Women - Hunterdon County, New Jersey

FLEMINGTON WOMAN'S 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, 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 and 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 and 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-andfifty
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 and 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. 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 present
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.
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