Radio Script #1325

Little Talks on Common Things
October 31, 1982

A very significant and useful institution is the Waterville Public Library. Although in its building, its contents and its operations, the present library is quite different from its beginning, it is nevertheless true that Waterville first had a library in the very year that it was made a separate town from Winslow in 1802. That was 180 years ago.

Four men, all residents of Ticonic Village decided in 1802 to form a Library Association. Of course it was not a free library; at that time there was no such institution anywhere in the country, not even in Philadelphia, where in 1756 Benjamin Franklin had started the first municipal library. But those four Waterville men felt the need of access to books without each individual having to purchase his own or borrow from a neighbor. The four men were Ahijah Smith, the first town clerk; Elnathan Sherwin first chairman of the selectmen; and two merchants, William Phillips and James McKeen. They welcomed into the association anyone willing to pay. dues of one dollar a year, in return for which he could take books from the library, which was set up in the office of Reuben Kidder, the town’s first lawyer.

The association was at first not interested in new publications. Its initial task was to put on its shelves standard volumes of the times. Those included writings by Shakespeare. Milton, Samuel Johnson, Pope. Addison and Defoe, not a single American among them. How long that first library lasted is not known, but it had disbanded before Abijah Smith died in 1841 because the Association had given to Smith all its books. in gratitude for the money he had expended on purchases far beyond his annual dues of one dollar.

Interest in a circulating library then lay dormant until 1871 when the Waterville Book Club was formed. promoted by Henry Burrage, pastor of the Baptist Church, the man who would later become the State Historian.

Although at first having only a few members, from the beginning Burrage had intended that the club should serve a wider public and in 1873 it became the Waterville Library Association and soon included almost all of the town.’s leading citizens. Among them were Aaron Plaisted, Francis Heath. Perham Heald, Charles Redington, General Isaac Bangs, Dr. Nathaniel Boutelle, Dr. Frederick Thayer. Nathaniel Meader, Reuben Foster. and Everett Drummond.

As late as 1873 women were seldom included in any organizations except those exclusively for the female sex. However, several were active in that library, among them the Plaisted girls, Helen and Emily, May Elder and Helen Meader. The library was housed in the Ticonic Bank and its librarian was Aaron Plaisted. Like its predecessor in 1802, it was not a free library, and its books could be borrowed only by paying members.

The time had not yet come for a library open to all, and supported by public taxation. In fact, in 1870 public education paid for by taxes, was severely limited. Although what were then called the common schools, comprising what are now the grades one through eight, were tax-supported schools. Maine communities were just beginning to have public high schools.

After finishing the common school. the few boys and girls who wanted further education attended a private academy of which at the time Maine had more than fifty. Indeed Waterville then had two such academies, the old Waterville Academy, which would soon become Coburn; and the newer Waterville Liberal Institute, operated by the Universalists. A century ago the idea of paying taxes so that citizens could have free access to books for either information or pleasure, was unthinkable to Waterville people.

Waterville owed its free public library not to men, who controlled most enterprises, but to women. By 1890 the Waterville Women’s Association had become so influential that the Library Association entrusted to them its collection of 1500 volumes, and it was that group of women who proceeded to operate the library.

Finally in 1896, the idea of a free library took hold. Its most active promoter was a lady almost completely forgotten today, Mrs. Lillian Hallock Campbell, who by diligent persistence gathered 50 women to a meeting to form a free public library. Active in the project and better remembered than Mrs. Campbell, were Annie Pepper, wife of the illustrious Dr. George Dana Boardman Pepper; the local poet Martha Baker Dunn, whose
verses were highly praised by Theodore Roosevelt; Mrs. W. B. Arnold, and Mrs. Frederick Thayer. On February 13, 1896 those women formed the Waterville Public Library and duly incorporated it as a non-profit institution, so that it could legally hold and receive bequests. Mrs. Arnold was the first president. Other officers and committee chairmen were Mrs. Thayer, Mrs. N. G. Pulsifer, Mrs. J. F. Plaisted, Mrs. Edward Ware, and Miss Mary Abbott.

The association had thus become a legal corporation, and at that time it was not common to have women as corporate officers. So, when the first officers of the library corporation were elected they were all men: Mayor E. F. Webb, Charles F. Johnson, Frank Hubbard and Horatio Bates. The charter provided for twelve trustees, eight to be elected by the association, three by the City, and one by the Board of Trade. On that first board were three women: Mrs. Pepper, Mrs. Arnold and Mrs. Campbell.

That free public Library was first placed in the law office of Harvey Eaton, but it soon found more space in the Plaisted Block. In 1898 it moved to the Haines Block where it remained until its present building was erected in 1904. During its first eight years that public library had a precarious existence. The city provided very little financial support, and had it not been for private contributions it would have had to close. In 1900 the steel manufacturer and multi-millionaire, Andrew Carnegie, began giving public libraries to a number of American communities. It was Mrs. Annie Pepper who first approached Mr. Carnegie in behalf of Waterville. She was ably assisted by the local Superintendent of Schools. Elwood Wyman, who had a personal acquaintance with Mr. Carnegie’s representative. In 1902 Mayor Martin Blaisdell received a letter from that representative saying that Mr. Carnegie would furnish $20,000 to erect a library building in Waterville provided the city would provide a suitable site and annually appropriate $2,000 for upkeep. In accepting the gift, the City became legal owner of the building and responsible for its maintenance, but the operation and management was left to the already existing corporation. The deed of gift provided, however, that all the trustees should thereafter be elected by the mayor and aldermen. That provision proved wise, for it assured increasing appropriations from the city budget.

There had been a movement to place the building in Monument Park, but opposing citizens obtained a legal injunction, insisting that when the old cemetery was turned into a park, it had been definitely decided that no structure except a band stand should ever be built on it. So the city secured title to a lot on the east side of Elm Street, opposite the Baptist Church. Historically that choice was appropriate, because it was part of the land originally owned by the town’s wealthy philanthropist Timothy Boutelle, who had already given other parts of the original big McKechnie surveyed lot to public enterprises such as the Baptist Church.

The building was dedicated and opened to the public on May 13, 1905. Elwood Wyman, Superintendent of Schools, gave the principal address. The noted composer, R. B. Hall, conducted his band at the ceremonies. When the new building was opened, the Library had 3,500 books and subscribed to 20 periodicals. From the start it had a trained librarian, Miss Florence Dunn, who introduced the Dewey system of cataloging. Her successor was Miss Jennie Smith.

My first active association with the Library began in 1933s when Miss Mary Tobey had already suceeded Miss Smith as librarian, and A. F. Drummond was President of the Trustees. Four years later Attorney Carroll Perkins became President and George Hegarty, treasurer. Those two men saw to it that good appropriations came regularly from the city. I had the honor of following Mr. Perkins as President in 1952. Twenty-five years later I was succeeded by John L. Thomas, Jr., after whose untimely death the trustees elected the present head of the board, Attorney Albert Bernier. The present very able and diligent treasurer in Francis Bartlett Jr. From a budget of less than $12,000 in 1906, by 1981 the Public Library had expanded to annual expenses totaling more than $160,000.

In addition to an appropriation of $115,000 from the city, the Library Corporation has invested funds yielding substantial interest and dividends. Those funds have been accumulated over the years from donations and bequests made to create a permanent endowment. The Waterville Public Library today has adult, young people’s and children’s sections. It is operated by a trained and competent staff, under the leadership of Librarian Richard Sibley, and enjoys splendid support by the city government. Among notable added services in recent years are its large collection of phonograph and stereo records, its Talking Books for the blind, and its file of local historical records started by Miss Sarah Lang.

Year:1982