Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 217, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1917 — History of L. L. C. During Forty Years’ Organization. [ARTICLE]

History of L. L. C. During Forty Years’ Organization.

History of the Ladies’ Literary Club of Rensselaer, Ind., written by Melle Wright-Medicus and read be--1 fore the club at the opening of the year’s work, Sept. 21, 1917. “Back on its golden hinges ». The gate of memory swings; And I walk into the garden And look on bygone things.” When one begins to look back over forty years of time, you fully realize that you have lived an alloted lifetime, and when you have seen what wonderful achievements have been attained in so short a time, you are amazed, for it seems as but yesterday, when you look over it one way; in another way it seems like ages; but it is a pleasant thing to know that this little club has lived all these years and in a fair way to live 40 years more. When this club was organized, Rensselaer was a little village without any of our improvements, but the people were as happy and contented as they are now. There was no railroad here then, but the Narrow Gauge was nearing completion and Rensselaer saw a new day dawning for her. Transportation to and from here was at times almost impossible. Hack lines ran daily to Bradford, now Monon, and to Remington and in those times the trips over to these towns was something to be dreaded. It was 1 no uncommon sight to see teams mire on our main streets and the few old sidewalks we had were a fright. There were no lights to light our streets excepting lightning bugs and lanterns and dark nights everybody carried lanterns to pilot them through. They were an essential article in those days, for \ without them we would have been in utter darkness. Our club has lived to see wonderful changes and we. have encouraged every civic improvement that came in sight. In 1875 Mrs. Alfred Thompson attended the Centennial at Philadelphia and while there she attended a convention that was conducted by the leading women of this country, such as Mrs. Livermore, Susan B. Anthony, .Belva Lockwood and many more. She became interested in what she had seen and heard, for women’s clubs were scarcely heard of then. When she came home she was so enthused over the matter that she decided to organize a club. The first venture was called the “Irving ! Club,” and was composed of both ■ men and women. For the lack of ] interest, the club was short-lived. . Then men dropped out and after a 1 year or so Mrs. Thompson was in- | strumental in organizing this club. < When I became a member of this V club I was going to school and had ' come home for the holiday vacation , and was invited to go in as a charter 1 member, which I was glad to do and ] have been glad ever since that I did. < The first two years I attended very ' ittle—only in the summer vacations. ! We had fifty-two meetings a year - and hot or cold was no excuse for ] our absence. It was on Thanksgiv- , ing day, 1877, at a dinner party at 1 the home of Mrs. Thompson, that the J idea of organizing a club was con- . summated, and on the following week ; at a meeting that was called for the ‘ purpose, the Ladies Literary and Social Circle was formed and the following officers elected: President, ! Mrs. R. S. Dwiggins; vice-president, Mrs. A. Purcupile; secretary, Miss ; Mollie Babcock. We started our club ! with 41 members and when you consider the size of this place then, it ; was surely a fine start. Our town lad a population then of about 700 1 or 800 people. The object of this ' society was material improvement. Our meetings were always opened and dosed with music of some kind and as we had several good musicians in the club it was an easy matter to have good music. Every meeting was opened with quotations from some author that had to be committed. If you couldn’t give it from memory you kept still, for no written ones were allowed. The first few years of our existence we had miscellaneous programs, made of papers, discussions on anything that the committee saw fit to put you on. We always had a discussion on some subject and I am sure we were all greatly benefited by them. I well remember one subject that gave us a lively time and it was this: “Resolved, that to give woman the franchise privilege would improve the morals of politics.” On another occasion we had this subject: “Can science and the Bible account of Creation be made to Harmonize?” These required quite a little preparation and thought, but there were several women that were delighted to talk and argue and they came prepared for the occasion. Mrs. Burroughs, one of our oldest active members, a cool, level-headed woman, rarely escaped being heard when a discussion was on and when I I think of her I recall many quaint and original things that she would say. For several years after we started we had mixed programs, then we took up the authors, writers of fiction and history and made a study of them. We studied Shakespeare two years; we had the Bay View work two years and made quite a thorough study of Browning. We tried every way to keep our programs as spicy as possible and for one of our diversions we would have a spelling match occasionally and any or all who cared to, took a part in it, and we found it enjoyable as well as a benefit. We did not confine our spelling to the spelling book, but selected a list of words that were in general use and easily mispelled. In the selection of our for our debates we vfould have the members write a subject and then put t^em (Continued on Page Two.)