Canton Valley Woman’s Club Birthday Celebration
Author: Linda Huth, Broadwater County Museum Curator
Canton Valley Woman’s Club Birthday Celebration
Linda Huth
Broadwater County Museum Curator
In a recent article I wrote about the Canton Valley Woman’s Club celebrating the club’s 100th birthday. The club was the idea of Mrs. W.C. Whaley, an early Broadwater County family. It was a group of country women in the days of the horse and buggy, who gathered together one or two times a month to become better acquainted, to visit and to exchange ideas. Families in those days were isolated. Because of transportation difficulties, it was not easy to go to the neighbors for socializing. This club provided the opportunity to do so.
Besides Mrs. Whaley, other early-day members included Mesdames Bruce, Merritt, Noble, Kirscher, Smith, Plymale, Meyers, Doggett, Mannix, Weiferich, Broderick, Gaab, Tenneyson and Fuhs.
In the beginning, the meetings were in the members’ homes. Mr. and Mrs. William Gaab donated an old building in Canton to the club. The building had been a boot and shoe shop owned by the Kieckbusch family and when the Canton store was purchased by the Gaabs, the “shoe shop” was part of the deal. The ladies furnished it with a large table, chairs and benches, dishes and a cupboard for them. There was an old cook stove with a large coffee pot on it, a sewing table, and a potbellied stove for use on cold meeting days. There was a huge United States of America flag on the wall and their certification that they were an official affiliated club of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs.
Wikipedia tells us that the General Federation of Women’s (Woman’s) Clubs (GFWC) was founded in 1890 and it is a federation of approximately 2,300 women’s clubs in the United States which promote civic improvements through volunteer service. Community Service Projects are organized by local clubs for the benefit of their communities. The GFWC maintains nearly 60,000 members throughout the United States and internationally. GFWC is one of the world’s largest and oldest nonpartisan, nondenominational, women’s volunteer service organizations.
Today’s club members are: Bonnie Berglind, President; Roxann Larue, Vice President; Carol McGuire, Secretary/Treasurer; Sharon Gambrel, Linda Huth; Wilma Wortman; Jackie Kynett; and JoAnn Karstetter.
According to President Bonnie Berglind some recent projects include sponsoring a decorated window, at the Creative Closet, for suicide prevention and providing high school students with bracelets with the suicide prevention telephone number and web page address; contributing to elementary school books; to the Christmas Connection; to deserving ladies in the community for gasoline and groceries at Christmas time; and to the food bank.
The Canton Valley Woman’s Club and the Broadwater County Historical Society are partnering to have a celebration of the club’s birthday at the Broadwater County Museum at 133 North Walnut Street in Townsend on Sunday, May 19 at 2:00 with a program about the history of the club with several historic photographs. We hope you will join us.
