It’s a little library with a rich history

PECK — In 1908, a St. Louis publisher of women’s magazines, Edward Gardner Lewis, conceived an idea to promote his magazines while also giving a nod to the growing suffrage movement.

And the remote town of Peck was at the fore of Lewis’ efforts.

He founded the American Woman’s League “as a way to advance, protect and uplift American womanhood through its own united efforts and to improve and refine the American home,” according to “Keep Your Face to the Sunshine,” a history of the league written by Pauline Meyer and published in 1980.

Across the country, 38 league chapters were created. The second one in the nation, formed in 1909, was in Peck. The building has been preserved for 111 years and currently serves as the city’s library.

Lewis “saw that the movement was coming, and he decided in order to promote himself and his subscriptions, and also support women and the suffrage movement and the education and information to empower women to have crafts and things that they could sell, they formed the league,” said Doreen Schmidt, the librarian at Peck.

In order to qualify as an American Woman’s League chapter, a group had to have at least 37 members who paid $52 each in fees. Chapters were categorized according to population, and the Class 1 building at Peck, which cost $1,200 to build, was identical in layout and design, as well as furnishings and even interior linens, to all the other Class 1 chapter houses in the country.

The only other league chapter in Idaho was located in Payette, organized in 1910. That building no longer exists.

According to Meyer’s history, Catherine A. Waite founded the Peck league in the community of about 200 people.

“The chapter house was the center of community life,” Meyer wrote, “and a rest room for farmers’ families who came to trade in the community. The remote town was made up of many well-educated individuals who had come to Idaho from the East coast and the Midwest to seek their fortunes.

“Carrie Wheat, who was born in Flora, Illinois came to Idaho to teach school following her graduation from a teachers college in Springfield, Illinois in 1891. Later she married Allen J. Shortlidge, a farmer who had come to Idaho from Pennsylvania. The couple became members of the League. Mr. Shortlidge was an honorary member because men could not be full members with voting rights. Mrs. Shortlidge was postmaster of Peck for 22 years.”

The chapter house, which still has the inscription of the American Woman’s League above the front door and a bas relief of George Julian Zolnay’s “Woman’s Mission” above the fireplace, was the scene of social gatherings and served as the community’s church.

“Many a funeral cortege pulled away from the chapter house in those days,” Meyer wrote. “In a 1910 issue of the Los Angeles Herald the following appeared: `The kiln built for the chapter at Peck, Idaho was the beginning of a broad new life for members in that isolated town’”

Schmidt and Peck Mayor Nancy Green, said the fact that the Peck league was the second in the country shows the high level of commitment to women’s suffrage and the well-being of the family by the women in town at that time.

“There were probably around 200 people back then, and Peck was formed based on agriculture,” Green said. “They thought the railroad was coming in, so people moved in and there were a lot of businesses. (Waite) saw this was an opportunity, and so she was a strong pusher.”

“There was a strong group of women because they were a farming community and they realized the need for (a league),” Schmidt added. “This also was a hub for when all the grain trucks would come down these grades. And so this would be a resting place, also, for them to be.

“So the women were the ones that had the strength to see the need. Since Idaho already had (women’s) voting rights in 1896, they wanted to promote that through the whole country.”

League chapters around the country began to flourish as places where education and the arts could be taught. Lewis was a profligate investor, and the future of the league looked bright until a few of his creditors began to question the financial stability of his business enterprises and the league’s plan.

“Lewis, the champion borrower of all time,” Meyer wrote, “had over-extended his ability to make good some of his promises to his creditors. The government began to investigate his affairs and eventually he was indicted and tried on charges of mail fraud. Lewis claimed government harassment. Although he was not convicted at that time, the government’s action cast shadows of doubt over the League plan.”

Lewis eventually declared bankruptcy, and league chapters began adopting alternative plans and diversifying their missions.

In Peck the community continued to support and care for the building, which became the social focus of the town. At one point in the 1970s, it was privately owned and converted into a ceramics shop. But when the owners sold the building back to the city in 1985, steps were taken to list it on the National Register of Historic Places.

Green marveled at how well the building has been cared for over the years, with much of the original woodwork and even a few pieces of the original furnishings still intact.

“For over 100 years, this building is amazing,” Green said. “To see what it looked like right after it was built and the fact that it still looks so much the same.”

The Peck library is part of the Prairie-River Library District, which supplies the librarian, the books and the services while the city picks up maintenance costs. Children from Peck Elementary School across the street come to the library twice a week for various programs.

Over the years, the city has secured a few grants to help repair the roof and do other upkeep. Officials said they hope to eventually obtain another grant to remove the carpet and restore the original hardwood flooring.

Green and Schmidt said they planned for a public event to let people know about the history of the building and kick off a fundraiser. The coronavirus pandemic put all those plans on hold. But the library received displays and posters about the women’s suffrage movement from the National Archives and Records Administration and the Smithsonian Institution that will be used for public viewing and students’ instruction this year.

“To me, it’s amazing, for as old as it is, what good quality that it is,” Green said of the building. “And so many people have no idea of the history of this. I would love to see people get more enthusiastic about it and that we could really keep moving on preserving this.”

Schmidt said, besides the local visitors, there are people from around the country whose goal it is to visit each existing chapter house, and some of them have been to Peck.

“The fact that this is being used for the original purpose, to educate and empower and bring a community together, and especially promote women, shows that the women here worked so hard to promote other women,” Schmidt said. “Yet, the family, also. They weren’t going to do this all by themselves. That it was the second in the country (to be established) just shows that this little community has been working hard from the very beginning.”

The Peck library is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. It can be reached at (208) 486-6161 or peck.library@prld.org.

Hedberg may be contacted at kathyhedberg@gmail.com or (208) 983-2326.