We would like to thank the present members of the Columbian Club for allowing the following information to be shared on the Tompkins County, NYGenWeb site. Its greatly appreciated!

Charter Members

Kate Mackey SHOEMAKER BALDWIN (Mrs. Alvah Morse)
Francena MORSE BALDWIN (Mrs. Marvin M.)
Florence Estelle BROWN BARNEY (Mrs. Chester Ward)
Mata F. RHODES LANDON (Mrs. Eugene Ashbel)
Minnie JENCKS LOSEY (Mrs. John B.)
Lelle S. RHODES MANGANG (Mrs. Fred A.)
Mary Welthea BACKUS MARSH (Mrs. Dexter Hubbard)
Ella A. HALL MOE (Mrs. Hiram G.)
Mary SMILEY RHODES (Mrs. Charles O.)
Nancy M. HALLADAY SMILEY (Mrs. Everett)
Florence Lillian MARSH TANNER (Mrs. Frank J.)
Mary Ella WILLIAMS

(The following is from a paper presented by Jean Dempsey True at the 1999 reception of Columbian Club)

This evening, February 11, 1999, we celebrate one hundred and seven years of Columbian Club. One hundred and seven years in which 215 women have become "Club" members. Nearly ten percent of those women are still members today. By tradition, tonight's celebration is called The Reception.

On Monday, February 27, 1893, Club's twelve charter members invited husbands and guests to join them for their first Reception.

This gathering was held at the JENCKS home on Park Street - first house on the left. Member and hostess was Minnie JENCKS LOSEY - twenty-five years old. She was an alumna of the Groton High School Class of 1887. Three years earlier, she had become the bride of John B. LOSEY, an employee of Crandall Typewriter. At the next regular meeting of the Club, she would present the members with a bill for the cost of that first Reception - $12.66.

Many, many meetings later Minnie would leave her New York State Federation of Women's Clubs pin for future Colombian Club members to wear. ____________ is wearing that pin tonight.

Mary Welthea Backus MARSH and her guests would be at Reception that night. She lived just around the corner on Williams Street. Mrs. MARSH, 52 years old, was still three years away from assuming the Presidency of the First National Bank of Groton and the additional responsibilities of Crandall Typewriter and the Groton Carriage Company - all brought about be the early death of her husband, Dexter Hubbard MARSH.

Mrs. MARSH was half of one of the Club's two mother/daughter combinations. Her daughter, Florence Lillian MARSH TANNER, lived on Elm Street - in the house at the end of Williams Street. Lillie was 30 years old and an alumna of Groton High School's class of 1881. She and her husband Frank - another Crandall Typewriter Company employee - had been members of Minnie and John LOSEY's wedding party.

At least three charter members of the Club lived on Church Street.

Closest to Elm Street - and just across the street from the school - lived Mary Ella WILLIAMS. Miss WILLIAMS was 35 years old and an 1878 alumna of Vassar College. She had been a teacher in Maryland, North Carolina, and New York. Now she was working in her father's insurance business located upstairs over the Bank.

On the same side of Church Street, in the first house south of the Congregational Church, lived 36 year old Kate Mackey SHOEMAKER BALDWIN. Mrs. BALDWIN gets the credit for suggesting and leading the formation of Club just a year before.

She had been a student of her future husband, Alvah Morse BALDWIN, at Pennsylvania's Lycoming County Normal and Classical Institute. He later moved his family to Groton, becoming the first principal at Groton Union School and, still later, a physician.

Kate M. S., no doubt submerged herself even further into Columbian Club affairs after the death of her youngest son from membranous croup, just four months after that first reception.

Fannie Morse BALDWIN, another charter member and Kate M. S. BALDWIN's mother-in-law, lived almost next door to Kate. Fannie was 66 years old. Her husband, Marvin M., had owned the Groton Academy in prior years, but now he was a village lawyer.

The seventh and eighth charter members lived on Clark Street in the first house on the left. Nancy M. HALLADAY SMILEY aged 60, the mother half of this mother/daughter member combination was the wife of Everett SMILEY sometime water commissioner.

The SMILEYs were the parents of Club member Mary SMILEY RHODES. Mary - wife of C. O. RHODES - was 31 years old. She had been a classmate of Lillie TANNER's at Groton High School and was also a Vassar alumna - class of 1885.

The ninth woman was Mary's sister-in-law Lelle S. RHODES MANGANG - 28 years old and newly married. She was known about the village for her lovely singing voice. Club was good experience for Lelle's future duty as president of the Ithaca Woman's Club and then as first president of the Ithaca City Federation of Women's Clubs.

The tenth member was Lelle's cousin, 36 year old Mata F. RHODES LANDON. Mata and her husband, Eugene Ashbel, lived at 173 Main Street and ran a general store on Cortland Street. Mrs. LANDON gave the paper at the first Reception. The topic of her paper was the histories of New York City's Sorosis Club and of the fledgling Columbian Club.

The eleventh charter member was 40 year old Ella A. HALL MOE. The MOEs lived on Cortland Street across from the Baptist Church. Busy wife of a busier husband, she and her husband Hiram, cashier at the bank, and would be remembered for providing vocal duets at over 550 funerals.

The twelfth member was Florence Estella BROWN BARNEY. Estella, 42 years old, lived on Cortland Street. She had been a widowed six years earlier by the death of her husband - Chester Ward BARNEY.

Twelve Groton women. They couldn't vote. They couldn't make many legally binding decisions. They had nine living children among them - and two of those children were younger charter members. Of the two members who are known to have been working outside their home that year of 1893, one worked with her father; one worked with her husband. Customarily, married women of that social class weren't expected to work outside the family.

But, there was one thing those twelve charter members could - and did - do ---create, develop, and nourish a Groton woman's club for "the intellectual and social development of its members, and the betterment of the community."

On hundred and seven years - and counting…..

(Notes - Mrs. BARNEY's name given as both Estelle and Estella, M. M. Baldwin's names given as both Marvin Morse and Marvin Manning because his wife's maiden name is listed as "Morse", I'd like to think his middle name was "Manning")