An visit to the new Chariton Free Public Library

The Chariton Free Public Library was in its fifth month of operations during March of 1899 when one of the editors of The Chariton Herald (probably Katharine Swett, local news editor at the time) climbed the long exterior stair to the big room at the front of the Gibbon Drug Store building on the northeast corner of the square to assess its operations and prospects.

Twenty-three Chariton social, study and service clubs had formed a federation a year earlier, on March 5, 1898, to organize the library. A leader of the federation, Laura R. Gibbon (1837-1915), offered free use of rooms over the drug store her late husband, Dr. William H. Gibbon, had built during 1879. And the library opened to the pubic on Nov. 1, 1898.

Only one of the 23 founding organizations continues to flourish in Chariton today. See if you can find it (answer at the end) --- Chariton Improvement Association, History Club, Clio Club, Lotus Club, Entre Nois Club, Zetamathean Club, Pandora Club, Clover Club, Noxall Club, Croquet Club, Mandolin Club, Teachers' Club, Excelsior Whist Club, Women's Relief Corps, Choral Society,  Equal Suffrage Association, Daughters of the American Revolution, Floriculture Society, Degree of Honor, Eastern Star, P.E.O., Royal Neighbors and Daughters of Rebecca.

The report then was published as follows in The Herald of March 23, 1899:

THE LIBRARY

One of Our Most Appreciated Institutions

Last Saturday afternoon the ebb and flow of people towards the northeast corner of the square attracted our attention, and upon investigation we discovered the objective point was our public library; so following in the footsteps of two small boys with books under arm, we climbed the stairs and sank into an inviting chair beside the Librarian's desk.

One glance was convincing that the rooms were attractive and the books systematically classified and shelved in accordance with the modern methods of the library science, which in the last few years has done so much to revolutionize the work along that line. The long table covered with the periodicals and magazines of the month seemed to find an interested and appreciative audience, while about the shelves were crowds eagerly searching for the books they desired, men, women and children of all ages, from those wanting "big print" to those demanding "Henty's Stirring Historical Tales," "Stories of the Revolution," and again "Penelope's Progress," "One Summer," and the many interesting and wholesome stories for the girls of today.

Five hundred two library cards have been issued, which represents nearly 450 families who are enjoying the benefits of the library. Miss Alcott seems as popular and dear to the hearts of the rising generation as of yore --- so much so that duplicate copies have been purchased.

The shelves call invitingly for more books and the yawning gaps are a silent appeal more eloquent than words, and when turning to the daily record we see that last week, during all the inclement weather, an average of 63 books were issued per day. No better proof can there be that at least a goodly portion of our people are awake to the fact of the benefits of a library, and their unflagging interest gives evident proof of their appreciation.

Our town is rapidly coming to the front and gaining a well deserved reputation as a progressive wide-awake place, and to establish our library as one of the educational features will not only prove the interest along that line, but be an additional assistance in promoting the growth and welfare of the community.

The declaration of one homeless young boy who didn't know what he should have done without the library --- he wouldn't have had any place to spend his evenings --- gives a hint of the far reaching influence of a library on a community, and we trust that our citizens will feel that it devolves upon each one personally to promote the growth and maintenance of our own.

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Five years later, on April 23, 1904, the city's new Carnegie Library was dedicated at the intersection of Braden Avenue and Eighth Street, a block east, and the big room over the drug store was turned to other uses.

Today, that long stair leads to newly developed apartments.

The library continues to flourish, although the range of media now offered would make its founders dizzy.

But of the organizations that founded it, only P.E.O. remains active in Chariton.