BOOKS FOR ALL
MONTEREY COUNTY'S FIRST LIBRARIAN
Barbara Ann Warren and Anne Hadden
Copyright © 2012 Barbara Ann Warren
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2013-02-26
Acknowledgments
My great-aunt Anne Hadden had always wanted to write a book about her adventures in Monterey County as its first librarian. In her retirement during the 1950s, she spent many hours handwriting and typing manuscripts of her memories. When she passed away, my family gave most of these papers to the Monterey County Free Libraries.
In my retirement, I have become very interested in family history, finding fascinating stories about my ancestors. I find Aunt Anne’s memoirs exciting, valuable stories for our local history.
Many people have helped and supported me in my research and writing efforts. I want to especially thank Mary Housel and Jayanti Addleman of the Monterey County Free Libraries for their helpful support by providing me with copies of papers and photographs. My cousin Betty Jean Spitze gave me copies of papers and pictures from the “family trunk,” which were meant to be shared by all the cousins. Furthermore, I want to thank the librarians at the California State Archives in Sacramento for their generous help and wonderful records.
For additional support, I want to thank my writing group for their continual help, and my daughter Adria Warren, who took time away from a busy law practice and two young babies, to review the manuscript.
Barbara Ann Warren
Thousand Oaks, California
Introduction
My great-aunt Anne Hadden, first county librarian of Monterey County, was responsible for establishing the county library from scratch in 1913—to offer books to all residents who wanted access to them. The job was a big challenge, and for sixteen years Anne dedicated her life and energies to its success.
For many years, I have collected Anne’s handwritten and typewritten manuscripts, as well as copies of newspaper articles and journal publications about her work. Knowing that she had always wanted to publish her stories, I decided to bring them to life, along with my own chapter introductions to her writings in order to provide historical context. Thus there are two authors of this book: Anne Hadden, my great-aunt, and myself.
Anne was born in Ireland, the oldest child of a doctor practicing in Dublin. Her grandfather David Hadden, also a doctor, was called the “Famine Doctor of Skibbereen,” honored by the town in southern Ireland. In 2010 he was recently recognized by a newly created Irish ‘Memorial Day’ in remembrance of the famine. Anne’s great-grandfather John Hadden was a Methodist minister, an early circuit preacher, also in County Cork.
This ancestry served Anne well in the years she was a librarian. Doctors, ministers, and librarians share similar qualities. Anne had an outgoing, friendly desire to help people, and was patient and sympathetic. Librarians want to help people and, as a result of raising awareness, often help society advance.
Today, a century later, the economy of California is struggling to continue Anne Hadden’s lifetime work for public libraries—that of providing everyone access to books so that they can educate themselves.
I am proud to publish Anne’s writings. They give us a wonderful idea of the person she was and of the service she gave to Monterey County and its residents.
NOTES: To honor and “showcase” Anne’s manuscripts, which vividly describe early California library adventures, I have put her writings in BOLD print throughout the text, under the caption ANNE HADDEN, in her own words. No quoted material has been changed.
The abbreviation for the Monterey County Free Libraries is MCFL.
First Librarian of Monterey County
County Free Library work in a state like California with such variety of topographical, climatic, and social conditions, offers possibly more picturesque points along with its routine than any other type of library work…
The County Librarian reaches nearly every point the books do, and the ideal County Librarian in addition to a thorough knowledge of technique, should have an iron constitution, the instinct of a social worker, and the spirit of a pioneer.
Anne Hadden, 1925
Anne Hadden knew there was an open position in Monterey County for a head county librarian to establish their new California Free County Library. In the summer of 1913, Anne was returning by train to Sacramento, where she worked, from a convention in Santa Barbara. She took a chance and left the train in Salinas, hoping she could interview for the available job without an appointment. First she met with a city librarian and a county clerk, and they directed her to a member of the Board of Supervisors, a person who had approved the establishment of the new library the year before. After her spontaneous interview, Anne may have had little hope of obtaining the position, yet shortly thereafter she received notice of her appointment.
The Monterey Board of Supervisors had approved a resolution to join the new California County Free Library system in August of 1912. They wanted to start the library as soon as tax money was available to hire a librarian. Anne’s timing was perfect; $3,200 of taxes had been collected.
Anne had studied the new 1909 and 1911 California County Library Laws, filled out an application, and taken the examination for a county library position. She had been the first head librarian at the City of Palo Alto Library for ten years, since completing her studies at Stanford University in 1901.
Anne certainly had the right education and experience for the job. Even with her experience, however, was Anne prepared for the rigors of starting a new library system in the vast County of Monterey? She had lived for many years in Palo Alto, about seventy-five miles from the County, and must have known how wild and extensive Monterey County was, with many isolated residents. She would be starting from a blank slate, in a job that would entail travel under very difficult conditions. However, Anne was looking for a challenge and a change in her career path. She was thirty-eight years old.
***
A look into Anne’s earlier life sheds some light on her spirit of adventure and her intelligence, both of which helped prepare her for her new job. Anne was born in Ireland in 1874, the oldest of six children. The family lived in Dublin, a well-established city with many cultural and educational opportunities for growing children.
