   Courtesy of Gretchen Seymour. THE TRAPPE LIBRARY by Mrs. William E. Howard A little group consisting of W.A. Kirby, Edwin Powell, Dr. Chaplain, Nick Orem, Dr. McCormick, Edith Ford, a few others, and myself, met in the old school house and organized [in 1903]. We begged books from all we could and some small contributions of money- after awhile our meetings and collected books used Mr. Will Kirby’s Office. Someone wrote to Miss Maria Dickinson and she offered the little house on her place in town, rent free. We named it for Dr. Philemon Dickinson, her father, as it had been his office. We wrote to the Pratt Library and they sent a lot of displaced books which we mended, Our furniture was all donated and Mr. Kirby furnished the wood for our stove. For awhile we met every Thursday and Saturday, and after awhile, we had Isabelle Mullikin for a small sum to attend to it. It was a gathering place for us all and we had many good times. I forgot to mention that the Enoch Pratt Library sent us a traveling library every month which helped a lot. Dr. Chaplain was president and Mr. Powell served as treasurer.” [from a letter from Mrs. William E. Howard and who had helped establish it to Mrs. S. Troth Kemp quoted in a Feb. 1964 letter in Gilbert Byron Talbot’s Libraries (1676-1965); Talbot County Free Library; Easton, MD. 1965, p. 6]. A photo postcard of it can be seen as #13 in the Post Card Gallery. The library closed about WW I and its books were given to the Trappe High School. A few books from the Trappe library are still around. |