In 2019 a group of women from the Three Rivers Woman’s Club realized that we would be celebrating 130 years as an organization in November 2021. A history committee was formed and they soon realized this was a much larger job than anyone realized. It would take a lot more work than just planning an Anniversary Party.
We were both blessed and dismayed by the insurmountable number of items and paper that had accumulated during that amount of time. The preservation of such fragile items was also something to be considered. This committee researched and learned how to preserve archives. In this time frame we were presented with another problem: we were asked to relocate from the building where much of this material was stored. A local church came to our rescue and loaned us a temporary location, late in 2019 5 carloads of historical material were moved.
Then the world came to a screeching halt in 2020. Much of what we planned on how to celebrate this 130 year event was on hold. In the meantime, members worked from home sorting, preserving organizing materials. Members wrote articles for newspapers and social media.
In 2021 this massive project began in earnest we made the decision to hold a scaled down celebration in November 2021. In March we were able to relocate to a more permanent location, the New Three Rivers Library. Once again, we were transporting 5 carloads of materials. Organizing this large collection of materials in chronological order placing it in archival storage as we worked on choosing what might be of interest to be shared in November at the celebration.
We have come to realize that this archival preservation will be an ongoing activity. As we research and preserve more materials that surfaced. Recently a tub of items was sent from the local History Museum, The Sue Sillman House found a folder entitled Woman’s Club. As older members leave us, family members are finding materials in closets, under the bed and even basements and attics.
The history committee meets on a regular basis and is in the process of properly persevering our written history. We are also digitizing our materials so the community though the library will have access to our history which is an important part of the communities history.
We were able to present the beginning history of the Three Rivers Woman’s Club at our Anniversary Celebration in November with a power point presentation of how we became a group of strong women. We are hopeful that this is just the beginning of the next 130 years.
