BLAACK MOUNTAIN, N.C. (828newsNOW) — The road to Aunt Mae Gilliam’s grave is easy to miss.
A narrow drive off N.C. 9 climbs to the Ledbetter-Gilliam Family Cemetery, a small burial ground on a hillside above the Broad River Community Center.
Near the entrance, some graves are marked only by fieldstones. Farther in, the rough stones give way to more conventional headstones.
Gilliam’s grave sits almost alone near the edge of the cemetery, beside the hillside. Her marker is simple: Nora Mae Gilliam, Jan. 6, 1882-March 9, 1953.
At its foot, nearly level with the ground and surrounded by pine needles and moss, is another, much smaller stone.
It reads simply: “Aunt Mae.”
Below the cemetery is the community Gilliam served. Just down the road from the community center and across the road is the site where a tiny library once stood — and where Aunt Mae spent years putting books into the hands of her neighbors.
A 12-by-12 library
The Broad River Community Library opened in 1938 at the intersection then identified as U.S. 64 and Stone Mountain Road.
The library benefited from funding through the Works Progress Administration, a Depression-era New Deal program, according to Buncombe County Special Collections. It occupied a 12-by-12-foot log building that had previously served as a community grocery store.
Gilliam had attended Asheville Normal School to train as a teacher. She also farmed, and her library work fit around the demands of farm life. She generally finished her morning chores before opening the library sometime after 11 a.m.
By January 1942, the operation had attracted the attention of the Asheville Citizen-Times.
The newspaper featured Gilliam, the library and its patrons in a photo spread accompanying a story headlined “Unique Library Operated For Folk In Broad River.”
The photographs show the modest scale of the operation: a small log building, shelves packed with books, Gilliam and residents who used the library.
Books through the bus windows
The library began with about 140 books. By 1942, the collection had grown to more than 700, according to Buncombe County Special Collections.
Eventually, there wasn’t enough room for all of them. Books were stacked on the floor, and Gilliam kept some at her home and rotated them into the library.
Children riding the school bus could exchange library books with Gilliam through the bus windows. They handed back books they had finished and received others to take home.
The Asheville-Buncombe Library bookmobile also stopped at Broad River, bringing additional reading material to the community.
Gilliam’s work went beyond lending books.
She sought out easier reading material for adults who struggled to read and worked with young women who wanted to improve their reading so they could help their children.
Buncombe County Special Collections recounts the story of one woman who had only a third-grade education. After improving her own reading, she began holding night classes for neighbors who could not read.
Plans for something bigger
By 1942, Gilliam wanted a larger library.
Broad River residents began helping her prepare for one. Stones were collected for a foundation, and logs from neighboring farms were brought in for the proposed building.
It never went up.
According to Buncombe County Special Collections, World War II shortages and rationing helped derail the plans. In the years that followed, transportation improved, bookmobile service made reading material more accessible and a public library opened in Black Mountain.
What eventually became of Gilliam’s original 12-by-12-foot cabin is less clear. Historical accounts reviewed by 828newsNOW document where it stood and the plans for its replacement but do not establish what ultimately happened to the original structure.
The site is just down the road from today’s Broad River Community Center, across N.C. 9 from the center and below the hillside where Gilliam is buried.
Broad River remembers Aunt Mae
Gilliam’s work continued to be remembered long after her death.
In October 2006, the Black Mountain News published a piece titled “Remembering Aunt Mae,” accompanied by an old photograph of Gilliam with her great-niece.
In April 2021, the newspaper’s “Valley Rewind” feature again told the story of Gilliam and the Broad River Community Library for National Library Week. An archival photograph shows Gilliam standing outside the little library.
The Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center has preserved photographs connected with Gilliam and the library, while Buncombe County Special Collections has documented the history of the library and the woman who operated it.
Gilliam’s work came during the same era that WPA pack-horse librarians were carrying books on horseback and muleback to isolated communities in eastern Kentucky. Broad River developed its own system: Gilliam’s tiny library, a school bus and visits from the Asheville-Buncombe bookmobile.
Back on the hillside
Today, the Ledbetter-Gilliam Family Cemetery is still reached by that narrow road off N.C. 9.
Gilliam’s headstone records her name and the 71 years she lived.
At its foot is the smaller marker.
“Aunt Mae.”
More than 70 years after her death, Aunt Mae rests on a hillside overlooking the Broad River community where she spent years putting books into the hands of her neighbors.