Perry Carnegie Library History
From "The First Generation: A Half Century of Pioneering in Perry, Oklahoma"
The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) Provided Perry with its first library in 1902, a small reading room and rest room on the north side of the
square. The exciting part of Perry’s library history was yet to come.
The WCTU struggled hard not only to provide books and decent literature for children and adults of the community, but also for chairs, tables and other furnishings. Members solicited funds and gifts of books from friends for two years, but by 1904 they were about ready to give up the effort. The reading room had only about 400 books at the time, along with some temperance literature.
Rather than see the project fail, the WCTU turned to the three Ladies Literary Clubs of Perry for help. They received an immediate and positive response. During the month of April, a “mass meeting” was held for women of the community to consider the question of organizing a library. As a result of that, the Perry Library Association was formed.
The Ladies Tuesday Afternoon Club, the Perry Progress Club and the Coterie Club provided support in the form of books, magazines and furnishings. To this day, the Progress Club holds an annual benefit to assist the library with gifts of books and money.
Virtually no public funds were available, but the club women organized themselves to guide the project. They elected a board of nine directors, a set of officers and opened the association’s membership rolls to anyone interested, men included. Mrs. M.A. Lucy, who later served as librarian, was elected president.
At the first meeting, the group decided to rent rooms on the second floor of Judge Hainer’s new building on the northwest corner of the square at a cost of eight dollars per month, including janitor service.
There was no money to hire a librarian, but the women took turns keeping the place open with brief shifts each Wednesday and Saturday. Most books were acquired through donations. Occasional ice cream socials and other benefits also raised funds to add some titles to the shelves.
In September 1904 the board decided longer hours were needed, but this created scheduling problems for the volunteers. They created the position of a salaried person to work for three dollars a week. Hours of operation were from seven until nine-thirty p.m. each Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday evening. Miss Lola Briscoe was appointed librarian in December, and she served for six months.
The association had its eye on a portion of the vacant land in the courthouse park as a building site for a city library, although board members knew that dream was not going to be realized soon. City officials provided the first public funds for library purposes in 1906, a one-mill tax levy over the protests of A.E. Smyser, the mayor of Perry at the time. He felt water lines, sewer extension and fire protection should have priority.
Mrs. H.L. (Lucy) Boyes was appointed in 1908 by the association president, Mrs. B.L. Hainer, to look into the possibility of securing the southwest corner of the square, which was government land, as a library building site. Mrs. Boyes sought the assistance of Congressman Bird S. McGuire, a Perry attorney, in obtaining the land. Within three months, on July 3, 1908, the library board received a patent from the government for the land.
Another major hurdle faced by the women was money for construction. Mrs. Boyes again was the prime mover for this phase. A committee was directed to contact Andrew Carnegie, the Pittsburgh steel magnate and Scottish immigrant who had established a foundation for just such purposes. In 1907 Mr. Carnegie agreed to award the association $10,000. That proved to be the exact amount, to the penny, needed to build the Perry library.
Mr. Carnegie stipulated in his contract with Perry that the building was to be used for no other purpose than a library. He required a resolution by the city council pledging a yearly appropriation of one mill to support the library. The resolution passed unanimously, and Mr. Carnegie promptly placed $10,000 in the Hoboken Trust Co. subject to check of the building committee as the work progressed.
The building committee was headed by Charles Christoph as chairman, plus Mrs. J.H. Bullen, Mrs. H.L. Boyes, Major John Jensen and E.E. Howendobler. A.C. Kreipke of El Reno was the contractor, and architects were Layton, Wemyss, Smith and Hawk of Oklahoma City.
Mr. Carnegie’s conditions led to a surprising but bitter standoff just after the new structure was accepted by the building committee on May 21, 1910. James Lobsitz, who then served as mayor, insisted on making the building a city hall as well as a library, but the Library Association would not agree to that because of the original contract made with the Pennsylvania philanthropist.
In an effort to enforce his view and gain possession, the mayor, who operated a hardware store, changed the lock on the library door. This took place after Mr. Lobsitz, a diminutive but determined man of five feet, four inches, had a confrontation with Charles Christoph, the library board chairman, who towered over the mayor by at least a foot. Each man, convinced that his view was correct, expressed himself forcefully.
Miss Irene McCune (later Mrs. Ralph W. Treeman), the first librarian after the new building was completed, was a young Perry women of eighteen years who had received professional training in California. It was her first job, but she had only a few months to enjoy the new building before the controversy developed and she found herself locked out of the library.
Library board members located a small unlocked window in the furnace room. It was probable used for a coal chute. They asked Miss McCune to slip into the building that way and resume business. Miss McCune was willing, but her father, L.W. McCune, absolutely forbid it. Her salary of fifteen dollars a month was hardly enough to justify that kind of unladylike behavior, he said.
Because of the dispute, a lawsuit was filed in district court. In the meantime library patrons were able to use the new facility only on a limited basis. A library employee was permitted to sit at her desk, showing possession, but, patrons could not enter. Books were passed to them and they were permitted to return books from the outside. The issue eventually was resolved when the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled the mayor was wrong, and the library settled into a more peaceful routine.
No one ever questioned the motives of Mayor Lobsitz. He was a dedicated Perry builder, but his point of view differed from those intent upon carrying out the wished of the philanthropist who made the project possible. Once the court ruling was made, both sides called a truce and got on the work of improving and developing this city.
Irene McCune, meanwhile, had taken a job teaching school in Red Rock. Throughout her long life, in Perry, she maintained an active interest in the Carnegie Library. Likewise, Mr. Lobsitz was supportive of the library after the initial disagreement was cleared up. He had hoped the building could serve several purposes.
Mrs. M. A. Lucy, a library board member, succeeded Miss Cune as librarian in 1911. Mrs. Lucy reported in a 1910 Perry newspaper article that the library had 1,838 volumes, with 200 more soon to be added. The number was to be evenly divided between juvenile and general fiction. Mrs. Lucy added these comments:
"Naming the many improvements to Perry in the last few years, there are none of more importance than the library building. For in this building will be found the boys and girls of this little city reading and selecting books for home reading. Who can tell what the influences and ambitions for the future may be from the cultivation of the reading habit. If we shall make better citizens, no cost is too great. The future welfare of out commonwealth depends upon the fostering of our public schools and library, for both reach the public at large.”
Her remarks are completely relevant to this day as supporters seek to expand and enhance the library.
Mr. Carnegie donated some $40 million for 1,679 libraries in America towns and cities. Oklahoma received nearly $500,000, ranging from $60,000 in Oklahoma City to $6,500 in Ponca City. Many Carnegie libraries have been destroyed and others are no longer in use. El Reno, which received its grant in 1904, and Perry have the oldest libraries still filling that role in Oklahoma.
Rather than attempt to replace its beautiful Carnegie Library with a new building, present-day supporters have chosen to perpetuate and broaden it through the current renovation project. A local anonymous benefactor has agreed to provide a large matching grant with a generosity much like that of the original Carnegie funding.
Mr. Carnegie requested that his libraries be strong and lasting. The one he endowed in Perry has achieved those two goals, and with the forthcoming renovation it will be of even greater value to the community for many years to come.1
1 Beers, Fred, The First Generation: A Half Century of Pioneering in Perry, Oklahoma (Perry, Oklahoma: Charles Machine Works, 1971) 74,75,76,77,78