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A charter member, in her own right
The Bend Bulletin · August 27, 1921
In the story: 4. Emblematic measles, 1917–1922.
One sentence in a society column is the nearest thing this archive has to a woman's standing in the Emblem Club stated plainly.
This project has a table of everything the Bulletin called the women around the Emblem Club, and the usages do not agree with one another. In March 1920 they are “the lady-members of the Emblem club”, set against “the men members”. In June 1920 twenty-five women whose husbands are members form “an informal organization”, “merely for convenience in planning affairs of a social nature”. In August they are “the ladies' auxiliary of the club”. In November 1921 a woman chairs the club's music committee.
One row of that table was marked “not filed”, and this is it. On 27 August 1921 the paper reports a bridge party at the clubhouse in honour of Mrs. T. A. McCann, who is leaving for Minneapolis, and describes her as “a charter member of the reorganized Emblem club”.
It does not settle the question. A society column is not a roll, “charter member” in a Saturday paper may be a courtesy, and the reorganized club of 1919 left no constitution this project has found. What it does is put the strongest of the competing usages on the record with a date and a name, beside the weakest, and let a reader see that the paper itself was not consistent.
The club's own founding document caps membership at forty men and says nothing about women. Whether that cap survived the reorganization is the open question this bears on.
From the source
The smartest social function of the week, was the Bridge party at the Emblem club on Wednesday afternoon at which time the club women honored Mrs. T. A. McCann. The spacious rooms were made unusually attractive with floral decorations, color scheme in the living room was brown and yellow, nature's favorite tones at this season and by way of contrast shades of lavender and pink were effectively used in the dining room.
Prizes were awarded to Mrs. J. C. Vandevert and Mrs. H. K. Brooks and a guest prize was presented to Mrs. McCann.
Mrs. McCann who is a charter member of the reorganized Emblem club is leaving soon with her family for Minneapolis where the McCanns will make their future home.