Education of women in the Territories (Oklahoma and Indian Territories) was augmented by the formation of Women’s Federated Clubs. The local club, known during the 1960s as the Mothers Self Culture Club, played an important role in the restoration of the T.B. and Elva Ferguson Home. An article in the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture indicates some 24 women representing 11 clubs met in May 1898 at a Presbyterian Church in OKC. Within one year, the number of clubs had doubled. The General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) had been formed in New York in 1890. The Oklahoma Federation joined the GFWC in 1898. Their moto was “Kindliness and Helpfulness.” They formed standing committees on art, literature, civics and education and added music, philanthropy, legislation, home and domestic science and forestry.
Mrs. Elva Ferguson, in her book “They carried the Torch,” notes: “The first annual meeting of Oklahoma Women’s Federated Clubs took place at Norman, OK (I assume 1899). Mrs. Selwyn Douglass was president. Sixty delegates attended representing twenty clubs. I (Elva Ferguson) attended this meeting as representative of the Watonga Culture club. President and Mrs. Boyd of the University, entertained the delegates at their home.” (David Ross Boyd was the first President of the University of Oklahoma from 1892 to 1908).
In Oklahoma, Clubs from Indian Territory withdrew from the Oklahoma Federation in 1903 to form their own clubs and in 1906 the first African American women’s club was formed.
These clubs worked together to create public libraries, to lobby for the enactment of pure food and drug and child labor laws and for the improvement of public education and juvenile justice system.
So it was that in 1967, the Watonga Mother’s Self Culture Club, the club of which Mrs. Ferguson was a member, had a chance to buy the 1901 mansion. Ellen Shaw and the club of 16 women took their cause to the people of Watonga. The city was putting all available funds toward the new hospital (now Mercy). Seventeen businessmen took a giant leap of faith and signed a $9,000 note which gave the club ownership to the property.
Disappointed by the lack of federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds through Lady Bird Johnson because of technicality, the club members turned to the Oklahoma legislature for funds to renovate the home, then owned by the State Office of Tourism and Recreation. The legislature provided $15,000 in 1969 and another $10,000 in 1970, but this was not enough. A final appropriation from the legislature was obtained for $10,000 in 1971 for a total of $35,000, enough to do the renovations.
So while the current board of directors has been working diligently over the past two years to obtain funding and approval from the City of Watonga to paint and do other renovations to the building, we are reminded and encouraged by the diligence and determination of the Mothers’ Self Culture Club five-year effort to obtain, renovate, furnish and provide docents for the museum which opened 1972 as a tribute to T.B. and Elva Ferguson and Oklahoma Territorial and early statehood Oklahoma.