📚 Chariton Public Library

Chariton Public Library is located in Chariton, Iowa, United States. The Library and Reading Room Association was formed in Chariton in 1879, but it was short-lived. The county superintendent of schools started a teachers' library in the courthouse sometime afterward. By this time the community had a library of 800 volumes. There was an effort by study clubs in town in 1898 to raise money and establish a free public library. The Chariton Federation of Women's Clubs took the lead and opened a library with the books from the courthouse in two rooms above Gibbons Drug Store on the town square. Citizens approved a local tax to support the library the following year.