~by Denise O’Brien Van, special to GreeneCountyNewsOnline
Although the town of Adaza* in northwestern Greene County is no more, the sense of community it fostered lives on in the Adaza Thursday Club, a women’s group that has met for the past 90 years.
The club had its annual Winter Picnic last Thursday (March 5) in Churdan, which is three miles south of where Adaza once was a bustling little place of about 400 people.
The club meets on the first Thursday of every month, September through May. It has about a dozen stalwart members, several of whom have attended meetings for more than 50 years. Members, all of whom have connections to the little town with the charming name, live in other Greene County towns and in the countryside surrounding what once was the village of Adaza.
Guests are invited to the picnic, and there were 18, including three members’ husbands and several granddaughters, there for the noon potluck dinner.
The Winter Picnic is a club tradition, usually held in February, but postponed this year because of inclement weather. Picnic fare included deviled eggs and gooseberry pie. Winter dishes, in keeping with the approaching feast day of St. Patrick and the ethnic heritage of many members, included corned beef and cabbage and colcannon, a hearty amalgam of mashed potatoes, boiled cabbage and bacon.
As has often been written in the “Adaza News,” a column about community goings-on printed in the Scranton Journal–and, until recently, for many years, in the Jefferson paper–and read by former Adazans and their descendants across the nation and in several foreign countries, “A good time was had by all.” Club president Pat Schmitt has been the Adaza news correspondent for more than 30 years.
There was lots of reminiscing and story telling, fond retelling of family tales, squalls of laughter and detailed explaining of who lived where, when.
Through the years, children have always been welcome at the club meetings. Preschoolers came along with their mothers, and school-bus-riding children whose mothers were at the first Thursday club meetings were dropped off there, rather than at their farm lanes.
“Sometimes there were more kids than adults at Thursday Club,” member Liz Guess recalled in the 1981 Centennial Book.
A favorite story is the continuing mystery of what happened the night someone stole the beer truck during the club’s finest accomplishment, Adaza’s 1981 centennial celebration.
Members swear no one has ever known who took the truck, which was found the next day in Lohrville. The fabled vehicle eventually was presented to the Lohrville fire department, and now resides in rather dilapidated condition in Ann Guess Gemberling’s barn.
The club raised money for a memorial to the town during the celebration. The gray granite marker sits on the north side of Greene County Road E-13/110th Street, across from the abandoned commercial grain elevator, which sports a red, yellow, green and blue “barn” quilt. Etched on the stone are a map of the town and the names of more than 100 families who lived there, or in the surrounding countryside. There’s a flag pole, wrought-iron fencing and a bench under a tree with a bluebird house among its branches.
The club symbol is a daisy. Annual dues are $2, and have been for at least the past 40 years. The club makes donations each year to the Churdan and South Central Calhoun (Lake City and Rockwell City) schools.
The club members also like to remind each other that, although they sometimes meet in Churdan, that little city is really “a suburb of Adaza.”
“I’ve heard some folks in Churdan say they wish they had connections to Adaza,” says Schmitt. “We call them ‘wannabes.’ They admire our loyalty to each other and the fun we have!
“We are mostly about camaraderie, friendship, supporting each other, sharing the good news and the bad…and good food!” says Schmitt, who’s held the office for the past 10 years. Treasurer Liz Guess has been taking care of club finances for a decade, too.
Schmitt says, “I’ve made a private vow to have a real election in May.
“In the past few years, several of our 40- and 50-something members were still employed and not able to be regular attendees. They came when they could and, as a result they didn’t want an office,” she explains. “Now we see more of them each month and they are very capable gals. They’re ready to carry on!”
Of course, they will: These 21st century Adazans, linked by memories, and stories of simpler times, oft told. Surely, plans will be in the works soon for the club’s centennial in 2025, a celebration of simple monthly gatherings of country women bound together by their connections to a town with an intriguing name and the long tradition of women’s social clubs.
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*Local legend says that the town of Adaza took its name from a cheery comment made by pioneer Jefferson businessman and real estate speculator Capt. Albert Head.
Sometime in 1882, Head stepped from a train in a northwestern Greene County settlement then named Cottonwood for a grove of nearby trees, looked around at the land he owned (he’d already sold the right of way to the railroad), and asked, “Ain’t it a daisy?”
From then on the train’s conductor called out “Adaza” when the train pulled into the settlement, and soon that became the official name of the town.
The little town thrived, although it probably never had a population of more than three or four hundred people. Decline set in after the last train rolled through in spring 1950; the tracks were torn up 30 years later. The post office closed in 1970. Today, all the business are gone. A few homes nicely kept homes remain, plus a wooden elevator.
