Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Bremen Homemakers Club, 1932. From left to right: Mrs. C.R. Lies, Mrs. E.V. Hartl, Mrs. L.M. Lies, Mrs. L. Bower, Mrs. W.R. Hartl, Mrs. L. Holmes, Mrs. E. Kovar, Miss G. DeLong, Mrs. J.N. Lies and Audrey Martin.
Bremen Homemakers Club, 1951. back row: Delores Hartl, Hedwig Lange, Florence Rawleigh, Martha Lies, Joyce Pranke; Middle: Lily Tangney, Mabel Bower, Hermina Liese, Hadith Larson; front row: Elinor Buechler, Annie Albus, Doris Ryan Jordan and Adeline Arendt.
In honor of National Women's History Month, we've been exploring the role that women's clubs had in creating our local histories. This would be a difficult task for our little museum, however one certain type of artifact made history all the more accessible - the scrapbook.
For those who might not be familiar, scrapbooks are compositionally arranged pages that consist of paper cutouts, print media and embellishments. They appeared about the same time print media began to flourish in the late 1880s.
In the early to mid 20th century, scrapbooks took on a more professional role in the women's clubs. Not only was scrapbooking a great way to document and share a club's success, but it was also an opportunity to be judged at the General Federation of Women's Clubs' (GFWC) annual convention.
The GFWC was founded in 1890 by Jane Cunningham Croly and soon became the backbone and structural support of women's clubs across the country. It served as an umbrella organization that provided administrative support and capacity to a number of clubs. The Pioneer Daughters and Minerva were part of the crowd, but so was the Garden Club and the Homemakers Club too.
In September of 1931, 20 women convened in the home of Mrs. E. Lange to establish the Bremen Homemaker Club. Those in attendance included: Mrs. B. Ackerman, Mrs. J.W. Albus, Mrs. J.T. Allmaras, Mrs. L. Bower, Mrs. F.R. Dusek, Mrs. Geo. Hitz, Mrs. W.R. Hartl, Mrs. E.V. Hartl, Mrs. E. Kova, Mrs. E.J. Lange, Mrs. R. Lange, Mrs. C.R. Lies, Mrs. J.N. Lies, Mrs. E. Simms, Mrs. J. Schuster, Mrs. K. Foster, Mrs. Tom Bollingberg, Mrs. O.P. Oleson and Mrs. L. Holmes.
Their scrapbook tells us that the topic for the club's first year was "The Well Fed Family." Members of the group took turns hosting meetings and sharing techniques for feeding families. In November, Mrs. Olaf Bollingberg presented four recipes for homemade ice cream. In January, Mrs. L.W. Bower gave lessons on cookies, cakes, and candy made from honey. In August, Mrs. Edmund Hartle gave a lesson/demonstration which was titled "We're off to a picnic" which included a homemade stove and upcycled no. 10 cans turned into frying pans.
I could go on, really, but the point is this - for 50 years, members came together for outings and retreats, but it's likely they shared far more than that. These were hard times that included the Great Depression and World War II. It's most certain that these women learned hard skills and faced hard truths together. They also shared a notion that in a rapidly changing world, a loving and comfortable home is priceless.
