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BAYBERRY COLLECTION - How it all began
The origin of the Bayberry Collection begins prior to 1906 when Susan and Rebecca Zabriskie moved to Newagen from New York. They had a large collection of books, many of them inherited from their father, a pastor of the Dutch Reform Church.
Since there was no library on Southport, they decided to lend their collection out to the neighborhood. At first the books were loaned from the ladies’ cottage on Bayberry Lane.
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In 1906, the books were moved into a small building on the (Newagen) Town Landing Road which was called “The Bayberry Camp Library”. It was open every afternoon in the summer and on Saturday afternoon in the winter.
In 1909, the sisters hired Edith Snowman, a fifteen-year-old from the neighborhood, to serve as librarian, a position she held for the next fifty years. The Zabriskie sisters gave a sum of money annually for the purchase of new books, and other people donated as well. There was a stage at one end of the building, so it was used for neighborhood get-togethers, especially the annual Christmas Eve party.
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In 1947, Southport consolidated its grammar schools and the one-room schoolhouse at Newagen became available. The two Zabriskie sisters donated their five thousand book collection to the town, and the town set aside some money for a memorial to the town’s veterans of World Wars I and II. At the suggestion of Charlie Pinkham, the town decided to turn the vacant schoolhouse into a memorial library. Volunteers cleaned and painted the building, carried the five thousand books up the road, and donated more books, money, and furniture. With the library now funded by the town, Edith (Snowman) Gray received a salary of five dollars a week. The new Southport Memorial library was dedicated on Memorial Day, 1948.
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All photos used by kind permission of Hendricks Hill Museum.
