The personal recollections of Mr. Archibald E. Vail of these
earliest years in Thrall's history are illuminating. They were
reported in Grace Bennett's unpublished history dated June 1951.
At that time Mr. Vail was the only survivor of the original staff
of three headed by Miss Van Keuren which included one other
assistant Miss Carrie (or Caroline?) Little. Mr. Vail worked as
an assistant from 1899-1902 - first in the old library room on
North Street and then at Thrall. The old library had no catalog but used printed book lists and a closed-shelf system. Only the
11brarian or Mr. Vail or Miss Little removed books from the
shelves and returned them so that "perfect order" could be kept
at all times. Mr. Vail commented, according to Grace Bennett's
account, that he was very concerned over the decision to have
open stacks in the new library, and letting the borrowers have
- direct access to the shelves seemed like "letting cows into a garden." When I mentioned this to Ann Vail, daughter of
Archibald Vail, and a volunteer at the Historical Society of
Middletown and Wallkill Precinct, she laughed and said that she
could just hear her Dad say something like that 147
The cost of moving the library books from the old library to
the new was $8.10. Before Thrall Library opened, the librarian