Friona Women's Clubs
Friona, Parmer County, Texas
Marker Inscription
By 1898, Friona and several other area townsites had been laid out as switches on the Pecos Valley & Northern Texas Railroad. Settlers soon began arriving in Friona, which incorporated in 1906. Twenty Friona women organized a club in September 1909, meeting in various places for many years while raising money for a meeting house constructed here in 1941. The group, which became part of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs in 1922, generated three other clubs. Each group performed a variety of services, including tree planting, medical aid and founding of the Friona Public Library. The clubhouse has served as a meeting place for the Women's Clubs, as well as for the larger community. (2005)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
As settlers arrived in the railroad town of Friona in the early 1900s, twenty local women organized a club in 1909 that would reshape their community. Joining the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs in 1922 and spawning three more clubs, the women raised money for a meeting house, planted trees, provided medical aid, and founded the Friona Public Library. Their 1941 clubhouse became a gathering place for members and the wider community alike.
Why it matters
The Friona women's clubs show how organized women drove civic improvement — libraries, health, and public spaces — in early-20th-century farm towns across America.
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