Checking out books for 100 years
by By Bill Miller for the Mail Tribune
Monday, September 30th 2019
The idea began in 1898, when an Ohio resident left money in
his will for a library building. His relatives insisted that the library be
free to all and be open to everyone in the county, with one addition — the
county, they said, should support the library with taxes.
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| The Brumback Library, 1st County Library in the U.S. |
It took an act of their state legislature to allow the
county to accept the offer, but it did. The J.S. Brumback Library, the first
ever county library in the nation, opened its doors in Van Wert City and
County, Ohio, Jan. 1, 1901.
Almost exactly a year later, a bill introduced in the Oregon
House of Representatives gave city governments the right to levy special taxes
to establish public libraries. The following year, the Legislature approved a
law allowing county courts (what we now know as county commissioners), to, “at
their discretion,” levy taxes to provide libraries and books within all county
schools.
In 1903, the Portland city library was the first library
allowed to serve residents of their entire county. But it wasn’t until 1911
that the Legislature amended the state’s library law to allow any Oregon county
to establish a county library system.
In the spring of 1919, the Legislature once again revised
the library law to specify what a library system must be and do if established.
Each system had to have a central library in the county seat or largest town in
the county, and also branch libraries in other towns and communities. Books
would be shared from the central library and a local library committee would
oversee all operations.
In September of that year, the Mail Tribune began promoting
the cause of a Jackson County library system as the right way to meet the
people’s library needs, “supported by a county tax, and pledged under the law
to serve all the people.”
“Many of our people are shut off from books,” said Mail
Tribune Editor Robert Ruhl. “They are the country people who live so far from a
town library they cannot conveniently borrow books from it.”
The Jackson County Court on Dec. 22, 1919, voted for the
county library system and approved a .02-mil tax on each dollar of assessed
valuation to support it. The tax was expected to raise over $4,300.
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| Medford, Oregon's Carnegie Library |
With Medford’s Carnegie Library as the headquarters,
libraries in eight other communities, Jacksonville, Central Point, Rogue River,
Butte Falls, Gold Hill, Eagle Point, Talent and Sams Valley, joined together to
share costs and materials.
Absent from the county library agreement was Ashland and its
Carnegie Library. Its library board voted to claim a tax exemption allowed
under the law for any city not wishing to be included in a county library
system.
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| Medford, Oregon's Public Library, Headquarters of the Jackson County Library Service |
Renamed Jackson County Library Services in 1970, the county
libraries now number 15 branches, including Ashland, which finally joined the
others in 1970.
It’s the 100th anniversary of the Jackson County library
system — a century of meeting the people’s library needs.
“When I am king,” Mark Twain said, “they shall not have
bread and shelter only, but also teachings out of books — for a full belly is
of little worth where the mind is starved.”
Congratulations and thanks my friends at Jackson County
Library Services.
CORRECTION: Eagle-eyed History Snoopers noticed an error in
last week’s story.
The Tualatin Academy eventually became Pacific University,
not Willamette University. Even the Snoop knows better than that.
Writer Bill Miller is the author of “History Snoopin’,” a
collection of his previous history columns and stories. Reach him at
newsmiller@live.com.
