November 16, 1894…
NJSFWC ECONNECTION
November 20, 2024
Barbara McCloskey, NJSFWC President
Together in Service, United in Friendship
November 16, 1894…
It was a cold Friday morning when approximately 150 women met in Union Hall, Orange, New Jersey. To arrive on time for the 10:00 a.m. meeting, many of the women left their homes well before daybreak to travel by train, trolley or carriage.
Although the majority of them were from the northern part of the state, there were representatives who came from as far south as Salem, Bridgeton, Haddonfield, Vineland and Merchantville.
By the time the meeting was concluded, the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs was an established fact! Margaret B. Yardley of Orange had been elected President and a committee was formed to prepare a Constitution for the organization.
Margaret Tufts Yardley (1844-1928) was elected the first President of NJSFWC, 1894-1896. Mrs. Yardley was 50 years old when she became President and died at the age of 84. She was a member of the Woman’s Club of Orange, the oldest club in NJ.
Margaret served as Director and President of the Orange Orphans’ Society and helped start the first Homeopathic Hospital of the Oranges. In this position, she also fought for the improvement of state child labor laws. Yardley remained an active part of political life in East Orange until her early eighties. In addition, she was a member of the Colonial Dames of America and founded the Essex County Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).
Despite having five children, she found time to be an active member of several philanthropic organizations. She served on the Board of Managers at the Columbia Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Here she received a gold medal for her two-volume collection of the works of New Jersey women writers, which she compiled and exhibited.
Did You Know? Mrs. Yardley’s Board, consisting of the officers and nine elected representatives of the clubs, met December 4, 1894, in the home of the President. A badge designed after the state coat of arms was submitted for consideration by Mrs. Brooks of the Monday Afternoon Club of Passaic.
A shield with a plough, a rising sun, the word Unity, and the letters NJSF, done on a pale blue enamel – cost not to exceed sixty cents – was accepted at the third meeting in February 1895.