The history of the Custer County Library

When the Custer Women’s Civic Club was organized in 1926, one of its primary goals was the formation of a library. By March 15, 1930, it opened the Custer Library in the Jury Room of the courthouse.
The library had many homes during its formative years, including a room in the bank, a small building which had been a barbershop and “the small white school building.” The library received funding from Roosevelt’s Work Progress Administration (WPA) from 1935-39. The WPA is the organization in charge of the Pack Horse Library Project mentioned in a previous article.
Once WPA funding ended the Civic Club was again responsible for most of the library expenses. The County pitched in $25 each month and the City pitched in $10 each month to pay the librarian. Funding and maintaining a home for the library were always a challenge. In 1941, the main library moved to a room specially built for it in the basement of the log community building.
In 1943, library supporters issued a petition in accordance with Chapter 12.2501 of South Dakota Code 1939 to “establish a free library” and “levy a suitable tax to maintain the same.” This petition required “at least 40 percent of the legal voters of such county” in the last gubernatorial election and further required that the petition be “signed in at least 60 percent of the taxing districts.” The county library formation effort had overwhelming support, and a petition with 1,250 signatures was presented to the commission July 12, 1943. On Sept. 13, 1943, the budget approved by the commission listed a .50 mill levy to support the newly formed Custer County Library.
In addition to the main library, the county library had anywhere from 11 to 14 sub-stations scattered throughout the county in communities such as Dewey, Pringle, Buffalo Gap, Fairburn, Hermosa, Folsom, Sanator, Argyle, Coldbrook, Elk Mountain and Lauzon. They were housed in banks, post offices, schools and homes. The custodians received two cents for every book circulated until 1948 when their pay doubled to four cents. These rural sub-stations allowed access to library books and magazines to everyone in the county. The early library also offered story hours for the rural children two Saturdays each month. The sub-stations began in 1942, but it is unclear when they ceased to be a service of the library.
In 1944, the main library was moved to a room in city hall, where it stayed for over 30 years. In 1975, the City of Custer gave the library notice that it would need to find a new home because it needed the space for other purposes.
In 1977, the library moved to the previous home of the Forest Supervisor on 3rd Street. This location was not an ideal place for a library, so it was a blessing when Jerry Baldwin proposed in 1980 that the library be included in a community center building to be built with a bequest from the Robert Hamm Estate.
Construction of the building began in the spring of 1981. From December of 1981 to January of 1982, volunteers built new shelves and moved the old shelves and the contents of the library to its new and current home at 447 Crook Street. In 1997, Custer County acquired the community center building and renamed it the Custer County Courthouse Annex.
The library didn’t quit growing and changing just because it had found its permanent home. The original library consisted of the 2,460 square-feet that now houses the main collection. Later, the library added the 288 square-feet room that now serves as the main office space and the 960 square-foot lobby that now contains the magazines and periodicals.
In 2011 the library gained a story-time/programming room when the county commission room moved to the newly remodeled courthouse. In 2020, the library added a 1,350 square-foot extension to provide study rooms, meeting rooms, office space, workspace, a book sale area, and storage. The library didn’t just grow at the main branch, a 1,260 square foot branch library opened in Hermosa in November of 2005 to serve residents on the east side of the county.  
In addition to facility growth, the library has grown the resources and services it offers. The primary resource continues to be physical books. However, the library now also offers physical videos and audiobooks, downloadable ebooks and audiobooks, computers, printers, WiFi, study rooms, meeting rooms, numerous databases and programs for all ages.
The library has benefited from the leadership of several library directors and many supportive library board trustees over the years. Evelyn Vognild, a traveling librarian sent by the state library, helped the library get started by working off and on between 1944-46.
Custer County Library Directors through the years were Ruth Van Oversheld (Feb. 1944  - Jul. 1944), Lena Young (Aug. 1944 – May 1945), Betty Flanary (June 1945 – Oct. 1945), Oversheld again (Nov. 1945-Apr. 1961), Florence McKenna (Jun. 1961 – Feb. 1965), Juanita Boone (Jun. 1965 – Feb. 1966), Virginia Ferguson (Jul. 1967 – Feb. 1977), Mary Coffin (1977-1988), Marguerite Cullum (1988-2011), and Doris Ann Mertz (2011 – present).
Ferguson just passed away in 2019, and her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are still library members. If you look in the library, you will find a bookend that her daughter, Wanda Wheeler, decorated in her memory.
Coffin now lives in Piedmont but just dropped by the library in April to make a donation to the Custer County Library Foundation.
Cullum, the longest-serving director, moved on to managing the Crazy Horse Memorial Library in 2011 but continues to be a library advocate and is just a phone call away when needed.