Day 56, Tuesday, April 23, 2024: Dillon, Montana to Billings, Montana

Carnegie libraries visited: Dillon, Montana

In 1943 a circus elephant named Old Pitt was struck by lightning in Dillon; the elephant is buried at the town’s fairgrounds. That event was important enough to the community to make the town’s Wikipedia page, so it’s safe to say that Dillon’s history has been rather quiet. Even quiet histories are full of stories, and these stories are laid out in the 1057 page two volume set The History of Beaverhead County, for which Dillon is the county seat.

Dillon, a town of 4000 today,  grew based on its gold, railroad, and ranches. It was once the largest exporter of sheep wool in Montana. It’s also the home of one of Montana’s seventeen Carnegie libraries, which replaced the one that was “in a miserable wooden shack” according to the letter requesting a new one.

Dillon Carnegie Library

The Carnegie archives do not mention the role of women in creating the Dillon library. They surely ran it, however. A plaque on the wall inside listed those who had served as librarians, all women. Thanks, librarians.

Mary Perkins Hooker, 1888-1909

Mary Lyle Innis, 1909-1962

Helen Donovan, 1963-1968

Alyce Bull, 1969-1970

Pat Landon, 1971-1972

Joan McDougal, 1973-1993

Carol Hagerman, 1994-1995

Barbara Frederickson, 1995-2004

Marie Habener, 2004-2017

Lori Roberts, 2017-present

While I was reading this plaque a tall man, with a bushy cowboy moustache and hat, walked by to return his books.

Kim, the librarian at the circulation desk, was quite the chatterbox this morning, as she hadn’t slept much last night. I’m not sure what one has to do with the other; that’s Kim’s explanation, not mine. She is wearing a rust and black muumuu blouse matching the color of her hair (rust) and glasses (black). Kim’s family is from these parts. She grew up in Dillon going to the Carnegie library there, so much of its history and lore she tells me comes from her own experiences rather than books. After several years in Atlanta and other cities, she returned to Dillon to raise her family. She’s been working for the library for eight years, and she obviously loves her work. She handed me a loose-leaf folder and pointed me in the direction I needed to go: The History of Beaverhead County, published in 1990.

Mary Perkins Hooker may (or may not) have been a member of the Beaverhead Ladies Club, which was featured in The History, but she was the leader of the library movement in Dillon, and served as the town’s librarian from 1888 to 1909, which included seven years in the new Carnegie. Hooker came from a family with deep American roots: her ancestors included Nathan Hale, writer and scholar (and utopian feminist and eugenicist) Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Mary Perkins Hooker

Before the Carnegie library was obtained, Hooker assumed the responsibility for raising the money to buy books for it, which she did through “weekly entertainments featuring Dillon’s young folks.” Until the Carnegie opened, she worked without pay; she also funded the turret room in the library, where she liked to sit and read when she had the chance. Her health was in decline as she was getting the library up and running and so, in 1903, Mary Lyle Innes and Marie Gallup to be acting librarians that year.

Hooker was among the founders of the Dillon Shakespeare Club, which had been meeting continuously from 1892 until 1990, when the county’s history was published. It was a strong backer of efforts to build a library. As they don’t have a Facebook page – which club doesn’t? – I gather that, like a heartbroken Juliet, it has perished. At one of the Club’s annual meetings, Hooker was presented with the picture which hangs on the library’s walls today. 

Hooker was followed by Mary Lyle Innes, the librarian for 53 years (1909-1962). (The History of Beaverhead County reports that Innes served for 55 years and also for over 60 years.) Innes was also an elementary school teacher, and the local elementary school was named after her. While Innes might have ridden a buggy to school when she began teaching, her students were the first ones in the city to receive computer instruction.

Mary Innes

Most of these two volumes contain family histories, but there are no entries for either the Hooker or Innes families. The library did contain a few typed manuscripts with memories of Innes. According to Helen Schaffner, Mary Lyle Innes was born in Canada in 1869, and moved with her parents, John and Catherine Young, to Beaverhead county a few years after she was born. She spent her entire life in the town, teaching at the Bagley school for 43 years (before retiring in 1938), while at the same time serving as the town’s librarian. Over her 50+ years, the library grew from 2,500 volumes to over 100,000.

That she lived her whole life in Dillon doesn’t mean that she lived only in it. She graduated from the Montana State Normal School (now Western Montana University) in the early 1900s. She also received library training at the University of Chicago, the University of California - Berkeley, and Columbia University. In 1935 she went on a study tour of countries on the Mediterranean. Not bad for a country girl. She passed away in 1994, and is buried at the Mt. View Cemetery in Dillon. 

Mary Innes

One of Innes’ students wrote this commendation of Innes, for reasons unknown to me.

That Patient, Lovely Woman...

"If you have the courage to come off the canvas often enough you will finally hit one out of the park." –Mickey Rooney.

Was trying to figure how long ago it was that Mary L. Innes taught me in Dillon public school. Am fairly sure it was 69 years ago.

Things grow dim in your memory after 69 years but this I do remember. She had a beautiful smile and she had patience. And if were dumb on something, she kept repeating the true angle until I finally caught on.

How many, many people who have lived their lives in Dillon were taught by this same patient, lovely person?

She dedicated her life to the children of Beaverhead County. May God bless her for that. She so wanted us kids to read, that she took on the library and coaxed us in to read and whisper and read some more. She knew where every useful book was in that library. She hoped always you would "pick yourself up off the canvas and hit a home run."

Mrs. Iva Lea Orr, who served as Innes’s assistant from 1937 to 1954, remembered this: 

Miss Innes possessed an amazing ability in book selections – especially those for children. She was determined that Dillon youth had the best and chose books lovingly toward that goal. She left a lasting impression on all, both young and old, with whom she came in contact. Her influence remained with them always and they never failed in later years to stop for a visit with her. Miss Innes was a wonderful and dedicated institution with-in herself.

Mary Innes

I asked Lori, the library’s director, “I know this might be sort of a sensitive topic, but do you have any issues with locals who want to ban books?” She replied [this quotation is really a summary.] 

Yes and no. A few times someone has come in to complain about one of the books we have on our shelves. I tell them before we discuss that could you go and pick up one of your favorite books from the stacks? They seem a bit confused but then they go do so. When they give me the book I flip through it and say ‘I’m sure there are some things in this book that someone might find offensive. Should I pull it off the shelf?

Usually, this gets to them. I have had parents tell me not to let their children check out certain books, and I tell them that I can’t/won’t do that. I have children. Would I want anyone else to tell them that they can’t check out certain books? If you don’t want your children to get certain books, then it’s your responsibility to come to the library with them.

She then told me that a mother came in with her children and told me that they couldn’t borrow a certain set. She went on, “It’s a small town. I know their parents. They’re divorced. And the father went out and bought that set…”