Mysterious Notecards

 

Mrs. J. M. Swan membership card

Mixed among my Mother's papers is a stack of notecards with names and payments.  When I had glanced at them before I thought they might have something to do with my Great Grandfather Merrick Smith's grocery business.  I finally looked a bit closer and that is wrong.  They appear to be a list of membership dues with a few things to note.

• They are all tied to women
• They run from 1921 through 1936
• Dues start at $0.25 a year and raise to $0.50 in 1930
• All the addresses seem to be in the Northampton, MA area, but I have only spot checked this.

So what are these and why do we have them.  I've come up with three possible scenarios:

1. My Great Grandmother, Catherine Ellen McCann Smith, was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, and these could represent the membership of that organization.  I think this scenario is unlikely as membership is open to men and women and it had a broader coverage area then Northampton.
2. My Grandmother, Florence Edna Smith, was a past president of the Mother's club as well a press chairman and chairman of the scholarship committee.  I don't know what this club did but it may have been associated with the Edwards Congregational Church.  This could be a list of the members.  The stack of cards seems rather large for a church women's association.
3. My Grandmother, Florence Edna Smith, was active in the Mount Holyoke Alumnae association in Hampshire county.  Mount Holyoke was and is a women's college, and therefore these could be the dues cards for the alumnae association members.  

As to why do we have it, both my grandmother and Great Grandmother passed away within 2 days of each other in November of 1936.  I suspect that the cards were never returned to the organization and my Mother found it as they were cleaning out the West Street house.  

This would represent a good research project for someone and I might mess around with it but it is really tangential to the family history.  Might be a gem for genealogist in Northampton.  Some areas I could look are:

• Do all of the addresses listed group in an area around Edwards Church?
• Did the people listed attend Mount Holyoke? Some of the note cards list new members and the year they joined.  Might be easier to look for them.  Challenge is many of them are listed under their husbands names, e.g. Mrs. J.M. Swan.  Probably would be easier to center in on unmarried ones.

stack of notecards