History of Nemaha County, Kansas . ^ town in Xemaha coimty, and one of the fewin Kansas of its size, to have supported a free public library for manyyears. In the early eighties three women members of the literary unionconcluded that knowledge only is power. They were Mrs. A. S. Best,Mrs. F. P. Bowen and Mrs. L. R. Jackson. With the interest of theirfellowmen uppermost in their hearts, they established a free publiclibrary. From their own pockets and by means of literary entertain-ments they gave the necessary wherewithal to buy the first books, sup-plementing the purchase with what books they
History of Nemaha County, Kansas . ^ town in Xemaha coimty, and one of the fewin Kansas of its size, to have supported a free public library for manyyears. In the early eighties three women members of the literary unionconcluded that knowledge only is power. They were Mrs. A. S. Best,Mrs. F. P. Bowen and Mrs. L. R. Jackson. With the interest of theirfellowmen uppermost in their hearts, they established a free publiclibrary. From their own pockets and by means of literary entertain-ments they gave the necessary wherewithal to buy the first books, sup-plementing the purchase with what books they could spare from theirpersonal libraries. Many of their friends assisted in the work, and after aa m H m MOH OZ n H m oo p. HISTORY OF NEMAHA COUNTY 129 vaiious struggles and many discouragements the little library was openedto the book-hungry community. There was no charge for the books andthe cotmtry people were included and given free access to the libraryshelves. The library ladies believed that knowledge, like religion, shouldbe free. The women were young mothers then, but from householdcares and growing families they spared enough time to uplift the com-munity. They gave entertainments from time to time for more booksand magazines. They took afternoons from their own time to taketurns as free librarians. From this little library in 1880 the Literary Uniondeveloped into the Library Association, v/hich was a chartered organi-zation of considerably larger membership. After a number of years thisassociation lost their enthusiasm, and the ladies of the Centralia ReadingCircle and a few remaining members of the old Literary Union openeda free reading room. In May, 1906, by vote of the citizens of Centralia
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