History
The dream began in 1912 when John H. and Matilda Rose purchased
the residence at 103 W. Main in the old Village of Ogden. They were fond of
books and reading, so much so, that they created a lending library of sorts in
the parlor of their new home.
The dream continued when Mr. Rose decided to leave a legacy
to the Village of Ogden. He began by selling a corner of his property to the
village for construction of a town hall, with the request that a room be set
aside for a library and that the library
would always be maintained in the building.
From the abstract of the property site at 103 W. Main St. of
the Village of Ogden, this is a quote from the original will.
“That said deceased in and by his said last will and
testament provided that certain funds from his estate should be set aside for
the purpose of establishing a free public library in the Village of Ogden,
Illinois, for the use and benefit of the inhabitants of said village and
vicinity, and provided further that the management and direction of a
corporation to be organized for the purpose of the establishment of such library
should be in the hands of three trustees.”
The abstract further states that the original will was set
aside by the widow and Leo Freese because there was no actual cash when Mr.
Rose died. She and Leo Freese (executor of the will) proceeded to sell all real
estate and property she owned, she then divided the money received with the Village
of Ogden and when to live in Indiana with her relatives. The original amount
being $800.00.
The Village then established the trust and in 1919 the
amount had increased to $2000.00. The Village of Ogden established the library under
its corporate authority at the site requested by Mr. Rose , and the doors opened
on April 19, 1919.
Originally, the library occupied the front room in the
north-east side of the building, about 1977 the village trustees remodeled the
old garage and created a second room which became the children’s department.
In the early years the library was used by the villages’
only doctor. Dr. T.L. Agnew. A curtain was hung about halfway back in the front
room of the library to provide privacy for patient and doctor. Later, Dr. Arnold
Leavitt rented the space and held office hours three days a week. The rent of
this space was $3.00 a week.
Seventy-Seven years later the dream because part of the nightmare
experienced by the Village of Ogden. On April 19, 1996, at 9:02 PM a tornado
destroyed the center of downtown Ogden, most of the business district, including
townhall and the original property owned by Mr. Rose was damaged beyond repair.
The old town hall and former Rose residence was torn down on April 25, 1996.
Through the efforts of sone very dedicated friends of the library,
trustees, and volunteers most of the library materials were saved. The St.
Joseph ESDA building was offered for storage of books and Norris Schleuter volunteered
space on his farm for the rest of the items retrieved from the Village hall and
Library.
An emergency meeting was called by the library trustees, with members from the village board of trustees in attendance. From this meeting, plans were set in motion, grants were considered, volunteers came forth and the dream was renewed. Two years later the flag was raised outside of the building the library currently resides in and doors re-opened June 5, 1998.
It is administrated by a seven member board of trustees elected by the voters of the village. It is funded by a tax levy of .30 per $100.00 total assessed valuation. A Per Capita Grant is available each year at $1.00 per person based on the most recent census.
