Country Woman's Club: brief history

              History of the Country Woman's Club-- Eighty Years and Counting-- September 25,2002
Our third cookbook, published two years ago, contains a seventy-eight year history of the Country Women and their
Club, but one small page had hardly enough space to report about these remarkable ladies whose legacy we proudly
claim.
We all know that the club was begun in 1922 when a group of friends from the country around the St. Bethlehem
Community decided to meet for lunch once a month to socialize as they would have had they lived in the nearby city of
Clarksville. By the full of the first year, when the group grew to about 35 ladies, individual homes could not
accommodate the adventurous women. Scouting around, they found the White's Creek Chapel abandoned school, which
could be theirs to use as a luncheon and meeting place. The women scrubbed and painted the building, inside and out,
and furnished it with donated furniture and fixtures, converting otie of the two rooms into an assembly hall/dining room
and the other into a kitchen.
It was at the time the building was made available to them that they formally designated themselves the "Country
Woman's Club." Mrs. Hicks Polk was elected President, an office she held for 22 years until her death in 1944. A
motto, colors, and club song were chosen. A piano was bought by selling many ten-cent sandwiches and five-cent slices
of pie, according to the records. By 1923, the Club was "Federated" and a Constitution and Bylaws were adopted.
Educational and beneficial (civic) projects were embraced, among them support for the consolidated school movement
and county road improvements, the latter to replace the mud roads then in use outside the city limits. From the archives,
many articles suggest that these ladies were true Steel Magnolias.
Iti 1925, the county again needed the school building to be used as it was originally intended and the ladies started a
campaign for a building of their own. There is no record readily available of where the ladies met for two years but
there is much information about how they went about raising money to reach their goal. Luncheons, dinners, pie and ice
cream suppers were held, the original cookbook was published, and on October 24, 1927 an elaborate "Fun Revue,"
directed by Mrs. Leigh Buckley, was staged by the members at the Majestic Theater. The Clarksville newspaper gave
rave reviews to the performers and the performances. A copy of the program is in the archives.
The dream of a home for the club materialized in 1927when a 1 00-foot lot was bought for $50 on Russellville Turnpike,
and a building was erected oflogs from an old barn donated by Mrs. Minor Randall. Willie Warfield donated rocks for
the fireplace and chimney from an old cabin. Other materials had to be purchased to complete the project. Many
husbands "contributed days of hauling with teams and wagons" and wielded hammers and saws. Even though they at
first scoffed at the idea of ladies having a club home these same men became proud of their "progressive" wives.
Dues were $1 per year, and members were to pay $1 to use the Club for personal affairs, non-members to pay $3. Strict
rules were enforced that if rented the Club was to be left the way it was found, clean and with everything in place.
The clubhouse was important as a base for the many projects the ladies adopted. Iti 1936 the Club decided to aid two
girls from ''poor but worthy'' families. For four years they paid transportation costs, meals, for some clothing and even
vitamin pills so the girls could attend Clarksville High. After the first pair graduated, two other girls were sponsored in
like manner.
Iti the records around that time is a lone note, "1936- sanitary toilet." Makes you kind of wonder, doesn't it?
During World War IT the ladies sold $2,770 in War Bonds. This was a princely sum back then. They rolled bandages
and sewed for the Red Cross and answered the Clarksville Hospital's plea for pillowcases when the hospital's linens ran
low. Care packages were sent monthly for two to three years to an adopted "French Family." Iti 1949 a Polish boy was
adopted.
All of the above was funded by many of the same type of fundraisers that paid for the club house and original lot. Iti
1946 an additional 25-feet of ground was bought on either side of the clubhouse. Iti 1950, the steps and walk were
improved. Iti 1951, "guest money'' each month was given to help feed underprivileged children at the St. Bethlehem
School and in 1950 and 1951 the soldiers in the hospital at Fort Campbell received visits and treats from the C lub
Ladies.