Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1913-12-19

presto! tnere appears IN Ceua
City a ten-thousand dolla
library building to grace it
highway. attest its civilization
and offer to youth and old ag
alike a treasure house from
which they may draw JOY an,
profit for generations to come
The magician is Andrew earn
egie, who has bestowed this gif
upon community he never heart
of in fulfillment of a VOW mad,
years ago, when, a poor friend
less boy in a great American
city. his eager mind craving the
books he could not buy. he sale
to himself. "If | ever get rich
I'll build free Libraries for boys
and girls who haven't money to
get books of their own."
The story of the procuring of
the magicians's favor and the
erection afterwards of the build
ing is a chapter in our city's his
tory of which we may we'll be
proud and the main facts con-
nected with it should be famil-
lar to every man, woman and
child in the community. In case
some of our readers may not
know them, we give a brief sum-
mary compiled from the records
of the city and the Library
Board.
The free public library and
gymnasium of Cedar City had
their birth in 1909. following a
vote of the people authorizing
their creation and the levying of
q three-mill tax to be used as a
maintenance fund. What a
spirit of progress is recorded in
the fact that our little town, ly-
ing thirty-five miles from a rail-
road and hundreds Of miles from
the larger centers of .civiliza-
tion. should be the first in the
state of Utah to establish a free
public gymnasium and the sixth
to establish a free public library.
This was at the beginning of
1909. but before either the
library or the gymnasium could
open its doors a great deal of
work was necessary to draw up
regulations. find suitable quart
ers and suitable persons to take
charge select and purchase
books. furniture and apparatus,
etc. After months of ceasless
labor on the part of Mayor
Woodbury. and the library board,
the library was housed and
opened in a room in the Mercan-
tile building (which quarters it
has occupied ever since). with
Mrs. Barbara Tweedie as librar-
ian. An arrangement was made
to- have the gymnasium work
given in the Normal gymnasium
under the direction of the Nor
NAL coach; this proved unsatis-
factory. however. and during
the winter the gymnasium was
moved to the Ward Hall.
From the very first it was APP
parent that the library was sat-
isfying a longfelt want in the
community and had come to
stay. Young and old sought its
shelves eagerly for reading mat
ter, and as the patronage in,
creased, it became more and
more evident that more commod-
uous quarters must be found. The
city officials made a thorough
study of the question and decided
that the only satisfactory solu-
tion of it would be the erection
of a library bailding; and as a
first step toward this end, set
about to find and purchase a
suitable building site. They
finally decided upon the ground
north of the tabernacle as being
the most desirable, and began
negotiations with the church
authorities for its purchase. In
the mean time, hardly daring to
hope that anything would come
Of it. they got in touch with the
Corporation of New
York TO see il the Carnegie
funds were available for a IL