part owing to the large number of interesting books of travel and biography which have been added during the year." "The wear and tear of the books has been very great this past year; many of them bear marks of rough usage, others have been marred and disfigured in an unseemly manner. This is all wrong, and we would suggest to people who must have books to scribble on, that they ought to buy them with their own money."
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The Weston Town Library, 1857
In 1881, changes in the Town House gave added book-room of 14 feet by 32 feet, in which were shelved 5000 volumes. In this year the Library was opened on Wednesday from one to five.
However, the few additional feet of stack-room soon proved to be inadequate. In 1889, the Trustees advised that the Library would soon outgrow its quarters, and that of two plans, either making alterations in the present room, or erecting a separate building, they were inclined to the opinion that it would be better to adopt the latter alternative, and recommended that measures be taken to secure a proper site.
Three years later, at the annual Town Meeting on March 28, 1892, the Committee on Library site presented a plan by Mr. E. W. Bowditch, for making a beautiful Town center. This included buying of the Cutting lot, at the corner of School Street and the Boston Post Road, for the Library, while on the westerly side is located an Inn. This comment is a part of the report: "By locating a village inn upon the plan, your Committee do not mean to suggest that the Town should go into the hotel business. But they do believe that a pretty wayside inn, after the manner of New England fifty years ago, would be an advantage to the Town so that Weston may be able to entertain man and beast, instead of obliging them to move on to the next town." In 1893, the Town voted to buy the land for the Library site; and on February 27, 1894, for the sum of $7500, the title of the Cutting estate passed to the Town. In 1894, the Library was open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday afternoons and evenings. Another warn- ing from the Trustees reads, "In some cases, in stormy weather, the books come in very wet and dirty, with every appearance of hav- ing been upon the not-too-clean bottom of a wagon. Paper is cheap and it would be but little work to do them up and keep them protected from the weather."
With the buying of a library site in 1894, the Town seems to have retired into safe security as to a building. The new High School Loan was to be met, and besides, as an able citizen who had had some experience in town office-holding once said, "Town meeting never does anything in haste." So in 1895, the faithful
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Trustees return to the attack. Their report reads: "The narrow escape of the Town House last summer from destruction by fire should be a strong reminder of the importance of providing a safer place for our Library. ... Let us hope that the town will feel disposed before long to provide a suitable building." And in 1898, "Aside from the lack of room and danger from fire, there are times when noises from the hall above, (which is in frequent use for dances and public meetings) make quiet reading and study in the Library room impossible. There is a plan to alter the Cutting house now upon the Library site and adapt it for Library purposes. This makeshift seems to us hardly worth while, and we recommend the appointment of a special committee to consider the subject." Such a committee was appointed by the Moderator according to a vote at the annual Town Meeting in March, 1898.
On March 6, 1899, this special committee reported that "in view of the $20,000 Brick High School Building Loan, and having regard to the present financial resources of the Town, the Com- mittee would not recommend the establishment of a new debt for a Library building. While the Committee cannot state too strongly the pressing need of a new Library building, they are, nevertheless convinced that this need cannot be met at once-except by private munificence,-without a violation of the traditional conservatism of the Town in financial methods. ... They are unanimous in recommending that at the next annual meeting a committee shall be appointed with full powers to obtain plans, specifications, and estimates for a new building for a Town Library; and that said committee shall report at a special Town Meeting to be held on a date subsequent to the Assessors' determination of the valuation and tax rate for the ensuing year."
At the annual Town Meeting three weeks later, March 27, 1899, a committee of five was appointed, "to obtain plans, specifications and estimates for a new building for the Town Library." In spite of pressure brought to bear upon the architect, Mr. Alex- ander Jenney, the Town Fathers, and the Citizens, at a special Town Meeting on August 24, 1899, plans, specifications and estimates were presented by this Committee, the Town Treasurer
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was authorized to borrow the sum of $40,000, to be called the Town Library Loan, and the same five Citizens were "hereby appointed a Committee with full authority to expend so much of the Town Library Loan as may be necessary for the purpose in the construction of a new building on the present Town Library Site. ... and that this Committee have full power to make any disposition of the buildings now on said lot." Concerning the loan, the Selectmen reported: "As gratifying evidence of the excep- tionally good financial standing of the Town, the Board have to announce that the ten notes establishing the Public Library Loan of $40,000, were bought by the Treasurer of the Commonwealth."
When Mr. Charles H. Fiske heard that the historic Cutting house was to be taken down, he bought it of the Town, and moved it to its present site on Church Street, on land adjoining the property of the fine old Colonel Marshall mansion. With this removal, work on the new Library building began at once, in November, 1899.
From the Trustees' report for the year 1900, after the comple- tion and opening of the new building: "To the Trustees, it hardly seems natural to close this report without asking for a new Library building as has been their invariable custom for the last ten years. But the munificent action of the Town has now forever removed this necessity. The new building is fulfilling all their expectations for the convenience, pleasure, and well-being of the residents of the Town." The Library at this time contained 12,423 volumes, and was open six days in the week.
The story of the years following this important event is largely a record of the usual Library routine. In 1903 occurred the death of Mr. Oliver Robbins, a member of the Board of Trustees since 1872. "The Town has already expressed through the vote passed at the last annual meeting, its high appreciation of the value of Mr. Robbins' services to the Library during his long term of office and of the great loss sustained by his death. As time passes we realize yet more fully how much the Library owes to his wise counsels and watchful care, and rejoice that his devotion to its best interests has been of permanent value in promoting its
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growth and prosperity." In 1903 also: "The community suffers a very great loss in the death of our Librarian, Miss Elizabeth S. White. She took charge of the Library in 1893, and since then has devoted her time and her talents without stint to its interests. Miss White was in every way an ideal Librarian. Her unfailing cour- tesy and kindness, her remarkable efficiency in administering the affairs of the Library, and her fine intellectual endowments and literary judgment, all endeared her to the community whose in- terests she so faithfully served." The Trustees considered them- selves fortunate in securing Miss Maude M. Pennock to take her place. Miss Pennock was a resident of Weston and had served as Assistant to Miss White thus gaining experience in the thorough and painstaking methods of the latter.
Believing that many persons preferred the old way of choosing books at home, and as it was more than ten years since a catalogue had been published, in 1906 the Trustees asked the Town for an increase of $800 to the usual appropriation of $2000 in order to have printed an up-to-date volume of all the books in the Library, then 17,198.
In 1912, the Kendal Green Branch was established. Space was provided in the Vestry of the Methodist Episcopal Church where cases were set up to hold several hundred books. These were replaced from time to time with fresh selections, while books called for by card were delivered from the main Library.
The Children's Room, originally in the alcove at the right of the entrance door, became so popular and its demands so great that in 1912 the Record states: "The capacity of the Children's Reading-room is more and more inadequate both in shelfroom for the books, and sitting-room for the children. It already will not hold all the books it is desirable to keep there nor all the children that desire to read them. Its enlargement must soon be seriously considered."
In 1914, the Library received a valuable gift from Mr. Robert Winsor, Old Silver of American Churches, a magnificent and costly imported work of which only 506 copies, for the National Society of Colonial Dames of America, were printed at the Arden
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Press, Letchworth, England. This book contains a description and illustrations of the old silver of the First Parish Church in Weston, still in use.
The need of a larger Children's Room remained pressing. In 1918 the space under the stack room became available when the Town Clerk ceased using it upon the opening of the new Town House. The Trustees in the years 1918-1921 urged remodelling of this space for a Children's Room. With the aid of a gift of $5000 from Miss Louisa W. Case, one of the Trustees, this was accom- plished, and in 1922 the present inviting Children's Room, known as the Rosamond Freeman Room, was opened. Since then the Room has been in charge of Miss Margaret E. Mosher.
In 1924, as in earlier reports, the Trustees are troubled about light reading: "The class of books most in demand by patrons of the Library is fiction. In the fiction offered to us are many stories of great merit. The bulk of them, however, are ephemeral and forgotten within a few weeks after their publication. They are sought by Library readers in consequences of suggestions made in the advertising matter of the publishers, who are seeking to sell them. Many of this class of books are vicious, none of them are of any permanent value to the Library, and, finally, they oc- cupy space on the shelves that should be filled by live and working books."
In 1926, there was great regret when the Rev. Palfrey Perkins left Weston. "Mr. Perkins' ideals for the Library were high, and his culture and good judgment enabled him to work efficiently for it. Some proportion between books of temporary interest and those of more permanent value must be kept. This means that books offered must be appraised and valued, book by book. There is a great deal of drudgery in such work. Mr. Perkins performed it conscientiously and with rare judgment and taste. Our Library is a much better one by reason of his efforts in its behalf." In this year, the Trustees recommended that the Kendal Green Branch be discontinued. The will of Mr. Horace S. Sears, Library Trustee from 1887 to 1921, had given to the Town the Ellen Sears Fund, "the income to be expended for the assistance of the Librarian or
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Librarians or her or his assistants in case of sickness or for vacation expenses as an addition to and never a part of their regular salaries." The income was used for the first time this year, 1926, happily for a vacation.
In 1927, fiction is again reviewed. "The outstanding writers of fiction today are, in the main, of the so-called modern school. They are blatant and vulgar and have a host of imitators who lack literary taste and technique."
1928. "The Library has suffered a great loss during the year in the death of Mr. Arthur T. Johnson," a Trustee since 1903. He gave to the Library "the serious attention of an able mind, a superior literary judgment, and a sound practical sense. ... Such contribution to the welfare of the Town is worthy the best tradition of New England." By joint action of the Trustees of the Library and the Selectmen, Mr. Grant M. Palmer, Jr. was elected to serve until the Annual Town Meeting.
In 1931, Mr. Sears's bequest has again been drawn on for vaca- tion expenses of the Library Staff. This bequest is at least one proof that sometimes the good men do, as well as the evil men do, lives after them and is not, as the poet says so often happens, "interred with their bones." "During the month of November the Town suffered a loss in the sad and sudden death of Mr. Merrill French, who had served long and faithfully as Custodian of the Library. His quiet and dignified presence and his cheerful face will be much missed, but he will still live in the memory of his many friends."
The personal touch in the report of 1934 is worthy of some thought today: "A considerable number of copies of ephemeral literature, 'the latest novel', is desired by many readers; money spent for such books, of no lasting value, must often be taken from the departments of history, biography or reference, to the detri- ment of these departments and the dissatisfaction of other readers. A proper balance of spending is difficult to maintain and no course of action is satisfactory to all patrons." The Trustees called atten- tion to the fact that the circulation had increased from about 24,000 books in 1925, to nearly 38,000 in 1935; "a considerable
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part of this increase is due to the development of the Children's Department and is for that reason especially gratifying."
Miss Louisa W. Case, who had served as Trustee since 1921, resigned in 1937. The other Trustees expressed "deep regret, and appreciation for her sixteen years of faithful and efficient service to the Library and to the Town, and of friendly and helpful cooperation with her colleagues." The Rev. Miles Hanson, Jr. was elected at the annual Town Meeting to serve the remaining two years of her term.
In February, 1939, Miss Maude M. Pennock resigned as Li- brarian. Appointed in 1903, Miss Pennock had served the Town for thirty-six years. The Trustees stated that "her devotion and ability have been the principal factors in developing the Library to its present state," and that hers was "a notable career which speaks for itself better than we can."
With the coming of the Second World War in 1941, the Library became a Community Center for many activities. Defense stamps were on sale, the Librarian was in charge for Weston of the Victory Book Campaign, with the Library the local collecting point for the Town; classes were held in Nutrition and in the Care of Children, with instructors sent from the State House, whence came the examination papers after the completion of each course. In this year, 1941, the Weston Garden Club began to place flowers in the Library.
After the stress of the war years, Library activities became normal. The Trustees in 1946 were very fortunate in appointing as Librarian, Miss Judith E. Stromdahl, formerly with the Lynn Public Library. Of great importance to Miss Stromdahl was Li- brary service to the schools; in addition, the Library building was made a Community Center in many ways, such as featuring an- nouncements of coming events in Town, displaying the work of local artists, providing a bulletin for Weston-Rhombas Affiliation, and procuring books for patrons from other libraries, even from Boston, through the Inter-Library Loan Service.
In May, 1947, was held the first Open House, an activity that has become an annual affair. The authors, Mrs. Olive Higgins
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Prouty and Mr. Haydn S. Pearson, were secured as guest speakers, and were heard with great interest and enjoyment by about one hundred townspeople.
In July, 1947, under the auspices of the State Division of Public Libraries, the Weston Library entertained a group of thirty-seven Librarians who were attending a Library Institute in Boston. As part of the program, a tour of several libraries in Metropolitan Boston was planned and the Libraries of Newton, Watertown and Weston were selected.
In November, 1948, the second successful Open House was held, at which Mrs. Gladys Hasty Carroll, author of "As the Earth Turns" and a number of Maine stories, was the guest speaker.
A signal event of 1949 was the visit of Mr. C. A. McCallum, Librarian of the State Library, Victoria, Australia. In Massachu- setts, in addition to several colleges and the Department of Edu- cation, he included visits to two public libraries: one, the Boston Public Library, for obvious reasons; two, the Weston Public Library, "an outstanding small Library in the State."
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