Canton Valley Women's Club Highlighted at Museum Open House
Author: MT43 News Reporter
Canton Valley Women’s Club Highlighted at Museum Open House
MT43 News Reporter
Volunteers are the meat and potatoes of making a town successful. That was the takeaway of Museum Curator Linda Huth’s Canton Valley Women’s Club History presentation on Sunday at the Museum.
The Canton Women’s Club is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Huth walked a large group of history buffs through the many volunteering projects the small group of ladies accomplished. Formed in 1924 by a small group of Canton Valley women, it was a service club and was included in the National Federated Women’s Clubs along with Toston, Crow Creek and Townsend groups to become Broadwater Federated Women’s Clubs. Only the Canton group is still active.
President Bonnie Berglind, Vice President Roxann LaRue and Secretary/Treasurer Carol McGuire lead the group. Other members are JoAnn Karsetter, Mary Olsen, Wilma Wortman and Linda Huth.
The group initiated two important projects through the years: Financial help for the new hospital, built in 1935 and helping improve Heritage Park.
An annual Charity Ball began raising funds for the new hospital built by Drs. R.G. Bayles and Frank Nash. The women’s clubs held the first ball in 1938. The bash took place in the high school gymnasium complete with elaborate decorations and live music. They were able to raise $9,000 to buy equipment for the hospital. The Charity Ball provided funds for Townsend’s various needs from 1938 to 1964 when the event was canceled permanently.
The Northern Pacific Railroad set aside what is now Heritage Park until the new town of Townsend was platted. The area was a jungle of sorts with abandoned buildings and fallen trees. Volunteers tore down the buildings and cleaned the area. In 1964 Canton Valley Women’s Club members set to improving the area to build a community park and public swimming pool.
Other projects Broadwater Women’s Clubs contributed to were the Community Library, the new Museum building and the county’s seminal history book, Broadwater Bygones. Canton Valley Women’s Club was an integral part of lobbying to convince the federal government to build the Wildlife Refuge and Dike array. The project worked as dust abatement in the south end of Canyon Ferry Reservoir. Low water would leave large open areas of blowing dust. The dust would cover Townsend and rural areas during those times.
The museum is open daily for the summer from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., except July 4.
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PhotoCredit: Provided by Museum
Image 1 Caption: 1955 Charity Ball grand march from left to right Evelyn and Frank Shear, unidentified couple, Mary and Al Brothers, Joy and Dr. Frank Nash.
Provided by Museum
