USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Newton > Tercentenary history of Newton, 1630-1930 > Part 19
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The churches also came to the aid of the institution
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with generous annual contributions, reaching ten thou- sand dollars in 1901, and individuals supplied special needs. Mrs. Elizabeth Eldredge of Newton gave ten thou- sand dollars towards the cost of building and the support of the hospital, Mrs. J. R. Leeson of Newton Centre gave seven thousand, and twenty other persons supplied five hundred dollars or more each. As time passed other wealthy citizens contributed buildings and wards as needs arose.
Still another landmark in the history of the decade was the organization of the Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1888. It was the lack of trained nurses sufficient for the needs of the hospital which brought about the founding of the school. It opened with three pupils, but by 1902 it had graduated one hundred. During the first year the expenses were met by the Newtonville Women's Guild. The nurses gave ward service the first year while they were pursuing their studies; during the second and third years they were permitted to nurse in private homes, while they continued their three-years course. In 1893 Lucius W. Pratt and Edmund W. Converse agreed to meet the expense of a nurses' home with accommodations for forty. It did not take many years to persuade the com- munity that the hospital was worthy of their generous support, and it swiftly gained recognition for the excellence of its service and the efficiency of its management. Twenty- eight trustees elected annually served as its governing board, with an executive committee of nine.
It was not supposed that there would be any such demand as soon appeared. Instead of the twenty-five or thirty patients that were anticipated the first year forty were admitted, and the total of the second year was one hundred and twenty-one. Within twenty years it was one thousand. More than ninety per cent of those received were treated successfully. The indirect influence of the hospital in inculcating the principles of healthful living, in
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removing the fear of the hospital, and in checking maladies in the homes, especially contagious diseases, cannot be estimated in figures. Certain obstacles that appeared likely to cause difficulty of administration were far less serious than the pessimists had expected. It had been thought that physicians of different schools would not work well together, but they cooperated harmoniously on the same executive board of control. It was supposed that a resident physician and staff were necessary for the direc- tion of the hospital, but it was found that an efficient super- intendent was sufficient. The physicians in Newton, some of whom were specialists in medicine or surgery with a wide reputation, gave of their best, and the presence of the hospital was in the nature of a laboratory in which they broadened their experience.
It added greatly to the convenience of the patrons of the hospital that the railroad had brought its service near the grounds. The residents of Newton Centre and Newton Highlands had been much dissatisfied with the accommo- dations provided by the Woonsocket Division of the New York and New England Railroad, and were determined to have a new road if they could not be served better. The Boston and Albany was in the market to buy, but the two roads could not make terms. At length the Boston and Albany made the purchase when they found that a new road was about to be constructed. The amount paid was four hundred fifteen thousand dollars for the little more than five miles of track from Brookline to Newton High- lands. In 1884 the Boston and Albany built the Circuit Railroad to connect with the main line at Riverside. James F. C. Hyde was the principal promoter of the enterprise for the municipality. The result of the new connection with its improved train service was to bring the south side of the city into closer contact with the villages on the main line, to create a new demand for real estate at the Centre
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and the Highlands, and to stimulate the development of the open country between Newton Highlands and River- side. Three new stations were located at Eliot, Waban and Woodland. Booms of property followed at Eliot and Waban, and the station at Woodland proved almost as good as a private stopping place for the hospital. Later it was to prove its usefulness for golf enthusiasts. The Wood- land Park Hotel was not far away, with its fifty-five new bedrooms, new dining rooms, tennis court and stables. It was built in 1881-82 by Haskell, Andrews and Pulsifer of the Boston Herald, and Frederick Johnson, as a resort for pulmonary patients, for Auburndale had a reputation for healthfulness. Joseph Lee, who had been in the purveying department of the United States Navy, was made the caterer, a position which he held during the nearly forty years of the existence of the hotel.
While the men of the city were foregathering under various club names, and while many of the women devoted themselves to the needs of the Hospital, some of the same and other women were finding more leisure than formerly, as more household activities were being relegated to bak- eries, laundries, and elsewhere, and as more families were able to afford paid service for housework. In the case of cultivated women leisure meant an opportunity for social and intellectual intercourse, and naturally women's clubs with that as their purpose began to multiply.
One of the forward steps in the emancipation of woman was her claim that she had a right to think for her- self and to meet for the discussion of questions of public interest. This principle underlay the demand for the higher education of women in the nineteenth century and for the success of the crusade for woman suffrage in the twentieth century.
The first recorded instance of women's association for such thought and discussion is the gathering of the Puritan
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women of Boston at the home of Anne Hutchinson in the early days of the colony. The unheard-of presumption of the leader in discussing critically the sermons of the Bos- ton divines and her unsettling influence over the docile Puritan women caused her trial and banishment, and the first woman's club in America was no more.
The principle did not die. Evidences of the gradual awakening of the feminine spirit appear now and then in the nineteenth century annals of Newton. The Sunday school gave women a place of importance as teachers in the church. They were already winning positions as teachers in the public schools. Presently schools for the education of girls sprang up of which Lasell Seminary was chief. Women assumed more importance in the churches, and organized their own societies for social, charitable and missionary purposes. The Equal Suffrage Association came into existence to further that cause. Women shared in several of the literary societies which were organized for mutual culture, and by and by they organized their own.
For a long time there was no thought of anything more than a local association for study and social satisfac- tion, and perhaps for the accumulation of a library. But the time came when the sense of a common interest and a desire for fellowship made them sensible of what similar groups were doing in other communities, and a standard type of organizations grew up, which were called woman's clubs.
The Newton Centre Reading Club was the pioneer among women's organizations in Newton. At the begin- ning it was simply a group of friends meeting together weekly to read for the pure pleasure of it. It was organized with twenty members in 1879, and the number has con- tinued to be limited to twenty women, who meet every Monday afternoon from two-thirty to five o'clock at the homes of the members. After a time a simple constitution
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and by-laws were adopted that "all things might be done decently and in order." The members signed their names to the declaration: "We the undersigned ladies of Newton Centre, having met for purposes of mutual benefit and improvement, and realizing the necessity of definite organ- ization, hereby resolve ourselves into a society and agree to bind ourselves by the foregoing rules and by-laws." The usual officers of a simple organization were then elected.
The readers ranged through biography, history, foreign countries, including a long time in Rome and a shorter time in Spain, and art and science in the Victorian era. For three years they studied the city of Boston inten- sively, then for two years they turned to a study of liter- ary men, with special attention to Shakespeare. Always the aim of the Club was to absorb the spirit of the time or of the work that they were studying rather than merely to ascertain accurate facts. For fifty years the organization has continued with little change of method, and has clung to two characteristic principles, that of simplicity of man- agement and a strong and loyal friendship and devotion among the members.
Fifty years ago the Legislature made women in Massa- chusetts eligible to a place on school committees. That was the impulse needed to bring into existence the Women's Educational Club of West Newton. Formed in 1880 its initial action was to solicit pledges among women to exer- cise their school vote. Then it initiated the movement to introduce sewing instruction into the public schools. Soon it was trying to get a woman on the school board. The sponsors of the Club were interested in education for them- selves also. The Club had classes of its own in a variety of subjects, including the history and institutional life of the city. In 1883 the Club went into Players Hall for its meet- ings, where it has met ever since. In the following year the Club had the first successful cooking class in Newton,
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when one hundred members enrolled for twelve lessons. This preceded the Home Economics class. The Travel class grew out of a study class in 1888. An address by Mrs. Booker T. Washington in 1886 initiated an annual scholar- ship at Tuskegee and later another at Hampton Institute.
During the first twenty years the Club met regularly twice a month. It provided social features in an annual reception in September, an annual supper in April, and a men's night in January. This sedate Club also conceived the idea of a field day, when, gathering a party of thirty- six, the members took conveyances through Auburndale, Weston, Wayland and Sudbury, to Wayside Inn, where appropriate selections from Longfellow's "Tales" were read, stories were told, and the club members ate lunch and rambled over the old house. It was an old-fashioned junket, before anybody dreamed of motor cars or million- aire occupants.
The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle of Newton Highlands was inspired by the visit of three women of that village to Chautauqua Lake in western New York, where the Chautauqua Movement had started in a sum- mer assembly. That Movement conceived its mission as educational, and enrolled thousands of persons in its read- ing courses, roughly patterned after the four years' dis- cipline of the American college. A popular response was heard from all over the country, and local reading circles sprang up under the name of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. The Highlands women returned from their excursion and told their friends about it, with the result that seven women organized their C. L. S. C. in 1880. Subsequently the number increased to a limit of twenty-five. For the four years of the systematic course the Circle followed the Chautauqua plan, through history, ancient and modern, literature, art, science and religion; then other subjects were given attention besides the Chau-
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tauqua courses. In after years the programs were arranged quite independently, but the original name remained. The range of studies carried the members far afield into a vari- ety of practical as well as informing subjects. The spirit of the Circle remained a studious one, keeping as its motto: "Press forward; he conquers who will." Excursions, ban- quets and lectures varied the programs. A pleasant fea- ture of the tenth anniversary was the presence of Bishop John H. Vincent, the engineer of the Chautauqua Move- ment.
Four years the junior of the C. L. S. C. was the Mon- day Club of the same village. This had its beginning when Mrs. George G. Phipps, the wife of the Congregational minister, invited as many women of the community as were interested to meet regularly in one another's homes for an hour of rest and relaxation. It was her idea that one should read aloud while the others sewed or merely lis- tened. This plan was followed about two years when the group, which had grown in numbers, decided on a definite organization. Mrs. Phipps was its president for the next seven years. The Club has met bi-weekly every season from October to May. Original papers have been con- tributed by the members, who found enrichment of mind in the study of different countries. Occasionally they lis- tened to lectures. Best of all were its contributions to worthy causes in the belief that "the elevation of woman is the elevation of the home, the church and humanity." The Club has endeavored to keep abreast of the times, and especially to identify the interests of children with those of their elders. Literary, artistic, social, domestic, and national interests have all entered into the thought and programs through the forty-five years of association.
In 1884, the same year that the Monday Club of Newton Highlands had its first gatherings, the Newton- ville Women's Guild began to meet fortnightly. Its orig-
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inal promoter was Mrs. John W. Dickinson, the wife of the secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. The Guild had a social and intellectual purpose, but its distinctive activity was charitable. It adopted the policy of furnishing half the programs of its meetings by home talent so as to have more income to spend for philanthropy. Meetings have been held fortnightly from November to May.
The principal beneficiary of the Guild for some years was the Newton Hospital. The Guild furnished the din- ing room of the hospital when it was built, supported the nurses' training school for a year, and maintained a free bed for nine years. It has always considered the needs of the hospital in arranging its budget. Large sums have been raised for other beneficiaries, and the regular gifts of the Club have increased almost every year until now over fourteen hundred dollars are spent annually for various civic and philanthropic enterprises. Seven committees cared for its interests. These were on education, music, hospital, industry, charity, social recreation and flowers. Within twenty-five years of its origin it could count two hundred and fifty names on its roll of membership, and in 1919 the Guild became the Newtonville Woman's Club, and duly joined the city, state and general federations of women's clubs.
The first woman's club to assume that name in the city of Newton was the Newton Centre Woman's Club, which was organized in that village in the year 1887. Twenty-six women had united in aid of a fair to be held under the auspices of the local G. A. R. Post. They so much enjoyed their association for this purpose and were so pleased at the success of their joint efforts that it was suggested that they perpetuate their association in a club. Mutual improvement and service were the acknowledged purpose of the organization, and in parliamentary fashion
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a constitution was adopted and the first officers chosen. Mrs. Robert R. Bishop was elected the first president of the Club and continued for five years.
At first the meetings were merely friendly gatherings at the homes of the members, where papers or lectures were given, and music was provided by a chorus under the direc- tion of Mrs. Daniel A. White. The annual dues were only a dollar and a half, and most of the money raised was devoted to charity. One of the earliest outside interests was the Newton Centre playground. A few foresaw the need of the future and realized the opportunity of the present. It soon became apparent that the people of New- ton Centre must spur on the city government to secure the tract which was desired, and it was agreed that the city would pay half the purchase price if Newton Centre citi- zens would provide the remainder. With this incentive the Woman's Club joined the Improvement Association in an effort to raise the necessary money, and was successful in obtaining nearly twenty-six hundred dollars by means of a Festival of Days. It was the Woman's Club that paid the first sum of twenty-five dollars from its treasury as an option on the property. This cooperation gave the Club standing in the community.
This experiment in public service encouraged the Club to undertake other forms of social endeavor. Mrs. Bishop was an enthusiastic leader and the women caught the inspiration of the idea of service. Among the enterprises mothered by the Club were classes at Thompsonville, a vacation school, the Mothers' Rest enterprise, Twombly House at Upper Falls, and the Newton Hospital. In coop- eration with the Village Improvement Association the Club tried to improve village conditions in Ward Six, to secure better transportation accommodations, to rid the com- munity of unsightly buildings and to substitute small parks, to celebrate Fourth of July in sane fashion, and
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to improve the schools and secure better schoolhouses. The Club undertook to maintain a scholarship for the assistance of Newton Centre girls in acquiring a college education.
Interest in the Club grew and home accommodations were outgrown. It became necessary to use the small halls in Bray Block, and on great occasions to move into the large hall. During the presidency of Mrs. Alvah Hovey classes were introduced for intensive study of matters in which some of the members were especially interested, such as the fine arts, parliamentary practice, or the art of embroidery. A class in current events was popular from the beginning. Some qualms of conscience were felt about the members taking the necessary time away from their homes and children, and for a time it was agreed that meetings should not be held oftener than once a week.
The Club was fortunate in securing many lecturers of note, even from abroad. Gradually dues were raised to meet increasing expenses, but the limit to the number of members was raised from time to time, and the revenue sufficed. Such well-known names as Lady Henry Somer- set, Mary Livermore, Julia Ward Howe, Joseph Cook, Hamilton Mabie, Charles W. Eliot and Calvin Coolidge adorn the records of the passing years. In time the Club joined the Newton Federation of Women's Clubs and began to aspire to a home of its own, an achievement which was realized many years later.
In the winter of 1886 six women met informally in the village of Newton to talk over the advisability of organ- izing a club. They felt that the narrow range of ordinary topics of conversation might be broadened in women's circles if their thinking could be stimulated. Discussion resulted in a decision to invite only a few to join them at first, and to desert the usual literary subjects of the women's clubs of the day in favor of social and political
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topics, about which they were more ignorant. It was voted to limit the number of members to twelve, to meet every Friday forenoon, and to give exclusive attention to "present history." No formal calendar was arranged, but a docket of suggested subjects was to be kept from which the president should select topics for the consideration of the Club. The name of the Social Science Club was selected and the first topic decided upon was Prison Reform.
Within a year the Club assumed the usual form with constitution and by-laws, and the limit of membership was raised until one hundred were enrolled. It was a time when public interest in social welfare was inducing students to dig down to the basic principles of the science of living together, and to raise the question whether the charitable methods in vogue were wise or not. The Social Science Club studied and practised at the same time. The meet- ings of the Club were held in private houses, where the members read the papers which they had prepared and dis- cussed them warmly, sometimes continuing discussion of the same subject to a later meeting. Usually an outside lecturer was invited to speak about once a month. The tenth and fifteenth anniversaries were held with all-day meetings, and occasionally a forenoon was given to the customary meeting and the afternoon to social converse and a program of entertainment. An evening was devoted occasionally to a reception for gentlemen friends of the members. After twelve years of existence the Club began to hold its meetings in the Hunnewell Club House. Public entertainments at times swelled the funds available for charity.
The principal charity of the Social Science Club has been the Nonantum Vacation Industrial School. A pre- liminary experiment was tried at Thompsonville in 1888, a pioneer undertaking in the United States. There the school was for girls only with a paid sewing teacher and
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voluntary assistants. Then a club in Newton Centre was willing to assume the responsibility of the experiment at Thompsonville, and the Social Science Club turned its efforts nearer home. Sewing classes for girls and a class in carpentry for boys were started among the working people at Nonantum, where they had an enthusiastic response. Year by year the number of pupils and the variety of courses increased. Sewing, cooking, basketry, kinder- garten, carpentry, and other training employed eleven teachers and a supervisor, most of whom were paid by the Club. By the summer of 1903 the school had grown to a total number of three hundred and fifty-seven, and the next year the city permitted the use of the Jackson school- house. Then the city met half the expense and the super- intendent of schools assumed the management. The same year out-of-door classes were added in physical culture. In 1906 the enrolment was five hundred and fourteen, two hundred and sixteen boys and two hundred and ninety- eight girls, ranging from three to fifteen years of age. The expense was eight hundred and eighty dollars. That same year a school garden was cultivated for three months.
Had the Social Science Club accomplished nothing else than this philanthropy it would have deserved high credit, for besides the Industrial School came the Stearns School Centre and the Nonantum Boys' Club as a conse- quence, but the Club continued its activities in other ways.
Another form of usefulness presented itself to women who were in close touch with the Grand Army of the Republic. In connection with the occasional fairs and festivals of the Army they could make themselves very helpful, and in other ways they could contribute to their welfare as a friendly auxiliary. The result was the organ- ization of the Woman's Relief Corps in the year 1887. It began with about one hundred and fifty members and soon proved its value. As time passed the special relation
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to the Grand Army was broadened and more general charities were added.
The Newton Ladies Home Circle was the sequence of the Woman's Relief Corps, which disbanded. The Circle was organized for benevolent and social purposes. Fort- nightly meetings were held and a relief fund was started. A committee of two from each ward reported on cases of need. Aside from aid given in homes a room was furnished in the Newton Hospital, another in the Soldiers' Home at Chelsea, and a bed in the Home for Little Wanderers in Boston. The usual avenues of benevolence served to supply the funds which were used for the purchase of garments, bedding, and other necessaries. Food and rummage sales, various kinds of entertainments, and private contributions were all brought under toll. Meetings were held at the Pomroy Home.
Not a few women in Newton were interested deeply in the agitation for equal suffrage of women with men, a movement that was gathering strength steadily. As early as 1883 the matter of an organization in Newton was dis- cussed at the Walton home in West Newton, and three years later in the Allen School both men and women who believed in the principle of woman suffrage organized the Newton Equal Suffrage League. The Newton Civil Serv- ice Reform Association was another attempt to give back- ing to a reform which was needed in the political circles of the United States. The prompt adoption of the principle of merit in appointments in the city of Newton was a timely application of the reform. The Association dated from 1881, and was organized at West Newton with eighty members. It soon allied itself with state and national leagues and sent delegates to their sessions. The Newton Prohibition League of 1888 was another evidence that reform was in the air. Adopting the motto: "Educate, agitate, legislate," and demanding unconditional sur-
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