EFFINGHAM PUBLIC LIBRARY
Effingham Public Library
After schools and churches were established, the yen for learning took a new track. Though farming demanded long hours and woman’s work was never done, folks liked to read…. Newspapers were sought and passed around. In the early 1800s, inhabitants of Effingham on Lord’s Hill pooled their resources and started a library. Books could be borrowed and were to be returned the first Monday in September, December, March, and June. In the 1860s a library was kept in the home of Josiah Dearborn.
Books in these libraries were primarily non-fiction, serious books, which were popular in those years, such as history, essays, commentaries, and the like.
In the town meeting of March 1893, it was voted to have a town library and $30.00 was raised to start it. The state library had offered to help if some conditions were met and this offer was accepted…. A board of trustees was set up, consisting of twelve members; John L. Demeritt, R.M. Fulton, John M. Drake, James M. Leavitt, John P. Glidden, James M. Champion, J.N. Marston, O.J. Avery, Josephus L. Drake, Cyrus P.Keay, Charles L. Miles, and Francisco Barker…. What was … the recitation room of the Charitable Masonic Institute was papered and painted, fitted with shelves, and adapted for the library.