Oxford Women's Club Continues Century-Old Tradition of Community Service

By ROBIN WINCHELL

     The Oxford Senior Citizen Center is packed tonight. Men, women and even a few children are lining up at the kitchen window for heaping plates of spaghetti and a piece of buttery garlic bread. Mostly older women are here, chatting with each other between bites of food. The atmosphere is friendly, relaxed and familiar. It’s a Monday night, but most of the people are old enough that they don’t have to worry about work tomorrow.

     At least 60 people attended the Oxford Women’s Club Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser Feb. 24. Part of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, the oldest volunteer organization in the world, the Oxford club has been around for over 100 years. The first meeting was held on February 15, 1896. The women discussed books and current events, as well as social, political, welfare and moral problems. Rules for being a member were strict -- women could be dropped from the club for not paying dues, failing to do their assigned duties or missing two consecutive meets without legitimate excuses. Members were fined five cents for being tardy.

     At the turn of the century, the Oxford Women’s Club began to focus more on community service. The club campaigned to introduce home economics courses in the schools and sponsored the first public trash cans on Oxford streets. The women also urged grocers to cover their baked goods and other foods on display in grocery stores to protect them from germs. As a result of their efforts, some merchants even bought glass covers for their wares.

     Preserving the environment was another goal of the Women’s Club in the early twentieth century. Responding to the threat of logging at Hueston Woods, the club worked with the Kiwanis Club and other Oxford citizens to encourage the state to buy the land and preserve it. Eventually, Hueston Woods State Park was created. The club also worked to beautify Oxford by raising money to restore and improve the town's two main parks.

     In the 1930s, the Women’s Club continued to raise money for charitable organizations including the Red Cross, the Tuberculosis Fund, Girls’ State and the Community Chest (now United Appeal). The club also shipped books and Christmas gifts to the Marysville Reformatory. During this period the club established also scholarship fund for an Oxford girl to attend Miami or Western College.

     The club also developed as a social organization. In 1946, the Oxford Women’s Club celebrated its Fiftieth Anniversary with a banquet and play. A Garden Circle was also formed within the club and a flower show held. The very popular Golden Years Group was formed; it is still flourishing today as the Oxford Senior Citizens’ Group. The club had become so prominent that the Southwest District of the Ohio Federation of Women’s Clubs met in Oxford, and 88 clubs attended.

     New service projects continued to revitalize the club. The women sold items made by the blind, raised money for the National Korean Village Project by selling American flags, and joined the Kiwanis Club and The Oxford Press in donating prize money for the Oxford Outdoor Christmas Lighting Contest. The club also donated money to the Talawanda School Library Book Fund. Money was raised through bake sales, a style show, Christmas house tours and a highly profitable antique show.

    In the 1960s the club continued to be an active social and service organization. Members helped redecorate the meeting room in the Municipal Building and donated a total of 925 volunteer hours to McCullough-Hyde Hospital. The club also gave money to the hospital, the National Federation Bell Tower Project, CARE, American Friends Field Services, and towards the beautification of Oxford parks. A bridge group and economic education group were also organized for members.

     The 1970s brought greater activity than ever for the Women’s Club. The group purchased a stage curtain and band uniform for Talawanda High School, entertained senior citizens with plays as well as personal visits, and gave money to Lane Public Library and the Meals on Wheels program. Four hobby groups were formed among the members: one for the collection of fancy combs, one for dolls, one for antique jewelry and watches, and one for gourmet cooking. Two members also served as presidents of the Southwest Ohio District. The club also improved the safety of Oxford by creating Helping Hand, a neighborhood organization in which at least one home on each block displayed a sign in their window telling children that they could go there for help. The club also campaigned for 16 new street lights in Oxford and educated the community about crime prevention with police pamphlets.

    In the 1980s the club continued to be involved with Meals on Wheels, drove local students to a speech clinic twice a week, visited nursing home residents and raised money by sponsoring a tour of historic homes in Oxford. However, because interest in the club was at an all-time low, the Oxford Women’s Club considered disbanding. The club was revitalized when past president Ruth Cookman agreed to serve another term and brought new energy and ideas to the organization.

     Today the club continues to raise and distribute thousands of dollars to worthy causes, many of which help the children of Oxford. They publish a weekly pamphlet called Kind News about being kind to people and animals for all the third-graders in Oxford. The club sponsors a high school sophomore for the Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Conference every year, gives money to the local Girl and Boy Scouts and awards an annual $1,000 scholarship to a Talawanda High School senior.

     The ladies also help out at the Respect for Law Camp sponsored by the Butler County Sheriffs Department for sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade children. Agnes McDonough, a Women’s Club member and former president, thinks the camp is important because “the idea is to get these young people to know that police officers are not their enemies, they are their friends.”

    The Women’s Club has also worked to preserve Oxford’s history. The club gave money to restore the DeWitt cabin, the oldest building on campus, and helped fund the restoration of the covered bridge on Morningsun Road.

     To raise money for their charities, the women have a number of fundraisers throughout the year. The Spaghetti Dinner usually attracts about 100 people at $5 a ticket. In October, the ladies raise money by holding a style show where new fashions are modeled. The women also work the concession stands at Miami hockey games to raise money.

     The approximately 45 women in the club have themed meetings once a month. For International Affairs Month, a foreign exchange student from Colombia spoke to the group. In March, a woman came to speak about investments.

     Most of the members of the Women’s Club have lived in Oxford for years. Agnes McDonough came to Oxford in 1969 as a bride and has been actively involved in the community ever since. She works the polls for every election because she feels “it’s my civic duty.” Before coming to Oxford, she was a registered Republican but became a Democrat to please her in-laws, who had assumed she was in the same political party as they were. A former president of the Women’s Club, McDonough once attended the Hugh O’Brien World Conference in Washington, D.C., because the club sponsors the conference on the state level. For the Spaghetti Dinner, she and her husband donated 23 pounds of beef from a cow on their farm.

     Charlotte Haughey of Hamilton, a friend of McDonough, is also very active in the Women's Club. She has served as club president twice and as the West Ohio District president. The oldest of 12 children, Haughey’s chestnut hair and energetic attitude make her seem younger than most of the other members. Although she went to college in Indiana, her husband is a Miami graduate. For years they lived on a farm off of Contreras Road, on Stone Creek, but they have since moved to Hamilton. Before coming to Ohio, Ms. Haughey was a nun for several years, but she left because she felt she was one of only a few young women dedicating their lives to the church. She became a governess in Cincinnati and then met her husband and raised three children. Her son, Dan, is a Miami graduate and now teaches law classes there, as well as coaching the university’s nationally ranked mock trial team. Although she now lives in Hamilton, Haughey regularly comes back to Oxford for Women’s Club activities and to participate on her bowling team, Dazed and Confused.

    After dinner ends, the ladies move to card tables for the evening’s entertainment. McDononough is an avid Skippo player, a game like double solitaire, and is eager to teach visitors how to play. While the women are enjoying their card games, a split-the-pot is raffled off, as well as enough door prizes for everyone who came.

    Louise Hautau, a member who sent five kids to Miami, sums up the feeling of why most of the women join the Women’s Club. “We enjoy each other’s company and doing good work for the community.”

Read a story by Robin about Oxford Women's Club member and former president Agnes McDonough