| Summary: | Pioneer Sagas Of Love And Adventure In W. S. C. Library. Pioneer Sagas of Love and Adventure in W. S. C. Library. A husky "book-worm," eating his way through ancient and modern tomes, would find some job to go "through" the more than 250,000 bound volumes and more than a million unbound volumes in the library of Washington State college, Pullman. At present, the state college library is the largest one in the United States on the campus of a land grant college, it is said. It attained this distinction early in 1932 when it pushed ahead of the Iowa State college library by a margin of 25,000 volumes. Foote Started Movement. The placing of W. S. C.'s library in the front rank was the dream of W. W. Foote, librarian, when he came to Pullman in 1915. Shipments to the library are received daily by mail and express, and many cases by freight arrive each month. All kinds of historical, social and pioneer records are included in the large collection, of which Librarian Foote is quite proud. Let him tell of some of the treasures in his care: "'It was in 1853 I came to Washington territory,' begins a typewritten manuscript which has the quaint title, "This Is the Story of Van Ogle Dictated to and Written by His Wife, Annie Ogle,'" said Librarian Foote. "It contains some personal reminiscences of early wagon train crossings and stories of 'Quiemuth' and 'Leschi,' two of the last of the hostile Indian chiefs, told much as your grandfather or great-grandfather might recall his youthful adventures to a circle of children and interested adults. There is an unconscious eloquence in the direct, unvarnished simplicity of such stories. "Several other equally fascinating manuscripts on pioneer days treasured as especially precious by college library, including another by this same Van Ogle-his first name seems not to be mentioned-telling his experiences as a soldier in fighting the Indians in Washington. Halm's Early History. '"Early History of Northern Washington,' by Joseph B. Halm, is another typescript, with the author's autograph signature on the title page made up from information collected from personal interviews and by searching with pioneers through old letters, papers and documents. "The 17 typewritten leaves contain accounts, fascinating to the residents of the region, of the earliest white men and settlers of the country surrounding Kettle Falls. A pen drawing of the old bastion of a Hudson Bay fort an the plat of the fort, and a hand-drawn map of Kettle Falls and vicinity, all beautifully executed on stiff paper, illustrate this volume. Experiences of Traders. "Another typescript is an anonymous contribution to an old controversy on the exact location of 'Camp Washington.' With these manuscripts in the little collection of especially unusual volumes on northwest history are two printed books. "One is 'Adventures on the Columbia River,' by Ross Cox, printed in 1832, depicting experiences of traders in the Columbia river country, some of which later readers may incline to take with a little salt! The other is the September, 1892, number of the Old Northwest magazine, printed in St. Paul, this number being given over entirely to articles on the various sections of the state of Washington. In addition to this little collection of rarities, the college library owns a fine basic collection of about 445 volumes on the history of California, the Pacific northwest and Alaska. Seek Citizens' Help. "When I first took the position of librarian at the State College of Washington, during the Summer of 1915, I found very little in the way of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, newspapers, etc., relating to the history of the northwest. "Our funds at that time for the purchase of this material were very limited. In fact, we have never had adequate funds to build up the library in all fields, and at the present time we are unable to purchase anything along the lines of northwest history; therefore, I am making a special effort to interest citizens of the state of Washington, and all those interested in the upbuilding of the state college collection, to send us anything in print or in manuscript form that they are willing to donate."
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