Woman's Wednesday Club

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, every good thing has to start somewhere, and in Bartlett, Texas, it started with an idea. Just an idea, floating around in 1902, that maybe, just maybe, somebody ought to organize a women's club.

Something with purpose. Something with focus. Literature.

History. The kinds of things that outlast the people who love them. That idea sat and simmered for a little while, the way good ideas do, and then in April of 1903, it became something real.

The Woman's Study Club came into being, chartered with nineteen members, and at the helm was Mrs. Vena Holzgraf Hightower. Nineteen members.

That's it. That's where you start. That same year, the Woman's Wednesday Club of Bartlett, as it came to be known, was federated with the state organization.

They weren't just a local gathering anymore. They were connected to something bigger. Now, here's where the story gets good, because a club is only as remarkable as what it does when nobody's watching the ceremony.

Over the years, the Woman's Wednesday Club of Bartlett sponsored numerous community programs, and two of those accomplishments have a way of standing out. They sponsored early Red Cross efforts in that town. And they established Bartlett's first public library.

The first one. Think about that the next time you pull a book off a shelf.

What the marker says

What began in 1902 as an idea to organize a women's club with a focus on literature and history became a reality in April 1903, with formation of Woman's Study Club. Chartered with nineteen members under the leadership of Mrs. Vena (Holzgraf) Hightower, the Woman's Wednesday Club of Bartlett was federated with the state organization in 1903. Over the years, the group has sponsored numerous community programs. Among its accomplishments are sponsorship of early Red Cross efforts and establishment of the town's first public library. (1986)