Reading through the generations — Carrie Hamm Miller and her great-great granddaughter, Hazel Pasley, share a story.

Alleghany’s first librarian shares memories

Children learn through example. Such is the case for Carrie Hamm Miller, Alleghany County’s first librarian. The former Stratford resident currently resides in Phoenix, Ariz.

The youngest of eight children, Miller would see her mother, Amanda “Mandy” read anything she could get her hands on. This information spread quickly. Soon, her father, Enoch, would come home from work with magazines and books that were given to him.

“I guess I just inherited that great love for reading,” Miller said. “I was just doing great when I started school. As I grew, it grew. When I was in high school (at Whitehead School) and made excellent grades, they (the teachers) would encourage me and say, someday, you have to go to college. That grew in me. Some day, I have to go and learn what to do with books and help other people read. Instead of playing, I read.” At the age of 12, Miller “knew about pain and death,” she said. That year, she lost her mother.

“Daddy tried to keep house because what else do you do?,” she asked. “He was a wonderful father. He encouraged me and everything.”

After graduating high school, Miller attended Appalachian State Teacher’s College. This feat took 15 years to accomplish, as she worked during the school year at the library in Alleghany and attended college in the summer, with the exception of the last year.

“I would go home on the weekends,” Miller said. “I was responsible, everything had to be right, (with) the books and the catalogs. This went on for a good many years.

“I started working (as a librarian) with the understanding that I wanted to get a degree,” Miller continued. “I went to school every summer, up until the last year. (At that point,) the library board said, she’s been working so hard to try to do this; now that she’s near enough, why don’t we give her a year to go to school? That’s what I did. I went home on weekends like I had in the summer, only I had to go nine whole months. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it.”

In 1948, the same year she began serving as a librarian for Alleghany County, Miller began submitting items to The Alleghany News. These items ranged from library notes to brief stories based on interviews done by Miller.

“I would meet them (the different people) as I would travel around the county and I asked them if I came back let them have an interview,” Miller said. “Of course I wouldn’t do it on library time. We would talk and I’d get a picture. All through the years that I worked there (at the Alleghany County Library), it was wonderful. I just enjoyed it so much.”

Looking at her great-nephew, David Ham, she smiled and said, “This (the book) never would been written if it weren’t for David. I want to give him a lot of credit for that.”

The book, “The History of Alleghany County,” is available at the library, according to Miller.

In 1959, after 18 years as a librarian for Alleghany County, Miller moved to Yakima, Wash., where her husband had family. While working as a librarian there, Miller was given the opportunity to get her masters degree from the University of Washington in Seattle.

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