DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Back in 1898, in the town of Belton, twenty-five women walked into the Central Hotel in downtown Belton and decided to do something about it. About literature.
About history. About the kind of town they wanted to live in. They called themselves the Woman's Wednesday Club, and what they built from that first meeting is still standing today.
The oldest active club of its kind in all of Bell County. Now think about that for a second. A literary society, born in a hotel lobby, outlasting just about everything else around it.
That's not an accident. That's intention. Each one of those founding members donated books.
Not money, not promises. Books. Their own books.
And from that modest pile of donated volumes, something remarkable began to take shape. A library. The nucleus, as the marker puts it, of what would become the city's public library holdings.
But here's where the story gets its legs. These women didn't just stock a shelf and call it done. They went further.
They persuaded Andrew Carnegie himself to donate funds to the city of Belton for a public library. Andrew Carnegie. The man who built libraries across the country.
They got his attention, and they got his money, and Belton got its library. All of it traceable back to twenty-five women meeting on Wednesdays to talk about books. The marker calls them a driving force in the cultural life of the city, and after hearing all that, I'd say that's about right.
What the marker says
Founded in 1898 as a literary society with twenty-five members, the Woman's Wednesday Club is the oldest active club of its kind in Bell County. Initially meeting in the Central Hotel in downtown Belton, the club members were devoted to the study of literature and history. Each member donated books to begin a library. They were instrumental in persuading Andrew Carnegie to donate funds to the city for a public library, and their collection of books formed the nucleus of the institution's holdings. The club has been a driving force in the cultural life of the city. (1990)