Coal Creek Library: The oldest continuous library in Kansas and two families who helped organize it

The focus of the thesis the Coal Creek Social Library Association's Coal Creek Library and two of the families that helped to organize and operate it. They also helped shape the community of Vinland. Briefly mentioned in the paper are some of the other early libraries and literary associations in Kansas.; The Coal Creek Library in Vinland Douglas County, Kansas, had been acknowledged as the first library in Kansas since the late 1800s. This distinction was held until a 1938 Lawrence. Kansas, newspaper article proclaimed this assertion as false. It cited the City of Lawrence Record Book, volume C, which listed the Kansas Anthem Association as establishing a library in the city of Lawrence in 1854, five years before the Coal Creek Library was founded. The Coal Creek Library is, however, the oldest, continuous library in Kansas.