Day 96, Monday June 10, 2024: Brazil, Indiana to Roachdale, Indiana
- Mark Carl Rom
- Jun 26
- 5 min read
Carnegie libraries visited: Roachdale, Darlington, Waveland, Thornton, Lebanon, and Kirklin, Indiana
Days sober: 354
Monday morning you sure look fine. Yesterday my journey felt like a Sunday drive in the country. Now, I’m all about punching in and getting to work, ready if not rested. The day holds little promise of finding nuggets with information regarding library women. That’s ok. The day carries other promises. The sky is bluer than heaven and the air is as crisp as a Pink Lady apple.
Losing weight is a problem for me, but not a problem enough because I’m not losing any as I wish to. Until last year, my weight did not vary much, and it had not crept up much over the years. I took pride in still being able to wear suits that were twenty years old. (Hey! I can’t be an alcoholic! See how I’m able to maintain my slim figure?). Mirtazapine and Blue Bell ice cream changed that. Last fall, while living part time in my childhood home, I would buy Blue Bell by the gallon, amazed that it was still sold by the genuine gallon. A more common ice cream container was the half gallon in the days of yore; over time, the ‘half gallon’ shrank from 64 ounces to 56 ounces or, in the case of the oh-so-creamy Tillamook brand, to 48 ounces. Having given up booze, I took up ice cream, eating one (or more often, two) heaping bowls for lunch and for dinner. As Tillamook shrank, I expanded. I was flabbergasted, or maybe flubbergasted, when I got on a scale at the beginning of this year.
Since then, I’ve been watching what I eat and watching that I don’t eat too much. After I told my therapist that I was going to do better at keeping in touch with my friends, I also pledged to lose a few pounds, as I consider my therapist to also be my personal trainer. The YMCAs I visit sometimes have scales. I don’t have confidence in the old-fashioned slide-the-weights-along-the-top-bar scales – I need precision – and now I don’t trust the digital scales, either. On three successive weighings, over one week, my weight was recorded as 168.4, 168.2, and 168.2. That can’t be right, as surely my weight should change more from day to day based on how much Diet Mountain Dew I have swilled and how much poop I hadn’t pushed out. It is the case, I suspect, that the YMCA scales, like the Dominion voting machines, are connected to a server in Venezuela, and President Maduro is just fucking with me. My suspicion grew as the last time I weighed in I had gained two pounds. Commies.
Last night, I took a picture of the Brazil Carnegie library in the twilight; this morning, in bright sunlight. Then I began my S-shaped route through central Indiana, beginning in the lower left of the S and ending in the upper right. The Carnegie library in Greencastle was my first stop, and I surely wish I could tell you more about it right now, but the Carnegie Corporation digital archives seem to be down right now. So, I’ll go with what I’ve got.
In 1881, the Indiana legislature enacted a statute which allowed schools to levy taxes to support libraries. Greencastle did just that, initially storing books in its high school. A decade later the town’s council rented space on the courthouse square and moved the books there and opened its collection to the public, with Belle Hanna as its first librarian. Fast forward another ten years, and the town obtained a Carnegie grant, and its new library opened in 1903.
The Greencastle library did what libraries do (“no notable changes had been made at [the library] in terms of services or expansion”) for the next 69 years, until Ellen Sedlack was selected as the library’s director in 1972. According to Ellen’s daughter, Catherine Hayek, “I think she thought that the people of Putnam County deserved a wonderful library. She wanted access for everyone in the county to not only have the resources that they need, but to be able to come to a beautiful place and have a center for learning, a center for gathering.” Sedlack believed that the library needed to, and could, grow.
The road from belief to reality was not smooth. Sedlack wanted to preserve the Carnegie building; others wanted to build a new library elsewhere. Renovation and expansion would require money; community members were reluctant to approve a tax increase. A bond issue was denied. The Indiana State Board of Tax Commissioners issued a letter of “nonsupport.” Ellen’s husband, Bob, recalled that “It was pretty mean” and that Ellen was “totally deflated.”
Not totally, in fact. Using “kind persuasion,” as her daughter put it, Sedlack, the Friends of the Library, and the Library Board worked, and worked some more. Maybe an “act of God” also helped. A lightning strike burned down the Presbyterian church near the library, and a house on the land needed for library expansion was moved into that now-vacant lot. The library was restored and improved, and 18,000 square feet were added. Sedlack was rewarded by being named the Greencastle Chamber of Commerce Person of the Year in 2000, a year before she retired. She and Belle Hanna were its two longest serving librarians. As Bob put it, “I think that perseverance was [her] chief quality, staying with it.”
Ellen Sedlack died in 2017. Her obituary page does not show her picture; it shows the library’s historic interior. This is how she is remembered by some of those who posted there.
Lisa:
She was a lady of grace and caring, so sweet and helpful. A true angel on earth. I have always admired her and the thoughtfulness she put into her leadership at the library. A truly great lady!
Brenda:
I worked for Mrs Sednak [sic] at the library when I was 14 years old. I looked up to her and she made me feel like I mattered and could do whatever I wanted to do in life. She was a special person.
Maggie:
She was a tremendous role model to me, gave me so much encouragement, and gently steered my thinking in new directions. Besides being my boss over several summers as I ran the bookmobile program, she was also my friend and a constant inspiration to me as I carried out my own role as a librarian…Her gentle spirit, beautiful smile, and gracious demeanor have left an everlasting impression on me.
When I admire the other Carnegie libraries I visited today, I’ll ponder the lives of the other women who loved them, worked for them, led them, and preserved them for the public to enjoy. I’m hoping it doesn’t take an “act of God” to locate a picture of Ellen.
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