Library History:
One may be surprised to discover that no libraries existed in the Valley Shore area until the mid-eighteenth century. However, in 1737 a group of people banded together to form the Four Town Library. Their library consisted of a donkey with shelves strapped to his back, a stack of books and a librarian, the donkey’s master. Passing through town once a month, his arrival became an event for both readers and non-readers alike. It was regarded as a social gathering. The book exchange was operated on an auction-like basis. Once last month’s books were collected, they were auctioned off. The highest bidder had loan of the book for that month.
Records show that in 1760, the Four Town Library contained only three novels. Fitzhugh Halleck, a poet from Guilford, recalled in his autobiography that the Library contained "works of many standard English poets and novelists, essayists and historians" and "old and dog eared well-thumbed copies of Goldsmith, Gibbon, Josephus, and Joseph Andrews, Pope, and Pultarch and Shakespeare and Smollett, with numerous less used and heavy volumes."
Libraries on the Shoreline did not resurface until well after the 1790’s, with the exception of Chester whose present library association was established in 1789. One explanation for the absence of a library in Deep River may be that the town then was still part of the Saybrook colony. Old Saybrook established its library in 1854. By setting up state guidelines, the Free Public Library Act of 1884 encouraged communities to set up public libraries. In 1889, The Essex Library Association was formed. Public libraries soon sprang up all along the Connecticut Valley. Another encouraging factor was the formation of the Connecticut Library Association in 1894. Urged on by the Association, the state provided incentives for towns to make their libraries public by offering grants of up to $200 yearly to be spent on books.
