Maids and Matrons Club
Brownfield, Terry County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1906, three years after the founding of Brownfield, eleven women gathered together to form a club. Named Maids and Matrons, the club became primarily a study group in 1907, and the members founded the town's first library that year. Affiliated with the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs in 1915, the club continued to operate the library and supported numerous civic causes. When the Kendrick Memorial County Library was organized in 1957, the club donated their entire 3,000-volume collection of books to form the nucleus of the institution's holdings.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1906, just three years after Brownfield's founding, eleven women banded together as the Maids and Matrons club. Turning to study and civic work, they opened the town's first library in 1907 and kept it running for decades, joining the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs in 1915. When a county library was organized in 1957, the club handed over its entire 3,000-volume collection to seed it.
Why it matters
It shows how women's clubs founded the cultural infrastructure—libraries above all—of countless small American towns.
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Themes & tags
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