L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library

History:

Long before Eau Claire became a city, its citizens were among the first in Wisconsin to consider the necessity for a public library. On December 28, 1859, a group of men met at the home of Dr. David H. Ketchum and formed a library association with an election of trustees that included Thomas Barland. The first librarian was Henry C. Putnam. The new library association was private. Membership cost fifty cents or a donation of a book valued at fifty cents. There was a charge of five cents for taking out a book for two weeks and a ten-cent charge per week thereafter until the book was returned. Books were purchased and kept in a case in the store of Mahlen and Putnam on Eau Claire Street. Books could be taken out on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Books which formed the basis of the library included: Museum of Literature and Science, two volumes of Survey of Railroad to the Pacific, The World We Live In, Constitution of Man, The Great West, Wonders of History, Scientific Agriculture, and Conflicts of the Ages. The most costly of these volumes was valued at $2.50, but most of the books were worth less than a dollar. There were biographies of Napoleon, Oliver Cromwell and Patrick Henry as well as many religious books such as Ecclesiastical History, Religion of Geology and History of the Devil, in addition to more conventional religious books, both Protestant and Catholic. This collection included books on courtship and matrimony, a copy of Philosophy of Living and another titled Practical Piety. There were volumes of poems and books on history and travel, but no books of a humorous nature and no fiction. Reading was done for serious purposes in those days, not for relaxation or for escape from reality.

The library moved to Newton's Building, four doors south of the first post office, on June 7, 1861. At this time Charles Howard resigned as secretary of the association, and William Newton took over. The library then became know as "Newton's Reading Room." The original association seems to have eventually disbanded at least there was no further mention of it in the Eau Claire Free Press. Perhaps concern about the Civil War had diminished interest in it. Beginning in July 1869, the newspapers reported the establishment of a number of private reading or library associations. One way to raise money to buy books was to sponsor lectures. Many of the lectures were held at the Grand Opera House and brought to the city many outstanding speakers, such as Hamlin Garland and Booker T. Washington. A number of these library associations were quite successful in their efforts to start book collections.