DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker tells it, here's how Wichita Falls got its public library. Back in the 1890s, Flora Anderson Kemp and a circle of women in town were doing what book lovers do when there's no library around — they were passing volumes hand to hand, circulating books among friends, keeping the stories moving even if the shelves were scarce. Flora was born in 1861, and she'd carry that love of the written word all the way to 1957, so she had plenty of time to see this story through to its end.
But the library itself — that took a while. Many attempts were made to get one started. Many.
The marker doesn't sugarcoat it. It just says many attempts, and if you've ever tried to get a town to agree on anything, you understand the weight of those two words. Then comes the year 1916, and Flora Kemp does something that is either the most patient strategic move in Wichita Falls history or the most brilliantly timed ask — she walks up to her husband, pioneer businessman Joseph Alexander Kemp, born also in 1861, and she asks him for a public library building as a Christmas gift.
A Christmas gift. Not a brooch. Not a new parlor rug.
A building. For the whole city. Now Joseph Kemp was a pioneer businessman, and pioneer businessmen didn't get that reputation by being slow to act.
In 1918 he presented the main structure of this very building to the citizens of Wichita Falls. And the citizens didn't just stand there with their hats in their hands — they showed up. The community donated four thousand books and raised money for furnishings.
Four thousand books, coming out of attics and parlors and probably a few of those same hand-circulated collections Flora had been tending for decades. The building has been enlarged and remodeled several times since then, but the original structure — the one Joseph gave as a Christmas present, the one the town filled with four thousand books — it's still standing right inside it. Some gifts have a way of lasting.
What the marker says
In the 1890s Flora Anderson Kemp (1861-1957) and other women in Wichita Falls circulated books among friends. After many attempts to begin a library, Mrs. Kemp in 1916 asked her husband, pioneer businessman Joseph Alexander Kemp (1861-1930), for a public library building as a Christmas gift. In 1918 Kemp presented the main structure of this building to the citizens of Wichita Falls. The community donated 4,000 books and raised money for furnishings. While the building has been enlarged and remodeled several times, the original structure remains intact. (1979)