Fort Scott Public Library was established by Eugene Ware with money procured by the sale of land belonging to the Opdyke estate. The property had been left for this purpose with the understanding that Mr. Ware should act as sole trustee. He purchased the books, and as there was no library building, Mr. Ware placed them in his office and selected Miss Mary L. Barlow as librarian. The library was opened in March, 1891, and was conducted by Mr. Ware as trustee until 1892 and then closed until the winter of 1893, pending negotiation for the city to provide funds for its maintenance, which was done. The library was moved to the Redfield block; it was regularly chartered as the Fort Scott Public Library and, the city council guaranteed it a regular income. In 1901 Andrew Carnegie donated $18,000 to the city for a library, providing the city would appropriate $1,800 a year for its maintenance. Fort Scott gave the land on which the library is located, at the southeast corner of Second street and National avenue, and ground was broken for the new building in 1901. Owing to various delays the structure was not ready for occupancy until 1904, and the books were moved in February of that year. The main room of the library is fifty-one by forty-one feet and the reading room and store room each twenty by sixteen feet. The open shelf system is in use at Fort Scott so that readers may go among the stacks and become familiar with all the books. In 1911 there were about 6,200 books catalogued, principally history, biography and scientific works, although a good class of fiction is also provided. Twenty-three of the leading periodicals are kept in the reading room and the complete sets of thirteen are bound and ready for reference. Miss Barlow, the efficient librarian, has served in that capacity since 1891. The officers of the library board in 1911 were Charles Nelson, president; Charles E. Hulitt, vice-president, and Prof. J. B. Stokesbury, secretary. The library building is one of the beauties of Fort Scott; the architecture is Italian Renaissance, and the material buff brick, finished with native limestone.