PDF (20 MB) - Virtual Library of the Public Library of Cincinnati

322 HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
a circulating library in 1867. W. V. Latham was first president, James
Woohvorth, vice president, and George J. Anderson, secretary and treasurer.
This library had a room over the Moss National Bank (now the
Donahue hardware store) until 1870, when the gentlemen suggested the
organizing of a library. TAvelve women were given the authority and
received from the Young Men's Christian Association the books turned
over to the library association. The board of managers first met at the
residence of Mrs. Lester Hubbard, March 3, 1870. A second time at the
residence of Mrs. A. H. Moss, on March 17, and a third time a week later
at the high school, when the organization was completed.
The board of education set aside a room in the High School Building
for the 400 books then on hand free of charge. In 1870 Sandusky had
13,000 population, but only 114 subscribers to the library. In 1882 the
association had 3,170 volumes on its shelves. In that year the council
voted an allowance for the library association, and the Sandusky Library
Association Avas incorporated and became a free library, and for a long
time maintained its rooms in the Masonic Temple, and later in the residence
of Oran Follett on Wayne Street.
About 1886 a building fund association Avas begun to procure funds
for a building, and in 1897 the association had in its control $7,500, of
which $2,500 had been bequeathed by Mrs. George Thornton, of Cincinnati,
an old Sandusky resident. With this money the association purchased
from James Woohvorth and transferred to the library association
the lot Avhere the Carnegie Library noAV stands, Avhich has been in operation
for several years.
The Carnegie Library Avas opened to the public July 2, 1901, and
dedicated July 3, 1901, in the presence of a large audience, including
Governor Nash, Hon. E. O. Randall, Dr. W. O. Thompson, and others.
ART IN SANDUSKY
Many artists of high rank Avere born, or at some time Avere connected
Avith Sandusky. Among those are the following: John Jay Barber,
born in Sandusky. From a child Mr. Barber showed remarkable talent
for draAving. Being fond of animals, he went to the fields and woods
and studied cattle, making portraits of cows which looked out from his
pictures Avith such lifelike earnestness that his friends persuaded him
to send some of them to exhibitions in the East. Mr. Barber's cattle
pieces are in nearly all the best collections in the United States, and one
of them Avas awarded a diploma at the World's Fair in New Orleans.
One of his most interesting pictures is owned by the Sunyendeand Club
of this city. )
Charles C. Curran, the noted artist, came to Sandusky with his
parents in 1872, and received much of his early education here. He is
a figure painter, but also paints landscapes as a setting for his pictures.
He is a good draughtsman and seems to be equally expert in painting
animals and the human figure. He was elected as a member of the
National Academy of Art and of the Society of American Artists in NeAV