Christine Buck presented “Signs of the Times,” a study of the parent-teacher association in Smithville Flats, Chenango County, at the Nov. 20 meeting of the Ladies Literary Club.
It was one of many chapters of the national organization founded in 1897 as the National Congress of Mothers to improve the health and welfare of students. The group’s meeting minutes allowed Buck to travel back in time to some of America’s most difficult years, including the Great Depression and World War II.
Among other projects, the Smithville Flats PTA raised money and spearheaded electrification of the school in 1927, paid for the school’s first hot water heater, provided milk and hot meals to students, sponsored vaccination and tonsil-removal clinics, bought books and playground equipment, and funded dental care and glasses for students. After the school closed in 1959, students were bused to a central school district.
Diane Ames chose wrote about three women who lived in the early 1900s. Molly, Carrie and Harriet worked to improve the lives of poor women. In 1910, Molly, Diane’s grandmother, worked in a clinic in New York City serving indigent women and children. She then went on to graduate with the first class of nurses from Leistershire Hospital, now Wilson Memorial Hospital in Johnson City. Molly continued helping others by supporting the Methodist mission of the Rev. Carrie Oval in the Appalachian Mountains. Carrie successfully marketed hand-crafted goods made by women at Henderson Settlement in Frakes, Kentucky.
Harriet found her calling as an Episcopal deaconess serving the isolated Seminoles in Florida’s Everglades. Like Carrie, Harriet found ways to market hand-crafted items to help the indigenous women be financially independent.
