A Little History of Bonney Memorial Library

1. A Little History of Bonney Memorial Library In 1929, our library was built and presented to the Cornish Library Association, a gift from Dr. Sherman Grant Bonney, born here in 1864 and named after Lincoln’s renowned Civil War generals by his parents, to whom the library is dedicated and whose portraits hang on its walls. Sherman and his family lived in their Main Street house until 1872, when the boy’s father, a physician, decided to move his practice to Manchester, New Hampshire. Sherman then attended Bates College and in 1886, only weeks after his father’s death, he graduated. He married, and received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School, then practiced medicine in Lewiston until the fall of 1890 when his wife became ill with tuberculosis and the couple moved to Denver, expecting that the climate and altitude would help her recover. There the Bonneys made their permanent home, and there Dr. Bonney became a renowned author and specialist in the disease that had caused his father’s first wife’s death, and eventually his own wife’s death.

2. In October of 1927, passing through Cornish on a trip from Colorado through New England to Canada, Dr. Bonney learned that the town’s library, in existence since 1841 and in 1867 incorporated as the Cornish Library Association, was attempting to raise funds to replace its inadequate space in a little room over a village store (today the red antique store at the top of Bridge Street) with a “modest inexpensive building.” As his father had been one of the original incorporators of the Association and a member of its first Board of Directors, while his mother was also a charter member and treasurer, he decided that a suitable building for the community would be an appropriate memorial. In June of the following year, Dr. Bonney returned with his wife to Cornish and, with “a desire to render substantial aid,” urged the Association members to allow him to erect a memorial building to his parents, Dr. Calvin Fairbanks Bonney and Harriott Cheney Bonney, which would be “a substantial library building, pleasing in external appearance and equipped with every modern convenience, to be called the Bonney Memorial Library,” while conserving funds already obtained to purchase books and for maintenance. This offer was accepted with “every manifestation of grateful appreciation” by the Library Committee.

3. By chance, an ideal place for a handsome structure was available. In 1926, only a year before Dr. Bonney’s first visit, an aging dry goods and grocery store located at the corner of Main and Bridge Streets had been demolished. The land on which the store had stood then belonged to Dr. Samuel G. Sawyer, who first intended to leave it vacant because it enlarged the grounds of his own Main Street house and made the business section of the town more attractive. But Dr. Sawyer and his wife Helen decided to donate the abutting parcel of land to the Association. After Dr. Bonney made his offer, which exceeded all hopes, and after John J. Thomas, a Portland architect, had designed a handsome building, ground was broken in September, the Sawyers’ deed of gift was executed in October, and the Bonney Memorial Library was completed in ten months. At two o’clock on June 27, 1929, the new library was opened to an eager public for viewing, and during the sunny June afternoon streams of people from Cornish and surrounding towns visited the new building. At eight that evening they filled Pike Memorial Hall for dedication ceremonies and a passing of keys to Dr. Sawyer, the representative of the Library Association and the Town.

4. In his “Remarks Upon Presentation of the Library,” delivered before Dr. Sawyer’s speech of acceptance for the Library Association, Dr. Bonney spoke of the dedicatory exercises “as a public expression of our obligation and of our gratitude to all those who have preceded us,” particularly the “few leading spirits, who were interested in the welfare and upbuilding of the village.” He then said these memorable words: “True progress is not made altogether by looking backward, but also by looking forward. To this end, let us hope that in the future the privileges of this Library be accorded to all people in this vicinity, without discrimination as regards race or relation. Let its doors be open to all who care to read and learn. Let us hope that partly through its instrumentality there may develop a wider diffusion of knowledge, more useful, more responsible, better balanced judgments, a greater tolerance for the rights and opinions of others, a broader charity, and eventually a greater nobility of character. Let us trust that, for all time this institution may be consecrated solely to the service of others.”

5. During the following eighty-four years, the library has prospered. Dr. Sherman Bonney’s expectations were that there would be ample space for two thousand volumes; in 2014 there are well over seventeen thousand books here to interest a wide range of readers.. Guided by many dedicated librarians, the collections have been creatively improved and new services have been added. Particular attention has been given to reading and learning by the young, with volunteers offering programs which encourage the “wider diffusion of knowledge” envisioned by Dr. Bonney. Current magazines and other printed materials have found their place here. Gifts to the library, such as contributions and bequests made over the decades and more recent gifts like the Demery bequest for book purchases, the Richy Aaron Collection of books about cooking and fishing, and the E. A. Center Memorial collection of medical books, have enlarged resources in diverse areas. Along with grants from national and Maine-based foundations, which include the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, the library has received gifts of computers and materials of all sorts. New technologies have brought audio and video media into circulation, while there is increasing use of our computer facilities, available not only for “those who care to read,” but those who learn by connecting to the Internet.

6. The library moves steadily forward, working always to fulfill the wishes and expectations of Dr. Sherman Bonney. Today, with thanks for eighty-four years of generosity and dedication behind us, we look with confidence to a future when our overcrowded spaces will be beautifully enlarged, and to the participation of many others who will make possible the improvement of a Bonney Memorial Library which is close to the hearts of all those who have benefitted from its being here. Written by Thomas Carper