The Origins of the Petaluma Free Library




From A.B. Bower's 1867 Map of Sonoma County
Courtesy of Sonoma County Library

 

Petaluma, originally the site of several Miwok indian villages, was pioneered by the Spanish in the late 18th century, but aside from an adobe ranch house built by General Vallejo in 1836, substantial settlement wasn’t established until the Gold Rush of 1849 drew pioneers to the area and a hunting and fur-trapping camp grew into a permanent village. The Petaluma River proved an important commercial waterway and the town began to grow and become prosperous, especially with the construction of the San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad in the 1870s. For many years afterward Petaluma was the third largest city in California, a hub of commerce, manufacturing and innovation, notably in chicken incubation.

The story of the Petaluma Free Library begins in 1858, the same year the city of Petaluma was chartered. The library began its life as a private library for the enjoyment and edification of the members of the city's Independent Order of Odd Fellows (Lodge No. 30) and their sister organization, the Silver Spray Rebekahs (Lodge No. 86). It was one of several private libaries and reading rooms established in the young city. In addition, there was the Petaluma Reading Room, which had space above a downtown store for their subscribers' use (Petaluma Reading Rooms, 1857).  The Dashaways, a temperance society, also rented library space downtown for its members in the hopes of providing an alternative to "evenings in saloons" (Dashaways, 1859).

Among these private libraries, the Odd Fellows' emerged the leader, flourishing despite humble beginnings. The collection originally consisted of just a few volumes, all donated by lodge members, that were housed in their meeting room. Lodge records note that Mrs. E. Rowlson donated the library's very first book (Cromwell, 1904). Unfortunately, the title of that book has been lost to time. 

In less than a decade, the Odd Fellows' collection had grown to several hundred volumes, and "yielding to the popular demand for a circulating library," (Cromwell, 1904) the Odd Fellows opened their library up to the public in 1867, charging a $1 initiation fee plus $4 per year to borrow books, or $25 for lifetime lending privileges (Heig, 1982). They also assembled the Odd Fellows' Library Association to manage the library and see to its growth and maintenance, electing Dr. Josiah H. Crane to act as the first librarian.  

Dr. Crane was a physician from Ohio, born in August of 1820 who came to Petaluma with his family in 1865 (Josiah H. Crane, 1890). Although not a trained librarian, he was well-educated and a prominent citizen, a Mason of high-standing who served on the city's Board of Health as well as the Board of Directors for the Petaluma Savings Bank (Murno-Fraser, 1880).



The Three Link Emblem
Odd Fellows Building, Petaluma, CA
Courtesy of Sonoma County Library

The Odd Fellows was a fraternal order focused on improving society through community service and performing good works. They are known as the "Three Link Fraternity" and these three links are friendship, love and truth. In keeping with these values, the Library Association took pains to encourage respectable, decent reading habits, shelving books as the collection grew according to a merit system (Baer). Those deemed the most worthy and enriching were placed on the most visible and easy to reach shelves. Questionable titles were put on high shelves "preferably out of sight as well as reach" (qtd. in Baer, par. 1). Of course, this reveals that the library collection included titles that at least some would consider questionable, forcing us to wonder whether the shelving system worked to discourage from or perhaps to entice readers to these works.

According to an annual report produced in 1872 by the United States Office of Education, the dues for the library had been raised to $6 per year or 50 cents per month (p. 669). The report stated that the Petaluma Library received $600 per year in income from these dues so we can estimate that the library had approximately 100 subscribers (p. 669). The library had a total income of $800 (p. 668), the difference being made up by donations, fundraising and the portion of lodge members' dues allocated to the library by the Odd Fellows and Rebekahs. The contemporaneous US Census data is missing population numbers for Petaluma from the 1870 census, but based on the numbers for 1860 and 1890, we can estimate that Petaluma would have had a population of around 2,500 at the time (California State Data Center, 2011). It seems safe to hazard that, at the outside, the library had 200 users, including both subscribers and lodge members, which means only about 8% of the Petaluma population had access to the library, a small percentage.

The library did benefit from having paid subscribers; the additional income allowed the library to add a great number of books to its collection. By 1872, the library had grown to over 1400 volumes, reporting the addition of 250 new books in the previous year alone (United States Office of Education, 1872). As the library grew, it became more complicated and expensive to maintain the collection. In 1877, Edward S. Lippitt, perhaps the most influential governing member of the Odd Fellow Library Association devised a clever means for transferring ownership of the library to the city while still allowing the Odd Fellows to maintain a hand in the library's governance.  



E.S. Lippitt, 1910
Courtesy of Sonoma County Library



Lippitt was a lawyer, active in local politics who had served as City Solicitor of Cincinnati before the Civil War with Rutherford B. Hayes, who went on to become the president (Murno-Fraser, 1880). Lippitt used this experience to draft then push through amendments to a bill put before the state legislature in the 1877-78 state Senate session, "An Act to Establish and Maintain Free Public Libraries and Reading-rooms" (Cromwell, 1904). 

Originally, this bill applied only to the city of San Francisco. However, Lippitt ammended the bill to apply to all incorporated cities and towns in California and it was signed into law in March, 1878. The bill allowed the proprietors of a private library to donate or transfer its collection to the city in which it was currently located for the purpose of creating a free, public library. The city, in turn, could levy taxes to support the library. The bill also included the following condition:

. . . in consideration of such donation, the authorities of the library might, as their option, nominate and appoint as honorary trustees, without salary, a number equal to those appointed by the municipal authority. The honorary trustees were given authority to fill all vacancies that might occur in their number, and were to have an equal vote in the management and control of the library so donated and transferred. (qtd. in Kortum, 1988, sec. 8, p. 10)

Upon the passing of the law, the Odd Fellows transferred ownership of the library over to the city and the city in turn authorized an honorary board of trustees comprised of Odd Fellows. Thus, the Odd Fellows were able to continue to exercise a degree of control over the governing of the library while securing tax support that would ensure the growth of the library. To this end, the city established "a direct tax varying from four cents to ten cents on each hundred dollars of the assessed value of the property in the city" (Cromwell, 1904, p. 1).

Under the control of the city, the library was at last truly a public library, free and open to all Petalumans. In its new form, library usage increased significantly from its days as a subscription library. By 1894, the library was averaging over 1600 visitors a month (Public Library, 1894). Given that the population was upwards of 3,700 (California State Data Center, 2011), it is clear that by making the library free and public, it had become a valuable resource to a significant percentage of the population. The collection was also growing by hundreds of volumes each year. By 1894, the library had more than 6,800 books and had begun to subscribe to 13 different newspapers and 16 different periodicals (Public Library, 1894). Circulation statistics revealed that patrons were mainly checking out fiction. Of the average 685 volumes checked out each month, about 359 were works of fiction while slightly less than 200 volumes of nonfiction were being checked out (Public Library, 1894).