Flemington Women's Club

Ten years after I graduated from Flemington High School in 1955 I opened my law office on Main Street in town. I was honored to be asked by the Flemington Woman’s Club to share my view of our town. Where it had been, where it was, and where I thought it was going. Before I tell you what I said to the women of the town, let me tell you a little about what I have learned about this organization. The membership was of the leading women of the communithy at the time.

The Flemington Club

One of the oldest clubs in the state of New Jersey, the Flemington Woman’s Club is just four years younger than the New Jersey State Federation of Woman’s Clubs. On November 15, 1898, eight years after my great grandfather bought the small family farm in Holand Township, in Hunterdon County, Mrs. L. D. Temple, wife of the pastor of the Flemington Baptist Church, asked a few women to attend a meeting at the home of Mrs. John B. Ramsey to discuss forming a woman’s club. Her suggestion was well received. An ad was placed in the newspaper inviting women to come to a meeting and become charter members.

Thirty-four women joined at the first meeting. The club was named The Woman’s Club of Flemington. Its object was “To promote the intellectual and social life of its members and to engage in such philanthropic work as opportunity may present, and for the general improvement of the village of Flemington as to cleanliness of streets, promotion of literary interests, and every other thing tending to the advancement of the best interests of the village”.

The Club’s first outside work was the opening of a reading room for the public in the Deats Building. The next was the opening of a Free Public Library. In 1899 a social was held, open to the public, with admission the donation of a book. One-hundred-and-fifty books and eight dollars were collected. In addition, Mrs. Hiram Deats donated close to 500 books. The library was launched, and, on request by the Club, the Village of Flemington agreed to take over the library.

In 1900 a Village Improvement Committee was formed. This Committee provided wastebaskets along Main Street and improved the grounds around the railroad station.

A stone drinking fountain was erected in front of the Court House in 1902, and the Club turned the weedy lot behind the Court House into a park. In 1905 a sewing class was started for children. 125 children participated. A boy’s club, the George Junior Republic, was also organized. From 1906 through 1909 a carnival, including a street parade with floats, was held to raise money to buy land adjoining the “County Lot” for a park.

The Village Improvement Committee received special recognition from the State Federation of Woman’s Clubs. In 1913 the Club furnished an office for the YMCA and provided part of the salary for a community nurse. Members worked for the Red Cross during World War I, and in 1919 adopted a child patient at Glen Gardner Sanatorium. A public restroom was opened in 1923. The Club pledged $1,000 in 1924 to the Music Building at New Jersey College for Women. That was two years after womon could first vote.

Among the projects in 1928 were donations to the ambulance fund, street signs at the entrances to Flemington, and sponsorship of a Shade Tree Commission. Funds were raised to build the Woman’s Clubhouse, which opened in 1936.

In 1950 the Club furnished a room on the 5th floor of the newly completed Hunterdon Medical Center. Eleanore Roosevelt addressed the club in 1952 on “The Search for World Understanding.” The first academic scholarship was presented to a deserving Hunterdon Central High School senior in 1957, while in 1960 the vandalized bandstand in the park was re-built.

In addition to the annual scholarship, recent recipients of the Club’s fundraisers are Hunterdon Hospice, Women in Crisis, Hunterdon Drug Awareness, Parkland Preservation, sponsorship of a young woman to the Citizenship Institute at Douglass College, Flemington Free Public Library, Hunterdon Medical Center, American Cancer Association, American Red Cross, Heart Association, March of Dimes, NJ Special Olympics, Flemington Rescue Squad, CROP, Pearl Buck Foundation, and the Hunterdon Developmental Center.

I hear nothing of this worthy group today. Do they still exist? Let me know. The building is still there.

I will tell you about my opportuniuty to speak to their members in my next post.