Perry Carnegie Library History
Excerpted from "Oklahoma Libraries 1900 - 1973: A History and Handbook"
A woman who wouldn't take a dare obtained a Carnegie library for Perry. But the library already had some six years' history behind it, and existed in a small way as a public library for two years before that historic day in 1908 when some one dared Mrs. H. L. Boyes to ask Andrew Carnegie to build Perry a library. She did so, and the result was a gift to the city of $10,000.
The real beginning, though was in the wild and woolly days of 1902, when the Women's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) maintained a small reading and rest room on the north side of the square, with a tiny collection of 150 volumes. For two years, the women served as "Hostesses" a few hours a day, but at last it got too much for them, and they called in the literary clubs, and together they called a mass meeting of women in April, 1904. A library association was formed, to which the clubs chose two delegates each, and the rest of the town elected three. In May, the association opened its library, and announced free service to every one in the county. The 500 volumes then owned by the W.C.T.U. formed the nucleus, to which the association added by painful efforts, which were somewhat eased when the city agreed to give a small tax levy. Not much, perhaps, but it helped to pay the $23 a week salary of the librarian. Librarians before 1916 were, in succession, Mrs. Emma Delashmutt, Miss Lola Briscoe, Miss Irene McCune, and Miss Lulu Wright.
During Miss Briscoe's term of service, the city began also to give a small fund for books and magazines. A library board was appointed, too, with Mrs. H.L. Boyes as treasurer. Mrs. Boyes was commissioned to try to obtain a site for the library in 1907 and was successful within three months in getting the exact corner desired by the board. After this, the historic "dare" was made, and again Mrs. Boyes was successful in obtaining the Carnegie gift, after which she supervised the erection of the building and removal of the books and remained an active member of the board for many years after.
For a while after its removal to the Carnegie building, the library had a hard struggle to survive, and was kept open only two days a week, with the librarian being paid a dollar a day. The club women tried to earn money for books and called for volunteers to serve the school children by keeping the library open daily. On September 23, 1916, Mrs. Emilie LeBus was appointed librarian, and despite the discouragements of the early period, remained for eighteen years.
But, drought, cyclones and tree blight failed to daunt the spirit of the town, and gradually the library began to revive and to be more and more used. This growth was steady, despite excellent libraries built up in Perry for the high schools and Lutheran school, and St. Joseph's Academy. A library in the Blaine Colored School is practically a branch of the Carnegie library.
In the summer of 1934, Mrs. LeBus was succeeded by Mrs. Leta Proctor, whose report of the 1935-36 showed that the total number of borrowers has increased to 1,261, nearly half juvenile. An inventory last year showed 9,830 volumes on the shelves, of which 619 were purchased during the year. Circulation had greatly increased, being 21,711 volumes lent for home reading, while attendance in the reading room was 13,304 persons. Mrs. Proctor resigned after two years, and Mr. Dwight Ward Shelby, a graduate to the Peabody Institute Library School, was appointed to the position.1
1Oklahoma Library Commission, Oklahoma Libraries 1900 - 1973: a history and handbook (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: Oklahoma Library Association, 1937) 79,80,81