Fortnightly memories

Anniversary speeches on the Fortnightly Club’s history

Reminisces on the History of the Founding of the Fortnightly Club

By Hattie Bryan

Fortnightly Club founder Hattie Bryan read this speech at the group’s open meeting on November 23, 1908, in celebration of the organization’s fifteenth anniversary. Bryan established the women’s study group in 1893, the same year she arrived in Pullman, where her husband served as the third president of what would become Washington State University.

Illustration of of Harriet Williams Bryan by Kendall Poole
(Courtesy WSU Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections)

The year 1893 was one long to be remembered by the people of the United States.

The Great Panic had ruined its thousands and the great depression which followed had plunged its ten thousands into poverty and want. Here in Washington, where the earth yields so bountifully, it would seem that want could not dwell. But those who had come to make their fortunes did not bring much money with them, and so borrowed, at ruinous rates, and when the panic came were able to pay neither principal nor interest. To make matters worse the unusual had happened as it always does. Namely, the weather was unusual. I well remember the day we landed in the village at the old Northern Pacific station, not where it now stands but up the track where the coal bunkers are. Raining! I think I never saw it rain harder, and mud! How the struggling horses ever managed to get us through it, up to our rented home, on “Sunnyside,” named in jest I thought, to the house belonging then and now to Mrs. Jaberg. Sunnyside indeed! The sun did not appear for a month, and then came snow, and more mud.

We had not brought the rain with us, for it had been raining for a month, and the poor farmers, who had always counted on harvesting in September and October, and on leaving the sacks of wheat piled in the field, were in despair, for one half of the crop was standing in the field ruined, and the other half was in the field piled in sacks rotting.

In trying to orient myself, I inquired the way downtown, and was directed to “follow the trail” over the hill, for most Pullman streets were then guiltless of walks.

The very first night we spent in the town, a murder was committed in the Artesian Hotel, and I wondered if that was a western custom. Wood stoves, and coal oil lamps were the universal rule, for the electric light plant had … out with the panic.

There were three telephones in town, one at the college and one at each rail station. The big stores were tottering or had already fallen.

The high bleak boys’ dormitory, afterward called Ferry Hall, and the red wooden building known as College Hall made the campus look bleaker. The campus was then a corn field. There may have been a thousand people in town but I doubt it.

Gloom and despair had settled upon many homes, where a few months before, there had been bright expectations and fond hopes. Yet here we were, and some of us at least felt the responsibilities upon a college community, of literary development. It fell to the writer to call together a few choice spirits to chat over the tea cups the possibilities of an organized effort in this direction. So far as I can learn, there were not more than a half-dozen women’s clubs in the state at that time. The ladies who that evening in early November 1893 gathered about my tea table were Mrs. Van Doren, who at a little later period served as chairman of the first executive committee and also as a member of the committee on constitution, Mrs. Elton Fulmer, Mrs. O.L. Waller, Miss Annie Howard, Mrs. Lake, wife of Prof. Lake of the Dept. of Agriculture of the College, Mrs. Saunders, wife of the head of the Mechanical and Electrical Department, Mrs. George H. Watt and Miss Bessie Williams, all except my sister being members of the faculty of the College or wives of members. The “idea” of the club met with a hearty response, and the ideals of the club as they afterwards developed began to appear, and even the name Fortnightly came to the surface, largely I fancy because we spent some time looking over the program or year book of the Fortnightly Club of Old Vincennes of which the writer had been a member.

It was agreed to invite a number of ladies to unite with us for the purpose of perfecting an organization, and Mrs. Fulmer’s home was appointed as the meeting place. Mrs. Fulmer then lived where Mrs. Howell now lives, just back of Mr. J.J. Murray’s residence. A week or so later Mrs. George Lilley, wife of the ex-president Lilly, Mrs. Walter Windus, Mrs. Morrell, Mrs. Wm. Walis, and Mrs. H.J. Jackson, in addition to the ladies before named, met at Mrs. Fulmer’s and discussed the plans of organization; appointed a committee on constitution and prepared for immediate activity. The next meeting was held at the home of Mrs. Lilley on Nov. 27^th at which time a constitution was adopted and officers were elected. It was agreed that the membership be limited to 25 and that rule has ever since been adhered to. It was also determined that there should be none but active members, and that everyone should do the work assigned her, or if she did not do so would by reason of neglect be dropped from the rolls. It was further agreed that the chief purpose of the club should be literary study and discussion. The successive programs show a remarkably consistent development along this line.

Mrs. Stacey of Tacoma, known as the “Federation Mother,” once being asked for advice as to a program for a club to follow, said, “Read the program of the Pullman Fortnightly as an excellent model.”

Sometimes, perhaps it has involved pretty strenuous work, and perhaps has not always been relieved as much as it should have been by purely social functions, but no one who has been a member, for any considerable length of time, and who has followed its traditions, can fail to have been greatly strengthened by its curriculum.

Four years after organization the club joined the state federation and has been represented every year since in the state meeting. Once with assistance and cooperation of ladies of Hist. Club we entertained the state federation very successfully.

Every five years the anniversary of the founding has been celebrated, this being the third—the crystal wedding as it were.

In the study of literature as a rule only virile authors have been pursued—Shakespeare, Browning, Ruskin, Emerson, Carlyle, Goethe, Ibsen, Tolstoy, Dante, and some of the club has plunged into Greek tragedy. The ethical rather than the philosophical aspects have as a rule received greater attention. Not very often have we wandered into the mysteries of religion, or the vagaries of politics, or the profundities of economics.

The discussions have often been lively and were of greater volume by reason of a certain ability of the members to hear and speak at the same time, so that several could speak and all hear at once but as to parliamentary procedure I think those clubs very foolish who worry much about that. Their stilted formalities come no nearer determining the will of the members than do our rather informal methods.

I cannot speak of the many interesting lectures given under the auspices of the club, our attempt at a library, our park efforts, nor other activities which have entered into our history. I can only say that there are many of us who love Fortnightly and who have found in it a source of strength, and light, and a better intellectual life.

Reminisces for the 70th anniversary: 1893-1963

By Catherine Mathews Friel

The Fortnightly Club, the oldest study club of Pullman, Washington, was organized 70 years ago in November 1893, through the interest and efforts of Mrs. Enoch A. Bryan, soon after her arrival in Pullman, when her husband, Dr. Bryan, assumed his duties as president of the state college. She called together at her home a number of the women belonging to the faculty, faculty wives, and wives of community businessmen, and proposed the organization of a women’s literary club.  While living in Vincennes, Indiana, where her husband was president of Vincennes University, Mrs. Bryan was active for ten years in a club called The Fortnightly Club, because of their bi-monthly meetings.

In addition to her deep interest in the Fortnightly Club of Pullman and the State Federation of Women’s Clubs, Mrs. Bryan organized the wives of the faculty of the Washington Agricultural College into a social club which is the present Faculty Women’s Club. The Faculty Wives Club originally met at the president’s house once a month and Hattie E. Bryan, the founder, served as president until the retirement of President Bryan in 1916.

A second meeting was held at Mrs. Elton Fulmer’s home (Mrs. Fulmer was (the) wife of the head of the chemistry department). It was decided to invite other women to join. At a third meeting, held at Mrs. George Lilley’s home (Mrs. Lilley was the wife of the ex-president of W.A.C.), the club was formally organized, a constitution adopted, and officers elected. Mrs. Bryan was the first president and Mrs. Nancy Van (Doren), the chairman of the first executive committee. Mrs. Van (Doren) was the teacher for whom the new home economics building was named which is at present the music building. Charter members of the newly formed club were the following twelve women: Mrs. E. A. Bryan, Mrs. George Lilley, (Mrs. Nancy Van Doren), Mrs. O. L. Waller (whose husband was the vice president of the college), Mrs. (George) Watt (wife of a local druggist), Miss (Bessie) Williams (sister of Mrs. Bryan), (Miss Annie Howard), Mrs. Walter Windus (wife of a Pullman banker), Mrs. C. O. (Morrell), Mrs. W. B. Wallis (wife of (a) business man and Serena F. Mathews’ mother and Catherine M. Friel’s grandmother), and Mrs. H.J. Jackson.

It was agreed that the club should be one for literary and cultural study, the membership should be limited to twenty-five active members, and that the name should be The Fortnightly Club of Pullman. Also it was agreed that study work assigned must be done or the failure to do it would be considered automatic resignation.

It is not possible to list the many great authors and their works which have been studied. Classics from the literature of the English, American, French, German, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Indian, Oriental, and other great cultures have been evaluated. An effort has been made to also keep abreast of the modern writers, their styles, and philosophies.

Sometimes, this research study has involved strenuous work for the members but for any member who has belonged to Fortnightly for a length of time the reward has been one of great enrichment. For over forty years two literary club papers were presented at each meeting followed with a formal discussion held by the members. The meetings lasted from 2:30 to 5:00 p.m. with no refreshments served. Then new legislation dictated a shorter meeting with one paper given, followed by the business meeting and a coffee hour. Meetings to be from 2:00 to 4:00 only.

It has become a tradition that each fifth year’s anniversary be observed by a special celebration. This year, 1963, marks the fourteenth quinquennial. The special nature and programs of the anniversary have been as varied as the number of quinquennials themselves. The fourth one, in 1913, was a banquet at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Bryan on campus.

Memberships in Fortnightly are usually of very long duration because of the happy fellowship of minds. Time itself has proved to be the greatest factor in the slowly, but ever-changing personnel of the Fortnightly Club.