A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL
A Sunday School class picnic in Union County.
Other Church Organizations
Various other organizations have been developed within the churches for business, educational and social purposes. Women have a great many, men have very few. Fifty-six women’s organizations are carried on in thirty-seven churches, of which nine are village and nine country churches. There are twenty-eight Ladies’ Aids, thirteen Missionary Societies and various Guilds, Circles, Auxiliaries, a Manse Society, a King’s Daughters, an Adelphian and a Dorcas. The total enrollment is 1,682, or about 70 per cent. of the total female resident church membership over twenty-one, and 17 per cent. of the total female population aged from eighteen to forty-four, in the four counties. The attendance averages about twenty-one to each organization.
In sorry contrast to this array, men’s organizations number only seven, and all are connected with city or town churches in Pierre, the county seat of Hughes County. The enrollment is 300, or 27 per cent. of the total resident church membership in city and town of males over twenty-one years of age, and only 3 per cent. of the total male population between the ages of eighteen and forty-four in the four counties. Men and women have two organizations in common. One is a missionary society which, contrary to custom, shares its endeavors with men, the other is a dramatic club for any one old or young who has dramatic ability. This interesting organization gives a splendid amateur show every year. A former professional actor, who also coaches dramatics in the high school, is the coach.
Boys Left Out
There are only eight organizations for girls in seven town or city churches. Two hundred and twenty-two, or 42 per cent., of all the girls under twenty-one in the town and city resident membership are enrolled. One is a Friendly Society, and the rest are various kinds of guilds. But boys are the most shabbily treated of all. There are only four organizations especially for them, all in town churches and two in one church, so that only three churches have special clubs for their boys. The enrollment is sixty-nine, or about 21 per cent. of all the boys under twenty-one enrolled in city and town church membership. Boys and girls together have two organizations in two town churches with a membership of seventy-three. One is a Junior League, and the other a Junior Baptist Young People’s Union. Young people have twenty-eight organizations in ten country, three village, nine town and six city churches. Eight of them are Epworth Leagues, eight are Christian Endeavors and the rest are various Young People’s Societies, Baptist Young People’s Unions, Mission Volunteers, Young People’s Alliances, two Choir Organizations and one Purely for Fun Club. Their total enrollment of 834, together with the membership of the mixed boys’ and girls’ organizations, equals 84 per cent. of the total church resident membership under twenty-one.[7]
More people in the community are reached through the meetings of these organizations than by any other single church activity, with the exception of the celebration of special days. These meetings are often community affairs, especially in the case of the women’s organizations. In twenty organizations, the attendance exceeds the enrollment. The men’s clubs work for the church, and several do practical community work. Their programs in all but two cases include dinners, either at every meeting or at special banquets during the year. One club puts on a Father and Son banquet every year.