In 1892 in the territory of Utah, public-school education ended with eighth grade. But there were certain women who hungered for more. Wives of prominent Salt Lake gentlemen, their days were filled with homemaking, raising children, and church and civic duties.
Still, they felt a lack. They felt the lack even more keenly when sculptor Cyrus Dallin returned from Paris and Rome to his native Utah to begin work on an angel to grace the top of the just-completed Salt Lake Temple. Dallin brought with him a new bride - a delicate and accomplished woman.Vittoria Colonna Dallin was educated in Boston. She wrote poems and plays. Every Utah woman who met her seemed to be enchanted.
Vittoria Dallin was in their minds when, on Sept. 17, a group of friends gathered at the studio of Miss Kate Wells to form a literary club. "We admired Mrs. Dallin so much and decided we would get ourselves educated," said Margie Dwyer, as recorded in the history of the club. They called their group Cleofan, which they thought meant "cleave together." Later, on learning that it meant "to cleave asunder," they decided they liked the name anyway.
Cleofan turned 100 this year. The memory of the early members lives on in their history book, on engraved programs and in the dedication of today's members, some of whom were on hand to commemorate its 50th anniversary.
Cleofan members celebrated last week with a luncheon at the Salt Lake Country Club. Active membership is limited to 22 women. Senior members move on to a nonvoting associate status, if they are too busy or not well enough to attend regularly.
But no one ever drops out, explains Ann Nebeker. "Many of us are daughters of Cleofan members." And granddaughters - like Julie Crawford, who at 30 is the youngest member. She joined to keep up the tradition and because she enjoys the wisdom of the older ladies, Crawford says.
Everyone over 80 years of age was honored at the anniversary luncheon with a blue and white corsage. They were entertained by Marilyn Williams, who read a humorous version of the history of the club.
Williams based her history on an official version written by Frances Bennett in 1979.
Bennett describes the early Cleofan weekly meetings, at which each member had to bring her own chair. A few years later, when tea was served, each woman had to donate a cup and saucer. "It was the practice in the early days to have outsiders give lectures once a month," wrote Bennett. "In 1896, lectures were discontinued because the ladies gave more interesting days than the guests."
Over the years, guest lecturers were invited occasionally. The Cleofan course of study was always ambitious, as evidenced by the yearly programs.
In 1895, for example, the group studied Indians in October. Lectures were given on: Mound Builders, Cliff Dwellers, Aboriginal Literature, Indian Poems by Modern Writers, Period of Discovery and Exploration, and Colonization. In November they turned to a study of American Literature.
By the 1920s, the members tried to limit their topics a bit. On Nov. 1, 1928, Mrs. Isaac Barton lectured on Nathaniel Hawthorne's life and short stories, and the next week Mrs. H.K. Burton discussed his novels.
Such intense study of literature, art and music was interrupted several times during Cleofan's history. Whenever there was a war on, the ladies set down their books and took up needles. The war work began during the Spanish American War, when Susie R. Wells was president. Wells was incensed to see the Tory Rough Riders leaving for the front with no official farewell.
She called a meeting of all interested women to be held at the Women's Exponent Office in the Templeton Building. However, because she was in a "delicate condition" (her daughter Louise was born soon after) she couldn't appear in public. So Wells hid in a back room, and Vice President Clara Clawson (who was also pregnant but less noticeably so) organized a committee to ensure that future departures would be properly celebrated.
During World War I the ladies sewed for the Red Cross, adopted two fatherless children from France and studied battles and naval operations. During World War II they alternated working in the ZCMI Red Cross room with their regular meetings, making kit bags for soldiers during the lectures. After each war they could scarcely wait to get back to the romantic poets or to Shakespeare's tragedies.
Bennett believes the club endured because members did the readings assigned them, and because each woman was responsible to give a lecture on the average of once every two years. ("I remember living with Lord Chesterfield for two years," recalls Williams. "He was my mother's topic.")
Over the years the club has gone from weekly meetings to monthly meetings. The women still enjoy researching lectures, though some recent club meetings were devoted to having older members recount their life stories.
Cleofan veteran Dorothy Snow has been enjoying the lectures since 1936. "But if you ask me, I'm apt to say I really don't recall specific programs. What keeps me coming is seeing all the women I've known all these years."