Mary Gaither, ‘mother’ of Pekin’s Carnegie library

By Jared Olar

Library Assistant

Last week in our series on the history of the Pekin Public Library, we recalled how Pekin library board member Mary E. Gaither took the initiative to write to philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) and ask for his help to build a library for Pekin.

In our previous installment, we learned of Carnegie’s program that enabled communities across the country and even internationally to build beautiful libraries. This week we will shine a spotlight on the remarkable Mary Gaither, who is justly remembered as the mother of Pekin’s Carnegie library.

The Gaither surname occupies a special place in the history of Pekin and Tazewell County, chiefly due to the central role played by Miss Gaither, whose name in full was Mary Elizabeth Gaither (1852-1945), in the planning and construction of the Pekin Carnegie Library in 1902. She also compiled and wrote the early history of the library up to 1902.

This portrait of Miss Mary Elizabeth Gaither was included in the 1902 library cornerstone time capsule. Because it was her idea to write to Andrew Carnegie requesting his help in building a library for Pekin, and for her leading role in the Carnegie library’s planning and construction, Miss Gaither is remembered as the mother of the Pekin Carnegie library.

Miss Gaither was one of seven children of William Gaither, Esq. (1813-1892) and Ann Eliza Coleman Garrett. William held a number of public offices in Tazewell County, including that of county treasurer. His social prominence and political activities earned him a place in the 1873 Atlas Map of Tazewell County, which also includes numerous biographies of the “Old Settlers of Tazewell County.” Gaither’s biography is on page 42 of the atlas, and an engraving of his residence on Buena Vista Street is found on page 124.

William Gaither was born April 8, 1813, in Hagerstown, Maryland, the son of Zachariah Gaither (1782-1834) and Elizabeth Garver (1786-1827). In 1844, he and Ann Eliza married, and together they had seven children, three of whom died in childhood – William, Otho, Martha, Mary, Charles, Samuel and Lincoln. William had first come to Pekin in Oct. 1836, but only lived here a short time before moving to Tremont. He and his family moved back to Pekin in 1863.

In the fall of 1850, William was elected Tazewell County Sheriff, serving a single term. Later he was appointed by President Lincoln a federal inspector of revenue for the Eighth District (encompassing Tazewell County), then removed from that office by President Johnson over policy differences, was appointed assistant county treasurer and collector in the fall of 1867, appointed county treasurer in September 1869 to fill the vacancy created by the death of County Treasurer Barber, then elected county treasurer in November 1869. At the time of the publication of the 1873 Atlas Map, Gaither was serving a second elected term as treasurer.

We have previously noted that Miss Gaither had joined the Ladies Library Association of Pekin by 1875, in which year she was appointed one of the association’s five officers. She was then about 23 years old. She made a living as a music teacher, and she never married (and so was usually known in the community as “Miss Gaither”).

Important insight into her personality and character may be discerned simply from her decision to write to Carnegie: civic-minded, aware of the library’s needs and constraints, and ready and willing to take the initiative and act when made aware of a means to improve the library and the community it served. As we noted last time, Miss Gaither later reported her activities to the library board in Nov. 1900: “The opportunity being presented, I have acted upon it” – not waiting for the majority of her fellow board members to warm to the idea first. She acted because, she told the board, she saw that “Our city has for years needed a library building, such as is maintained in other cities of like size.“

Having gotten the ball rolling on the construction of a Carnegie library for Pekin, Miss Gaither continued to play a leading role in the planning and building of Pekin’s new library. Upon receipt of the favorable reply from Andrew Carnegie’s personal secretary James Bertram’s letter informing her of Carnegie’s offer to commit $10,000 toward the construction of a library, she immediately moved on to the next phase of her campaign to get Pekin’s library a new building: finding a landowner willing to donate a building site.

For that, Miss Gaither penned a letter to prominent Pekin businessman George Herget (1833-1914), and on Nov. 8, 1900, Herget wrote back to her saying he would be happy to donate land to the city for the library site. That same day, Gaither brought Bertram’s and Herget’s letters to the library board meeting of Nov. 8, 1900, where board president Franklin L. Velde read them into the record and the board voted its approval and thanks. The board and the city then went to work on plans for the Carnegie library. We will continue the story of the planning and building of Pekin’s Carnegie library next week.

Shown here is a photocopy o the original letter that George Herget wrote in reply to Miss Mary Gaither on Nov. 8, 1900, informing her that he would be happy to donate land in Pekin to be the site of a Carnegie library.

Included in the 1902 library cornerstone time capsule was this copy of George Herget’s letter to library board member Miss Mary Gaither, informing her that he would be happy to donate land in Pekin to be the site of a Carnegie library.

As for Miss Gaither, having devoted much of her years to the public library, she stepped down from the library board in 1923 (her letter of resignation from the board was accepted at the Oct. 11, 1923 meeting). She later moved to California, where she lived her remaining years in the home of her older brother Otho, outliving him by a few months and dying in Lindsay, Calif., on Jan. 11, 1945. Coincidentally that was the same day and month that her father William had died in 1892; her mother Ann Eliza had died in 1912. According to her death certificate, Miss Gaither’s remains were cremated at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles, but the certificate does not specify whether her ashes were interred there or scattered somewhere.

Miss Gaither’s obituary, published on the front page of the Jan. 13, 1945 Pekin Daily Times, surprisingly is silent about her involvement in the library, but offers these remarks on the decades-old ties of Miss Gaither and her family to Pekin:

“The news carries oldtimers down a long memory lane to Civil War days in Pekin. At the turn of the year, word came of the death of Mrs. Margaretha Neef, whose memory also included Civil War and Abraham Lincoln days in Pekin. Still living of that day and almost the same age is Mrs. Anna Schipper, now in Florida for the winter.

“The old Gaither home in Pekin was the house that now is the Congressman Dirksen home. Many remember old Mr. Gaither because of the shawl he wore. Miss Gaither is best remembered here as a music teacher – but that was long, long ago.”

Among the records and mementos preserved in the Pekin Public Library’s Local History Room archives is a collection of papers and letters of Miss Gaither’s father William, many of them associated with his activities as treasurer and collector for the county. The collection, formerly in the possession of Miss Gaither, was donated to the library in 1970 by Miss Gaither’s niece (Otho’s daughter), Nellie Gaither Urling-Smith.

Shown is a drawing of William Gaither’s home on Buena Vista Avenue in Pekin that was published in the 1873 “Atlas Map of Tazewell County.” The house is more usually remembered today as the home of U.S. Senator Everett M. Dirksen and his wife Louella, but formerly was the residence of Mary E. Gaither who played a chief role in the plans to build the 1902 Pekin Carnegie Library. The house still stands today and is located at 335 Buena Vista Ave.

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How Pekin got a library

By Jared Olar
Library Assistant

Last week we recalled how the Pekin Public Library became a department of Pekin’s city government 125 years ago. That was not when the library came into existence, however, for by that time the library had been operated for nearly 30 years.

The real birthday of the library was Nov. 24, 1866, the date of the organization of the Ladies’ Library Association of Pekin. The reason for its name isn’t that the library was an exclusive women’s club, but that the association was the brainchild of the leading women of Pekin society, who took charge of the project and ran Pekin’s library as a private service club for the benefit of the community.

Most of what we know of the early history of Pekin’s library is what was compiled and recorded by Miss Mary Elizabeth Gaither, who presented a report on the history of the library to the Librarian of Congress in November 1903. Gaither’s history was included in Ben C. Allensworth’s 1905 “History of Tazewell County,” and copies of her history are preserved in the library’s historical archives. Gaither’s historical account had previously been included in the 1902 library cornerstone time capsule.

This handwritten invitation to the Nov. 24, 1866 organizational meeting of the Pekin Library Association (originally known as the Ladies’ Library Association) was preserved in the 1902 cornerstone time capsule of Pekin’s former Carnegie library. The invitation says the meeting took place at the home of Mrs. T. N. Gill, that is, Mrs. Thomas N. Gill or Mrs. Theresa Gill, who then lived in a house on Washington Street at the southern end of Buena Vista — that is currently the location of the later Carl Herget Mansion.

Here is Gaither’s story of the founding and earliest days of the Ladies’ Library Association, from pages 939-940 of Allensworth’s volume:

“Some reference to the material and social aspects of Pekin in 1866, will enable us the more clearly to judge of the surroundings and circumstances under which the Ladies’ Library Association was organized.

“Pekin, in 1848, was made the county-seat of Tazewell County, and, with a population of 1,500, was granted a city charter in 1849. In 1866 the streets were first lighted with gas, the first National Bank was organized, and stock was subscribed for the Danville, Pekin & Bloomington Railroad, the first railroad (to Jacksonville) having been in operation about six years. The population was between four and five thousand, and plans were made for a High School building which was finished in 1868, and the better grading, under the new school charter, of the public schools at that time was the foundation of the efficient work which has been accomplished in later years. A flourishing choral society, concerts and lectures by eminent talent gave evidence of intellectual advancement, while the building of pretty homes, the greater attention to improvement in churches and public buildings, showed material prosperity.

“On November 24, 1866, a large number of the ladies of Pekin met to organize what was, for many years, known as the ‘Ladies’ Library Association.’ Much enthusiasm was shown in discussion, and much wisdom, also, in plans for its maintenance and management. As evidence of the good and worthy reasons for such an organization, we copy the preamble of the Constitution, which reads as follows:

“’Whereas, Societies for mutual improvement recommend themselves to our unqualified approbation; and

“’Whereas, In the ample provision made for our entertainment and amusement, we too often neglect our moral and intellectual advancement, which involves the highest interests of the community; and,

“’Whereas, We, the ladies of Pekin, being impressed with these views, and desirous of contributing our influence to the moral elevation of the community in which we live, do hereby establish a Library organization and do adopt the following Constitution:’

“Quoting again from Article 6, we read:

“’The object of the Association is, not only to collect and establish a Library of select and useful works, but also to promote a literary taste by encouraging lectures, holding discussions, etc.’

“It is well to recall to memory the original signers of the Constitution, for to them we owe gratitude beyond measure. Their untiring labor in earlier years kept money in the treasury of the Association and books on the shelves, when many social enterprises failed for lack of support. Through the inevitable changes of later years, difficulties arose to be faced, new names appear, and fresh efforts by younger workers bring order again. We honor and thank all, but not least those who first organized the Pekin Library. Herewith is the list of the names: Mrs. John B. Cohrs. Mrs. C. C. Cummings. Mrs. C. R. Cummings. Mrs. W. M. Tinney, Mrs. John W. Casey, Mrs. S. A. Trowbridge, Mrs. S. E. Barber, Mrs. Richard Tinney, Mrs. Erastus Rhoades, Mrs. W. W. Clemens, Mrs. Robert Briggs, Mrs. George Smith, Mrs. John Aydelott, Mrs. H. I. Robinson, Mrs. Charlotte Donigan, Mrs. H. P. Westerman, Mrs. T. D. Vincent, Mrs. Fisk, Mrs. I. E. Leonard, Miss Cora Cummings, Mrs. James Milner, Mrs. T. N. Gill, Miss Mary Reeves.

“The first President elected was Mrs. Charlotte Donigan. In January, 1867, a more permanent organization resulted in the election of Mrs. C. R. Cummings, President; Miss Cora Cummings, Secretary; Mrs. S. E. Barber, Treasurer; with William S. Prince as librarian. Two ladies were appointed to wait upon the City Council and solicit aid, and $100 was granted them. Mr. J. B. Clark donated $50, a generous gift for those days. Membership tickets were printed and sold for $2.00 to ladies, and $5.00 to gentlemen. A special program was arranged for the opening of the room to the public. Mr. B. S. Prettyman made an address, some excellent singers contributed vocal music, and the Constitution and by-laws were read by Mrs. H. P. Westerman.

“During the winter season following, many social parties, dramatic performances and other entertainments by home talent gave financial aid to the Library, and in this way several hundred dollars were added to the treasury.”

Next week, we’ll take a closer look at the Library Association’s first interim president, Charlotte “Lottie” (Haines) Dunnigan, and first librarian, William S. Prince.

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Looking back over 155 years of Pekin library history

By Jared Olar
Library Assistant

This month the Pekin Public Library marks an important anniversary in its history: it has been 125 years since the library became a branch of Pekin’s city government. It was in Feb. 1896 that the city of Pekin formally assumed the ownership and management of the old Pekin Library Association, a private corporation that was first organized in Nov. 1866.

So, while the library itself will turn 155 this November, the institution known as “Pekin Public Library” is now 125 years old. This anniversary provides a good occasion to take a look back over the library’s history. In today’s column, we’ll run through a general overview of the history of the library and the library building. In columns over the next few weeks and months, we’ll take close looks at specific aspects and episodes of the library’s history.

As both longtime residents of Pekin and attentive visitors to the library know, the current Pekin Public Library building is not the first one to be erected on its site. Prior to the construction of the current library in 1972, Pekin’s readers were served by a smaller structure that stood at the corner of Fourth Street and Broadway. When the old library was demolished, its former site became a sunken plaza, but since the 2015 remodel and expansion of the library, the old sunken plaza is no more, replaced by a quiet reading room and a grove of trees with water drainage.

That earlier library structure – one of the nation’s many Carnegie libraries, built in 1902 under the patronage of famous American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie – was the first building constructed in Pekin to serve specifically as a public library. In 1900, Miss Mary Elizabeth Gaither (1852-1945) had written to both Carnegie and to Pekin banker George Herget, seeking their support for the construction of a library building. Carnegie agreed to provide funds, and Herget donated land to the city to provide a site for the new library, and Bloomington architect Paul O. Moratz was hired to design it.

Shown in this clipping from a 1901 edition of the Pekin Daily Times is Bloomington architect Paul O. Moratz’s sketch of his proposed design for the 1902 Pekin Carnegie Library. It has been 125 years since the city of Pekin assumed ownership of the Pekin Public Library.

To celebrate this milestone in Pekin’s history, a formal dedication ceremony took place on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 1902. On that occasion, the library’s cornerstone was laid – and within the cornerstone was placed a time capsule containing an assortment of documents and relics pertaining chiefly to the history of the plans and preparations leading up to the construction of Pekin’s Carnegie library.

The time capsule remained sealed for 70 years. When the old library was replaced with a new, expanded facility in 1972, the cornerstone was opened and the contents of the time capsule were found to be in a very good state of preservation. For many years after that, the cornerstone materials were stored at Herget Bank, later being transferred to the Pekin Public Library’s own historical archives, where they are stored and preserved today.

Among the items that had been placed in the 1902 time capsule were two local newspapers from February 1896 – a copy of the Pekin Daily Tribune and a copy of the Pekin Daily Evening Post, both of 13 Feb. 1896. They were selected for the time capsule because that date was close to the day that the library became a municipal body of Pekin’s city government.

Shown here is part of the front page of the Feb. 13, 1896, Pekin Daily Tribune, one of the newspapers that was preserved in the 1902 Pekin Public Library cornerstone time capsule.

Miss Gaither, whose actions and advocacy were responsible for the construction of our Carnegie library, prepared a historical report for the Library of Congress in 1903, in which she related the story of the library from 1866 to 1903. (Her historical account had previously been included in the 1902 time capsule.) Her “History of the Pekin Public Library” says:

“On November 24th, 1866, a large number of the ladies of Pekin met to organize what was for many years known as the ‘Ladies Library Association.’” Also included in the cornerstone time capsule was one of the handwritten invitations to that meeting.

On March 5, 1883, the Pekin Library Association formally incorporated under the laws of the State of Illinois – the original, sealed articles of incorporation from 1883 also were included in the cornerstone time capsule.

Ten years later, on Feb. 6, 1893, the Library Association petitioned the city to have the library and its collection handed over to the city’s ownership. The process of transferring the library from private to public control was completed three years later.

Pekin’s Carnegie Library served the community for seven decades, after which construction began on an entirely new library in 1972 – the one still in use today. The new facility was also the home of the Dirksen Congressional Center for 28 years, and in June 1973, President Richard Nixon came to Pekin to dedicate the Dirksen Center. Two years later, in August 1975, President Gerald Ford returned to dedicate the new library building.

Since then, the Pekin Public Library has benefited from advances in technology and some remodeling. The most significant changes came in 2014 and 2015 thanks to a $6 million remodel and expansion that included a new entrance, community and conference rooms, study rooms and a quiet reading room, and a fresher, brighter, and lighter look within and without.

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William Gaither, Tazewell County treasurer

This is a reprint of a “From the Local History Room” column that first appeared in August 2014 before the launch of this weblog.

William Gaither, Tazewell County treasurer

By Jared Olar
Library assistant

The Gaither surname occupies a special place in the history of Pekin and Tazewell County, chiefly due to the central role played by Mary Elizabeth Gaither (1852-1945) in the planning and construction of the Pekin Carnegie Library in 1902. She also compiled and wrote the early history of the library up to 1902.

Having devoted much of her years to the public library, Miss Gaither, as she was usually known (never having married), later moved to California, where she lived her remaining years in the home of her older brother Otho, outliving him by a few months and dying in Lindsay, Calif., on Jan. 11, 1945. Her obituary, published on the front page of the Jan. 13, 1945 Pekin Daily Times, surprisingly is silent about her involvement in the library, but offers these remarks on the decades-old ties of Miss Gaither and her family to Pekin:

“The news carries oldtimers down a long memory lane to Civil War days in Pekin. At the turn of the year, word came of the death of Mrs. Margaretha Neef, whose memory also included Civil War and Abraham Lincoln days in Pekin. Still living of that day and almost the same age is Mrs. Anna Schipper, now in Florida for the winter.

“The old Gaither home in Pekin was the house that now is the Congressman Dirksen home. Many remember old Mr. Gaither because of the shawl he wore. Miss Gaither is best remembered here as a music teacher – but that was long, long ago.”

Shown is a drawing of William Gaither’s home on Buena Vista Avenue in Pekin that was published in the 1873 “Atlas Map of Tazewell County.” The house is more usually remembered today as the home of U.S. Senator Everett M. Dirksen and his wife Louella, but formerly was the residence of Mary E. Gaither who played a chief role in the plans to build the 1902 Pekin Carnegie Library. The house still stands today and is located at 335 Buena Vista Ave.

“Mr. Gaither” was William Gaither, Esq., who held a number of public offices in Tazewell County, including that of county treasurer. His social prominence and political activities earned him a place in the 1873 Atlas Map of Tazewell County, which also includes numerous biographies of the “Old Settlers of Tazewell County.” Gaither’s biography is on page 42 of the atlas, and an engraving of his residence on Buena Vista Street is found on page 124.

William Gaither was born April 8, 1813, in Hagerstown, Maryland, the son of Zachariah Gaither (1782-1834) and Elizabeth Garver (1786-1827). The biography says William became a cabinet-maker’s apprentice at the age of 17. “After completing his apprenticeship, and business not being very brisk in his native state, he was desirous of trying his fortunes in a new country, and with that intention he started westward, and traveled overland to the Ohio river, then by steamer, landing in Pekin, Illinois, in October, 1836. He remained here but a short time, then went to Tremont, which was then the county seat of Tazewell county. He there resumed his trade, which he carried on for a number of years,” the biography says.

In 1844, he married Ann Eliza Coleman Garrett, and together they had seven children, three of whom died in childhood – William, Otho, Martha, Mary, Charles, Samuel and Lincoln. He and his family moved back to Pekin in 1863.

The biography continues, “In the year 1850 he was lured from the quiet walks of life, and was in the fall of that year elected sheriff of Tazewell county, as the candidate of the Whig party. Under the then existing constitution of the state, a sheriff was not eligible for reelection for the succeeding term. After the expiration of his term of office, Mr. Gaither turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, and to his trade, which claimed his attention for several years. In 1862 he was appointed by Sheriff Williamson, his deputy. During that year he did most of the business of the office. In the fall of 1862, Mr. Gaither was nominated by the Republican party, for sheriff, but of course was defeated, as the Democrats at that time were largely in the ascendancy in Tazewell county.”

The biography goes on to tell of Gaither’s subsequent involvement in public affairs: appointed by President Lincoln a federal inspector of revenue for the Eighth District (encompassing Tazewell County), removed from that office by President Johnson over policy differences, appointed assistant county treasurer and collector in the fall of 1867, appointed county treasurer in September 1869 to fill the vacancy created by the death of County Treasurer Barber, then elected county treasurer in November 1869.

At the time of the publication of the 1873 Atlas Map, Gaither was serving a second elected term as treasurer. He died in Pekin on Jan. 11, 1892 – coincidentally the same day and month that his daughter Mary died in 1945. His widow Ann Eliza died in 1912.

Among the records and mementos preserved in the Pekin Public Library’s Local History Room archives is a collection of papers and letters of William Gaither, many of them associated with his activities as treasurer and collector for the county. The collection, formerly in the possession of Miss Gaither, was donated to the library in 1970 by Miss Gaither’s niece (Otho’s daughter), Nellie Gaither Urling-Smith.

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