memorial library beginnings
Bits of a letter from Rose Wilder Lane to Neta Seal, dated April 30, 1967:

...Irene Lichty has written to me about the proposed museum-library memorial, and this morning I have a letter from Ruth Freeman telling me about the Open House plan. I suppose some arrangement has been made with you about the furniture, rugs, curtains, etc. I have just written Ruth mentioning that all of the contents of the house belong to you and saying that I suppose an arrangement has been made with you.

I wish you would write me what you think of the plans for the memorial. My mother often said that she wished the house could be kept as a memorial; somebody had suggested it and she wished it could be done but it did not seem probable. It seemed to me that the house was rather far from town, but I guess that does not matter in these days of cars, and really it is no farther from the school than the present library is. There seems to be an idea there now, of making a memorial-museum of the house. Ruth wrote that it seems to be the logical place, and that there will be Open House ther on May 19th, and they will try to have the furnishings arranged as nearly as possible as my mother had them.

Now all the furnishings belong to you, my mother told me to give them to you and I did. So if they are to be used, either temporarily or permanently, to furnish a museum library memorial, either they still belong to you or you must be paid for them; I mean, you must either rent or sell them to the memorial association.

In detail, what my mother told me was this: I was to give her books to the Mansfield library (NOT to the Wright County LIbrary Association); all the household furnishings to you; and I was to keep any "keepsakes" that I wanted. I told her that I wanted the clock, the writing desk and sewing cabinet... and maybe a few other things, and that I thought the organ... should go to some museum. So when the committee called on me and proposed a memorial museum in Mansfield I left in their care all those things that should be in such a museum...

...You said that you wanted some things and would probably sell the rest... Would you let me send you a check for whatever they might bring you at a sale, and would you then make an arrangement with Ruth about the committee's using them in the Open House, and just sort of keep informed about what becomes of them and let me know if you think I should do something about them? If people there do organize a non-profit Foundation for a permanent museum-library memorial in the house, then the things might stay there permanently. But if the talk comes to nothing, I don't want them just to be scattered around, without my knowing about it and doing something...

...With love to you both, Rose
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:36 PM