Wondrous Women—Wonder Wedneday
Many thanks to Amélie Trufant Dawson for sharing her research on Etta. Photo credit: Harbor Springs Library.
It's WONDER Wednesday!
This weeks WONDER Wednesday is the third installment of our annual series on WONDROUS WOMEN! Here we celebrate Women’s History Month with a nod to local women in the past and present who have helped shape our community.
This week’s WONDROUS WOMAN is Etta Carpenter. From 1894 to 1911, Etta served as the first librarian at the Harbor Springs Christian Association Library, which later became the Harbor Springs Library that we know and love today. “We honor her every time we open our doors,” says current director Amélie Trufant Dawson. So here’s a slice of history from the library’s 128 years of operation.
A LIBRARY IS BORN
Etta was a former teacher, active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and respected community member who engendered the trust of the newly formed library board. She was brought on to establish a reading room at the corner of Spring and Main Streets in 1894, where the current library stands. She started with a collection of 200 hundred books and hosted literary societies, reading circles, alumni receptions and benefits in the space. Etta also oversaw the library’s transition to its new building, designed by architect Earl Mead, in 1908. The Harbor Springs Library occupies the very same building today.
NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART
Etta worked extremely long hours year-round. The library was open 9AM-9PM Monday through Saturday and 2-9PM on Sundays. She was also tasked with heating the library in the cold months by stove, shoveling coal from a huge pile that the library board purchased each year. An article in the Petoskey Evening News puts it this way: “…it [the library] would many times have been closed had it not been for her devotion and sacrifice to a cause she felt touched and benefited too many lives to be abandoned.” Etta’s take home pay amounted to $300 a year, which is the equivalent of about $8,875 today. It’s safe to say she–like most librarians–wasn’t in it for the money.
ENDURING HARBOR SPRINGS LEGACY
The Carpenter family moved to Emmet County in 1879 from Pennsylvania. The Carpenter name has been synonymous with Harbor Springs ever since. Etta’s nephew, Leonard Carpenter, founded Bluff Gardens with his wife Sophy. The business remains in the family today. Drive out M-119 about 1.5 miles north of Harbor Springs and you’ll see Carpenter Lane on your right. Though Etta never married, she adopted a niece, Donna, in infancy and raised her as her own. Etta resigned her position in 1911 due to ill health and died of heart disease at age 51 in 1913. She is buried in Lakeview Cemetery.
ETTA’S LIBRARY IN 2022
Today the library takes the stewardship of its 114 year-old building very seriously. “That’s why we’re working so hard to make sure this historic building is maintained and restored, so we can continue offering our free library resources to everyone in this community,” says Amélie. An online auction benefiting the building restoration fund is set for June 23-30 this year. “We’re trying to do right by Etta Carpenter as the first librarian here, and by the rest of the founders,” Amélie adds. We feel certain that Etta would approve.
