Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1917 — INTERESTING CLUB HISTORY [ARTICLE]

INTERESTING CLUB HISTORY

Ladies’ Literary Club Organized For Forty Years.

History of the Ladies’ Literary Club of Rensselaer, Indiana, written by Mrs; Melle Wright-Medicus and read before the club at the opening of the year’s work, September 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 t<r Remington and in those times the trips over to these towns was something to be dreaded. It was 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 year or so Mrs. Thompson was, instrumental in organizing this club.' When I became a member of this club I was going to school and had come home for the holiday vacation and was invited to go in as a charter member, which I was glad to do and have been glad ever since that I did. The first two years I attended very little—only in the summer vacations. We had fifty-two meetings e year and hot or cold was no excuse for our absence. It was on Thanksgiving day, 1877, at a dinner party at the home of Mrs. Thompson, that the idea of organizing a club was consummated, 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 Moihe Bibcock. We started our club jwith 41 members and when you consider the size of this place then, it was surely a fine start. Our town had a population then of about 700 or 800 people. The object of this society was material improvement. Our meetings were always opened and closed 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 mdrals of politics.” On another occasion we had this subject: “Can science and the Bible s account of Creation be made to harmonize?” These subjects 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 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 subjects for our debates we would have the members write a subject and then put them together and the first subject drawn would be the one used for the next week’s meeting. Then you would have to get busy if you were put on the debate for we only had one week to prepare our subjects in; but you seldom saw any failures. The founders of this club worked every way to make it worth while and from the beginning they displayed ability and zeal and were amply able to push it through.

We had several university graduates to start with. There was Mrs. Dr. Deming, now of California, a Swedish lady and highly educated in the schools of Sweden and when she came over to this country she entered our schools and became proficient in our language. She was a woman of rare culture. Misses Julia and Elizabeth Smith were also women who were highly educated, There were several more who were worthy of mention. At the beginning of this club I don’t believe there was a woman in it who was over 45 years of age, excepting the honorary ones. We had three of them, Grandmother Dwiggins, Kannal and Shortridge. These old ladies came often. All the rest were active members. We met at the homes of the members until 1885 and then we concluded to rent a club room and we rented three or four rooms over Babcock’s office and Mollie Babcock was the custodian of our apartment. She lived in the rooms and took care of them and we paid the rent. She had some furniture and with what we had donated our little place looked quite cozy and homelike. We occupied the front part and she had all the rest. He had a nice organ that belonged to the Temperance Union people. They had disbanded and they let us have it and we thought we were fixed. We had quite a few pieces of furniture given to us. I remember we had a book case, table, chairs and carpet, but we never had just what we wanted. During our stay there General Van Rensselaer, whose father lies buried in our Presbyterian church yard, made frequent visits to this place and he seemed to take great interest in our club welfare and he was conceded to be quite wealthy. So one day when we were in need of furniture or money to buy it, there was a called meeting for the express purpose of us meeting the' General. We had a hint that we were to receive something from him and every member was there and delighted for we thought our time had come to have our room furnished in fine style or io receive an endowment of some kind. He was a little old fellow on the dudish order, wore nose glasses, button hole bouquets, carried a gold headed cane and wore burnside whiskers that were trimmed to a frazzle. At the meeting he arose with great dignity with a package in his hand; he complimented us on our work; he said he was proud of us and thought the town ought to be. He gave us such a complimentary spiel that we thought we were about to reach our goal—in fact—were ready to receive it. Instead, he proceeded to open the package and there were thre or four dozen of his. pictures which he proceeded to distribute. Everyone present got one whether we wanted it or not. We were so crestfallen and disappointed that we did not know what to do. But we were game. Miss Mollie Babcock arose and thanked him for his generous gift and made a motion that we make him an honorary member, which we quickly did. On the following week we had a paper for a part of our program and one of the girl contributors wrote a little zigzag and when she came to V she began like this—

V stands for Van Rensselaer, So spare and so thin, The only male member We could ever take in; J He is an honorary, too, But so deficient in fleshWe scarcely expect him To get back to his place. One of the important offices of this society was the critic. It has been said that “poets are born, not made,” and that is the- way with the critic. For years we had the same one and she delighted in filling that office. Criticism should be received in the spirit of kindness in which it was made, so our rules said, and most of us tried to abide by them. The president would appoint the critic at the | opening of each meeting and with pencil in hand she was ready to criti- ' cize anything she saw or heard ' was not correct. Our manner of standing—-jf you happened to stand more on one foot ■ than the other—she saw it. _lf there was a mispronounced word or an illy constructed sentence she was there to let you know where you were at fault, and I am sure this criticism 1 did us a world of good and after she i got through with us we never made ■ the same mistake twice. Miss Bab-'

cock was a competent and fearless critic. It made no difference to her whether you liked to be criticized or not, you got it just the same if you deserved it. One day I happened to be appointed to that office when she was on the program. I thought now was my time to get even with her. She mispronounced the word “telegrapher.” I never forget that word, for she did not take the criticism like she wanted us to, but became quite angry and it took her a whole week to convince herself that she was wrong. From the beginning we have celebrated our anniversary day and our meetings used to be the events of the year. Everybody had a new dress for the Our first one was held at the beautiful home of Mrs, R. S. Dwiggins. The house was crowded and we served refreshments. The program was a long one with plenty of good music. The second meeting was at Mrs. Alfred Thompson’s. She always opened her home for all of our open meetings if we had them at a private home. After a few years we branched out a little and had several anniversary meetings at the opera house. We would issue invitations and charge an admission fee and we always had a crowded house. Everybody would go, for they knew the money was going to be given to a good cause. We gave over a hundred dollars to have our cemetery improved, for it was sadly neglected them, Sometimes it would go to the poor and we were sure is went to the right place. When we had our club room, we had, of course, to look out for the rent, as our membership fee was not sufficient to pay it and our open meetings helped us out. Our club never came so near dying a natural death as it did when we rented our rooms. It went down to a small membership and we were compelled to move out and go back to the homes for our meetings and our interest was revived and we got back to where we started. If it had not been for the energy of a few of the older members in keeping it together, I would not be here today trying to tell a forty years history. One noticeable feature about our early membership was that we had several grandmothers with their daughters and granddaughters that were members at the same time. One of our honorary members, Grandmother Dwiggins, had her daughter, Lydia, two granddaughters, Mrs. Willis Imes and Mrs. Lyda Kimball, and one daughter-in-law, Mrs. Zimri Dwiggins. Mrs. Purcupile had her two daughters, Mrs. Sears and Strawbridge, and her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Henry Purcupilfe’and there were several more. The club work seemed to interest the young ladies as well as it did the older ones. In looking over a list of our former members it gives me pleasure to know that some of them have gained fame and success. When I think of Margaret Hill McCarter, Mrs. Letherock, Celia Wilkins and Mary Washburn, I feel proud to know that at one time they were a part of us. Mrs. McCarter’s fame as a writer is broadcast over this land and had Grace Letherock lived she too would have succeeded in her chosen work. Our poet, Miss Wilkinson, was a teacher in the public school here. She deserves much praise for the beautiful poems she wrote. She also wrote many magazine articles for our leading journals and papers. She wrote under the name of Sand Burr and we were a long time finding out who Sand Burr was, as she was so modest and unpretentious about her Writing. Many beautiful things could be said about our former members, for they were deserving, and their ■good works do follow them, Mary Washburn has gained for herself a name that we all can be proud of. She is and has been an earnest student and her efforts have been crowned with success.

As I said in the beginning, the Narrow Gauge R. R. was not completed when we began this society and it was the subject of much talk and comment. At our first anniversary meeting we remembered it enough to put it on our program. This was the program: Toast Response—Narrow Gauge R. R., Mrs. M. L. Spitler. Rensselaer, Mrs. R. S. Dwiggins. The Republican Paper of Rensselaer, Major Bitters. Hero Worship—-M. L. Spitler. Paper, Editors—Celia Wilkinson and Melle Wright. Milroy Park should be a lasting tribute to the memory of Mrs. A. Thompson, the mother of this club. She was the starter of the movement and through her untiring efforts the old home of Gen. Milroy was bought for the purpose of perpetuating the fame of this noted general and to furnish Rensselaer with a beautiful park. She lived to see her drams realized and today we look upon it with pride, for it is adorned with a statue of the general who at one time lived upon the spot. This manument stands as a memorial to the soldiers and sailors of this coun-

ty who gave their lives for a noble cause. Our club was instrumental in raising $1,014.50 for this monument. We did what we could and should be proud of it. In connection with this memorial we must not forget to speak of Mary Washburn’s part in it. She was the little sculptress who made the miniature statue of Gen. Milroy. It was a perfect piece of mechanism. To the life of this club today we owe it all to the faithful Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Dwiggins and Mrs. Purcupile. They deserve all credit for they never tired in doing the work of keeping this thing together. They have all passed to their reward. As I said in the beginning, when this club was organized I was young, with the. greater part of my life and ambitions before me. In looking backward I see and find the greater part of them behind .me and the only regret I have it that I did not improve my time and talent in a: more earnest way. I have always j enjoyed the work of" the club and J have been greatly benefited by it in every way. In my closing thought to you to- < day, I will say that I could wish you nothing better than to live 40 years I more in this club and that you will *

get as much pleasure and benefit as I have had. Happy thoughts will ever linger. O’er the hours well spent with you; I can leave you to the future / For I know much good you’ll do. Some of us will pass away To a fairer, brighter clime; Leaving you to fill our places With the work we leave behind.

May this little club of women Live for ages yet to come; And as one by one you cross the river Head the Master say, “Well done.” There are 19 living members who began at the beginning and 22 who are dead. The living are: Mrs. Lydia Moss, Mrs. Estella Strawbridge, Mrs. Arabel Sears, Mrs. Alice Dunlap, Mrs. Dr. Washburn, Mrs. Nell Purcupile, Mrs. M. L. Spiter, Miss Lola Moss Patton, Hallie

Coen Ferguson, Mrs. S. P. Thompson, Mrs. Annie Jones, Miss Lydia Dwiggins, Lydia Paris Eandall, Mrs. Louise Imes, Mrs. Annie Maloy, Mrs. Lee A. Cotton, Mrs. Mary Porter Mayhew, Mrs. E. P. Alter, Mellfr Wright Medicus.