The first Lincoln School is shown in the background on the left. The “manifest desire” for a public library stirred early in Lewistown, Montana. In January 1897, two full years prior to Lewistown’s incorporation, Frank E. Smith, a local attorney, delivered a lecture and during its course he “deviated from his subject so far as to plead for the establishment of a public library.” In January of 1905, Andrew Carnegie’s private secretary notified Smith that the “generous Pittsburgher” (Fergus County Democrat Jan. 31, 1905) would “give to the library board of Lewistown $10,000 for the erection of a library building, provided the city will raise $1,000 a year for the maintenance of the library and furnish a suitable site.” The $1,000 per year for maintaining the library was available through city taxation. The cornerstone of the library was laid Oct. 31, 1905.
