The museum has a library? I didn’t know that! Why do you need a library?

Those questions are asked often. When the subject came up again recently, I asked Linda, our librarian, to give me a listing of recent projects. Linda, by the way, was hired to work 34 hours per week, and she could work twice that and still there would not be enough hours to accomplish all that needs to be done.

Back to the recent library inquiries: names of bars, 1959 to present, where Pour-Boys was located on South Newton; Albert Lea High School commencement dates, 1960-1998; burial site of relatives; photo of building at 226 W. Clark in 1940s; information on the Academy Cadets at Hotel Albert during World War II; information on the Albert Lea baseball team, state champions of the Southern Minny League; Eisenhower whistle stop in Albert Lea; first owners of a house on Park Avenue; information on restaurants, businesses and street names from 1944 (this from a nursing home resident in Illinois who is writing his memoirs); family history research questions (information needed for a 90th birthday gift); wedding newspaper clippings for 40th, 50th, 60th anniversary celebrations; sixth-graders throughout Minnesota requests for local history; American Gas Machine Company information; business locations; and Freeborn County trivia questions &045; these usually come from a discussion where the participants disagree on the answer.

Linda closed her listing with the comment, &uot;It doesn’t seem like there is a ‘top ten list’ of most asked questions. Every question is unique. There may be similar types of questions, but I seldom answer the same question twice. The reasons people are looking for the information is just as varied as the questions.&uot;

Where do the answers come from? For more than 40 years, area donors have been bringing in to the library city directories, phone books, photographs, church directories, business information, newspaper obituaries, plat maps, history books, school year books, community magazines, cemetery information and myriad other resources. Maybe they found an article in Grandma’s trunk, or even a newspaper used as insulation in the walls of an old house. The Freeborn County Genealogical Society has been very generous with their resources, and in fact, their library is a part of the museum’s library and their resources are available to all researchers.

The combined libraries contain microfilm on most of the newspapers ever printed in Freeborn County, bound volumes of many others, census records from 1857 to 1920, naturalization records from 1853 to 1956, marriage records, birth indexes, records of wills, numerous family histories, and thousands of other items that may help you with whatever research you may be doing.

Recently a donor brought in a copy of an insurance policy that he had taken out in 1949. He is still making the $6 annual payment. The Capper’s Farm and Travel Accident Policy provides indemnity for loss of life &045; $1,000; loss of one arm &045; $400; loss of one eye &045; $250; and disability of $25 per month not to exceed four months.

The hospital indemnity was fun reading.

Cappers will provide for the operating room &045; an amount not to exceed $10, the same amount for a blood transfusion or ambulance service, and an amount not to exceed $5 for anesthetic, or X-ray pictures or rental of a wheel chair.

Section seven of the policy also states, &uot;If on the date of the accident, the Insured has reached his sixtieth birthday anniversary, the indemnities …. will be reduced one-half.&uot;

Now, tell me, where else but our county museum’s library, can you find such delightful reading, such valuable family or business history, or such wonderful material for a research paper for school?

That brings up another subject. Our researchers are not all senior citizens. Many of them are students, grade school through college age, and because we want to encourage young people to recognize the value of historical research, we do not have a fee for student usage of the library.

For the rest of us, there is an annual museum membership of $20, or a daily admission fee of $5 for access to the museum’s collection or the library resources. The information here is far too valuable to be stored in boxes that are not available to the public. That is why we feel it is so important to have a staff person ready and willing to help you with any of your questions.

Whether or not you feel you have an interest in history (and you do even though you may not know it), a $20 household membership will keep these resources available to everyone today and in the future. Call us at 373-8003, look us up on-line at www.smig.net/fchm, write or stop in at 1031 Bridge Ave..

We’ll do our best to find the answers to your questions.

Bev Jackson is the executive director of the Freeborn County Historical Museum.