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Garden club marks 100th anniversary
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Members of the Garden Club of Youngstown gathered Monday at Fellows Riverside Gardens for a Centennial Tea to observe the club’s 100th anniversary. The current membership of the club is 40, compared to the small group of women who shared an interest in Mill Creek Park and helped lay the groundwork for the club’s founding July 15, 1915. To celebrate the milestone, the women also donated $7,500 to the Mill Creek MetroParks for continued care of the daffodil meadow the club planted for the first time in 1932. ROBERT K. YOSAY | THE VINDICATOR
By JoAnn Jones
“Garden as though you’ll live forever” is the mantra by which Garden Club of Youngstown member Emily Powers has always lived.
Powers, a nonagenarian formerly of Poland and now of Youngstown, has been a member of the club for 40 years. Powers said she just enjoys “being with the women in this club” as she helped them celebrate their 100th anniversary at their Centennial Tea on Monday at Fellows Riverside Gardens.
“From the very beginning a small group of women has always shown an interest in Mill Creek Park,” said Powers about the club.
To celebrate their July 15, 1915, founding date, the group recently donated $7,500 to the Mill Creek MetroParks for continued care of the daffodil meadow the club planted for the first time in 1932.
Club president Janice Ferry of Liberty Township said the groundwork for the club was laid during the summers of 1914 and 1915 by Martha Owsley, who attended horticultural school at Cornell College (New York). Owsley’s good friend, Lida Brown, helped her to establish the club, and in the early years the women talked with Volney Rogers about preserving Mill Creek Park.
“The women who founded the club had a lot of foresight,” said Kathy Travers of Canfield, who chaired the Centennial Tea. “We don’t do anything for ourselves; we give all our money away to things such as Streetscape and the Jubilee Garden. We also put a computer system in the library at Fellows. The club had purchased bonds in the ’60s. We cashed them in and paid for the computer system.”
For the tea, Travers and her committee created sandwich cakes made of various meats, vegetables, and condiments. The outsides of the cakes were decorated with garden vegetables but held sandwiches inside. Each of the tables for the tea was decorated thematically with tablecloths, crystal and china that had been passed down through members’ families.
Centerpieces came from individuals’ gardens or in the case of Ferry’s table, from the Crumb Shoppe in Hubbard Township. Ferry’s centerpiece was a flowerpot made of cupcakes.
Surprising the 32 members was an early president of the club Edith Belle Kauffman, impersonated by Margie Rapp of Champion. While president in the late 1920s, Kauffman persuaded landowners on Glenwood Avenue near Mill Creek Park to donate land in order to create gardens in the area where there was an abandoned quarry. The quarry area was named after Kauffman in 1933.
Ferry, who is in her second two-year term, said the club has “a rich heritage.” “It’s such a wonderful group of ladies,” Ferry said. “I am so honored and thankful to be part of this organization.”
Both Ferry and Powers pointed to a booklet of the club’s history made for their 80th year in 1995 as one of their major accomplishments.
“Working on that booklet and recording the history is what I remember most,” said Powers, who is a past president and was a co-chair of the 80th anniversary.
The club has a copy of the book, which includes a letter from former Ohio Gov. George Voinovich and a proclamation from the city of Youngstown. The original copy, Ferry said, belongs to the Mahoning Valley Historical Society on Federal Street.
“They only had a limited time to work on that booklet,” Ferry said. “Those women worked so hard.”
Ferry said the club, which currently has 40 members but can have up to 100 according to its charter, has meetings, programs or excursions for nine months of the year.
“We currently meet in members’ homes or at Fellows Riverside Gardens, but we’ve taken a number of trips to other gardens,” she said.
“Some of our programs are hands-on where we create something after a demonstration. We’ve made weaves and potted plants – that’s about all we do for ourselves. And we pay individually for that. When we go somewhere, we carpool and pay for our own lunch. A lot of civic things is what we use our dues money for.”
Ferry added that the membership criteria is not that stringent.
“You have to be proposed by another member, have an interest in doing gardening or do your own, or be a part of what someone else does for your garden,” she said.
Betsy Slagle of Canfield, a 32-year member of the club, also touted the club’s big celebration in 1995, but said what the members learn and the exchange of ideas are what she likes best about being a member.
“This is a very cohesive group of talented women,” Slagle said.
“Every year we have a new program chair whose committee decides what we’ll do. It’s been such a learning experience. We go to places and see other gardens. I have been to places I never knew existed.”
According to Ferry, recent trips have included Stan Hywet Hall in Akron, the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh, and the Cleveland Botanical Gardens.
“We also have a plant exchange every year,” Slagle added.
“We have plants from some of our members who are no longer with us.”
Rebecca Rogers of Poland, a two-time past president, shared Slagle’s thoughts.
“I just love looking at other people’s gardens,” Rogers said. “At one time it was an era of lots and lots of crafts. But it’s gardeners only now.”
Ferry emphasized that the club’s philanthropy reaches beyond just Youngstown.
“One of our special annual projects is providing a scholarship at Kent State University in Salem for a horticulture student,” she said. “We also donate money to the Western Reserve Land Conservancy.”
“The women in this club have left a legacy for all these years, which is such a beautiful, beautiful thing,” Ferry said. “The Garden Club of Youngstown continues to strive to help with the beautification of our community.”