When you’re following in the footsteps of generations of Stillwater women, it’s important to uphold tradition.
That’s why Primrose Club member Sue Miller on Friday was wearing an all-white outfit and cutting the crusts off a tomato-and-cream-cheese sandwich during a luncheon at her house north of Stillwater.
For 125 years, members of the women’s study club have gathered each month during the school year to learn about a different topic. During the summer, the dozen or so women gather for a luncheon on the second Friday of July.
In special anniversary years, members wear white and eat crustless sandwiches cut into triangles at the July gathering. “It’s become a tradition,” Miller said. “We did it for the 100th, and I’m sure they’ll do it for the 150th.”
Members in July also receive the club’s program for the upcoming year — a document that details which subjects they’ll be studying, when they present, and when they host.
This year’s theme: Advances in Medical Technology.
Vicki Cross, 77, of Stillwater, said she will research polio for a report she will present at the group’s Feb. 8 meeting.
“I am old enough to remember people who had it,” Cross said. “Yes, it is still a concern. Any of these diseases are, really. They’ll just keep coming back. It’s like the measles. You’re never going to get rid of all this.”
But Cross, a retired Realtor, admitted she wasn’t thrilled with the topic.
“I’m at the stage of life where anything medical is of no interest whatsoever,” she said.
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Cross was tapped to be a member of the Primrose Club more than 25 years ago by a group of women who arrived at her front door wearing hats and white gloves. “I must have passed muster,” she said.
Her favorite subjects so far have been the Middle East and first ladies.
“We did the Middle East the year before all heck broke loose over there,” Cross said. “It was fascinating to have done that because we each took a different country. I got stuck with Yemen — not a good place to be, but it was very helpful because then as things went on that year, we kind of knew something about these countries and their backgrounds and what their geology was like, et cetera.”
While studying first ladies, club members “realized that there were a few cases where the wives’ lives were a little more interesting than their husbands’,” she said. “I took Barbara Bush. I would have voted for her in a heartbeat.”
HOW IT STARTED
The Primrose Club began as a magazine club that “took Literary Digest for current events,” columnist Mary Elizabeth “Betty” Roney wrote in the St. Paul Pioneer Press in 1970.
The club’s first meeting was held on Jan. 27, 1883. Its purpose was “the mutual improvement of its members in literature, art, science and the vital interests of the day,” according to the meeting minutes, which are archived at the Washington County Historical Society.
“Magazine articles, current events and varied topics occupied members until Feb. 1, 1895, when they began reading Justin McCarthy’s ‘History of Our Times,’ ” Roney wrote. “This they finished May 29, 1896, and in October went on to John William Draper’s ‘History of the Intellectual Development of Europe.’ ”
Other topics included women’s suffrage, the commercial value of weather forecasts, travel abroad, the Revolutionary War, underseas adventures and parliamentary law.
“At one point, they began reading about Henry IV, but because he was not particularly interesting, it was given up,” according to a history of the club written by the late Anita Buck, a longtime member.
Founding members included a number of Stillwater notables, such as Mrs. Isaac E. Staples, Mrs. Ernest L. Hospes and Mrs. Edward W. Durant, but they “made a concentrated effort to not have the club be a ‘who’s who of Stillwater,’ ” Miller said. “They tried to make sure that they went across the socioeconomic spectrum.”
At first, club members met every Friday throughout the year. Dues were 50 cents a year.
“Because they met in each other’s houses, membership was limited to 12,” Buck wrote. “Limited, too, was the amount of refreshment which could be served — one item and tea. They met at 2:30 p.m. and studied current events until 4 p.m., when tea was served. They then concentrated on the study topic until 5 p.m.”
Another requirement: Club members had to live in Stillwater.
“They could only travel so far, and they had to have a chance to go to each person’s home,” Miller said.
WHAT IT’S LIKE TODAY
Now, club members live throughout the St. Croix River Valley and meet monthly, September through May. Dues are $15 a year. Membership is capped at 20. Meetings are 1 to 3 p.m. on the second Friday of the month; coffee, tea and a light refreshment — “either a bar or a cake or a trifle” — are served, Miller said.
When the club was founded, women could not vote and most women did not work outside the home, said member Margaret Hupe of Stillwater.
“It was a way for women to get together — that was not playing cards — and learn something,” she said.
Miller said she chose this year to research Drs. Will and Charlie Mayo, the founders of the Mayo Clinic. Signing up for a topic is first-come, first-served, she said.
“I always grab that sheet first because I don’t want to have my choice taken away,” said Miller, who has researched Grand Teton National Park, Canadian gardens and Port Arthur, Tasmania. “You have to be interested in learning about new and different topics and have to be willing to do a research project.”
Miller said one of her favorite programs was presented by Marlys Bronson, who used to be a member of the Vallee de Croix choir and sang in a Sweet Adelines quartet.
“It was on the benefits of music,” Miller said. “I can tell you exactly what the benefits were because I was so taken by it. I took notes for the first time ever in my little book. They included: happiness, muscle movement, stress release, sleep better, reduces depression. And then she sang for us.”
Bronson, in turn, said she still remembered many details from Miller’s report on Port Arthur.
“It was so interesting,” Bronson said. “You just learn so many different things.”
This year, Bronson, who lives in Woodbury, said she will research and report on advances in the diagnosis and treatment of dementia.
“Both my parents had it,” she said. “My mom had Alzheimer’s, and my dad had dementia, but not quite to the Alzheimer’s stage.”
Emeritus member Helen Baker said her favorite topic to date has been Canada. “It’s amazing how little you know about your neighbors until you just sit down and learn about it.”
Baker said that when she was invited to join the club in 1970, many of the members were retired schoolteachers.
“Because that was pretty much your path, you know, if you were a woman,” said Baker, a retired social worker who lives in Boutwells Landing in Oak Park Heights. “We couldn’t choose to be a Supreme Court justice.”
Baker said she hopes the club will continue.
“In the very beginning, it was so different,” she said. “These women were rather well-to-do, and they could come for lunch and spend the afternoon, and that was that. Well, now so many women work, but it’s interesting, it seems to have continued on, and that pleases me so much.
“I’ve met some amazing women — actually, very amazing women,” she said. “I’m so happy I had a chance to get acquainted with so many of them.”
