A Community's Traditions in Reading
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By Evan Strickland
What does the slogan, "Once upon a time, a town loved a Library,"
mean to you? Does it remind you of the community support that helps
sustain our libraries? Does it get you thinking about the origin of
the libraries and beg the question of how the district's libraries
began, and what their stories are? In either case, you might be left
with more questions than answers. Here, we will answer those
questions, with hopes of offering information, generating curiosity,
and maybe even bringing back memories. Libraries are of great value
to their communities, though it's not uncommon for some to overlook,
or not be familiar with, exactly how much of a service they provide.
Through their various programs and resources, Libraries play pivotal
roles in bringing communities together. Libraries hold a purpose
that is unique, practical, insightful, and somewhat sentimental as
well.
In 1886, when the Town of Grants Pass was only two years old, a group
of local women wanted a shared library for social and educational
purposes. This group, known as The Ladies Library Association, was
led by Mrs. C. M. Stone, the wife of a local druggist, and Mrs. J. K.
Pigney, the wife of the town blacksmith. They established a small
lending library in part of the Stone's drugstore, which was located
on Front Street (now G Street). In 1899, they relocated to the City
Hall [Old City Hall and fire station, now the Golden Rule building on
6th street] and rented a room for $2 per year. In the 1904
elections, the people voted whether to accept a $10,000 Carnegie
Foundation grant, that was offered to fund the construction of a
public library in Grants Pass. However, though the local citizens
agreed to accept a new tax that would be imposed upon them for the
library's operation, the city council voted against it, for they were
more focused on constructing a hospital, rather than a community
library. Nevertheless, the offer remained open to the city. Ten years
later, in 1913, the City Council appointed thirteen individuals to
serve as members of a library board, which began collecting books.
That same year, the library was moved to occupy two rooms on the
second floor of the new City Hall on 4th and H Streets. In 1917, the
library extended its services to Provolt, Almeda, Waldo, Hugo,
Holland, and Kerby.
In 1920, sixteen years after the Carnegie Foundation offered $10,000
in funds to build a library, the offer had increased to $12,500.
However, the time limit was about to expire, and the Carnegie
foundation had sent a dispatch to Grants Pass Mayor Charles Demaray
notifying him of its impending expiration. Unfortunately, there were
no qualified officials currently in town who could authorize the
agreement. Not wanting to miss this opportunity, Demaray signed his
own formal letter of acceptance and rushed to the station to dispatch
it with the evening train. Then, as the train pulled up to the
station, County Court Judge C. G. Gillette stepped off the train.
Mayor Demaray approached the judge, briefed him on the situation, and
had him sign the letter as the train waited for them so it would be
dispatched on the evening's shipment. As a result, in 1920, the
library received a $12,500 grant and relocated to the corner of 5th
and B street, opening its doors in the early 1920s as the Carnegie
Library, under the joint management of both the city and the county
court. It consisted of two stories, the lower of which was used as a
children's room. By 1959, the library was, as the Daily Courier put
it, "bursting at the seams," and the current library on C Street
(that is used today) was constructed across the street from the old
building.
About thirty miles southwest of Grants Pass, at the junction of Caves
Highway and Redwood Highway lies the "Gateway to the Oregon Caves,"
known as Cave Junction in the Illinois Valley. This key location
helped carve out the foundation for a community whose support was
owed largely in part to the hordes of travelers visiting the Redwoods
to the south, and the Oregon Caves to the east. This area, however,
was without a library until the early 1940s when a local teacher
named Irene Cribb started a branch library in the nearby town of
Kerby. She chose a small building which had been used as a
barbershop. Several years later, in 1948, after library supporters
and personnel had been on the lookout for a larger building, they
relocated to the Masonic Temple building (constructed in 1907) in
Kerby, which still stands today and is located on the West side of
the highway. The library remained in operation for about ten years
until 1958, when the 2,500 square foot Illinois Valley Branch Library
building was completed and opened its doors on the 22nd of April. The
library was renovated in 1978, and again just recently in 2024 when
1,700 square feet of meeting space was added.
About twenty miles north of Grants Pass is the small town of Wolf
Creek, home of the Wolf Creek Inn (built in 1883). It was also
originally home to several settlers and their families, dating back
to the 1850s.
The establishment of the first Wolf Creek branch library in 1957, was
the undertaking of librarian Florence Moberly. The County School
Board provided a small plot of land for the project, and an old 144
square foot weather station building was moved on skid logs to the
site. The Josephine County Library provided funds to install wiring,
heating units, and carpeting. The library operated for a few decades
along Main Street where there now stands a classroom building for the
Sunny Wolf Charter School, which served as a library itself after the
original was retired in 1977. The current library was constructed
across the parking lot in 2002, and the land upon which it stands was
donated by a family who previously owned a homestead on the property.
The Williams branch library is the newest of the branches. The area
is rich in history predating the American Civil War and was the home
of many settlers, including the Davidson family, whose son, Elijah
Davidson Jr, discovered the Oregon Caves.
The Williams Library first opened in the fall of 1970, in the
basement of the Williams Grange (established in 1909). The first
librarians included Mrs. Lucy Fitzpatrick and assistant Mrs. Irene
Shampain, who were paid the minimum wage of about $1.00 an hour. It
was open two hours a day for three days out of the week. In 1978,
the library moved to its building on 20695 Williams Highway and
opened its doors on December 15th. In the early 1980s, it became the
only library in the county with a hitching post, on request of
customers who frequently arrived on horseback, who before had been
tying their horses to the librarians' vehicle.
The library remained there for about fifty-five years. During that
time, the 864-square-foot building, (which was a clone of the modular
unit that had replaced the original Wolf Creek one year prior in
1877) had no indoor bathroom or running water. These and various
other necessities came when the library relocated to its present site
in 2023 at 158 Tetherow Road, next door to the Williams Grange. The
library building, used to be an automotive garage, was upgraded by
the mayor and sold to the library district. It has been nicely
remodeled and equipped, and its resources are conveniently available
for use by the public.
In more recent history, the library's closure in 2007 marked the end
of county support for the county library system. This came about as a
result of Oregon State Measure 50, when tax dollars that would have
gone to support the library went to the sheriff's department instead.
After many unsuccessful attempts to keep the library open as a
nonprofit enterprise, a few of them had to temporarily close their
doors. When this happened, the libraries began projects to raise
their own money, and community donations came pouring in from people
wanting to help get the libraries back on their feet. Many locals
voluntarily offered their support and services. The library in
Williams regularly held a book swap in the Williams Elementary School
parking lot. A former librarian named Kathryn Roether opened a
library in the Straw Bale studio that operated until the Williams
Library reopened. Meanwhile, largely due to local support and
funding, the Wolf Creek library was dubbed the "little library that
could," after having remained open during the closure of the other
library branches. In the meantime, the Grants Pass Daily Courier
wrote an editorial challenging everyone who voted yes for the
measure, to donate what they would have paid in taxes, to the
library. After a couple of attempts by the library to put forth a
countywide tax, a noncontiguous tax district was finally approved in
2017. The story of the library continues.
It is important to respect a retain historical tradition by educating
the public about our libraries, for they have created relationships
within our community in ways that no other organization can do,
motivating people to visit the library and learn more for themselves.
When checking out a book from your local community library, or
utilizing another of its many other recourses, you are profiting from
the roughly sixty dollars of yearly taxes that you pay if you live in
the district. One can only hope that the resources and inspiration
that people can get from visiting a library do not, like many other
things, become another piece of missed history.
Authors note:
Thanks to extensive research conducted and documented throughout the
decades, much has been recorded on the history of the libraries and
of their communities. However, these materials and fragmented records
are generally not out for circulation, and thus not easily accessible
to the general public. Inaccuracies do arise and can be resolved by
cross-reference with other sources when it's possible. However, in
my efforts to access this information, visiting each branch, speaking
with staff, examining library files, and files in the Historical
Society, my experiences have shown that each of the library staff
members are happily ready and willing to assist in providing for
educational endeavors on an individual, as well as a community level.
I would especially like to thank Leonard Pugh (Wolf Creek Library
Volunteer), Amber Guient (Williams Branch Manager), Roberta Lee
(Illinois Valley Branch Manager), Madeleine Angstadt (Former Grants
Pass Library Volunteer), and the Josephine County Historical Society,
for assisting me in gathering and compiling this information.
From: <
https://www.josephinehistory.org/_files/ugd/
d62109_801887d6176240c182d8e1a2bf9bd69e.pdf>
