About the library
Origin of the Big Bell on the Lawn
The large, cast-iron bell was used as a fire alarm in the early days of Chetek. It was mounted on the municipal water tower a few years after it was build in 1904. Previous to this time, alarms were sounded from the Methodist Church belfry.
The bell is 4 feet in diameter and very heavy. Ringing it would require great strength to swing it back and forth, and the bell motion would exert enormous stress on its mountings. Therefore, this bell never moved back and forth, striking the rim to produce a bong, bong, bong sound.
A swinging bell makes the ding-dong sound because one strike faces you and the next strike faces away.
When the city built a new water tower in 1984, the old one was demolished and the bell came to the library lawn for display.
History of our Library
The Chetek public library was founded in 1888. It was a self-supporting circulating library which had over 2,000 volumes within its collection. At the time, the village of Chetek only held a total population of no more than 550 citizens. Unfortunately, the library could not be sustained for very long and was closed until 1926 when the Woman’s Club was able to re-established the Chetek Public Library.
It was housed in a store room within the Chetek Public School. The operating hours were only that of the schools. This didn’t discourage Miss Sigrid Moe, head librarian. Miss Moe was able to reach out to former colleagues and the Woman’s Club asked friends about book donations. The library promised to cover any freight charges to deliver the books to their store room library, a supply line that endured for two years.
Things were looking up for the library as Sigrid cataloged all the books and reached out to the Wisconsin State Traveling Libraries to secure more books. However, the luck of the library would once again turn as the school needed use of the store room as an additional classroom.
The library had to pack up and move to the store room of the Tyler Store building. With the move, the library would be without heat and lights. However, the Woman’s Club came through once again when they pushed the City Council to provide funding to the library to cover the cost of heating, lights, and freight.
It was at this location that Mrs. Edna Van Patten became assistant librarian. Initially, she was not paid for her work at the library but, after some encouragement from Miss Sigrid Moe, City Council was willing to pay Edna Van Patten a small salary.
The library had another move shortly thereafter. Its new location was across the street from the Presbyterian Church at the Mair Building, which produced the first Library Board. There were only two members in this Library Board by the names of Mr. George De Guire and Mr. Freeman Mikesell. The Library Board was founded due to the lack of sponsoring by the Woman’s Club. However, the citizens of Chetek deemed the library important that they voted to raise taxes a small portion in order to support the library.
Sometime later, the library was once again moved; this time to City Hall, where Mrs. Enda Van Patten became the head librarian. Her assistant librarian, Mrs. Elsie Conrad became the new librarian after Edna retired.
By 1971, Mrs. Elsie Conrad had retired after nineteen years of service as head librarian to the Chetek Public Library. Mrs. Johnette Brouillard was the head librarian who took over. She was assisted by Mrs. Jim Kwallek and Mrs. Albert Drost.
During that time, the library was associated with the Division of Library Service in Madison and belonged to both the Barron County System and the Eau Claire Library system. The Chetek Public Library held over 15,000 books, films, records, and periodicals which were in circulation for the citizens of Chetek to enjoy. However, it was becoming overcrowded and the library was discussing new locations with the city.
The new location for the library was agreed upon in 1979. The City of Chetek bought a building from the school for $40,000, $50,000 of which Hazel Calhoun donated for the purposes of buying a new space and aiding with renovation costs. The school had been using the building as their agricultural education and industrial studies building. This building remains one of the city’s older structures.
Hazel Calhoun was one of the librarians who helped run the library for many years. Even in death she was dedicated to its mission. In her Will, for use in maintaining and providing for the Calhoun Memorial Library and Museum, she allotted 25% of the money from her estate. This trust continued to provide for the library for a period of five years after she passed.
During the 1980-1981 school year, the high school industrial arts students were in charge of renovating the building in preparation for use by the museum and library. This was done to give the students real-world experience while keeping renovation costs down.
On June 25, 1981, the Calhoun Memorial Library officially moved to its current location on 321 Moore Street and opened its doors on July 10, 1981. It shared a building with the Chetek Area Museum for numerous years.
On May 26, 2014, the Museum moved to its current location on main street and the library was able to expand its collection and space. The current kids’ room is where the museum was housed within the building.
Throughout the years, there were numerous directors including Judy Bishop, Marilyn Amundson, Sally Nielsen, and Carol Burnham who became the director on December 17, 2004 and served our library until 2022.
In 2022, Emily Resendiz became the director of the library. There are six employees and seven Library Board members who currently provide literary and media services and resources to the people of Chetek.
Much of this information comes from a book written by Hazel Margaret Calhoun, research done at the Chetek Museum, and the help of many citizens of the city of Chetek.