State’s longest continuously running women’s group around for 138 years

Sue Ice, second from left, listens during the high tea. Wendy Nugent/Newton Now

By Wendy Nugent, Newton Now

Newton resident Gertude Olson isn’t sure how long she’s been a member of Ladies Reading Circle, the longest continuously meeting women’s group in the state.

“She was already in when I joined 25 years ago,” member Annette Bernard said.

Olson, 97, said she moved to Newton about 70 years ago and probably has been a member more than 50 years.

She enjoys the group, which meets once a month, annually, October through May.

“The first thing, of course, is the people,” she said about what she likes. “I think we learn a great deal—subjects we take up.”

Sally Long, who said she was going to be president of the group for just one more hour, said the group used to read books, and now they have guest speakers on different topics. However, every once in a while, they’ll read books, member Karen Penner said.

On a Thursday afternoon, the reading circle had a high tea at the Warkentin House in Newton, in keeping with the tradition of the group meeting there during its inception days.

Newton was only 8 years old when the circle formed in 1880, and one of its first members was Wilhelmina Warkentin, who was married to Bernhard Warkentin, the man who introduced the area to turkey red hard winter wheat. The town’s library hadn’t even been built yet, nor had the opera house. That also was the year women in Newton were told they could vote in the school board election, although nationally, women weren’t allowed to vote until 1920. The population of Newton was about a 10th of the size it is now at 2,603 people.

The group started after a couple of women, Mrs. Theodora Dean and Miss Chapman, took a trip east.

“Mrs. Theodora [Harry] Dean and Miss Chapman, the sister of W.E. Chapman, who owned the People’s Store at Sixth and Main, went back east where women’s study clubs were all the rage,” according to information member Jane Jones, archivist at the Harvey County Historical Museum and Archives, presented during the Ladies Reading Circle’s 125th anniversary commemoration in 2005. “They came back and wanted to start a club in Newton.”

Their first meeting was in February 1880 at the home of Louise Bunker, 128 W. Broadway in Newton. Those attending were friends and neighbors of Dean and Chapman.

“Meet for the object of reading and plan being that each member in turn should read aloud, while the industriously inclined might, while listening, play the crochet-needle, manufacture rick-rack, do the weekly darning or do nothing,” Annie Knowlton said in a speech during the group’s 12th anniversary in 1892.

Their first book was “The Vicar of Wakefield” by Oliver Goldsmith.

In 1891, members changed the group to a study club, arriving at that decision Sept. 18, 1891, to form a constitution and by-laws. They adopted the by-laws and constitution Sept. 25, 1891, at the most visible Victorian home in Newton, Mina Warkentin’s. Dues amounted to 50 cents, and the group’s first president was Annie Knowlton.

“She lost no time, and for the next meeting, assigned six questions to answer,” Jones’s presentation information stated. “At the meeting on 19 February 1892, President Knowlton suggested a current event be given in response to roll call at each meeting. This brought the women into a habit of discussion.”

Their hot topics in 1898 included, “What should the woman of today strive to become and what means should she employ to the attainment of the object?” They also discussed, “The suffrage question” and “Kissing—is the practice a menace to health and morals?” which, “called forth merriment and yet presented sound argument.”

In addition to having serious topics, members also had fun, throwing parties with a variety of themes. The 1894 end-of-year banquet was at the Warkentins’ house. They also had a Napoleon party, which husbands attended dressed in period costumes, a western-themed event in the 1930s and a Japanese tea party in 1958 at the Hotel Ripley with “Geisha Girls.”

“Ladies Reading Circle was just one of many women’s study clubs that began just after the Civil War,” Jones’s information stated.

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