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LIB-2 DUG · THE LIBRARY'S OWN HISTORY
The Walkerton-Lincoln Township Public Library dates itself to 1913, and its founding instrument was not a tax levy or a Carnegie grant but a Book Shower. In the library's own account of itself, "the first books owned by the library were gained by holding a 'Book Shower' which brought in a total of 150 books and generous donations totaling $2.00." A hundred and fifty donated volumes and two dollars in cash is the whole founding endowment the record carries, and it is printed here at the library's own strength: a community collection assembled by gift, in a town of about twelve hundred people, two years before the First World War. The founding date matters beyond sentiment. It places Walkerton's library in the great Indiana library-founding wave of the 1900s–1910s, but by the subscription-and-gift route rather than the steel-money route — the distinction the Carnegie article below settles in full. What the record reached does not name the founders individually: the organizing names of 1913 stand in the library board's earliest minutes and the Independent's 1913 run, neither online, and the gap is printed with its settlers rather than filled.
Principal sources: Walkerton-Lincoln Township Public Library, the library's own published history (walkerton.lib.in.us and its place listings); Indiana State Library, Public Library Directory 2026 (the library's entry, updated September 21, 2026).