Territorial Prison library was also Yuma's first

  With public libraries being built and renovated all over Yuma County in recent months, this area's first librarian surely must be smiling at the progress made since Yuma's first place dedicated to books opened in a pretty unusual place.

  Madora Ingalls is celebrated locally for opening the first library in Yuma County back in 1883. But her library served a pretty special audience and folks really couldn't go far with the books. That's because that first library was located inside the famed Yuma Territorial Prison.

  "They had a library up there before anyone in Yuma had a library," said Carol Brooks, a curator with the Yuma County Historical Society. "Madora Ingalls was way ahead of her time because she was very concerned about prisoner welfare."

  Ingalls raised money to buy books and also encouraged citizens in Yuma to donate their books for the small prison library. At that time, her husband served as superintendent of what is now the Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park.

  "She felt that prisoners shouldn't just sit in prison and not be educated," Brooks explained. "This was all volunteer work, too. The woman was just a real go-getter."

  Some historians say that Ingalls' one-room library at the prison might have also been the first in Arizona.

  Brooks has conducted quite a bit of research into this well-known Yuman's life and will present a talk about Madora Ingalls on Aug. 25. The event is slated for 7 p.m. at the Heritage Branch Library, 350 S. 3rd Ave. Admission is free.

  The recently renovated Heritage Branch Library opened as Yuma County's first official public library in 1921. That building served as the Yuma Main Library until just last year.

  The Ingalls name is most often associated these days with the Madora Ingalls Award, an honor given each year by the Yuma Library Council to outstanding supporters of libraries.

  Ingalls grew up in California, where her father was a sub-treasurer for the federal government in Oakland. Brooks says she's just not sure what that job title would mean today.

  Ingalls and her husband moved to Yuma in 1883 and lived in a house located on the prison grounds.

  But Ingalls' interest in improving the lives of prisoners didn't stop at reading.

  "She held concerts to raise money for a prison band," Brooks said. "She also made it her duty to nurse some of the really sick prisoners."

  Ingalls was also known for decorating the prison's cells, dining room and hospital corridors with flowers once a year on a nationally recognized holiday called Floral Mission Days.

  Brooks added that Ingalls seems to have been a truly warm and giving person, given accounts of her many generous deeds.

  "It's hard, though, because so much of what we have about her is just newspaper articles," the local historian said.

  After three years at the prison, the two took up farming two miles north of Somerton. The husband also did surveying and became city treasurer for Yuma and later served on the county board of supervisors. He then returned to work at the prison for several more years.

  The couple lived in Phoenix for a whilebut returned to Yuma.

  Brooks says the couple raised four children, including a son who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis. "Caring for him became her life," Brooks said.

  Another son, Walter, worked as a steamboat pilot on the Colorado and served as Yuma's mayor.

  Ingalls' connection to libraries continued,. Her daughter, Addie Kline, was first librarian at Yuma's first official public library.

  Ingalls and her husband are buried in Yuma's old cemetery. Both died in 1938. He died and she followed five days later.