BY DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY
March is a time to celebrate all things Irish, including proverbs like “a good friend is like a four-leaf clover; hard to find and lucky to have.”
I’ve been thinking about the clubs that have thrived in Iowa’s small towns and rural neighborhoods, like the Friendly Club my grandma and mom belonged to. While many of those clubs are memories now, I was lucky to be a guest at Carol Hardy’s home in Lohrville for the January meeting of the Adaza Thursday Club.
My friend Lou Blanchfield tipped me off that the club is 100 years old. I asked how one becomes a member. “Your mother-in-law invites you!” joked Lou, noting that her mother-in-law Margaret’s grandmother was a charter member.
True to the club’s name, members still gather on the first Thursday of the month in each other’s homes. Their club has even outlived Adaza itself.
Keeping Adaza alive in spirit
Adaza’s story began in 1881. Around this time, the railroad put in a stub track southeast of the new Calhoun County town of Lohrville, at a little spot called Cottonwood. When a landowner named Captain Albert Head stepped off the train in 1882, he looked at Cottonwood and said, “Ain’t it a daisy?”
That offhand comment transformed Cottonwood into Adaza, which grew to include general stores, a grain elevator, creamery, hotel, blacksmith, bank, lumberyard, post office, school and two churches.
Adaza started fading by the 1920s. The Methodist Episcopal Church disbanded in 1924. Undeterred, a group of ladies met at Ruth Baldridge’s home on Aug. 6, 1925, and created the Adaza Thursday Club. They elected club officers, set dues at 25 cents a year, and established roll calls and programs for upcoming meetings.
Through the decades, club members also hosted picnics, wedding showers and baby showers with skits and plenty of homemade food. New members were advised to wash their windows and bleach their porch steps before hosting club. For many years, Irene Rossmanith, followed by Pat Schmitt, dutifully recorded the club’s activities, submitting this Adaza news to local newspapers.
The club endured, even as Adaza dwindled to a ghost town. By 1981, dues were $2 a year – “still a bargain for nine or 10 get-togethers with friends and neighbors,” noted “The History and Memories of Adaza: 1881-1981.”
Still gathering, still connected
While many of those friends and neighbors are gone, the ties that bind are strong. Jane (Hardy) Beschorner, Marty (Guess) Hennesy and her sister Ann (Guess) Gemberling, are second-generation club members. Most members today reside in a 10-mile radius of Adaza.
Dues ($5 a year) are donated to food pantries, the high school after-prom party or flowers for club members who are ill. While members still enjoy refreshments at meetings, gone are the ornate glass snack-set trays that every good hostess used back in the day.
Sometimes this fun bunch schedules field trips to area orchards, wineries or the local care center, where they visit club member Barb Winkelman, who’s almost 99.
Other times the ladies get crafty. A few years ago, they had a jewelry-making workshop to transform Swarovski crystals into earrings and necklaces. The crystals were extras from the chandeliers at the renovated Community Memorial Building in Lake City. Club members donated the jewelry to support fundraisers for this historic gem.
Newer members like Marilyn Parker appreciate how the club helps them get to know more people. All the members treasure their deep friendships – gifts that are hard to find and lucky to have. “It’s fun, and we like each other,” said Jane Beschorner. “Why wouldn’t we keep getting together?”
Were there any clubs like this in your neighborhood? Share your stories with me at yettergirl@yahoo.com.
Darcy Dougherty Maulsby lives near her family’s Century Farm northwest of Lake City. Visit her at www.darcymaulsby.com.
