Title: LaGrange Aid Society Records
Inclusive Dates: 1896-1982

Creator:

• LaGrange Aid Society (Wis.)

Call Number: Whitewater Mss BH

Quantity: 0.8 c.f. (3 archives boxes) and 1 photograph

Repository:

Housed at the University Archives & Area Research Center, Harold Andersen Library, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

UW-Whitewater Library / Whitewater Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

Records of a women's social and charitable organization founded in LaGrange, Wisconsin in 1896 as the LaGrange Ladies Aid Society. Included are historical materials and constitutions; correspondence; financial records; minutes; files concerning activities and functions and the publication of LaGrange Pioneers, a local history; and photocopied clippings relating to the lives of club members and to local history columns written by the poet Maude Totten.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-whit00bh

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On November 13, 1896 sixteen women of LaGrange, Wisconsin met and organized a Ladies Aid Society. The purpose of this group was primarily social, although it was also created to raise money for charitable causes. At the second meeting on November 19, 1896 a constitution and by-laws were read and adopted. The founding members were Martha Bromley, temporary chair; Sarah Bromley, president, Carrie Brooks, vice president; Mabel Ewing, secretary, and Emma Nott, treasurer. By the end of the first year twenty-three members had signed the constitution.

Meetings were held in members' homes on alternate Thursdays. A small dues was paid at each meeting and a one-time initiation fee was required for membership. The organization was not affiliated with any church, although contributions were often made toward ministers' salaries and various church functions. All of the women in the community were thus eligible to become members; their husbands automatically became honorary members.

In 1912 the name of the organization was changed to the LaGrange Aid Society.

Membership remained low and record-keeping was a low priority until 1902 when Agnes Greening was elected secretary. At her insistence, minutes of meetings were more accurately recorded. In 1905 Katherine Greening was elected president. She, too, encouraged running the organization in an orderly and progressive fashion. By the 1920's the organization had become stagnant due to a lack of local causes in need of their help. Greening felt that in addition to charitable activities the members needed to learn more about the world. Educational programs thus became an established part of each meeting, and programs included discussions of literature, history, current events, travel, homemaking, and cooking.

The society continued charitable activities throughout its history. The women sewed and quilted; sold ice cream; and held socials, food sales, and a variety of other functions in order to raise funds to distribute to the needy. A few of their charitable services included providing blankets for the poor, supporting a French orphan for a year, sending flowers to the families of deceased community members, and the purchase of a piano the local Methodist church.

In 1935, due in large part to the work of Katherine Greening, Kate E. Taylor and Ellie Brooks Lawton, the book LaGrange Pioneers was published with the financial support of the society. The sale of this local history was quite successful and a subsequent edition was published. However, a controversy over the profits from this publication divided the membership for a time.

In the 1920's and 1930's the society reached its highest membership, but during the 1950's membership began to fall. Many of the original members died; others found it difficult to attend meetings. At the same time young women in the community increasingly found they did not have time for such an organization due to the demands of their careers. Membership continued to decline until 1982, when for all practical purposes, the organization ceased operation.

The records of the LaGrange Aid Society comprise a small collection which provides good documentation for over a half century of the social, educational, and charitable concerns of the women in a typical, small Wisconsin community. Included are constitutions and historical material, minutes, printed programs, financial records, files on a few of the group's activities, and biographical information about club members.

The Historical Documents file includes handwritten, annotated versions of the 1916 constitution which was adopted from the 1896 original; a brief history of the organization through 1916, and a later history probably prepared in conjunction with the LaGrange Pioneers history project. A photograph of the membership shortly after the turn of the century is filed in the name file in the Visual Materials Archive in Madison.

Minutes are the most useful and comprehensive documentation in the collection, although there is no information on the period 1939-1954. In addition to the proceedings, each volume of minutes contains annual financial statements.

The Correspondence, which is quite fragmentary, includes letters from traveling and transplanted members, notes of appreciation from recipients of the organization's help, and congratulatory notes concerning various anniversaries. There is also some correspondence with the LaGrange Methodist Episcopal Church clarifying the business relationship between the two groups. Separately-filed Financial Records supplement the information in the minutes and include ledgers and some information on the publication of the 1935 edition of LaGrange Pioneers. Documenting activities of the group are published programs, which indicate the date of each meeting and the activity planned; a number of papers prepared by members for presentation at meetings; some examples of poetry, a play script, and one member's recollection of a trip to the Milwaukee Public Museum; and material on the history committee. Of special note is a copy of the “Fakir's Gazette,” a spoof published by the Society in 1907 about the people and events of LaGrange.

The Clippings files contain a eroxed scrapbook of articles from local papers about weddings, births, and death of members and some some functions held by the society. Also included are copies of the local history columns published in area newspapers by regional poet Maude Totten. Her relation to the LaGrange Aid Society is not clear.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Mrs. Irene Taylor, Elkhorn, Wisconsin, via the Whitewater Area Research Center, November 7, 1986. Accession Number: M86-568

Processing Information

Processed by Andrew W. Kraushaar (FGH student), 1987.

Box   1 Folder   1	Historical documents and constitutions, 1896-1920
	Minutes
Box   1 Folder   2-6	1896-1939
Box   2 Folder   1	1954-1980
	Correspondence
Box   2 Folder   2	General, 1928-1946
Box   2 Folder   3	Methodist Church, 1916
	Financial records
Box   2 Folder   4	Reports, 1896-1940
Box   2 Folder   5	Records concerning LaGrange Pioneers, 1936-1938
	Activities
Box   3 Folder   1	Programs, 1911-1985
Box   3 Folder   2	LaGrange Pioneers and history committee, 1929-1935
Box   3 Folder   3	Papers read at meetings, scripts, 1907-1936
	Clippings
Box   3 Folder   4	Scrapbook concerning club members, 1916-1960
Box   3 Folder   5	Maude Totten columns, 1960-1962