The following article appeared in the December 31, 2004 issue of the Portage County Gazette.

McDill Ladies Aid Society will disband
By Gene Kemmeter of the Gazette

After 108 ears, the McDill Ladies Aid Society is disbanding.

The five remaining members of the group, Ella Jane (Norton) Hall, president; Sue (Hall) Kudronowicz, vice president; Annette (Groth) Mason, secretary; Margaret (Mason) Fahrner, treasurer; and Thelma Flood, Sunshine Fund chairman; mad the decision at its final meeting on Aug. 21 at the Fahrner home in Stevens Point.

“We can’t get members,” Fahrner said, acknowledging that getting new members is a problem facing many organizations today. “There’s one (member) older than I am and I’m 85,” she said.

Throughout the years, most of the members had been housewives, but she pointed out that most women work today so they spend much of their time after work doing chores around their homes. “We just can’t get the members,” she said.

The group was organized on April 11, 1896 as the Ladies Aid Society of McDill with Mrs. E. Pike as chairman, Mrs. Jenny Ricker, president; Mrs. M. F. Means, vice president; Mrs. Rose Norton, treasurer; and Mrs. Alice M. Harris, secretary.

The object of the organization was for intellectual improvement and charitable work, “the proceeds for Minister or Sabbath School,” the minutes of that first meet said.

The minutes also said the group will served a 10-cent supper every two weeks, with a menu of bread or biscuit plus butter, baked beans or potatoes, one kind of cake, meat, pickles or cheese, pie or sauce and tea.

At that time there was a community called McDill, a village platted in 1873 by Thomas H. and Alexander S. McDill that consisted of four blocks intersected by Post Road. The community, along the mouth of the Plover River (before McDill Pond was created) even had a post office that was established in 1874 but was discontinued in 1904.

The community of McDill eventually was incorporated into the village of Whiting in 1947.

While the organization wasn’t affiliated with any specific church and remained non- denominational, the early minutes indicated the ladies participated in Bible readings and prayers and listened to lectures from ministers.

The minutes of the July 2, 1896 meeting tell of the ladies meeting at the home of Rose Norton to put together a quilt. “The frames were set up upstairs where the view was lovely,” the minutes state. “The Plover River, with the dam, mill and mill pond could be seen, and the tumbling, roaring sound of the incessant water pouring over the dam mad this an ideal place in which to spend the afternoon at work.”

The minutes state the proceeds from the dinner and the sale of the quilt netted the group $4.50.

The society has a gap in minutes from July 9, 1897, when “the meeting was adjourned indefinitely” until October 1920 when another election of officers was held. Those elected were Kate Gyrion, president; Marion Means, vice president; Verna Marshall, treasurer; Adah Potter, secretary; and Tillie Mellentine, Penny Fund.

At that meeting, the group had 27 members, and members were urged to contact people of McDill about donating and helping to clean up the cemetery (McDill Cemetery), which is along County Trunk HH on the east side of Whiting.

After 192-, the organization’s minutes reflect the group’s involvement in matters relating to the cemetery. That involvement included numerous donations to the cemetery; purchasing a wheelbarrow, rakes, a spade, lawn shears and a scythe; hiring a team to mow the cemetery; placing an outdoor toilet in the cemetery; planting trees; and paying boys to work at the cemetery.

The group volunteered during World War II to work with the Red Cross in its blood donation program.

During the war, the organization also began sending boxes of candy and other items to men in service who had lived in the McDill area or attended McDill School. That practice was continued into the 1960’s.

The group also began packing boxes for older and sick residents of the McDill area and residents of the Portage County Health Care Center, until 1994, when membership began to dwindle.

Fahrner said the society has always been helpful to others. “One lady was sick and the others took turns staying with her,” she said.

“One time our house burned down and they accumulated a sleigh of household goods,” she said. “They chipped in and bought us a rocking chair. I still have the rocking chair,” she added, pointing it out in her living room.

Her mother was a member and her grandmother was one of the early members, she said, and families of many members continued to participate in the group.

Fahrner said she’s amazed at the ways the organization raised money through the years, from the dinners and the quilt sales to selling items like Jello or cleaning supplies. They created a Penny Fund from loose change collected at meeting to use for various purposes.

“In the beginning they did a lot of work with the cemetery,” Fahrner said, pointing out that the cemetery was originally known as the North Plover Cemetery because it was in the northern part of the town of Plover. “They would donate and have cleanup days.” In keeping with its history of helping the cemetery, the Ladies Aid Society will close out its checking and saving accounts and turn the balance over to the McDill Cemetery Association.

“We decided some time ago if we did disband that we would turn the money over to the McDill Cemetery Association,” said Fahrner, who has been the treasurer for 43 years.

The secretary’s and treasurer’s books, papers and memorabilia the society has collected through the years will be turned over to the Portage County Historical Society for storage and use.

Fahrner said she’ll miss the organization. “It was always a lot of fun,” she said.