Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1917 — formers Have Town Clubhouse [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

formers Have Town Clubhouse

by Jerle Davis

It is a place of comfort and convenience for country people who do their trading at Seymour, Indiana : : Similar enterprise would benefit any community in the nation

- vjjjf it’s a city clubhouse for farmers! ■k I When they come to town to trade they may g<> to a well-appointed building to meet their friends, wash f*TjW up, have lunch, write letters, ’epjoy L v telephone service and lounge ground if tKey" wisli. And their wives may, besides having these privileges. leave t,,e children in the care of a compotent nurse while shoppina or call>ng upon friends. Quite a sensible, long-needed, moder& convenience, don’t you think? Seymour, a southern Indiana < ity of about T.ObO • population, has a farmers' club with a membership of more than 1.000. It has been in operation since tlctober, 1914. tint! is a thorough success. I hiring the average daily number of visitors rd the elub was about 150. .. . . The existence of the club is due—the plain truth ’ must be told—to the public spirit and generosity of two business men of Seymour, and not to any special enterprise on the part of either the farmers or the Citizens of the town. The Blish brothers own a large flour mill and grain elevators. They are grandchildren of Capt. Meedy W. Shields, founder of Seymour, himself a farmer of energy and vision, whose fortune, it seems, was the nest-egg of the Blish estate. For many years

the Blish interests have dealt, constantly and profitably with the*farmers of Jackson county Why, reasoned the flour millers,wouldn't it be a tine thing to establish a club here in town for the farmers? They thought it would be—so—and out of their estate came funds which made the idea fact in pleasing architecture and real convenience. Not dhly that; the maintenance of the club is assured by a paid-up income insurance policy. So the farmers should worry! Much of Seymour’s prosperIty depends.on the farmers living within a radius of 12 or 15 miles of the city, which is the metropolis of a county that is one of the most fertile in southern Indiana. For nearly three-quarters of a century the “toiling plowmen” and

their wives have brought grain, fruit, vegetables, butter, eggs, and poultry to the- town that Captain Shields started, and have taken home with them in the aggregate, a mighty pile of supplies during threescore years. Such a mighty-pUe-.-you might say, that the legitimate profits on ft have helped to make a vigorous and pretty little city. But until the time that Seymour’s leading business men decided to recognize tire value of farmer trade by-putting up a clubhouse for the marketers, the country people certainly didn't enjoy the hospitality that good steady customers in most lines of commerce may expect nowadays. In flue weather they brought their lunch with them and ate it in their wagons parked in side streets, and In bad weather-they- bought crackers and cheese and bologna and munched it as they stood around the stoves or hot-air registers in the back of the stores where they sold butter and eggs. —That 7wasn’t so bad for the menfolk*, but it was mighty Inconvenient for the farm women. especially if they brought the children along to town, and often they did so. Is it any wonder then that since the Farmers’ dub of Jackson County has been receiving guests the merchants of surrounding towns within a reach of 12 and 15 miles in every direction are complaining that Seymour is getting the best of the country trade? Especially since the most prosperous farmers, and therefore the most profitable customers, own motorcars and can go fairly lohg distances over the well-piked roads? The Farmers’ club is good to look at. It is Just as handsome In the face as the public library and the government building, irtid better looking than the city hall and the newest railway station at Seymour. You step into a paneled vestibule from the street when you enter the club. The vestibule gives into a large lounging room. Flanking the lounging room are two nurseries, toilet rooms, a lunchroom and kitchenette. If you are a farmer who enjoys sliding down to the small of his hack in a huge leather chair and toasting hi* shins before a great fireplace: •.who likes breathing space and dark oak paneling and a pfte of magazines and books and some potted plants; who thinks it makes life more worth living if he can meet people of his own kind for a chat now and then, you would ride manFmiles to Seymour for half or three-quarters? of an hour of loafing In that lounging room. - And If you are a farmer’s win* who knows the drudgery of dragging small children around for hours from store to store: who knows what ft is to seek in vhin for a place of decent privacy where fretful toddlers enn be (hired for. weary feet rested apd an aching back relieved with a brief rest on a lounge: who appreciates a place where h letter may lie written in quiet, where a telephone is at hand, where a erfh waits to welcome baby for a nap: who longs for an opportunity to talk «'*th other country women, you bring pressure to bear on the husband to vo pis marketing at For the nurseries ttfter Xfteah copjfotts of women—reclining chairs, 'OW* «*“>■• ..... ■ ‘ ■

Meals are not served at the club. Guests are expected to bring their own food, which they undoubtedly prefer to do in most instances. But the pantry contains slielves when 1 lunch packages may be checked. In We kitchenette is a multiple electric heater, where food and drink may ‘be warmed, and hot and cold water faucets. In rhe lunchroom are dinner tables and chairs—with . hlgh<4mli^...of-ci-mEse. for .XLe^litilcL-anes—AiuL..tlic.. comfort-station facilities offered at ~ the club? Well, surely nobody is in a position really to appreciate this convenience more than the farm people. There is a matron in constant attendance. 7? The cluTTlTas~t>eeu fncorp<>rat(‘d under the laws of the state and the organization is self-perpetuat-ing. The trustees charged with the management of tin’ yl <ib are thejiresi dents of tbe three leading bjmks of Seymour. Whoever happens to he president of either of these banks becomes one of the trustees. The treasurer of the club is chosen ~Tn>m~atnbng the three cashiers of these same banks, preference being given to the cashier of the batik having the largest ..surplus fund and undivided profits at the last, preceding report for the year. " ‘ ' There are no fees or costs attached to club membership. Any legal voter in the county who is engaged in farming or who derives? his sup{ibrtwlioUyorpartlyfronithefarmiseiigibteriy nt ember shi p. An yon e thus qualified may apply for membership privileges at either of the trustee banks. All one need do is to take enough interest to ask for privileges; then he and his family may participate in the club. , . i ■■ ■ Because it was an untried experiment—something that hadn't been done before, and all that—the. business men of Seymour probably wouldn't have put up the money for establishing the club and maintaining it perpetually if the matter had bev.i proposed to them. Now, if they were asked to and make provisions for maintenance. they’d jointly Jump at the proposition —simply as a piece of first-, lass civic investment; wliat you might call a trade magnet. They know That" if fa drawing new farmer trade steadily, and'reaching "out farther and farther toward rival markets as roads are improved -and the price of those handy- little buzz-wagons comes down. ■ . ~~ The secretary of the Seymour Commercial club will tell you—for promoters have to put a squirt of the poetic and a liberal pinch of sentiment into' business talk---that the Farmers’ club-is “strikingly progressive because" it is a concrete expression of the ideal relationship which should exist between every town and the funning community adjacent.” I ? And furthermore, he’ll tell you “it was certainly h happy conception. a fitting recognition of the . appreciation which the business men of Seymour have for tjieir farmer friends, that led the Blish brothers to do this thing for the ftirmers -of Jackson county and at that same time build a memorial ip honor of the founder of the city. Captain Shields, who was a farmer and whose dealings with the

farmers around Seymour created the basis of his fortune." . ~ : One of the has an importanf agrteuWfe departmenf. has . showiv much interest in the Seymour enterprise. This school sends out special trains and agents -dnd—emissaries and whatnot all over Indiana in line with its policy of making Hoosierdom a paradise of scienfitie farming,- and—these agents don’t overlook the opportunity of telling about Sey-mour’-s—Faimierx’—elub and what itis -doing —to make the city and its ptrul customers real business associates. The word is gping farther, too. than the farthest reaches of Indiana. Grange organizations, commercial clubs and agricultural colleges here and over the country are making inquiries of Seymour about the club. So besides making it easy for the rural neighbor to enjoy himself white trading, there, Seymour Is gathering to itself a stack' of advertising valuable beyond com i>u tat i< h t. ——— _■ What Ims been done in Seymour can be dope in any other agricultural community in the I'flited Statys. It isn’t necessary that the club should be a memorial to anybody; nor that it should be a monument to the generosity'and public spirit of one or two men; nor that it should be housed in a specimen of classic architecture* Four or six rooms would serve the purpose nicely, if converted properly to club uses. These - rooms' might be foftml in a detached residence or on. the second or third floor of a business block. The expenses might be probated among the business men. ami the farmers themselves might pay a modest initiation fee and nominal dues. Where w 111 4here’s a way —ais-the- fel low-said. Anyhow, it sounds pretty peppy and up-to-date, doesn’t —it. to overhear one farmer say to his neighbor or a Saturday morning in town: "Well. Ed, let’s run over to the club and have a talk.”?