The Lock Haven Librarian In the 1936 Flood

The Lock Haven Library In the 1936 Flood 

"Many a young person who found the Ross Library a treasure house of knowledge, of inspiration to effort, and open window to all the marvels of literature and science, is forever the beneficiary of the enthusiasm, the undaunted courage, the foresight, and the devotion which made the Lock Haven Library these past two decades a monument to the spirit which today lies still."

Miss Mary Crocker

Miss Crocker, city librarian for 20 years and former president of the State Library Association, died May 20th 1942, in the Williamsport Hospital.  Her obituary is one of the most beautifully heart written sentiments I have yet to come across.  This woman was loved, and respected, and to be greatly missed.  In 1936, the Lock Haven Newspaper recounted her experience in the library during the flood.

"The night of the flood found Miss Crocker alone in the library where she has an apartment. Her first information on the imminence of the flood came about 11.30 when neighbors called her and told her water was coming down Main Street. She telephoned the janitor, T. J. O'Connell, who immediately started for the building, but could get no further than Third and Main Streets.

He was obliged almost to swim to return to his own home. 

Turning on all lights, Miss Crocker went to the basement to carry up files of The Lock Haven Express for 1918 to 1931. Older files were safe on the third floor. Miss Crocker had carried up files covering five years when water began rushing the basement through wall holes, windows and doors. Threatened by the water, she abandoned her efforts, while the water rose an inch every three to four minutes.

The water poured through the doors curving in at the foot of the basement stairs, roaring like Niagara. 

Began Moving Books

 Miss Crocker then began moving books from lower reference shelves and the main room lower shelves to tables and upper shelves. Between times, she watched the water rise over the side walk, climb to the first step, then to the second. over the porch. When too much water had entered first floor to permit further efforts, she retreated io the second floor.

Before the flood passed its crest, the flood had risen half way up the stairs, submerging, submerging four shelves of the  library.  The fire place on the second floor furnished heat for Miss Crocker and there was electric power until much later. 

Watching the relentless climb of the water, Miss Crocker removed office records and papers to the third floor, together with food and candles. Interviewed, she admitted she was pondering which roof would offer the most comfortable refuge. 

Neighbors Appeared 

Daylight came soon with a view of the river scenery, spread over most of the city.

Nothing could be done except look first from one window, then from another. The first boats appeared and Miss Crocker stated that it seemed good to know that some one else was alive. Across the street, people were taken in to the home of Mrs. J. E. Quigley by means of the porch roof. F. D. O'Reilly appeared on the roof of his home and other neighbors showed themselves. Men in boats asked if help was needed and Miss Crocker replied that she needed no aid, and if necessary could shelter some people in the library.

Heat was available from the fireplace, and there was some food. Her measuring rod was the lamppost at the gate. When waves lapped the top of that, she said it seemed that the river would never stop. but would continue rising until the top of Bald Eagle Mountain was covered.

 View Disheartening

 By afternoon, when the flood started to recede, the view from what could be managed of the stairs, was as disheartening as that of any other household. All of Tuesday nights' labor had been wasted.

The carefully piled tables and shelves were overturned. Water boiled up in whirlpools from the floor, washed over window sills, heaved upside down a great magazine case which three men found difficult to lift, and pitched the pitched books, gathered over a quarter century, into slime and mud and water.

 Seeking occupation to keep her mind off the disaster, Miss Crocker says she wrote innumerable letters, baked biscuits and cooked other food while the electricity held. 

 When the power failed there was a rapid change from the latest model electric range to primitive cooking in a fireplace. She also tried to fish for books over the stair rail, but had no luck as water whirled the books out of her reach.

 By Thursday, earth was visible again, and Miss Crocker called to the first man she saw to burst open the swollen front door. She says she was very thankful to wade  through six inches or more of mud over the tops of her galoshes, to reach the street and the outside world.

 Edward Hecht was the first member of the board to come to library the morning following the flood and see the results of the catastrophe. Books lay soaked in mud and water, making one heartsick to think of the labor and care and pleasure the collecting of them had meant to everyone in the community. Since shelf room had been lacking for along time, many small shelves had been used, together with moveable cases. Unfortunately, these held a large part of the scientific and biography collections. 

The illustrated books suffered most, being on clay paper that the water glued fast together. Books could scarcely be picked up, dropping apart, disintegrated after two days soaking.

 Men were called in from the street to shovel mud. J. E. Brown lent his hose, the library hose being in the flooded cellar.  Six began to clear a path and move out furniture. The mud was like grease, and was very difficult to walk in safely.

Miss Crocker slipped and fell on her left shoulder, suffering a fracture and dislocation of the arm at the shoulder. 

Begin Repairs 

Mr. Hecht took charge of cleaning Friday, and before long found it possible to plan what could be done. After about ten days when the cellar had been drained  O'Connell got the fires going and under the direction of Miss Mary P. Simon. Miss Eleanor Eckert, Miss Isabel Welch and Miss Emily McCloskey acted as checkers under the direction of Crocker, who returned in a few days from the hospital.

Every piece of furniture was  scrubbed with disinfectants and was oiled. 

All books retained were wiped with disinfectants. Shelves, which were badly warped,  drawn together with rods, and soon were in a condition to permit their use.

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Mary Elizabeth Crocker was born January 2nd 1875, the daughter of John Jermaine and Elizabeth [Beer] Crocker.  She is buried in Wildwood Cemetery.

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READ MORE
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Pennsylvania Public Libraries and the Great Flood of 1936

Dark Clouds and Silver Linings

Bernadette A. Lear

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Memoir to John Wesley Little (artist) includes poem by Miss Crocker

There are also mentions of her being an artist.

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The 1936 flood caused millions of dollars worth of damage - including that to 14 public libraries.  Of those 14 libraries, 3 of those with the most severe damage were in our area along the West Branch - Lock Haven, Williamsport, and Milton.

Williamsport Library -

James V. Brown

"The Lycoming County Historical Society’s O. R. Howard Thomson Manuscripts Collection includes friendly letters between librarian Thomson and Helen Vogel White, the secretary of his close friend, Henry F. Marx of Easton Area Public Library. This correspondence complements official accounts by revealing an administrator’s gut reaction to the flood and its aftermath."

Thomson could not expect that the rain would resume a few days later, and the flood waters would rise higher.  At the flood’s crest, two-thirds of Williamsport was flooded and 22 inches of mud and water stood on the library's main floor

Early reports after the flood included the headline "Brown library not to reopen".  The wooden flooring had been ruined, 21 doors had been splintered beyond repair.

"According to a copy of JVB’s initial claim for state funding, the largest losses were in the collection, not the building. It requested more than $20,300 for “binding and fumigating books” and more than $11,700 for “books” (appended to McCormick, 1936). Since Thomson’s correspondence with Vogel is sparse over the next few weeks, he may have been in crisis mode. Such interpretation is reinforced by the half-sentences he wrote to her on April 11:

Well we're up for breath anyhow. Fifteen thousand volumes water soaked ... Frantic appeals to Washington, Harrisburg, and other places for duplicates of documents and Pennsylvaniana.

 Years of correspondence ... destroyed beyond salvage; records being ironed and the staff attired in overalls, knickers, pants. 

The Librarian in hip-boots and leather jacket as he had to wade around in the cellar. 

No heat for a week so whiskey administered to everybody twice a day and anti-typhoid injections made once a week. 

Bills being contracted for up to $25,000 and not a cent in sight! Great time. "

What likely saved Williamsport's library was not only an endowment from James Vanduzee Brown, and a tax Williamsport had passed to support the library in the 1920s, but Thomson's quick bold and decisive actions. 

"While such resources seemed inadequate to provide the services Thomson had desired, they likely emboldened him to act more innovatively and quickly. Wanting to save as many items as possible before mildew set in, as well as to clear the building for cleaning and repair, Thomson sent thousands of volumes to the Universal Publishing Syndicate (UPS), a commercial bookbinder in Philadelphia, rather than task his staff with assessing and repairing individual books at the flood site. Sopping-wet materials were packed into trucks without any prior cleaning, sorting, or record-keeping (Thomson, ca. 1907-ca. 1943, Thomson to C. Milam, January 29, 1937). Later, he sent three staff members to Philadelphia to examine each title coming from UPS’s drying ovens and decide which ones were worth rebinding versus those that could be discarded and/or replaced. The librarians then contacted colleagues at other institutions to request donations (claim appended to McCormick, 1936)...  Comparing the experiences of these two large libraries, one finds that Cambria Library’s decision to store most of its collections on upper stories resulted in far fewer book losses than at the James V. Brown Library. Nonetheless, JVB’s rapid response enabled it to salvage approximately 50% of its waterlogged items—a larger portion than any other flooded library in Pennsylvania"

Milton Library

"A project of the Women’s Club of Milton, the library’s first home had been in a rented office and barroom of the Broadway House. In 1932, it moved to the former Milton National Bank. Receiving no appropriations from local government, it charged rental fees to those who wished to borrow fiction. It otherwise subsisted on annual fundraising drives until a local “Community Chest” (a forerunner of the United Way) was formed and the library became a “participating agency” (“Milton Public Library provides,” 1967)."

Books were, literally, shoveled out and voluntary help was given to clean our building from flood dirt. The C.C.C. boys gave generously of their time as well as P.W.A. [sic] workers.… The actual number of volumes on shelves at present date cannot be known until an inventory has been taken and the flood loss given an actual count. This probably cannot be done until fall. The registration books and register’s cards were destroyed[,] which means that a new file of borrowers must be started (Hassenplug, 1935-1939b, monthly report for March 1936).

3,000 books were sent to the Universal Publishing Syndicate to be cleaned and saved,  and the staff wrote to more than 30 publishers to obtain replacement copies

MPL’s records also documented lobbying efforts of library trustees and local government officials who helped secure passage of a bill to provide state assistance for flooded libraries

Lock Haven Library

Annie Halenbake Ross Library of Lock Haven was located on Main Street, just a block away from the river. 

"Just before midnight on St. Patrick’s Day 1936, neighbors telephoned [Librarian] Mary E. Crocker with warnings that the Susquehanna River was flowing up Main Street. 

She grasped precious volumes of the Lock Haven Express from the basement and began to haul them upstairs. Soon, however, water began to pour through ground-level windows.

 Giving up on the newspapers, Crocker turned her attention to the reference collection and began to pile dictionaries and encyclopedias from lower shelves on top of nearby tables.

 Eyeing the water that inched onto the library’s porch, she retreated to the second floor. The river crept up the stairs after her.

 Carrying files, food, and candles to her apartment on the third floor, she settled in for the night. As long as electricity lasted, she baked biscuits and wrote letters to friends. When the power failed, she lit kindling in a fireplace and waited for morning. In just a few hours, floodwaters destroyed much of her library’s book and periodical collection" 

“men were called in from the street to shovel mud,” while workers from the WPA scrubbed, disinfected, and oiled furniture"

"Unfortunately, however, these grassroots efforts were ineffective. Intermittent rain doused books on the library lawn and constant dampness caused mildew to set in. Ultimately, most of those volumes were lost (“Library suffered heavy flood damage,” 1936). More tragically, the library’s premature reopening in June, before everything was completely dry, caused mildew to spread to other materials. Thus AHRL had to remove even more items from its shelves. In hindsight, Crocker wished she had sent more books for immediate professional care... Frugality, understandably born of living in a small community during the Great Depression, cost Lock Haven a large portion of its collection."

Crocker attempted to rescue newspapers and books in lower stories until she was stranded on the third floor. Like the James V. Brown Library in Williamsport, AHRL lost more than 7,000 books primarily because it stored a substantial portion of them on lower levels. In addition, 15,000 magazines, nearly the entire periodical collection, were unrecoverable. Fences, shrubbery, and trees were damaged or washed away, too. Crocker estimated AHRL’s loss at well over $20,000 (“Benefits of 1936 flood,” 1938; “Library suffered heavy flood damage,” 1936).

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