Pekin Public Library exhibits mementos of its past

As a part of the ongoing celebration of is 125th anniversary, the Pekin Public Library this year is exhibiting a selection of mementos, artifacts, and papers from its early history. The exhibit is displayed in the library’s Local History Room, and will remain on display through the end of the year.

The exhibit includes artifacts and papers that reach back to November of 1866, when the Ladies Library Association of Pekin, predecessor of Pekin Public Library, was organized by the leading ladies of Pekin society. Other items in the display include original blueprints of Pekin’s 1902 Carnegie library, a copy of an old photo of one of the early pre-1902 buildings that housed the library during the 19th century, portrait photographs and copies of letters of the “parents” of Pekin’s Carnegie library (Miss Mary E. Gaither, Andrew Carnegie, and George Herget), and a large number of artifacts that were preserved in the Carnegie library’s cornerstone time capsule.

The public is invited to examine the exhibited materials during regular library hours. Photographs of the exhibit, by Emily Lambe, public information and programming manager for the Pekin Public Library, are shown below.

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Pekin Public Library spotlights 125+ years of history at ‘Business After Hours’

After a hiatus of about a year, the Pekin Area Chamber of Commerce resumed its popular “Business After Hours” events on Thursday evening, April 8, 2021, when leaders of local business and community life attended a social gathering in the second-floor Community Room of the Pekin Public Library. Pekin Public Library Director Jeff Brooks took the occasion of its hosting “Business After Hours” to display a large number of its mementos and artifacts which illustrated the Pekin Public Library’s vital place in Pekin’s community life reaching back to 1866, when the prominent ladies of Pekin society organized the Ladies Library Association of Pekin, forerunner of the Pekin Public Library. The library’s local historian and researcher on staff, Jared Olar, also spoke for about 25 minutes, giving an overview of the library’s history from 1866 to the present. Throughout the event, a video highlighting the library’s history, prepared by Emily Lambe, public information and programming manager, was played.

“Business After Hours” at the Pekin Public Library is just one of the ways the library has been celebrating the 125th anniversary of the library’s existence (counting from February 1896, when the Pekin Library Association became a department of Pekin city government). Additional events will appear on the library’s program calendar throughout 2021.

Below are photographs from the April 8 “Business After Hours,” all taken by director Jeff Brooks.

Pekin Public Library’s local history specialist Jared Olar, who oversees the library’s Local History collection, spoke for about 25 minutes giving an overview of the history of the library from 1866 to the present.

Among the mementos exhibited at Business After Hours on April 8 were photographs of Miss Mary Gaither, Andrew Carnegie, and George Herget, and copies of Carnegie’s and Herget’s letters to Miss Gaither. These photos and letters, which tell of the preparations to build a Carnegie library in Pekin, were preserved in the 1902 Carnegie library cornerstone time capsule.

Among the items displayed during Business After Hours at the Pekin Public Library on April 8 were surviving blueprints of the 1902 Carnegie library, along with catalogues of the materials that were held by the Ladies Library Association and the Pekin Library Association, predecessors of the Pekin Public Library.

The library artifacts exhibited during Business After Hours included the charter of incorporation granted to the Pekin Library Association in April of 1883. The charter was preserved in the 1902 library cornerstone time capsule.

This metal container is the 1902 time capsule that held many of the artifacts and mementos that were displayed when the library hosted the Pekin Area Chamber of Commerce’s Business After Hours on Thursday evening, April 8, 2021. The 1902 time capsule was enclosed in the cornerstone of the Pekin Carnegie library, and was opened May 31, 1973, prior to the demolition of the Carnegie library.

On one end of the exhibit at Business After Hours were two of the library board’s old official seal stamps.

Donna the Kangaroo, an orange plastic children’s rocking chair in the shape of a beloved character of an older generation of Australian children’s literature, is well-remembered by Pekinites for her many years in the Pekin Public Library’s Youth Services Department. Donna usually is kept safely in storage these days, but she came out the greet the attendees of the Pekin Chamber of Commerce’s Business After Hours on the library’s second floor Thursday evening, April 8, 2021. As part of the library’s 125th anniversary celebrations this year, the library will provide opportunities for photographs with Donna at 5 p.m. Tuesday, June 22, and again at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 26.

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Laying the groundwork for Pekin’s 1902 library

By Jared Olar

Library Assistant

In spotlighting the leading role of Miss Mary Gaither (1852-1945) in the planning and construction of Pekin’s Carnegie library last week, we reached the point in Pekin library history where the library board approved the proposal for the construction of a new library building.

To review, we saw that upon receipt of the favorable reply from Andrew Carnegie’s personal secretary James Bertram informing her of Carnegie’s offer to commit $10,000 toward the construction of a library, Miss Gaither 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. (In Bertram’s letter, he mentioned that Carnegie’s offer of $10,000 came with the conditions that the city of Pekin provide a suitable site and also agree to spend at least $1,000 a year to support the library.)

Shown here is a photocopy of the letter that Andrew Carnegie’s secretary James Bertram wrote in reply to Miss Mary Gaither’s letter of July 1900 requesting Carnegie’s aid in building a library for Pekin.

Seeking a site for the new library, Miss Gaither penned a letter to prominent Pekin businessman George Herget (1833-1914), and on Nov. 7, 1900, Herget wrote back to her saying he would be happy to donate land to the city for the library site. In his letter, Herget wrote simply, “I will be pleased to give to the City of Pekin a site for a Library building according to the terms of a certain letter to you from Mr. Andrew Carnegie, dated October 8th., 1900.”

Shown here is a photocopy of 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.

The next 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. With Herget’s promise of a donation of land, the next step was to obtain a commitment from the city to support the library at levels satisfactory to Carnegie. Less than a month after the Nov. 8 library board meeting, on Dec. 3, 1900 the Pekin City Council under the direction of Mayor Everett W. Wilson passed an ordinance by which the city promised to appropriate not less than $1,500 annually to support the library’s operations and maintain the proposed new building.

Shown here is a detail from a handwritten certified copy of a Pekin city ordinance that was passed during the term of Pekin Mayor Everett W. Wilson, whereby the city promised to fund the library at a level of not less than $1,500 annually. Andrew Carnegie has stipulated that his agreement to help build Pekin a library was conditional on the city agreeing to support the library at not less than $1,000 a year. This copy of the city ordinance was one of the items preserved in the 1902 library cornerstone time capsule.

The next step in the process came in Jan. 1901, when George Herget and his wife Caroline announced that they would donate their land at the southwest corner of Broadway and Fourth streets to the Pekin Public Library Board of Trustees. They formally deeded the land to the library board on Oct. 7, 1901, for a nominal cost of $1.

Also in early 1901, George Herget’s nephew Carl Herget (whose mansion on Washington Street is located at the site of the former Gill residence, where the Ladies Library Association was born on Nov. 24, 1866) made a matching donation of $1,000 to supply books for the new library.

Shown here is a detail from a certified copy of the 1901 warranty deed whereby George and Caroline Herget conveyed their land at the southwest corner of Broadway and Fourth streets to the Pekin Public Library board, to serve as the site of a new Carnegie library.

Pleased with the progress Pekin had made toward the erection of a Carnegie library, Andrew Carnegie’s secretary Bertram in Dec. 1901 wrote to the library board, saying Carnegie was increasing his donation toward the library’s construction to $15,000.

One month later, in Jan. 1902 the library board formed a building committee, appointing as members Mr. Carl G. Herget, Mrs. Emily P. Schenck, Mr. W. J. Conzelman, and Mr. F. L. Velde. The committee was directed to choose a building plan and recommend an architect. Bloomington architect Paul O. Moratz, who had already erected several public buildings and Carnegie libraries across the country, was chosen, and Moratz’s plans were submitted to the board March 13, 1902.

Next week we will turn our attention to the career and achievements of Paul O. Moratz.

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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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Pekin library’s first 16 years: From local service club to ‘Inc.’

By Jared Olar
Library Assistant

In recent weeks we have renewed our memory of the founding and early history of Pekin’s library. As we recalled earlier, the library began over a year after the end of the Civil War, when 23 of the more prominent women of Pekin organized the Ladies’ Library Association on Nov. 24, 1866. This week we will review the library association’s first 16 years of existence, up to the point when the association decided to formally incorporate under Illinois law.

During most of the years of the library association’s existence, the association had no building of its own, but would rent rooms in various building in downtown Pekin. The 1870-71 city directory says the Ladies’ Library Room was over the drug store on Court Street between Third and Capitol, opposite Empire Hall, and that the association met Wednesdays and Saturdays each week.

In 1873, the trustees of the Congregational Society in Pekin offered to permanently donate the basement of their proposed new church to the Ladies’ Library Association so the association could have a permanent location rent-free. However, after considering the offer, the association’s board unanimously voted against it.

By the time of the 1876 city directory, the location of the Ladies Library Association’s Library Room was indicated by the vague and unhelpful words “in Court Block, up-stairs.” That would refer to a room in one of the buildings in the 330-360 block of Court Street. A few years later, the Ladies Library Association is stated to have been operating out of rooms rented in Friederich’s Block on Court Street (according to Miss Mary E. Gaither’s 1902-3 library history).

As a private civic association, the Ladies Library Association raised operating funds through regular social parties, formal dances, and “dramatic performances and other entertainments by home talent,” Gaither said in her historical account.

Shown here is the front cover of a lady’s dance card for an April 25, 1882 formal dance to raise funds for the Ladies Library Association of Pekin. A lady at a formal dance would give her card to gentlemen who desired to dance with her, and the gentlemen would write their names on the card indicating which dance would be theirs. (Although the association did not legally incorporate under the name of ‘Pekin Library Association’ until March-April 1883, this card shows the association was already using that name by April 1882.)

Another way the library association raised money during these years was by sub-letting its room to other community organizations and social clubs, such as the Sons of Temperance or the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). Some of the association’s community activities were not as successful as others, however, as indicated by an extract of an 1870 report of the association’s secretary Miss Mary Clemens that was quoted by Miss Gaither in her historical account:

“Repeated experiments have demonstrated that entertainments of a literary character are not well sustained in this city. For that reason the cherished plan of offering a course of popular readings and lectures to the public, was, with many regrets, abandoned.”

The following excerpt from Miss Gaither’s library history is significant, because it reveals that she herself had been a member of the library association at least since 1875, when she became one of the association’s officers:

“The officers in 1875 were Mrs. Barber, Mrs. Henry, Miss Addie Turner, Miss Eunice Sage and Miss Mary Gaither, followed a year later by Mrs. Clemens, Mrs. G. F. Saltonstall, Miss McHenry, Miss Sage and Mr. C. Alexander. Thus, a gentleman was a second time appointed Librarian.”

The first gentleman, as we previously recalled, was William S. Prince.

The next significant development in the history of Pekin’s library is recorded in Gaither’s history of the library in these words:

“In March, 1883, a special meeting was called to consider the question of incorporation under the laws of the State. On motion, the names of nine ladies were selected, by lot, to be the incorporators, as follows: Mrs. J. F. Schipper, Mrs. H. W. Hippen, Mrs. B. Swayze, Mrs. E. Vincent, Mrs. R. D. Bradley, Mrs. F. E. Rupert, Mrs. C. C. Cummings, Mrs. Worley, Miss Luella Miller.

“On April 11, the articles were drawn up by Mr. A. B. Sawyer, the name being changed to ‘The Pekin Library Association.’ There was a Board of twelve directors named, to be chosen annually. Mrs. Rupert was elected President; Mrs. D. C. Smith, Vice-President; William Blenkiron, Secretary; and Mrs. Schipper, Treasurer.”

In this way, the Ladies Library Association, which had been organized and run as a privately-run community service club, officially became the Pekin Library Association, Inc.

Years later, when items were selected to be included in the library’s 1902 cornerstone time capsule, among the items included were the Pekin Library Association’s original charter of incorporation, granted by Henry D. Dement, Illinois Secretary of State. The charter, filed March 5, 1883, and issued April 5, 1883, was perfectly preserved during the seven decades they spent in the time capsule.

Shown is the State of Illinois charter of incorporation, issued April 5, 1883, by which the Ladies Library Association of Pekin became the Pekin Library Association, Inc.

The decision to incorporate was taken with an eye toward possibly reestablishing the library association as a free community service that would be owned and provided by Pekin’s city government. Thus, Gaither’s history tells:

“In June, 1883, a committee called upon the City Council with a proposition to make the Library a free city Library, but the Council committee, to whom was referred the request, reported adversely.”

With that, the idea of turning the library into a department of city government was to lay dormant for another decade.

Next time we will pick up the historical thread with the story of the Pekin Library Association, and how it became the Pekin Public Library.

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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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