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October 24, 1899: The Portland Woman’s Club called together the women’s clubs of the State of Oregon. There was an urgent need in Oregon for public libraries. There were no public libraries in the state at that time. Thirteen clubs attended the meeting. The first convention was in Pendleton in 1900. The newly organized Federation began a vigorous campaign to secure the passage of a Library Bill in the Oregon Legislature. Most local libraries in Oregon owe their founding to the tireless efforts of local Women’s Clubs.
In 1901: The Oregon Federation of Women's Clubs was admitted to the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. Another early concern of the Federation was child labor. GFWC Oregon had a prominent part in obtaining the passage of Oregon’s first child labor law. They included efforts to ensure that the law provided for the majority of the Labor Board to be women. The governor appointed three prominent clubwomen to this first board.
In 1903: Thirty-six clubs belonged to the Federation.
April 1, 1903: The club was established as the Woman's Lewis and Clark Club to support the work of women involved in planning the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland.
November 1903: Club members began an effort to obtain ownership of the old Phoenix Hotel, the house built in 1845 by Dr. John McLoughlin.
September 27, 1904: Club members met to revise their constitution and bylaws. They also voted to change the club's name to Woman's Club of Oregon City. Members agreed to hold future meetings at the homes of members on the first and third Fridays of the month.
December 1904: Members met at Mary M. Charman's home on Main Street and enjoyed a review of Life of Empress Josephine presented by Mrs. Hiram Straight and Mrs. Linn Jones.
In 1905: Several members joined the Sacajawea Statue Association, established by club member Eva Emery Dye and the Portland Woman's Club. The organization raised $7,000 to commission and erect a bronze statue of Sacajawea on the Exposition grounds. The statue, designed by Denver sculptress, Alice Cooper, now stands in Washington Park.
In 1905: The Scholarship Loan and Fellowship Fund was started with $23 remaining from funds used to erect the statue of Sacajawea.
In 1906: The Oregon City Woman's Club affiliates with the Oregon Federation of Woman's Clubs and the General Federation of Woman's Clubs.
March, 1906: Members passed a resolution protesting the destruction of Oregon Grape for commercial purposes. club would later adopt the Oregon Grape as their official plant.
May 1906: At the request of the Mayor, the Oregon City Woman's Club formed an auxiliary to raise funds to assist "the California sufferers" following the San Francisco earthquake.
June 27, 1906: At a business meeting during the annual picnic, members adopted Carnation Red as the club color and the Oregon Grape as the club flower.
October 10, 1906: At a regular meeting, Miss Cornelia Marvin, secretary of the Oregon Library Association, addressed the club on the need for libraries. Members formed a Public Library Committee and soon established a user supported reading room on the third floor of the Masonic Temple. Several of the members and their mothers, who had been involved in two attempts to maintain reading rooms in Oregon City in the 1870s and 1890s, began to lobby the City Council to provide funding for a library.
June 1907: The club hosted the annual Pioneer Recognition at Willamette Hall. Forty-eight guests shared memories of their arrival in the Oregon Territory in the 1840s and 1850s.
April 1908: The Oregon City Enterprise added a regular column edited by the Oregon City Woman's Club. "The object of the club in this is to tell something of what club women all over our land are accomplishing for the betterment of their fellows, what our State Federation and local clubs are doing, and to present question of public interest from the woman's standpoint and call attention from time to time to some of our local needs."
In 1909: After several years of efforts to preserve the McLoughlin house, it was finally moved to the public square at the top of Singer Hill. Preservation of the house was made possible through the efforts of the Oregon City Woman's Club, the McLoughlin Memorial Association and other local organizations. After the house was moved the Woman's Club formed a Civic Improvement Committee to improve and maintain the grounds around the house. The club undertook new projects in 1978 and 1994 to restore the grounds around the house, now part of the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site and maintained by the National Park Service.
In 1910: OFWC had 51 clubs and 2,398 members.
January 1910: Members contributed $20 to the Scholarship Loan Association of the State Federation. They reported that twelve young women completed their education with help from the fund and had been able to repay their loans.
December 1910: Club members joined with other organizations in the city to sell Christmas Seals to raise funds for the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis and the Red Cross Society. Participation in the annual sale continued for several decades.
June 13, 1913: The Oregon City Public Library celebrated the grand opening of its first permanent home in the Carnegie building. Oregon City Woman's Club members continued their support of the library through donations of books and art as well as serving on the Library Board and volunteering their time to maintain the public library.
Between 1915 – 1921: OFWC raised $108,000 which was matched by the Oregon Legislature for a women’s building (Gerlinger Hall) at the University of Oregon.
January 20, 1920: As part of their mission to improve public health, club members helped form the first county health department. In 1967 the club received an appreciation award from the Tuberculosis Association in recognition of their leadership in improving public health.
From 1938 – 1941: Oregon’s Saidie Orr Dunbar served as President of GFWC.
In 1941: Under the sponsorship of OFWC, legislation was introduced and passed by the Oregon Legislature providing for blood testing of prospective mothers in an effort to detect and control syphilis.
In 1942: OFWC had 137 clubs and 5,866 members.
From 1943 – 1946: The country was at war and OFWC raised a total of $911,950 in the War Bond drive to “Buy a Bomber”. That was more than enough money to name one bomber for the Federation.
In 1945: The work of OFWC to secure passage of a new health and physical fitness law for Oregon schools was recognized in newspapers and Medical Journal editorials.
In 1946: The Penny Art Fund Scholarship was started and the first scholarship given in 1948.
In 1948: GFWC held their 57th convention in Portland.
In 1953: After the devastating Tillamook Burn, OFWC created the “OFWC Memorial Forest”. It is located 40 miles west of Portland and consists of 152 acres that OFWC replanted. In 1973, a roadside marker was placed at the site.
In 1956: The Saidie Orr Dunbar Nursing Fund was established.
In 1960: Inspired by Mrs. Rachel M. Gifford of Oswego Woman’s Club and the work of Oregon artist Mrs. Theresa Truchot, an emblem was adopted. The emblem was a modified heart shape. The settings and symbols were adapted from those used within the shield of the Oregon State Seal.
In 1961: The Virginia Lang Music scholarships were established.
In 1968: OFWC began a two-year project to build a swimming pool at the Hillcrest School for Girls.
April 1968: The Enterprise-Courier prints a history of the club, as the Oregon City Woman's Club celebrates 65 years of service to the community. In addition to chronicling the hours of volunteer service, financial donations to community organizations, public involvement and civic improvement activities, the reporter writes: "The history of Woman's Club is the history of Oregon City and the area." From the Oregon City Enterprise, Friday, April 3, 1903
