The Elizabeth Hughes Society has a long history of promoting early literacy in Elizabethtown, and that tradition continued this month when the group presented a check for $100 to Bear Creek Elementary School librarian Erin Hibshman.

The society formed in 1928, but its roots date back to the early 1920s. Although their goals included education and civic awareness, the group members' main focus was creating the present Elizabethtown Public Library. According to history provided by Rose Ann Wade, president of the Elizabeth Hughes Society, the women originally met under the name The Delphian Society. They encountered obstacles in their pursuit of creating the library, including meeting resistance from local businessmen and community leaders when they approached them for financial support of the project. Still, the women persevered, and the library opened its doors on Nov. 18, 1925. At the time, it was located in a room of the Odd Fellows Hall on South Market Street, adjoining the Elizabethtown Post Office. A Library Association was created in 1926 to turn the library over to the community, but the group soon disbanded, as did The Delphian Society.

Undeterred, the same group of women recruited other women in the community to form the Elizabeth Hughes Society on April 28, 1928. The organization was named in honor of the wife of the founder of Elizabethtown. Beginning with about 25 members, the organization grew to 120 women by the end of its first year. Over the years, the society was instrumental in helping the library grow, including overseeing its move to its current location in 1961. The women of the Elizabeth Hughes Society funded and operated the library from its inception until it became a public library with the move. Since then, the group has continued to support the library with an annual financial donation.

The society has also held other annual projects to support early childhood literacy, said Wade. "Since 1987, the society has conducted a Third Grade Read In program, in which every third-grade classroom in the district was visited by a member of the Elizabeth Hughes Society to read to the children," she stated. "Each class was gifted a package of books for their individual classroom as well as a gift of candy from the Mars Corporation." This program was discontinued during the pandemic, and then the district teacher who had selected the books for the program each year retired. "Offering the $100 donation directly to ... Hibshman was an alternative to the Third Grade Read In," Wade explained. "She selected six quality titles, which she wished to include in the library."