Library History

The Lawton Library was founded in 1922 when a few local people who were interested, made it possible to purchase books from private libraries of the Reverends Varney and Harvey from Paw Paw.  After that many other books were donated from town locals as well as families from Porter Township.

First setup of the library was in a little room in the Town Hall and was staffed by Volunteers.  Grace Harwick became the first official librarian and the library continued under her direction until she moved to Honolulu.  After Harwick left the library was ran by high school students and was open for only an hour a day once school was out.  

March of 1933, Mrs. Zella Benton took over the duties of librarian and for a year through funds obtained by WPA conducted a book-mending project in the town hall.  Mrs. Benton also taught adult education classes at the school, and when she was not at the library, volunteers kept it open.

1934 with the efforts of Dr. C.D. Ewing, and with some others began the quest to find a building to house the library.  It was put on the ballot to create funding and it passed by a two-thirds vote.  They then purchased a building on South Main Street that was known as the Kasun Building.  Mrs. Benton was able to secure some federal funding to help remodel the building.  At just about this time Miss Harwick returned from Hawaii and resumed her position as librarian.

1937 Grace Harwick passed away and Florence Russell, assistant librarian, was appointed to Head Librarian by the town council.  She served six years in that capacity and then resigned in 1943.  Following suit Russell’s assistant Cora M. Powell became the new Head Librarian.  In 1947 remodeling was done to the building such as new lighting and new front plate glass window.

1953 different benefactors came together to construct a municipal building.  John Turner donated large sum of money to be used for project.  Carl Benton donated several collections of items to the village as a showcase in the museum.

1954 – Library New Home

On November 7^th, 1953, books were removed from the library and taken to the Town Hall where Cora Powell continued to run the library.  On June 12^th 1954 the new library and museum were open to the public.  In August of 1954, Cora Powell resigned her position and was replace by her assistant Alice Stoker.  1957 Alice Stoker became ill and Grace Russ became the new librarian. 

Dorothy Teall became the new Director until 1966.

Klair Bates took over Director role and in 1987 Betty Teall became the Director.

Betty Teal assumed roll of Director in 1987 and until 1996 when Betty passed away. The Lawton Public Library was dedicated in honor of Betty Teall.

Anne Coombs assumed the role of Director in 1996, Anne had worked in the library for many years until a new Director was hired.

Ground Breaking for New Library! 1996

November 1996 the Lawton Library new building addition was beginning to be built and officially opened June of 1997, which during this time JoAnne Blum assumed the Directors position.

JoAnne Blum passed away in December 2014, her passion for reading was evident to all patrons and was dearly missed by the community.

July of 1997 Donna Dluge was hired as Library Director and served until November of 2000.  In that time dedication of the Children’s Library takes place in honor of Charles Gibson, along with a dedication to Anne Coombs for her many years of service.

The Library became automated in July of 2000 – cataloging and circulation of books and patrons began.

Donna Dluge resigns as Director and Chris Roussel fills in until position would be filled.  December 2000, Mary Ruth Mitchell was hired as Director, and resigned in 2005.  Chris Roussel is then hired as Director.

• June of 2004 the Lawton Library started buying DVD’s to eventually replace VHS.
• April 2006 – Delivery Service for the Michigan E-Library interlibrary loan service begins.
• August 2009- The designing of the Lawton’s website begins. 
• August 2010 – VHS tapes are disposed of.
• May 2011 – The Lawton Library joins Overdrive allowing patrons to download audiobooks and books to an e-reader. 
• March 2014 – Chris Roussell retires.
• February 2015 – Kayla Jellies was hired as the new Director, and resigns in April 2018.

The library has employed part-time staff in the past, Kayla Shinabargar, Jana Koster, Rachel Brewer, Billie Brooks, Stacie Dunn, and Thomas Geib, Christy Nondorf-Maxum, BreAnna Tone; and we thank them for their service to the library. 

Current employees are:

• Leah Munson – 2023 – present
• Sharon O’Conner – 2019 – present
• Tammy Preston – 2024 – present
• Ellen Nelson – 2021 – present 
• Ana Riggs – 2024 – present

April 2018

Lyn Tone is hired as the New Director.  Many new changes took place.

• Public computers moved from Children’s area to the central area of Library.
• Then moved the display wall to the children’s area so that we could use to decorate and opened up the adult area for chairs and added a WIFI station for patrons.

The library then received donations from Ed Shirkey and Cynthia Benwick which allowed us to purchase bins for the children’s department, which has been a fabulous addition for the kids to search for books in. Staff put books in order and labeled each bin. A plaque has been affixed to the first bin purchased in memory of the Shirkey and Benwick families.

Thanks to St. Julian Winery and Rodney Reid, the library and museum received 3 display cases. The library now offers fun displays from staff, the museum and patrons on a monthly basis. This has been a wonderful addition to the library.

November 2021

The library went under a remodel and we had the Library painted. Thank you to Morton Decorating the library is a bright cheery place to be in.

The library offers many programs, adult craft night, adult book clubs, story times and summer and winter reading programs. The staff decorates monthly for holidays. We hope our patrons enjoy our library!