| Notes |
- Newsletter of the Haskell Family Society
Volume 8, No. 4, December 1999
Haskell library and Opera House
Horace Stewart Haskell, born 9 August 1860 at Derby, was educated at Derby Academy, Stanstead College and at Montreal. His business interests were extensive and extremely varied, including mills, real estate, candy and early vending machines. He was appointed U.S. consular agent at Stanstead and was an aide on the staff of Governor Josiah Groat with the rank of colonel. He was owner and manager of the International Water Works, which furnished drinking water to Stanstead and Rock Island, Province of Quebec, as well as to Derby Line, Vermont. A member of the Sons of the American Revolution and Sons of the Colonial Wars, he was also a 32-Degree Mason and member of the Mystic Shrine and the Golden Rule Lodge in Stanstead.
Horace shared with his cultured mother a deep and abiding interest in the arts, and it is reported Mrs. Haskell maintained a small theatre in her own home. According to a document on the wall of the present day library she demonstrated "ample evidence of her public spirit and large-hearted generosity". It was her idea, seized upon and expanded by her son, to establish a local public library and theatre. It was his "generous sympathy with the project that caused it to quite outgrow the limits of the original idea, alike in the character and dimensions of the building, the endowment of the Institution and the scope of its usefulness."
Conceived as a memorial to Martha's late husband, the gift included not only the library building, but a generous endowment for books and upkeep, the only stipulation being that the property be forever free from taxes. This was granted, and the institution was incorporated in the United States with a charter calling for four American and three Canadian trustees. The donors wished the building to be erected on the international boundary between the U.S. and Canada, and this was complied with, having 2/5ths of it in the U.S. and 3/5ths in Canada.
The laying of the cornerstone on 15 October 1901 was an international event with Masonic Lodge members from both countries participating.
Martha Haskell died 22 August 1906, just two years after the Opera House was completed. She left an estate of $130,000, a huge fortune at that time, to her son, who shared her wishes. In 1908 Horace Haskell transferred both halves of the library and opera house to an independent library corporation, and further endowed both with inherited investments.
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1860 - 1940 (80 years)
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