March is National Women's History Month

 

March is National Women’s History Month. I always enjoy sharing some past articles and history about some of the fine ladies that contributed to the history and lives of Crittenden County. At the time they were just trying to do their best at their jobs and doing something worthwhile for the town and county, but in doing this, they helped shape the minds and futures of all generations.

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Founder of the Crittenden County Public Library

Jessie Croft Ellis, the founder of the Crittenden County Library, was born near Salem on September 10, 1891. She was the middle daughter of George Croft and Margaret Ellen Cox Croft. She was raised by her mother following the death of her father when she was six.

 

 

Jessie, a graduate of Marion High School, was sent to finishing school at Sayre College in Lexingston, Kentucky. There she married Cecil B. Ellis, who was on the football team.

 

By 1924 both her mother and her husband had passed away, and Jessie was faced with the task of earning a living and raising her son alone.

 

The family farms were no longer profitable at that time, so Jessie took the big step of moving up North to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and enrolling in the University of Michigan to get a teacher’s license. Upon getting the license she got a job in the high school at Alma, Michigan, teaching American History. 

 

But Jessie found she didn’t like teaching. So she talked her way into a job in the library of the University of Michigan and began taking classes for a Master’s degree in Library Science. She had carefully chosen her new job to be in a university town, where her son Cecil, Jr. could go to college at home. 

 

Jessie Ellis stayed at the University Library in Ann Arbor for many years until her retirement, but she always knew that she was a daughter of Marion, Kentucky, and when she retired she instantly returned home.

 

She bought a house on the Bellville Road out of town, with money from the family fluorspar mines which had now become profitable, but she didn’t sit at home to knit.

 

Jessie Ellis had to do something for the people of Marion. What she knew best was library work, so she went to all the leading people of Marion and badgered them continually for money and space to start a library for the town. 

 

Finally the state appropriated $2,900 for the organization of a library in Marion, which was matched with $300 by the fiscal court. Many plans were made and April 6, 1953 was the date set for the opening of the new library. She worked very hard to select and catalog books to be ready for the opening. The first library was housed in a small office space on a first floor in the heart of downtown Marion. In less than a year, it had outgrown the building and it was necessary to find a new location.

 

In March 1954, the library, with approximately one thousand volumes, moved to a new location on North Main Street (located where Johnson’s Furniture warehouse is today). The library’s next move was to a building on W. Bellville St. across from the courthouse.

 

The library kept growing and needing more room, after the old jail was torn down, the present library was built on that location where it stands today. We can give thanks to this determined lady, Jessie Croft Ellis, from years ago, that Crittenden County was able to have its first library.

 

But Mrs. Ellis finally wore herself down, and the last fifteen years of her life were spent in hospitals and a nursing home near Salem. She died in June 3, 1975 and is buried in Mapleview Cemetery with her family.

 

 There is a plaque in the library that says "Honoring Mrs. Jessie Croft Ellis, Librarian and Founder.

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