An Afternoon With Andrew Carnegie

Self-made millionaire Andrew Carnegie, who gave away his millions to help others, is coming to Beaumont to celebrate his $10,000 donation that allowed the Beaumont library to be built 100 years ago.

Actually, actor and scholar Doug A. Mishler will portray Carnegie. He'll talk about Carnegie's experiences, ideas, and life from 1835 to 1919 — all in costume and character.

“An Afternoon With Andrew Carnegie,” part theater and part historical re-enactment, is part of the Beaumont Library District’s 100-year birthday celebration.

The event at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 7, at Noble Creek Community Center, 650 Oak Valley Parkway, Beaumont, is free, according to the library.

More than a century ago, when some Beaumont women wanted a town library, they formed a club and began raising money. They wrote to Carnegie. The millionaire was giving money to build libraries.

Carnegie said yes, he would give Beaumont $10,000 — but only if the property owners agreed to tax themselves to pay for the library’s continuing costs. 

Women didn’t have the right to vote in 1911, but that didn’t stop the women who wanted a Beaumont library. The Gateway Gazette newspaper reported in August 1911 that the library measure had passed in the town of about 1,000 people, and by more than a 2-to-1 margin. 

Carnegie gave them the money. A century later the library remains important to the community, filled with readers of all ethnicities and ages. Throughout 2011 the library will offer history-themed programs such as Thursday’s event. Librarian Clare DiFelice has said the library will celebrate its birthday with a party in August.

Mishler, who teaches history at the University of Nevada, is a scholar and actor who gives first-person educational performances across the nation, presenting historical figures such as Henry Ford, Gen. Stonewall Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Ernie Pyle, P.T. Barnum, and Carnegie. 

Displays at the Beaumont library honor Carnegie, an immigrant from Scotland who settled with his family in Pennsylvania in 1848. He left school at age 12 and began work in a Pennsylvania mill. 

This early end to his formal schooling laid the foundation for his belief that libraries make education accessible to all, according to the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The corporation, the largest of Carnegie’s philanthropic organizations, also is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

The young boy worked 12-hour days as a bobbin boy in a Pennsylvania cotton mill, then worked for Western Union and the Pennsylvania Railroad before starting his own businesses in 1865. He eventually began the Carnegie Steel Company, starting the steel industry in Pittsburgh. When he was 65, he sold the company and devoted the rest of his life to philanthropy, giving away more than $350 million.

Carnegie’s support helped build more than 2,500 libraries in the United States and abroad, according to the Carnegie Corporation. One of those libraries is the one in Beaumont, which may be the only Carnegie library remaining in Inland Southern California.

The library added an expansion in the 1960s. Several years ago the library restored the second floor, which retains original Carnegie features such as an oak floor and a fireplace. The library also kept the wooden staircase with a bannister that was used by generations of children for mischievous sliding. 

For more information on the event, call (951) 845-1357.