Traveling Through Time With the Shelby County Historical Society
Feature Article on Amos Memorial Library. Topic: DOWNTOWN/BUILDINGS & ORGANIZATION
Written by Rich Wallace

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A LIBRARY...Pg 3
The soldiers retained attorney David Oldham and the building trustees hired cagey, court room veteran S.L. Wicoff. The legal and emotional fireworks lasted almost four years. Many of the war heroes testified at the trial, pleading that the Monumental Building was built in honor of their comrades, and with funds the soldiers helped raise. Evict the veterans from their own building? The mere thought was preposterous. To make matters worse, the court fight pitted the veterans against the trustees of the building, all of whom were also veterans.

The trustees pointed to the original building plans, prepared by architect Samuel Lane, which clearly showed the second floor as being reserved for a library. The judge ruled in favor of the trustees. The soldiers appealed. The legal wrangling continued.....all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court. The trustees prevailed, and the Civil War veterans left their building in 1902.

In the years that followed, the library grew steadily. It was expanded to the first floor of the Monumental Building in 1928. Service to county communities was initiated in 1941 with the opening of the first branch library in Jackson Center. Finances, however, were always a concern. At various times the association was funded by a real estate tax levy, Sidney school district monies, intangible property taxes and general fund appropriations from the state of Ohio.

By the mid 1940's, the library still had no plans for its own home. All of that would change with the leadership of the General James Amos family.

After coming to Sidney in 1876, Amos took over the Shelby County Democrat and founded the Sidney Daily News in 1891. He selected his daughter, Delia, to become the managing editor of the new venture. She was the first women to occupy such a position in Ohio. At the time of her death in 1945, after a successful business career, Delia Amos Smith left a substantial bequest in her will for the construction of a new library. Other children of Gen. Amos, including attorney Frank Amos and Emma Amos Pegg also made substantial gifts for the new building.

williampiperhouse.gif (95935 bytes)

The Amos Memorial Public Library was built on the lot of the William Piper house. 
Photo courtesy of Phyllis and Vicki Piper, Pemberton.

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