When young Carl Sandburg received his first library card he was very proud of it. He read a wide variety of books: biographies, histories about the Revolutionary War and many of the books of fiction written especially for children.
 
On March 25, 1858, a literary society for “mutual improvement by means of debate, essays and lectures and establishing a library” was organized by a group of young men in Galesburg. By 1860 an official name, “Young Men's Literary Society,” was chartered. The organization had 3,000 volumes in its collection by the end of the Civil War.
 
The library was located in downtown Galesburg, usually on the second floor of a building on Main Street. Over the years the library was moved three times causing extra expense each time.
 
In 1894 the Library Board began to discuss erecting a suitable building to permanently house the library. It was estimated a new building would cost $48,000. The United States was in the midst of an economic depression so raising that amount of money would be very difficult.
 
On May 18, 1898, Gottschalk and Beadle, architects, were selected to design the new building. The bids were higher than the Library Board expected. It was also determined that the building site, which had been purchased earlier, was too small.
 
A new site was purchased on Simmons Street. The City of Galesburg agreed to maintain a free public library at a cost not less than $5,000 per year. Application was made to Andrew Carnegie for $50,000 to build a library.
 
Andrew Carnegie was born November 25, 1835, in Dunfermline, Scotland. He and his family came to Pittsburgh in 1848. His first job was as a bobbin boy in a cotton mill at the age of thirteen. He learned to be a telegrapher and impressed his supervisors who gave him more responsibility. By the 1860s he was investing in railroads, manufacturing of railroad sleeping cars, bridges for railroads and oil derricks.
 
In 1883 Carnegie gave money to his native city in Scotland to build a public library. He continued to finance construction of public libraries until his death in 1919. In this country there are 3,000 libraries in 47 states constructed with Carnegie money. He believed in using his fortune to enrich society.
 
In 1901 Carnegie sold the Carnegie Steel Company to John D. Rockefeller for $480 million and devoted the rest of his life to philanthropy. He has been ranked after Rockefeller as the second richest person in United States history.
 
The dedication of the Carnegie Library in Galesburg was held June 3, 1902, in Central Congregational Church. Albert J. Perry, President of the Library Board, made these remarks: “Mr. Carnegie's plan puts into the hands of everyone a strong, civilizing instrument, the power and influence of which he himself has ever been conscious of and which he personally knows elevates the intelligent user, stimulates his ambition to be and to do, and therefore makes of him a higher and nobler being. Its tendency is to make men self-reliant, economical, industrious and self-sustaining, which characteristics must be the basis for all progress.”