Benton: The First Bossier Parish Library, September 1940

 In 1925, the American Libraries Association selected Louisiana, out of twelve competing states, to be the recipient of a $50,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation to establish rural public libraries. The Louisiana Library Commission then selected Miss Essae (pronounced “Essay”) Culver, a 42-year-old librarian who had fallen in love with library work as a student at California’s Pomona College and who’d helped establish libraries in Oregon and California, to begin the project in Louisiana. She decided to work with a northern parish and a southern parish in which to establish a library system, Ouachita and Jefferson Davis. It wasn’t long after those first two projects before she set her sights on Bossier Parish, holding “mass meetings” across Bossier in 1928 to support the founding of a library system.

These meetings were arranged by the local library committee under Mr. J.E. Williams, of Benton, the executive secretary, who was also Bossier Parish Supervisor of Schools. Mrs. S. C. Barr, president of the Bossie Parish PTA, “made a forceful address” at one of these meetings, as did Mrs. Volney V. Whitington of Benton and other “very enthusiastic” people, as reported by the Bossier Banner-Progress on December 13, 1928. Well-practiced speaker Miss Culver held the “undivided attention of her hearers,” and the local social pages noted that Miss Culver also had a local dinner invitation while in the area, enjoying a turkey dinner at the “Wendt home,” likely the home of J.R. Wendt, parish engineer, who lived in Benton with his family as neighbors of the Bossier Banner office.

With Louisiana recovering from the great flood of 1927 and the nation entering the Great Depression in 1929, creation of public library systems stalled. In the meantime, Miss Culver encouraged the formation of readers’ clubs in the parish, for which the state library commission could supply books. However, it was a Depression-era government program that also helped the library project come to fruition. In 1940, the Bossier Parish Police Jury approved the formation of a parish library system on a “demonstration” basis, to be funded by the State Library of Louisiana for one year with the Work Projects Administration (WPA) providing several assistant librarians and custodians.

A New Deal agency, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), renamed the Work Projects Administration in 1939, employed 8.5 million people between 1935 and 1943. One initiative of the WPA was to sponsor nationwide, state-level library demonstration projects to encourage the development of library services to underserved populations and to extend rural service while simultaneously providing temporary work for the unemployed.

The Louisiana Library Commission supplied the demonstration library books. In an agreement between Bossier Parish and the State Library, the state also provided a bookmobile and other equipment, while a parish tax was used to maintain and expand library services. A headline in the local Planters Press newspaper from August 22, 1940 announced, “Library Books Reach Benton on Wednesday.” The article mentioned that the work of remodeling the old Post Office building for the library was going forward and the fixtures would soon be completed. It also said that once the books were arranged, the library would be ready to open to the public.

Located in the parish seat and serving as the Bossier Parish Library headquarters, the Benton library was the very first of the Bossier Parish libraries to open, on Friday, Sept 20, 1940. The library opened in Benton’s 1910 post office building, one of the oldest buildings in town. The opening was marked by a program featuring Miss Essae Culver and Mr. J. O. Modisette, an attorney who was chair of the state library commission. Elisabeth Williams, who came, along with the initial set of library books, from a demonstration library in Arcadia in Bienville Parish, served as Bossier Parish librarian from 1940 until her retirement in 1967. Because it was considered library “headquarters,” she worked from the Benton library.

The November 7, 1940, issue of the Planters Press noted that since the opening of the Parish’s four libraries that year (in Bossier City, Benton, Haughton and Plain Dealing) and having a book mobile on the road, 5,705 books circulated and 1,493 people registered as library users. At the end of that first demonstration year, the Police Jury approved the library on a permanent basis with the passage of a one-half millage sustaining tax in June of 1941, which was approved by Bossier Parish voters. By the end of 1944, the Benton Branch had circulated 5,885 books for a full year, and, along with the new branch located within the school in Elm Grove, had a perfect circulation record; all of the circulating books were accounted for.

In 1959, the Benton library moved from its original building to more modern (and air conditioned!) quarters on the corner of Sibley and Sixth Streets, just half a block away. This location proved to be too small when library usage increased in the late 1980s, so the building was renovated and expanded in 1987 to provide a dedicated children’s area, magazine display shelves, and a casual reading area. The current Benton Branch building was constructed and opened in 2006, just down the street from the Bossier Parish Courthouse.

The Bossier Parish Libraries no longer has a bookmobile, but we now have six branch libraries plus the Central Library and History Center complex. We also have an outreach service for homebound patrons. To see us in person, please visit the History Center at 2206 Beckett St, Bossier City, LA and are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary. For other fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

Images: 

• 1950s. State Librarian Essae M. Culver showing Audubon prints that are part of the Louisiana State Library collection. Photo: State Library of Louisiana Bossier Parish Library in Benton, LA, 1941.
• Bossier Parish Library,  Headquarters/Benton Branch with Louisiana Library Commission Bookmobile.  Sign donated by the Coca Cola Company. May, 1941. Photo: State Library of Louisiana
• Entrance to Bossier Parish Libraries Benton branch c.1966. Bossier Parish Libraries History Center photo.

Article by: Pam Carlisle

Bossier Parish's First Librarian

Portrait of Mary Elisabeth Williams by A. Menosco.
Bossier Parish Library Collection: 2000.093.001.

Before the first Bossier Parish library opened its doors, Elisabeth Williams was already working behind the scene to establish the public library system in this parish. After earning her degree in Library Science from the University of Illinois, she began her career in Tennessee at the Cossitt Public Library in Memphis. Then she worked for the Louisiana Library Commission in Baton Rouge and opened and operated the demonstration library in Arcadia as the Bienville Parish librarian.

Opening and operating demonstration libraries involved much more than ordering, cataloging, and shelving books. A vital role as the head librarian was the promotion of the library. Williams would speak to groups of people throughout the parish to explain the importance of having a public library and how to obtain books.

At a Lions Club meeting, “She explained how this new service is being provided to the people of the entire parish – through branch libraries in Benton, Bossier City, Plain Dealing, Haughton and Elm Grove (the latter having been opened two weeks ago) and a regular weekly ‘bookmobile’ tour of the parish, covering 300 miles and serving all of the smaller communities of the parish.”

Elisabeth Williams (left) and Jessica Boatner (right) providing books to children
in Bossier Parish's first bookmobile. Source: The Shreveport Times, Feb. 14, 1941.

“She also explained that library service of this type costs about $15,000, or about a one-mill tax per year. This year, however, the service is being provided as a demonstration project, with the State Library Commission, the WPA and the Bossier Parish Police Jury cooperating.” She urged that the police jury be requested to vote a special tax to support the library, and she encouraged citizens to get behind the library to make it permanent.

With the demonstration period scheduled to end on Sept. 1, 1941, the Bossier Parish Police Jury felt the urgency to secure the public library’s continuance. On June 12, 1941, the following announcement appeared in the Bossier Banner. “The Bossier Parish Police Jury held a regular meeting, at the Court House, in Benton, Tuesday afternoon of this week, at which time it was voted to levy a half-mill tax, for 1941 and 1942, to continue the Bossier Parish Library system for more than a year.

“A delegation of more than 25 women and men, from every section of the parish, appeared before the Jury to speak in favor of the library. It was decided not to call a special one-mill tax election for the library’s support. Considerable discussion was had before the vote was taken and only one juror voted against the final motion.”

Williams continued as the head librarian of Bossier Parish until she retired in 1967. Before her retirement, she “went on to found the Red River Parish Library in 1962-63 and she administered the two-parish library system.” She was a member of the American Library Association, the Louisiana Library Association, and the Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority. She was president of the Caddo-Bossier Library Club and the business manager of the Louisiana Library Association’s publication, ‘The Bulletin.’

The Bossier Parish Library has proudly provided access to an array of materials, programs, and technologies that inform, educate, and entertain the residents of this great parish for the past eighty years. To learn more about the Bossier Parish Library’s history, visit the BPL History Center at 2206 Beckett Street, Bossier City.