by the executor and the library trustees, and it was found that by anticipating the income for the years 1905 and 1906 an appropriate building could be erected.

The Kendall Young homestead was removed to another position upon the grounds, and during the years 1904 and 1905, the present library building was erected and equipped upon its site at a cost of about $50,000.00. It is a permanent and beautiful structure of the best workmanship and most durable material throughout.

DESCRIPTION OF THE BUILDING

As one approaches the library, he is impressed, first by the smoothly clipped, beautiful lawn, next by the broad steps and ample entrance and next by the simple yet classic lines of the building itself. It is a fireproof building, built of Bedford stone with only enough mottled brick to relieve the somberness of the grey. A closer view shows the delicate hand carving about the doors, windows and cornice, the beauty of the granite columns which stand like sentinels on either side of the broad doorway and the harmonious coloring of the stained glass which ornaments the structure. Upon entering and passing through the dignified marble vestibule one is hardly prepared for the brilliancy and magnificence of the rotunda. It is surrounded by twelve beautiful columns of Numidian marble of brilliant amber color, each surmounted by a gold capital. The color changes gradually into the softer ambers and greens of the art glass in a perfectly shaped dome which seems to rest upon these columns. To the right of the rotunda is the children's room finished in soft amber colors and furnished to meet every juvenile need. To the left, and toward the south is the main reading room. In its finishing the cool green shades so restful to the student, predominate. This room is well equipped for work and well supplied with reference works and current literature. To the rear of the reading room is the Art Room, designed to commemorate the memory of Jane Young. Here, within mahogany cases, is housed a choice. collection of art books.

Just back of the rotunda, and facing the entrance is the charging desk from which the librarian can see at a glance any part of the first floor except the art room and just back of the charging desk are strong steel cases which accommodate thousands of books.

To the rear of the children's room are the amply furnished offices of the librarian.

In the basement, approached by marble steps, flanked by marble wainscoting is found a convenient club room, a small auditorium, and a storage or stack room which will accommodate a large number of books.

The walls are finished in oil. The floors are of tile laid in mosaic patterns.

KENDALL YOUNG

Kendall Young was born at Eden, Maine, January 19, 1820. His boyhood days were spent on his father's farm, where his summers were devoted to farm work and fishing and his winters in attending school. When about twenty years of age, he enlisted in the Maine Militia, Northeastern Frontier Disturbances, and served about two months. For this service he received land warrants for forty acres in Hamilton county and one hundred and twenty in Kossuth

county, Iowa. After leaving the service, he was engaged in cod fishing off the coast of Labrador and later conducted a store for fishermen's supplies. In 1847, he moved to Wisconsin and engaged in farming and in 1849 went to California in search of gold. He located a claim on Norman island in the American River and there for two and one-half years, was engaged in placer mining. In 1852 he returned to Maine, but a year later moved to Rockton, Ill., and became interested in a paper mill. In 1855, he moved to Marshall county, Iowa, where he formed a partnership with L. L. Treat, now of Webster City, and started a mercantile business, at Albion, which continued about one year. In 1856, Young & Treat became associated with George Smith and the three platted the town of Irvington in Kossuth county. At this new town they built a store and a saw mill. Mr. Young was located at Irvington during the Spirit Lake Massacre in 1857, and he and his associates in business, sawed plank and built a stockade with bastions at the corners which served as a refuge for the settlers in that vicinity during that exciting and dangerous period.

On September 23, 1858, Kendall Young and Jane Underdown were married at Webster City. A year later the young couple left Irvington and made Webster City their home. At Webster City Mr. Young opened a general merchandise store which he continued to keep until 1871, when, upon the organization of the First National Bank, he became its president. As a banker he was most provident and conservative and the panics of 1873 and 1893 were met with assurance and confidence. They did not disturb his business. He held the position of president of the First National Bank until the time of his death.

His old time friend and legal adviser, W. J. Covil writes of his character as follows:

"Mr. Young was not of an excitable nature. He was cool and deliberate at all times and under all circumstances. His opinions were slowly formed, but once formed he was slow to abandon them. He was open and direct in all of his dealings and despised meanness, trickery and falsehood. It is related of him that at one time being requested to buy a note having two names as makers, one being that of a man in whose integrity he had not the greatest confidence, he replied: "I don't want any paper with that man's name on it. If you will get his name off the note, I will buy it, sir." In expression, he was deliberate, concise and somewhat emphatic at times. When he expressed an opinion there was no room for doubt as to his meaning. To an inquiry across the bank counter as to what he would give for a note of questionable value, his reply, “Really, sir, I would not give you ten cents for a cart load of such paper," illustrates his decisive way of expressing himself. That he was wise and sagacious, the fortune he left clearly demonstrates.

It was his character as a man, however, that most commends him to us. In the purity of his life, his quiet independence, his freedom from all sham and pretense, his genuine manliness, his practical common sense, his self control, his rectitude in all the relations of life, he presented a striking example of a strong and sturdy New England character, as developed by an active life of half a century in the west, which to an unusual degree commanded the confidence and respect of his fellow men. He was an active member of the Universalist church, and he had an abiding faith in the goodness and justice of God. For whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap' was to him a living truth. His own