Ask Dayle Eldredge why she left Springfield
for Elkhart, a tiny community 25 miles north of the capital city,
and her answer is simple: “My soul needed a small
town.”
Eldredge, who stepped down last week as
village president of Elkhart, adds, “It’s such a sweet
community; I just love it.”
Even sweet places have problems, though and
some surface during discussions by the Elkhart Public Library
building committee.
In the Blue Stem Bake Shop, where dessert
pastries are made on the premises, Joye Anderson, Donna Cunningham,
and Gillette Ransom meet with a friend, Maureen Earley, who offers
advice on funding. It is midmorning on a Thursday, so other library
trustees, committee members, and staff aren’t present.
Elkhart lost its high school years ago, and
there is concern that a declining population will force the
elementary school to close, too. At the other end of life, the
village’s seniors, who no longer need large homes, may have
to move away if there are no apartments or duplexes for them.
Eldredge says Elkhart has about 450 residents
right now. Her village administration helped get a tax-increment
financing district for the creation of new housing. But it is the
age of diffusion, the era of the Internet. What could serve as a
focal point for all residents, young and old, student and
nonstudent, retired and working?
Elkhart is seeking more than a half-million
dollars to back an older idea. A major expansion of the century-old
public library is planned.
“It could reach all age levels,”
Ransom says. She and her husband, James, operate Miss
Jessie’s, an art gallery a few doors away. She notes that
public meeting space in the village is limited and that the current
library building is not accessible to people with handicaps. She
thinks there should be a special area for children and hopes that
other new library space can be reserved for a genealogy collection.
Cunningham, director of the library, proudly
lists current library services. The Elkhart Public Library is a
member of the Rolling Prairie Library System, through which, she
notes, “patrons have access to millions of materials all over
the state and worldwide.” The collection of books, DVDs,
tapes and magazines totals around 12,000 items. Anderson, president
of the library’s board of trustees, laments the tight shelf space. She says that adding new
titles means getting rid of older ones.
A less obvious need lies beneath these
practical considerations. For a small place, the community has many
traditions to preserve.
Legend has it that in the 1880s, Mrs. Lemira
Gillett, who had an alcoholic son, promised to give the town a
public library if it would remain “dry” for three
years. She only survived him by two weeks, but her daughters
honored the pledge.
So the village went dry for a while, but today
Peggy Brown’s Talk of the Town Restaurant will serve the
thirsty customer a wide range of fermented and distilled beverages.
And the family name Gillett is to Elkhart as names such as
Kerasotes and Myers are to Springfield.
Elkhart Hill, a part of the village and 777
feet above sea level, is the highest point between Chicago and St.
Louis. Up there is the old Gillett Farm, once a 16,500-acre ranch
that shipped thousands of beef cattle as far away as Europe. On the hill, Richard Oglesby, a three-term
Illinois governor, owned a mansion that has since burned down. The
ancient Edwards Trace, a trail marked by game and used by Native
Americans, ran by Elkhart. In company with the archaeological museum
above the Blue Stem, the library helps preserve the memories.
Earley, a Springfield resident who has raised
money for arts organizations and causes, grew up in Great Britain.
“The house on the hill overlooking fields is very reminiscent
of England,” she says.
So there is a library capital campaign. The
village’s sesquicentennial will be observed July 24. The
library and possibly Miss Jessie’s will enter the Yard to
Yard Challenge, a beautification competition sponsored by
Springfield Green. John Paul from Springfield’s Prairie
Archives is scheduled to host an antiques appraisal. Earley is
searching for grant money.
Sometimes talk turns to more contemporary
topics. High-speed rail service will flash through Elkhart. The
village would like an ATM — just one ATM.
But Gillette Ransom knows exactly what a
library should do right now:
“I think that it is a connection, if it
is done correctly, between a mundane life and a great
adventure.”
For more information about Elkhart Public
Library, call 217-947-2313 or e-mailelkhartlibrary@mchsi.com.
This article appears in May 19-25, 2005.
