Women’s education is one of the important contributions of Elva Ferguson and a cause near and dear to her heart. Likewise, the Philanthropic Educational Organization has promoted women’s education and service. The Friends of the Ferguson Home Museum salute on the P.E.O. on January 21, National P.E.O. day. This date marks its founding in 1869 at Iowa Wesleyan University and serves as International P.E.O. Day. P.E.O. has been a great friend of the Ferguson Home Museum.
Mrs. T.B. (Elva) Ferguson writes in Chapter 3 of her Book They Carried the Torch… “Many of the women of the town were like myself, little more than girls, who had gone with their husbands on this adventure. We felt that while we made our families comfortable in material things, must not neglect our minds. So a culture club was organized for mental improvement, and we took it seriously, writing papers upon solemn subjects.
We met at the homes of various members, and if some of us had to sit on upturned boxes in lieu of sufficient chairs and our refreshments considered of molasses cookies and lemonade without ice, it did not detract from our determination to cultivate our minds.”
One of the charter members was Mrs. Anna Campbell, mother of Fleta Campbell Springer, who was later to become a prominent writer.”* Mrs. Ferguson was a founding member of the Watonga Culture Club and of Federated Women’s Clubs (1899), the forerunner of the Mother’s Self Culture Club, an important educational club in Watonga. Years later, it was the Mother’s Self Culture Club that raised the funds to buy the Ferguson Home in 1969 and raised funds for its renovation into a museum, which opened in 1972.
So, we salute the educational and service goals of P.E.O. which continue in the style of Elva Ferguson in educating women.
*Footnote: Fleta Campbell Springer grew up in Watonga and wrote: Gregg, a Novel, 1916; Where’s your wife, a Broadway play of 1919; Solitaire, a short story published in Harper’s Magazine, 1919; According to the Flesh, A Biography of Mary Baker Eddy”, 1933; N.R.A. Goes into Action,1933 and others.