Trending
I've spent the last several weeks writing about the Mifflin County Library during the 1940s. The Lewistown Library of the 1870s merged with other libraries throughout the county to become the Mifflin County Library in 1941. The library director, Miss Shoemaker, resigned in December 1943. Before I go on and write about the next few directors, I'd like to tell you about an unsung hero in library history. She was never the director but she and her family helped to make the Mifflin County Library what it is today.
This is Margaretta Elder. Margaretta is one of the Elder family who did many great things in Mifflin County. George W. Elder (G W) was the first library board president of the Lewistown Library in 1870. He was her great-grandfather. "Margaretta" is not a common name but it is a family name and there were many "Margaretta Elders" in the family. For example, G W's wife was named Margaretta. G W was a lawyer, he owned the Lewistown Engine and Machine Company in 1881, and, as well as being on the library board, he was on the board of the Lewistown Academy (which is where we get the name Academy Hill). There was an apprentices' school there at one time. G W valued the idea of libraries.
Mrs. G W Elder (the first Margaretta) worked, or more likely volunteered, at the library with Miss Annie Clarke from about 1875 to about 1898. Back in those days, the women were called by their husbands' name (like Mrs. G W Elder). So the research does get very confusing. But when Miss Shoemaker became the librarian in the early 1940s, Miss Margaretta Elder was on the library board.
Miss Margaretta was born in November 1918 and, in 1942, she would have been about 24 years old and living on Chestnut Street. I have many old issues of newspaper clippings where the library is discussed. In 1946, Miss Margaretta was listed as the library board secretary but by 1949, she was photographed in the Lewistown Sentinel reading to children and was listed as the assistant librarian. But her duties were those of the children's librarian. Miss Margaretta was the first children's librarian that MCL had.
In the photo, Miss Margaretta is checking out a book to eight-year-old Thomas Walters. Near that photo is an article announcing story hour. It reads, in part, "Miss Margaretta Elder, assistant librarian, will again be in charge of the group and hopes to continue her record of never telling the same story twice." Story hour was every Saturday, promptly at 10:30 a.m. I love that the article used the word "promptly."
Miss Margaretta, because she was essentially the children's librarian, visited local schools and talked about the library. I have a black-and-white photo of her in a classroom and the girls are wearing Amish bonnets. Maybe she visited an Amish school.
I really don't know all that much about her except that she worked at the Mifflin County Library when it was on Third Street, then when it was on Brown Street, and she helped when the library moved into the new building on Wayne Street in 1974. I have a photograph of her in the Sentinel from Feb. 6, 1975 with an accompanying article discussing the "new library." Miss Margaretta would die later that month. She was 56 years old. If you have any information about her, please share it with me.
Miss Margaretta was with the library, first as a member of the board, then as the assistant librarian / children's librarian for over 33 years. She, as well as her family, did so much for the Mifflin County Library.
•••
Susan Miriello is the Executive Director of the Mifflin County Library. She continues to research library history, aided by the wonderful volunteers at the Mifflin County Historical Society.