PUSHING WOMEN FORWARD

She was college-educated in a day when most women weren't. She taught at a school for orphans in St. Louis and at schools in Cape Girardeau before moving to Kansas to spend most of the first decade of the 1900s raising four children whose parents -- family friends -- had died.

Perhaps one of the most far-reaching effects Miss Amy Kimmel had was her founding of the Wednesday Club, an important organization in Cape Girardeau's early history.

The sesquicentennial of the first Women's Rights Convention is being celebrated in Seneca Falls, N.Y., this summer with a series of events, including induction of poet Maya Angelou, astronaut Shannon Lucid and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and 18 others into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

If Cape Girardeau had a Women's Hall of Fame, the nearly forgotten Kimmel would be a good candidate for charter admission.

Born in Cape Girardeau in 1864 to George and Delia Deane Kimmel, she attended old Lorimier School and the old Normal School before becoming at teacher at 19.

Besides her memberships in the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Cape Girardeau Historical Society and P.E.O. and her varied duties on behalf of Christ Episcopal Church, Kimmel was a registrar for Ward 6 once women secured the right to vote. She also was a member of the advisory board of the Federal Writers Project.

The Southeast Missourian published her articles about historic Cape Girardeau homes, a series compiled for Wednesday Club programs.

Her role in founding the Wednesday Club led her obituary when she died in 1936. The women's club helped usher Cape Girardeau's cultural life into the 20th century through its members' pursuit of enlightenment about both the arts and social issues.

Kimmel founded the club in 1902 after going to some women's club meetings while on a visit to Texas. The Wednesday Club's motto was: "'Tis the mind that makes the body rich."

In the beginning the club was mostly a study group composed primarily of wives of university professors. This would change and the membership would grow to include the wives of many of Cape Girardeau's most prominent men.

In her history of the club located in the regional history archives at Kent Library, Mrs. B.F. Johnson wrote that the club studied "Hamlet" its first year and discussed current events. Subsequent years found the members discoursing on Tennyson, Emerson and German literature.

The social aspect of the club was undeniable as well, with St. Patrick's Day parties and Christmas caroling on the schedule. The club chose the white carnation as it's flower and green and white as its colors.

But the early club also sent books to the library at the state prison farm and provided a lecture on war debts.

Kimmel was the club's secretary for many years but never took its presidency. The club eventually affiliated with the national Federation of Women's Clubs, which dictated a broadening of topics to include public affairs.

By 1907 the club was studying "pure foods and clean, wholesome milk" to combat the threat of a typhoid epidemic. It also petitioned the mayor to establish citywide "clean-up days," an annual tradition which continues.

By 1909 the club was distributing Christmas gifts to needy children and urging enforcement of child labor laws. It also asked the Legislature to allow women to become members of school boards.

The Wednesday Club is credited with helping secure the Carnegie Library, which was located in Common Pleas Park. Two club members served on the library board.

As 1920 neared, the club sent a petition to Congress in support of the Equal Suffrage Bill.

Into the 1920s the Wednesday Club was endorsing compulsory education for children and sponsoring a free dental clinic. It also endorsed closing movie houses on Sundays.

The club learned about prison problems by studying Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables" and addressed the issues of divorce through Ibsen's play "A Doll's House."

Membership reached a peak of 101 during this period.

Later in the 1920s the club sponsored a chautauqua and helped girls with scholarship loans.

In the 1930s, Wednesday Club members signed petitions on disarmament and the World Court and were provided with a lecture titled "Sex Hygiene and Clean Living."

At the end of her history, which concludes at 1993, Mrs. Johnson wrote: "The woman in the home needs the inspiration of uplift that comes from meeting with others who have similar aims, hopes or ideals."

The Wednesday Club still exists but has only 13 remaining members, most of them elderly. "We're just trying to hold on until we get to 100 years in 2002," says the club's secretary, 80-year-old Vernice Baumstark.

She has been a member since 1942, and recalls when the club had 60 members.

Its newest member, Felicia Fox, daughter of longtime member Juanita Snider, joined only this year. But, Baumstark says, "We're like the animals. We're going to become extinct." But its newest member, Felicia Fox, joined only this year.

The club currently has only two projects: the state Girls Town and the Safe House for Women in Cape Girardeau.

On Arbor Day in 1923, the Wednesday Club planted a hawthorn tree near the Frisco Railroad depot in honor of Miss Amy Kimmel. The tree is gone now but the accompanying plaque is at Southeast Missouri State University.

When Kimmel died, her obituary appeared on page one of the Southeast Missourian. Some of Cape Girardeau's most powerful men -- including businessman Fred A. Groves and publisher George Naeter -- were among her pallbearers.