USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > Connellsville > Centennial history of the borough of Connellsville, Pennsylvania, 1806-1906 > Part 30
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Colonel James E. Barnet, a graduate of the Connells- ville schools, when introduced, proceeded to lay the corner- stone. A cylindrical shaped receptacle, made of aluminum, containing copies of our town papers, documents referring to the library, Borough affairs, and various other data of importance to the present time, was placed in the corner- stone.
The Colonel then said: "In laying the corner-stone of
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this building, you are not merely putting in place an inor- ganic block. You are laying the foundation of increased knowledge, happiness, enjoyment and improvement in your community. Within the walls to be erected, you and your sons and daughters and generations yet to come, can sur- vey the whole horizon of human existence and achieve- ment."
The library building, which is constructed of buff sand stone with a tile roof, is two stories high with an eleven- foot basement. The first floor plan consists of a general reading room, a children's reading room, a periodical room, a reference room, and a large delivery lobby which is reached by the main entrance and two side entrances. Im- mediately back of the delivery desk is the metal stack room with space for 20,000 volumes which can be increased to 80,000. Each of the large reading rooms will seat 54 people.
The second floor contains a lecture hall with a seat- ing capacity of 500, a trustees room and a club room. The two floors are fireproof. The delivery desk is so situated as to command a view of the entire first floor and the two stairways leading to the second floor, all of the partitions down stairs being made of plate glass. This arrangement gives complete supervision of the lower floor to the librarian at her desk. Open shelves are used, the entrance to them being through turnstiles at the sides of the delivery desk.
The construction of the building was delayed by strikes and inability to obtain the stone of which the walls are built, so that it was not completed and taken off the hands of the contractor until March, 1903.
As the building was nearing completion, the Trustees were diligently searching for a suitable librarian. The President of the Board of Trustees had letters and recom- mendations from over twenty different applicants. On May 12th, 1902, Miss Anna Bonnell Day, a graduate of the Drexel Institute Library School, was elected to the position. This popular and efficient librarian still hoids that office.
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On November 7th, 1902, the Trustees decided to ex- pend not more than $3,000.00 in the purchase of books for the library. About 2,500 volumes were purchased and some sixty periodicals were ordered for the use of the library. The books were catalogued and prepared for use by Miss Day and her assistants .. The library was formally opened by appropriate exercises on the last day of April, 1903.
The opening prayer was made by Rev. E. B. Burgess. Mr. H. P. Snyder, Secretary of the Board of Trustees, read a number of letters of a congratulatory nature from Mr. Carnegie and others, and made a few additional re- marks.
Mr. E. C. Higbee, President of the School Board, said, "The library is here. It is not a hope or a promise, but a substantial reality, and we ought to be proud to main- tain it. It is now open and it is a mighty power in this intelligent age. It wields a powerful influence for good, and makes a better town, morally, financially and intel- lectually."
Mr. H. L. Robinson, counsel for the School Board and for the Library Trustees, gave a history of the rise and progress of the library movement in Connellsville, from its inception over three years before, until its final com- pletion and opening to the public.
"This day is one to be marked by a white stone in the history of Connellsville. The establishment and main- tenance of this institution means more to the town than the establishment of a first-class rolling mill. Where there are no books there are no rolling mills, no coke ovens, no business. The success of men of little education does not prove the uselessness of education. The success of the ignorant man is not due to that fact, but to the fact that other men were not like him."
Mr. W. M. Stevenson, Librarian of the Carnegie Li- brary, Allegheny, said, "A great deal has been said and written about what the public library can do for the citizen.
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CARNEGIE FREE LIBRARY
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It has been called the university of the people, the poor man's college, and I was going to add a new name, the post-graduate school of self-help. The public library is simply a continuation of our public school system, whose chief purpose is to prepare the youth of the land to be useful men and women in the community. The American plan of education has one principal aim in view, that of making good citizens.
"Andrew Carnegie sounded the keynote of the art of giving years ago, when he declared that unless gifts were so bestowed as to help men to help themselves, it were better that all such gifts were cast into the depths of the sea. Over halt a century ago, Col. James Anderson, of Allegheny, founded a library for the use of apprentices of that city.
"Among the lads who came every week to receive books was Mr. Carnegie, then a bobbin boy in a factory, earning $1.20 a week. Impressed by the advantages offered to the working classes by a library, the boy, Carnegie, then resolved that, if ever surplus wealth came to him, it would be spent in founding public libraries. What was then a boy's day-dream, has now become a glorious reality. Every man, woman and child has a proprietary interest in this library, and all the citizens are, in a certain sense, the cus- todians and guardians of these books. The citizens ought to be vigilant at all times to see that the municipal author- ities appropriate a sufficient amount annually for the main- tenance of the public library."
Mr. Stevenson then urged the councilmen and school directors to interest themselves in behalf of the success of the library. In conclusion, he presented the library to Con- nellsville in a few graceful words.
Dr. J. C. McClenathan, President of the Board of Trustees, accepted the new library in behalf of the Trus- tees. After reviewing the history of the library from its inception, he concluded in the words of Andrew Carnegie, "I now pronounce this library open to the public, without
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money and without price, in the confident belief that it will prove the fountain from which only healing waters shall flow."
On the following morning, May 1st, 1903, the doors of the library were opened to the people. The circulation of books on the first day was 208 volumes and this use of the library continues to be large, far surpassing the most ardent hopes of its friends.
The Trustees had ordered the books and magazines and had assumed the running expenses, but not a dollar was given them until October, 1904, 18 months after the library was opened.
The Town Council had changed its political makeup. and the new councilmen refused to give any aid or assist- ance, thus repudiating the agreement made with Mr. Car- negie.
The opposition circulated a petition from the close of the polls in February until the June meeting of Council. by which time they had secured the signature of 1 ?? voters out of 1,600. No less than fifty of these signers were men whose families were making use of the library. The friends of the institution then prepared a petition request- ing the Council and School Board to fulfil their just obli- gation, and in one day several hundred signatures were obtained.
It stated, "We think it is your duty to encourage the library in every possible way, and especially by making the appropriation for maintenance pledged by a former Council and School Board. The public faith should not be dishon- ored, especially in view of the patent fact that the town has received and is making use of Andrew Carnegie's money contributed upon the express condition that the mainte- nance should be provided equally by the School Board and the Town Council."
The School Board appropriated $2,000.00 for Library maintenance and then employed D. M. Hertzog, an attor- ney, who told them they could not make an appropriation.
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but would have to levy a special tax. This ruling was received November 31, 1903.
At the first meeting of Council in January, 1904, a petition, signed by 137 voters, was submitted, requesting that body to submit the question of maintenance of the library to a vote of the people, according to an act of Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, date, June 17th, 1901, P. L. 569.
An ordinance was passed January 5th, 1904, submit- ting to a vote of the electors of the Borough the question, "Whether or not the said borough shall maintain, or assist in maintaining, the Carnegie Free Library, out of a fund raised by the imposition of a tax of one mill for that purpose by the Borough Council."
First, That at the regular election to be held in February, nineteen hundred and four, the question whether the Carnegie Free Library, located in the Borough of Connellsville, shall be maintained or assisted out of the fund raised by the imposition of a tax of one mill upon all the property in the said Borough, taxable for Borough purposes, shall be submitted to the vote of the duly qualified electors of the said Borough.
Second, That if the said question be determined in the affirmative at the said election, the said rate of taxation or appropriation, for said purpose shall not be changed until such change be authorized or directed by a subsequent popular vote.
Third, That if said question be determined in the affirma- tive as aforesaid, Council shall proceed, as soon as practicable, to devise plans for properly giving effect to the will of the people thus expressed.
Fourth, That the proper officers having charge of the prep- aration of the official ballot shall also have prepared for use at said election, a separate ballot as near as possible in the following form:
LIBRARY BALLOT.
The question to be determined by this ballot is, whether the Borough of Connellsville shall maintain or assist in main- taining the Carnegie Free Library now located in this town, out of a fund raised by the imposition of a tax of one mill for that purpose by the Borough Council.
To vote for the measure, make a (X) cross in the square
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to the right of the words "For the Library;" to vote against it make a (X) cross in the square to the right of the words "Against the Library."
FOR THE LIBRARY
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AGAINST THE LIBRARY
Fifth, This ordinance shall be printed in two daily papers published in this Borough for three consecutive weeks imme- diately prior to election day, and printed copies of said ordi- nance shall be properly posted by the constables at the same time and in the same places as the regular election proclama- tion.'
This election was held February 16th, 1904. Out of a total library vote of 1,303, 767 taxpayers voted for it and 536 against it, giving a majority of 231 votes to main- tain the honor of the town.
During the year 1904 the School Board levied a special tax of one mill for the maintenance of the library; in 1905, one mill, and in 1906, one-half a mill. Early in the year 1904 the Council voted the library $1,000.00 for its expenses. In 1905 the library received $1,500.00 from the same source, and in 1906 $1,000.00, making in all $3,500.00 contributed by the Council during the four years the library has been open.
The old Connell grave yard contained almost one acre of ground, but it did not front on Pittsburgh street, and was bounded on two sides by twenty-foot alleys and on the other side by land owned by the Hogg heirs and others. The hump of earth directly in front of the library was twenty feet high.
The Board of Trustees began the work of improving this lot by widening the two alleys to make thirty-foot streets and petitioned the County Court to grant the re- quest. Arrangements were then made to have the street above the library paved. One of the adjoining lots had already been purchased when it was discovered that it was
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impossible to purchase the others and that there was no law to compel the owners to sell.
Dr. J. C. McClenathan prepared an Act "Authorizing borough councils or school boards of this Commonwealth to purchase, acquire, take, use and appropriate private property for public library purposes, and providing the man- ner in which damages sustained thereby shall be assessed and collected." This act was approved by Governor Stone, May 11th, 1901. P. L. 136.
The passing of the act was chiefly due to the brilliant work of Mr. George M. Hosack, then a member of the General Assembly of this state from Pittsburgh.
The Town Council took immediate action under this law and condemned all the ground in the square adjoin- ing the library grounds. Viewers were appointed by the Court to assess the damages. Both parties appealed from their decision. The trial by the Court and jury to assess the amount of damages for taking the property was then held, but the amount of damage was so large that the Town Council could not at that time accept it.
In every movement from the beginning the Trustees had met with some form of determined opposition, but they knew not defeat, and with the people's welfare, as a light burning in the long stretch of darkness ahead, they battled toward that guiding star, undaunted by all obstacles. They achieved success because they were fighting for the right.
On March 15th, 1904, a committee, consisting of Capt. E. Dunn, R. Marietta, Clair Stillwagon, L. F. Ruth and Dr. J. C. McClenathan, left for New York to visit Mr. Andrew Carnegie to ask him to aid them in purchasing and improving the grounds in front of and to the south of the library building.
The next day this committee visited Mr. Carnegie in his residence on Fifth Avenue. They were met at the door by a servant in green livery, it being St. Patrick's day, but not very early in the morning, and simply announced themselves as a library committee from Connellsville. They
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were immediately ushered into the magnificent hall and then notified that Mr. Carnegie would see them for two or three minutes. Mr. Carnegie received them in his library where he showed them many of his quaint and curious letters received from kings and potentates from all over the world, in response to his donations for libraries. They were then shown into his private office, where they discussed the needs of the Connellsville library. Mr. Carnegie is quick and witty in conversation and his few minutes had been stretched to one full hour, yet no aid for Connellsville. He had forgotten the Parisian artist who was painting his picture. Once more the need of funds to purchase the lots adjoining the library was mentioned, when the answer came quickly and sharply, "I will not do it." With a few words of farewell, the committee went out of his residence, a disappointed lot of men. It was then decided to draw up a set of resolutions and send them to Mr. Carnegie by letter.
These resolutions were written on Fifth Avenue Hotel letter heads. They recounted the trials and tribulations which the library had weathered and closed with a printed ballot that had been used at the February election when the question of maintaining the library had been voted upon. Each of the five men affixed his signature and the letter was sent to Mr. Carnegie by special delivery.
Early the next morning, before the committee were all out of bed, a telephone call for Dr. J. C. McClenathan came to his room. In response to the inquiry, "Who is there," came the reply, "The 'clark' at the Carnegie house," and he immediately stated that Mr. Carnegie had recon- sidered his reply of yesterday and begged leave to inform the committee that their request of the previous day would be granted. That a jubilee followed this announcement during the breakfast hour only states the fact moderately. In the first mail after the committee returned home, the following letter was received:
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NEW YORK, March 18th, 1904.
Gentlemen of the Committee, Free Public Library, Connellsville, Pa.
Dear Sirs :- I do not agree with you that if the doors of the Library were closed it would be a disgrace to me. I have never pressed communities to establish libraries. I have sim- ply agreed to comply with their requests. Whenever you have heard of a community refusing a library, rest assured it has been applied for, by or with the approval of the authorities of the city. I do think that the community which is not willing to maintain a library had better not possess it. It is only the feeling that the library belongs to every citizen, richest and poorest alike, that gives it a soul as it were. The library buildings which I am giving are the property of all the mem- bers of the communities which maintain them.
You did not state to me in your interview that the Borough had refused to maintain the library until it was put in shape. I understood only that it was your desire to improve the ap- pearance of and access to the library, as a matter of pride, a very natural desire on the part of public-spirited citizens. But in providing libraries throughout the country, I must be gov- erned by rules, and if I undertake to give money for such things as patriotic citizens would ask it, I should soon get into trouble. I recognize your earnest public-spirited devotion to the cause, and in this case I will make an exception, and your drafts on Mr. Franks up to eighteen thousand dollars, will be paid, as you expend the money for the purpose named.
Let me say this to you in conclusion, that I cannot recollect any community of the size and population to which I have given so much money for a library building. Let me also say that I never met a more public-spirited, able committee.
Very truly yours,
ANDREW CARNEGIE.
In a few days the treasurer received the amount pro- posed. An agreement was at once made with the owners of the property in the square adjoining the library and it was deeded to the Board of Trustees. Bids for grading the grounds and building the retaining wall and steps were received. It was found that the amount of money left after purchasing the property would not be sufficient to do this work by contract, so the Trustees decided to employ day labor and superintend the work themselves to make ends meet.
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These were the first public grounds to be beautified in the town, and a lesson in civic pride has been taught that has already brought about good results.
When the reading habit has once been formed in child- hood, there is no one source of happiness so prolific as this in the after years of life, as it is a well known fact that many people read as much for amusement as for the acquisition of knowledge.
The things that are told us when we are young abide with us longer and exert a greater influence on our thoughts and actions than much that we read in later life. In Sep- tember, 1903, Miss Day, the Librarian, inaugurated the "Story Hour" for the little children on Friday afternoons. Either she or the assistant, Miss Sara Seaton, has enter- tained the children with stories selected from the best fairy tales, fables, myths and religious stories suitable for the time and season. The object of this work is not only to entertain and instruct the children, but to form in them the habit of coming to the library, where their hungry little minds are fed with the right kind of diet. The success of the "Story Hour" was instantaneous, the attendance during the first six months being 2,224 children. This year a larger room than was formerly used has been fitted up in the basement for the work which has become a perma- nent feature of the library work.
The second anniversary of the opening of the library was celebrated May 16th, 1905. Addresses were made by E. C. Higbee on "The Relation of the Schools to the Library" and the Secretary, H. P. Snyder, on the work of the library during the year. A very entertaining and instructive address was made by the State Librarian, Hon. T. L. Montgomery, of Harrisburg, on the "Development of Pennsylvania Libraries." A fine musical program accom- panied the exercises.
The third Founders' Day exercises were held in the Library Hall on May 15th, 1906. Rev. E. B. Burgess delivered an historical address on "The Founders of Our
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City." The Secretary read the annual report of work done in the Library.
The principal address of the occasion was made by A. H. Hopkins, Librarian of the Carnegie Library, Pitts- burgh, Pa. His eloquent address was along the line of library work. One of the chief features of the evening's entertainment was the charming musical program rendered by soloists and a male chorus of Connellsville, under the efficient management of J. L. Rodrigues.
REPORT OF CIRCULATION OF BOOKS IN CAR- NEGIE FREE LIBRARY FROM MAY, 1903, TO MAY, 1906.
1903-04 1904-05 1905-06 TOTAL
General works
441
840
790
2,071
Philosophy
187
154
123
464
Religion
288
259
243
290
Sociology and folk-lore ...
1,019
1,557
1,408
3,984
Philology
11
18
14
43
Natural science
472
351
451
1,374
Useful arts
266
254
425
945
Fine arts
348
378
541
1,267
General literature
1,367
1,698
2,014
5,079
Travels
783
717
814
2,314
History
1,011
961
917
2,889
Biography
673
473
492
1,638
Fiction
20,629
23,921
24,433
68,983
Totals
27,495
31,581
32,665
91,741
At the end of the third year the library contained 4987 volumes and had 2638 registered readers.
The number of books read the last year was 32,665. In the circulating department there are about 4,000 books, so that each book was circulated on an average of eight times during the year, or, in other words, supposing there are 6,000 people in Connellsville who are able to read, during the year the library circulated more than five books.
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for each one of these persons. This is an exceedingly good record, and, when we consider that a large proportion of our citizens are engaged in manufacture or railroad work, it makes the above statement even more remarkable. This is far above the average for other cities, and shows that our citizens are hungry for good reading.
The periodical room is one of the most popular depart- ments in the library, and contains more than sixty of the standard magazines, literary, artistic, scientific and general. A number of the most popular magazines are circulated when they are one month old.
During the present year an arrangement has been made with the superintendent of schools by which each teacher has been furnished with a graded list of the books suitable for her grade. Each pupil is required to read a specified number of books from this list during the school year, so that the library practically oversees the reading of all the pupils of the public school.
ORGANIZATION OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
At the beginning of the work, the organization of the Board was along the lines suggested by Mr. W. N. Frew, of the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, to whom Mr. Carnegie referred our committee when he made the donation. The first Board of Trustees was constituted as follows: Dr. J. C. McClenathan, President; Rockwell Marietta, Vice-Pres- ident; H. P. Snyder, Secretary; L. F. Ruth, Treasurer ; Samuel H. Howard, Winfield S. Schenck, Dr. Samuel D. Woods, representing the School Board; Clair Stillwagon, Charles M. Hyatt and Charles C. McCormick, representing the Town Council; Edmund Dunn and William H. Hugus, permanent members of the Board.
When the Board was making contracts and purchasing additional grounds, it became evident to all that a charter would give additional privileges and also entitle the Board to a copy of all state publications free of charge.
On December 14th, 1904, at a regular meeting of the
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Board, Mr. E. C. Higbee was instructed to have the Board of Trustees incorporated. This was done in compliance with an "Act to provide for the incorporation and regula- tion of certain corporations," approved April 29th, 1874, and the supplements thereto, the undersigned, all of whom are citizens of Pennsylvania, have associated themselves together for the purpose hereinafter specified, and desire that they may be duly incorporated according to law, do hereby certify :
First: The name of the corporation is Carnegie Free Library.
Second: The said corporation is formed for the purpose of managing, conducting, and maintaining a free public library.
Third: The business of the said corporation is to be trans- acted at the Borough of Connellsville, county of Fayette, and state of Pennsylvania.
Fourth: The said corporation is to exist perpetually.
Fifth: The names and residences of the subscribers are as follows:
J. C. McClenathan, Connellsville, Pa.
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