| Cecil County Libraries: |
| Guardians of Minds and Morals |
| By Ruth Ann Johnson |
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| Improving minds and morals seems to have been the goal of Cecil County Library advocates in the nineteenth century. The Cecil Whig of November 2, 1872, called the formation of a Literary Society a "laudable enterprise," announcing that "these men have organized this reading group for their mutual and moral improvement. |
| Meeting in the room used by the Young Men's Christian Association in the Odd Fellows Hall and Opera House on North Street (between the Town Hall and Peoples Bank), some of the young men of Elkton were, according to the Cecil Whig of December 19, 1874, greatly benefiting from the establishment of the Reading Room. |
| The two-fold object of this enterprise is to furnish a place of resort for young men . . . and draw them away the saloons and bar rooms where dangerous excitement and evil company are met. |
| The Cecil Whig |
| In addition to the Reading Room, another room in the rear of the building was furnished for leisure activities of Elkton's young men. This room could accommodate those who wanted to amuse themselves in conversation, smoking or a game of backgammon or chess. The Cecil Whig reported that "the two-fold object of this enterprise is to furnish a place of resort for young men, where they find genteel company and intellectual amusement, and draw them away the saloons and bar-rooms where dangerous excitement and evil company are met". |
| The establishment of reading rooms, libraries and lyceums was on the minds of many long before the 1870's. The real beginnings stemmed from an act to incorporate the Elkton Library Company passed by the Maryland General Assembly in February of 1835. |
| An act to incorporate an Elkton Lyceum was passed in 1839. This institution was to promote interest in literature, science, the arts and a library. In 1851, an obituary for the Elkton Lyceum was published in the Whig saying, "Good-by, good riddance and nobody wanted it in the first place". The demise of the Elkton Lyceum didn't happen immediately, as programs were still being mentioned in 1859. |
| In 1868 a Dr. Register of Elkton contracted with a Philadelphia bookseller, William Brotherhead, to open a circulating library in Elkton. It was to be a branch of Brotherhead Circulating Library in Philadelphia. Both the Cecil Whig and the Cecil Democrat announced the arrival of this first-rate circulating collection of books and magazines. The contract was for two years and could be renewed. Other libraries in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Washington, D. C., subscribed to Mr. Brotherhead's lending system. |
| Rumblings about the formation of library associations or societies were being heard around the county by the 1850s. In 1859, the Port Deposit Society had 370 volumes and seventy-five members. Rising Sun reading room organizers of the 1880s were assuring the community that "pernicious trash" (fiction) would be excluded from the collection. Toward the end of the nineteenth century concerned citizens of Chesapeake City, and Perryville were agitating for circulating libraries or reading societies to provide culture for their communities. |
| Library activities blossomed during the 1890s. Attention was paid to Elkton's campaign for library service in the Baltimore Sunday Herald where it suggested "such an institution would serve as means to keep young people from evil associations and contribute to the nurturing of well-rounded men of affairs". |
| Some of the local citizenry vocalized disapproval of the library mission. A Cecil Whig writer, in the March 4, 1893, issue, replied, "There are people in the town who shrug their shoulders and say, 'It won't amount to anything. It has been tried before. To these people we would say that this movement is a part of a new Elkton.... The croakers may as well stand aside or join in the procession, for the march of progression will be continued whether they fall in or fall under." The croakers didn't win, and the march of progression continued into the 20th century with library associations and reading rooms functioning periodically. |
| Under the leadership of the Women's Club of Elkton, a subscription library, to be called the Elkton Public Library Association, was organized in 1924. This library operated out of a front room in a building which stood where the east wing of the Court House now stands. It was locally called the "Church House" because it was owned by the Methodist Church. |
| "Wake Up and Read. Cecil County Library Opens" was the caption in the Cecil Whig of December 24, 1937, announcing the formation of what was to be called the Cecil County Public Library. A room in the Progressive Club of Elkton (building was located on site of the present Post Office) housed the library. Research suggests that the name "Progressive Club" was a euphemism for the KKK which had its headquarters there. Libraries and the KKK--an intriguing combination. |
| Those instrumental in directing the library's future wanted its service to extend countywide. Mac's Laundry of Elkton, in affiliation with the library, initiated the first home delivery service, and became the real fore runner of the bookmobile. Mac's laundry truck delivered and collected books, free of cost, to the home of any person in the county, provided the home was located on the laundry route. The library moved again in the early 1940s--this time to the Register of Wills room in the new Town Council Hall built on the site of the old courthouse. |
| With the end of the war and the enactment of the Public Library Law of 1945, the age of modern public libraries emerged, and in 1947 the newly formed Cecil County Library Board of Trustees hired its first professional librarian, Miss Ruth Miller. At this time the library operated out of two locations, the room on North Street and in a converted munitions factory on Blue Ball Road. |
| Three bookmobile's have traversed the roads of Cecil County. The first, beginning its journeys in 1947, had no heater, and Miss Miller instructed her bookmobile drivers and assistants to wear their "snuggies." "Big Bertha" arrived in 1952 and "Gulliver" began its travels in 1974. |
| After a successful fund-raising campaign by the Friends of the Library, the building at 135 E. Main Street was bought in 1955 from the family of Henry H. Mitchell. The branches each have their own stories to tell, but these will have to wait for another time. The winning combination of our modern facility and the expansion of the branches has allowed for the evolution of our county libraries from small community reading rooms to a county-wide institution of multifarious dimensions, providing Cecil County's citizens with books, programs and new age technology. |
| Only in the minds of some was it the library's mission to guard the minds and morals of our community. Today's library advocates could more suitably say "Better libraries make better communities." Whatever the philosophy, we owe much to those nineteenth century activists who, with their vision and tenacity, started it all. |
