The Rowan County Library

 

201 W Fisher Street, Salisbury, NC 28144

Not Just a Local Library

Bill and I have been going to the Rowan County Library in Salisbury, North Carolina for years and have found their genealogy collection extensive and staff very helpful. Their genealogy materials are located on the third floor in the Edith M. Clark History Room. In addition to information on North Carolina counties, the holdings include information on other states, resources on the civil war, family books, and collections and manuscripts. Available online, the information in the McCubbins Collection is significant resource for research on area surnames, locations and events. This collection contains information on my Green(e), Hunt and Moore family lines.

From Humble Beginnings

The public libraries in Rowan County started in 1911 when a group called the Traveler’s Club met to form a library association. Archibald Henderson Boyden was elected chairman of the association. The Boyden family offered the small Henderson Law Office, located at the corner of Church and Fisher Streets, to house the first public library. Later, the family gifted the property to Rowan County for the library and donated an additional $75,000 for the construction of the new library building (Wikipedia).

Library Expansion

In 1913 Mrs. Mamie Linton became the librarian and it was during this time the library moved to the former County Courthouse and shared space with the police station. In 1936 the library hired its first professionally trained librarian, Miss Edith Montcalm Clark, who served as Director of Rowan Public Library for 36 years until 1972. Ms. Clark was the person who took the library from cataloging the book collection to a physical expansion of the library to other Rowan County locations, i.e., Spencer, China Grove, Faith, Landis, and Rockwell. She changed the name of the library from Salisbury to Rowan County Library to reflect the spread of libraries in the county (Wikipedia).

 

Genealogy/Local History Resources

In addition to providing the local community with quality library services, the Headquarters location on Fisher Street also provides a unique set of resources.

• Edith M. Clark History Room – Resources are primarily on Western North Carolina genealogy and history. Holdings include over 19,000 books, 5,700 microforms, 268 manuscript collections, dozens of genealogical journals as well as a solid collection of civil war and civil war prison materials. Access to popular online databases–Ancestry.com and HeritageQuest –are also provided (Rowan County Government).
• McCubbins Collection – Acquired in 1954, the records in the collection are valuable for genealogy research for the area. Jo White Linn also left her research to the History Room. Other researchers and staff have accumulated additional information about the history of the families of Rowan County, as well as history concerning buildings, houses, time periods and important people of Rowan (Rowan County Government).
• The Genealogical Society of Rowan County – The Genealogical Society of Rowan County was organized in February of 1987 and received our charter in 1988. They hold their monthly meetings at the Library.

· Genealogy Workshops – Workshops are also held throughout the year at the History Room (Rowan County Government).

If you have not visited this facility, don’t pass up an opportunity to visit the library. If you are planning a visit, log onto their website for specific information: https://www.rowancountync.gov/542/Rowan-Public-Library-Headquarters.

1. Wikipedia, Rowan Public Library, accessed on 01 Jan 2019 at https://en.wikipedia.org/widi/Rowan_Public_Library.

2. Rowan County Government, History & Genealogy, background on Rowan County Library, accessed on 29 Jan 2019 at: https://www.rowancountync.gov/308/History-Genealogy.