Joseph Harris Heckman, originator of the legislative bill to provide tax support for North Dakota’s public libraries, was born August 15, 1879, in Nova Scotia, Canada. The oldest of seven children, he went to sea with his father as a young boy and soon realized he didn’t want to do that as a career.

Heckman’s mother died in 1891, and the family moved to Lynn, Massachusetts. After ninth grade, he attended a business college at night, while working for a manufacturing firm during the days.
Heckman married Stella Banks in September 1908, and they moved to Ambrose, North Dakota, in November 1910. Though Heckman loved North Dakota and the wide-open prairies, his wife had a difficult time adjusting and nearly returned to the East. She was used to the apple orchards and valleys of her native Nova Scotia.

The family moved in with Heckman’s cousin, Fred Zinch, who lived with his family in a small house already quite crowded. The summer of 1911, Heckman bought a quarter-section of land, along with four oxen and one horse. He had broken 115 acres by the end of the second summer and, on December 6, 1915, he made final proof on his land. Heckman eventually owned about 700 acres and a large herd of cattle.
The town of Alkabo was established near the Heckman homestead shortly after that, bringing businesses, school and church much closer to the family. The Heckmans had three children and were involved in community, school and church activities. He served in the state legislature during the 1941, 1943 and 1945 sessions and the Extraordinary Session in March 1944.

Loyal to both the Republican Party and the Nonpartisan League, Heckman especially supported education and library services for the rural population of North Dakota. He, along with George Homness, who had served on the Divide County library board, and John Phelps, Divide County superintendent of schools, developed a plan to provide tax support for public libraries. Homness, a University of Minnesota Law School graduate, wrote the legislative bill, and Heckman introduced it at the Extraordinary Session of 1944.

It was an expansion of the library law passed in the 1943 session and required that, if a library tax levy passed on a county ballot, county commissioners had to collect and disburse the funds to support a county library. The provision applied to other public libraries, as well.

Heckman’s bill also allowed county commissions to fund up to $1,000 in book purchases for public libraries in areas of 2,500 or fewer residents. Another part involved the constitution of library boards and committees. Senate Bill 94, the “Public Libraries and Reading Rooms bill,” passed on March 12, 1945.

The bill was very beneficial to North Dakota’s rural library systems and gave Joseph Heckman the title “Father of Tax-supported Public Libraries in North Dakota.” Such a simple act by one farmer continues to benefit so many in North Dakota’s rural counties.

by Cathy A. Langemo, WritePlus Inc.

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