|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mary
Dickerson Memorial Library
The Mary Dickerson Library building was donated to the town by Mrs. Allensworth and named in her mother’s honor. When the Tulare Board of supervisors made the town a school District in 1912. Planning for the Mary Dickerson Memorial Library began a year after the Allensworth Elementary School opened. Colonel allensworth organized the first planning meeting in the Autumn of 11911 at the Allensworth School. The town’s request for a branch library was probably one of the County’s first, following the California Legislature’s passage of the County library Act. This act made it possible for the Tulare Free Library to service the rural areas. The Tulare Free Library instituted two types of rural service, the book station and the reading room. Qualification for a reading room required an area with a table, two chairs and a shelf. Funds for a part-time reading room custodian were provided to communities that established a reading room. Allensworth maintained a book shelf in the school until 1913. On July 4, 1913, a reading room opened in a separate library building which formerly housed the Allensworth Elementary School. The 364 square foot school building was built in 1911 by a resident with donated lumber. The building was moved to a 50x150 ft. town lot made available by Mrs. Josephine Allensworth. Josephine Allensworth spearheaded the movement for the expansion of the town’s library. Renovations to the small one room building were made by Abraham Stockett, a local carpenter. Shelves to hold 1000 books were installed. A small stove provided heat and Elaine oil fueled lamps were used for light. The library’s holdings included a monthly allotment from the county and as Beasley’s Negro Trail Blazers reported there were titles from private collections of persons throughout the State of California. Two hundred books were provided annually by the county annually during the early years of rural service. Fifty books in a prepaid case were shipped from Tulare to Allensworth by rail. Handling charges to the county librarian’s report published in the TULARE WEEKLY REVIEW, for a period following the service’s inception, listed the titles provided several branch libraries. Titles placed on the shelves of Allensworth Memorial Library in June 1914 appeared in the TULARE WEEKLY REVIEW on June 11, 1914. The facility, named for Mrs. Allensworth’s mother, was known in Allensworth as the Mary B. Dickerson Memorial Library, although its official name was Allensworth Branch of the Tulare County Free Library. The first custodian, Mrs. Ethel Hall, served for four years. She was followed by Mrs. Louise L. Dotson (1917-1919) and then Mrs. Birdie Phillips (1919-1924). The monthly salary for the first custodian was set by the Board of Supervisors at $30.00. The Board raised the salary twice within the first decade, once in 1919 to $40.00 and again in 1920 to $50.00. The Mary Dickerson Memorial Library operated continuously at its original site until 1943. It is remembered by many pioneers as a place of solace and a source of useful technical information. BOOKS IN THE MARY DICKERSON
|
