Education was real important in the Dixon family. And it started at home, just like it still does.
In Anderson, we were very fortunate to have a Carnegie Library. Andrew Carnegie was one of the "barons" who made a lot of money when capitalism was unchecked by antitrust laws that were put in place by Teddy Roosevelt. In other words, the country grew tremendously, but perhaps at the expense at times, of the laboring class. Think Bill Gates on steroids. The Rockefellers, J.P. Morgan (there really was a J.P. Morgan), the Vanderbilts, and Andrew Carnegie.
Andrew Carnegie had a change of heart in his later years and gave away his fortune. The foundation he formed is still around, and it's a primary sponsor of PBS and NPR programs. But he became famous for being the Johnny Appleseed of the library world.
We didn't always have libraries. Those places you can go to borrow a book... for free. Libraries in England, and in early America were generally privately owned. Nobody thought the average man (let alone the average woman or child) needed to read... or at least read anything other than the gospels. Carnegie helped to change that. He gave grants to hundreds of cities to help them form libraries where people could read newspapers and magazines and borrow books for free.
Anderson had a large Carnegie library. And the children's room was in the basement. It was called the Peter Pan room. Children were not allowed upstairs, unless accompanied by an adult. We loved checking out books. Even in our elementary school years, the schools did not have libraries. Each classroom had a few shelves of books (actually, it was a better plan and certainly more cost-effective). My first experience in a school library was at Highland.
The other picture the Lincoln Junior High. This was the school attended by little Janet Wiggins... who grew up to be our Aunt Janet Dixon! The Dixon kids.... Wilma, Jerry, Jim and Don... went to a K-8 school called the Central Avenue School...that was the subject of another article.
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