Your Literary Home

John Sanford Brumback, for whom the Brumback Library is named, was born  in Licking County, Ohio, in 1829. When he was four years old his father died, leaving his mother with six young children and a log house on forty acres of undeveloped land. John attended school during the winters when he was not needed on the farm and became a very responsible young man. At ten, he was entrusted with taking the produce from his family’s farm to market. At fifteen, his mother boasted about his horse-trading skills. At seventeen, he left the farm with fifty dollars and opened a general store in Illinois. His success continue through the years.

With $5,000 in gold, Mr. Brumback moved his wife and children to the sparsely populated county of Van Wert in the spring of 1862. Here he opened a dry goods store and took an interest in the stave business (the area had thousands of acres of fine hardwood timber). In 1884 he sold his store and bought a controlling interest in the Van Wert National Bank. As president of the bank, he helped to create and finance  many companies. A  keen businessman and banker, Mr. Brumback also served as president of Central Mutual Insurance Company from 1883 to 1897.

              In 1890, twelve local women formed the Van Wert Ladies Library Association to establish a subscription library for area residents. As a result of a city tax, the 1,400 volume library, which was located at the corner of South Washington and Central, became a free city library in 1896. Believing that all county residents should have access to a free public library, Mr. Brumback gladly offered the community his financial support. When the building plans he had ordered were nearly complete however, Mr. Brumback became seriously ill. Following his father’s wishes, Orville S. Brumback constructed the library, but the facility that was erected was even better than the original plans. Orville was also responsible for the legislation that was passed by the Ohio Legislature, thereby approving the first tax-supported public county library in the United States — The Brumback Library.

             The cornerstone for the Library was laid in 1899. Two years later, the building was dedicated. No expense was spared in the construction of the building which was designed by D.L. Stine of Toledo and built by J.S. Zook of Van Wert. A combination of Gothic and Romanesque architecture with a Ludowici tile roof and turreted towers, the imposing building sits among the trees in the park as requested by John S. Brumback. His heirs have continued to support the library, including two renovations and an addition. In 1917, the basement was remodeled for a Children’s Department. An addition, designed by Clyde Henry of McDonald, Cassell, and Bassett of Columbus, was constructed in 1991 along with a complete renovation of the existing building. In 1979, Main Library was added to the National Register of Historic Places.Then in 2001, it was recognized as a historic site by the Ohio Historical Society.

A true cultural legacy, the Brumback Library continues to provide service  as a center of learning for all Van Wert County residents. In 2010, over 26,000 active library users (89% of Van Wert County’s population) borrowed 670,452 print and nonprint items. Books, E-books, books on CD and cassette, CDs, DVDs, and videos as well as a variety of other items comprise a collection that presently exceeds 216,000 works. Within the past twelve months, 7,874 items were added to the reference and circulating collections. (1,900 of these were donations.)  Along with an extensive vertical file collection of local history items,  216 periodicals and 62 newspapers are offered to the public. In comparison with  Ohio’s 250 other public libraries in 2009, the Brumback Library’s collection ranked 39th in size and 60th in circulation.                                            

Throughout the course of the past year, the Reference Department has answered over 14,700 questions. Although the majority of these were either in-house or telephone inquiries, we received a growing number of requests for information via e-mail and regular mail. Homework assistance for elementary and middle school students, along with research help for high school and college students, kept our librarians very busy!

             We were also very busy in the Children’s Department this past summer. In June and July, 1,893 Van Wert County children participated in a wide range of Summer Reading activities. Infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and schoolage children enrolled in our ninety-fifth annual program read over 86,162 books during a seven week period. We were blessed that over forty area businesses and countless other donors, most notably the Crestview Education Association, Lincolnview Education Association, Vantage Teachers Association, Van Wert Federation of Teachers, Van Wert County Retired Teachers Association, the Eaton Charitable Fund/Eaton Corporation, First Federal Savings and Loan, StateWide Ford and Mr. Jerry Lewis and McDonald’s helped to underwrite the costs of this invaluable program. The Young Adult, Adult, and Homebound Summer Reading Programs established a new record too, with over 7,000 participants collectively. 

             Enhancing Van Wert County’s quality of life, the Library has provided generations of individuals with books for recreational, informational, and research purposes for more than 110 years. We are an institution of learning with a tradition of service. The Board of Trustees, Director, Staff, and Volunteers encourage all county residents to avail themselves to the treasure-trove of learning, adventure, and discovery that await each and every individual at the Brumback Library.