There have been many iterations of the Mariposa County Library over the decades. Shown is the interior of Mariposa County Library main branch, circa 1971; with boxes of books stacked near the fireplace, during the setting up of the library in the building that housed the library and the Mariposa Museum from 1971 to 2000.
The Mariposa County Library is approaching a historic milestone later this year: 100 years of service to the community.
To celebrate this noble occasion, library staff will be flipping through the pages of time to highlight some of the noteworthy events and anecdotes (many gleaned from this very paper) that have helped shape this beloved institution.
Mariposa County has been instrumental in championing literature from its beginning, when (then) Colonel John C. Fremont donated 100 books in 1850 to the nascent California State Library System.
By October 1894, a young Mariposa Gazette featured a “Back Pages” article informing the populace that “the nucleus of a public library for Mariposa has been founded, the Bank of Mercy having secured a number of beautiful books, with a part of their money realized by their entertainment. This is a small beginning, but it will encourage the children to add to what is now on hand, and in a few years they can have a good collection of interesting books.”
By October 1926, the literature and entertainment needs of the community had so increased that the Board of Supervisors of Mariposa County entered a contract with the Board of Supervisors of Merced County (which had established a library system in 1910) to provide it with library services.
The original contract called for an annual payment to Merced County of $2,225. The first libraries in Mariposa were naturally opened in connection with the schools.
By the start of the school year in 1927, 24 elementary schools in the county had joined the library system and 28 distribution points were established, served by the central office of the Merced County Library.
A month later, in November 1926, the Mariposa County Free Library was officially established as the 46th county library in California under section five of the California Free Library Law.
On Nov. 16, Miss Minette Stoddard, Merced County Librarian, opened the first county branch library in Yosemite in space provided by the National Park Service in the museum building.
Its first “custodians,” as branch library aides were known in those days, were Mrs. Rose Wegener and Mrs. Grace Ewing.
A Mariposa branch soon followed — on Jan. 17, 1927 — established with the cooperation of the Chamber of Commerce. It was located in the old Presbyterian Church on Bullion Street, which had served as a high school during World War I and as a community meeting place since 1898.
Rent was approximately $25 per annum, and Mrs. Lucy Milburn was named branch custodian. The library “opened Monday afternoon with 250 books; 32 cards were issued in the first two and one-half hours of business.”
At last the county had physical spaces to attend to the community’s reading pleasures, which mostly consisted of fiction and juvenile literature.
But the library’s story was just beginning, and in the months leading up to its centennial this November, we will share additional facts and follies mined from the archives. Stay tuned.
Do you have an interesting history or story of the library to share? Please email the library staff at library@mariposacounty.gov.
Maureen McCormick is a Senior Library Assistant at the Mariposa Branch.
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