Remembering Tuolumne

By Joseph Celentano

TCMM Historical Research Committee

 

www.TuolumneMuseum.org/rt0503.htm

 

 

     While searching the archives of the TCMM, we ran across the following bit of information regarding the "Tuolumne Women's Improvement Club". 

 

     "The following Tuolumne Women's Improvement Club Members voted to make a gift of their club house to the Tuolumne City Memorial Museum, Inc:

 

- Mrs. Cornelia "Pat" Adkins (Theodore)

- Mrs. Maun Schutze Baker (Mark)

 -Mrs. Margaret Hodge Barnett

 -Mrs. Alice Caldera

 -Mrs. Sarah Carter (Woodard)

 -Mrs. Agnez Holm Curnow (Stanley)

 -Mrs. Marian Dunn

 -Mrs. Moree Finkler

 -Mrs. Buelah Fyock (Milton)

 -Mrs. Gladys Gustafson (Erik)

 -Mrs. Isabelle Hodge (Fred)

 -Mrs. Dolores Perano Hodges (Vernon)

 -Mrs. Beatrice Bangs Kelly (Harold)

 -Mrs. Phyllis Martin Reid (Eugene)

 -Miss Marie Rozier

 -Mrs. Myrtle Ness Sullivan (Edward)

 -Mrs. Bertha Smith Thomas (Earl)

 -Miss Ruth Tupper

 -Mrs. Blossom Wilever

 -Mrs. Cordelia Wilcoxson (Dave)

 

     "The members decided they could no longer keep up the necessary improvements and care of their building and grounds.  So they withdrew from the state Federation of Women's Clubs, continued as just the local group, and made plans for turning over the property, building, furnishings and grounds, to the Tuolumne City Memorial Museum, Inc.  This took quite a long time as it took over two years for the incorporation of the Museum to be established. 

 

      "Fred Hodge, Milton Fyock, and Eugene Palihnich were the prime movers in this effort.  The women had joined the        Museum Association and had fund raising projects for both the Museum and Improvement club during the waiting period.

 

      "At last, the time when the deeds were signed, and the Tuolumne Women's   Improvement Club became inactive as such, but worked hard with the Museum Association and donated their treasury balance of $440 to the Museum.

 

     "It was Cordelia Wilcoxson who worked so diligently on building and grounds and fund raising and Gladys Gustafson who kept the Presidency for so many years.  Thus the organization, started in 1911, whose duty was to work for the good and the improvement of the town, put its property into different hands."    

 

…..and thus, another page turns in the history of Remembering Tuolumne.