For many years, the historical society held an annual book sale. Hundreds, if not thousands of old books passed through the doors and those that were sold aided the society financially in its infancy.
One result of those book sales is what is called the Rare Book Room. The society curator carefully perused the donated books and retrieved any volumes that were pertinent to area history.
The room is available to researchers and contains many hard to find books relative to local and Missouri history. Books which belonged to local families and are identified as such, are also housed here for safekeeping.
Many books are in German, brought to Missouri by immigrant Germans in the 19th century. Some are one of a kind; such as family Bibles which include genealogical information or unpublished autobiographical works produced by area citizens. Some works covering broader subjects, such as war, politics and religion have been retained because they address issues relevant to local history.