The population is predominantly rural, featuring an industrial base that has had a steady but controlled growth over the past 30 years. Rochester, a fifth-class city, is the county's mercantile center. The city and its immediate area contain half the county's population of 18,694. Also located in the county are the towns of Akron, Kewanna, and Fulton, along with the unincorporated villages of Leiters Ford, Talma, Grass Creek, and Athens. Historical Background A library is a living record of man's progress from the Stone Age to the Space Age.
Libraries are a stepping stone to the future as well as a bridge to the past.
The Library Company of Philadelphia in 1731 established the first public library in the United States. Books were so precious and valuable that they were chained to the tables and could only be used in the library. Our present libraries with free and ease loaning of materials make quite a contrast. When the Indiana Constitution was adopted in 1816, it provided for establishing public libraries in each county of Indiana. In the late 1800s, Andrew Carnegie was the great benefactor of libraries in the United States, having provided the funds for some 2,500 public libraries.