Three Rivers, Michigan and Andrew Carnegie

On the way home, in fact before I reached Constantine, MI, I spent some time in the town of Three Rivers. The Latvian camp Garezers, where my daughter is right now, is just north of the town of 7,000.

And what are those three rivers? The St. Joseph, Rocky and Portage Rivers. The first river is best known as the part of the route that French explorer LaSalle took in his successful quest to cross the North American continent from the Great Lakes to the mouth of the Mississippi River.

Like Constantine, Three Rivers is also blessed with a beautiful downtown that is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The top picture, taken on my camera phone yesterday afternoon, shows a typical late 19th/early 20th century small town main street, in fact, the avenue is called Main Street.

Third Wave Dave mentioned in the previous comments page that it's great to walk around these old-style downtowns. I felt the same sentiment, in fact, I decided, or felt compelled, to pick up a book for my daughter (Roald Dahl's 1972 sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), at Lowry's Book Store on historic Main Street. Walking around is great, spending a little bit of money in such a place is even better.

A couple block's north of Lowry's, I came across the Old Three Rivers Library. It was financed by a grant from Andrew Carnegie. After amassing a fortune creating the company now known as US Steel, Carnegie decided to give most of his fortune away.

Financing the creation of libraries one of his philanthropic goals. Carnegie grants created over 2,000 free public libraries, the Three Rivers Library of course just being one.

According to Wikipedia:

Nearly all of Carnegie's libraries were built according to "The Carnegie Formula" which required the town that received the gift to:

• 
  demonstrate the need for a public library;
• 
  provide the building site; and
• 
  annually provide ten percent of the cost of the library's construction to support its operation.

The amount of money donated to most communities was based on U.S. Census figures and averaged approximately $2 per person.

Prior to this push from Andrew Carnegie, small town public libraries were a rarity. Carnegie also financed the creation of some big city free libraries as well.

In addition to being a great businessman and a pioneering philanthropist, Carnegie was also a philosopher of sorts. This comes from one of my favorite books, Heather MacDonald's The Burden of Bad Ideas. The tome came my way as present from a great friend of the blog.

From Page 5:

The growing abyss between the vast industrial fortunes and the common laborer, Carnegie argued, was the inevitable result of the most beneficial economic system man has ever known. The tycoon, however, merely held his fortune in trust for the advancement of the common good; moreover, he should give away his wealth during his lifetime, using the same acumen that he showed in making it. The scientific philanthtropist will target his giving to "help those who help themselves," creating institutions through which those working poor with a "divine spark" can better themselves economically and spiritually. The "slothful, the drunken (and) the unworthy" were outside of scheme: "One man or woman who succeeds in living comfortably by begging is more dangerous to society, and a greater obstacle to the progress of humanity, than a score of wordy Socialists," he pronounced.

History is in Three Rivers Michigan. And Constanstine, Michigan. It's everywhere, you just have to look (but not that hard).