Looking Back in History
The Women Form Their Own Rotary Club 1911-1917

by Rachael E. Martin, Club #25 Historian

The Duluth Woman’s Rotary Club of 1911 left a faint trail that vanished completely in 1917.
 

We have already heard about the President, Irene C. Buell, who practiced law in Duluth from 1911 to 1915. Her offices moved from the Palladio Building to the Christie Building, then to the Providence Building. By 1915 she left Duluth and moved back to Minneapolis.

Another officer of the woman’s club was Dr. Sarah McClaran, an osteopath with her husband, Dr. William A. McClaran. Their office was at 124 W. Superior St., and they lived at 1101 E. 3^rd St. By 1914, Sarah moved away, and only her husband and son, Melville, a student at the Duluth Business University, continued to live in Duluth at 601 Woodland Ave. In 1918, William McClaran changed professions and became Vice President of the Omaha Iron Co. with Melville as Secretary Treasurer. William McClaran moved to Minneapolis in 1920, the same year his son moved to 1405 London Road. By 1921, Melville also moved to Minneapolis.
 

A third officer, Dr. Mary N. Conrad, was a chiropractor with an office in the Columbia Building at 7 West Superior St. As a single woman, she lived in apartments on 3^rd Street through the 1920's. Then Dr. Conrad combined her office and her residence in the Columbia Building until she left Duluth in 1924.
 

The fourth of the early officers was Mrs. Jane Everington Scully, a widow whose husband, George H. Scully, died in 1910. Mrs. Scully worked as a clerk at J.M. Gidding & Co., a woman’s apparel shop specializing in dry goods and cloaks located at the corner of 1^st Ave. West and Superior Street. She lived in an apartment at Munger Terrace with her widowed mother and her brother James R. Everington. In 1914, her mother died and Jane moved to the Wahldorf Apartments at 218-220 1^st Ave. W. Interestingly, in 1918 Jane Scully changed her name back to Jane Everington. She continued to live in Duluth until 1921 at 1215 E. 2^nd St.
 

The Duluth Woman’s Rotary Club continued meeting the 2^nd and 4^th Tuesday of every month at the Spalding Hotel. Meanwhile, the Duluth Rotary Club #25 (the men’s club) met the 1^st Thursday of each month at noon and the last Thursday at 6:15 pm at various locations.
 

By 1914, Dr. Stella L. Wilkinson was elected as the new secretary of the Duluth Woman’s Rotary Club. She was a physician and surgeon with offices in the New Jersey Building at 106-112 W. Superior St. with office hours of 10:00-12:00 am and 2:00-5:00 pm.
 

In 1915 the women changed their meeting place to the Club Room of the Duluth Public Library, located then at the NW corner of 1^st Ave. W & 2^nd St. Secretary Wilkinson used her office address at the New Jersey Building as the Woman’s Rotary Club mailing address. Dr. Wilkinson was not married and lived in apartments near her office until 1924 when she moved to 4321 Luverne St. In 1925 she left Duluth.
 

By 1917 the US entered the "Great War", as WWI was called, and club listings in the Duluth City Directory were replaced by long lists of "Soldier Boys". The Duluth Women’s Rotary Club was not listed even after the war, although the Duluth Rotary Club #25 was listed.
 

It appears that the woman’s club dissolved during or shortly after WWI. None of the women officers remained in the Duluth area, and President Irene Buell died in St. Paul in 1956.