The Chariton History Club's extraordinary loving cup

Sallie Leffler Edwards

I'm doubling up this morning --- the Chariton History Club's extraordinary 1896 loving cup, from the Lucas County Historical Society collection, will be the topic both here at the Lucas Countyan and at "The Virtual Museum," a Facebook feature I launched for the museum at the outset of the COVID-19 lockdown and hope to continue daily until life returns to normal. 

There's more to say about the loving cup than seems practical for the usual "Museum" format; here, I can just ramble on and on.

That's the loving cup above, bearing the History Club's monogram and the inscription, "1878-1896, Feb. 14." It was presented to the club by Sarah "Sallie" (Leffler) Edwards, a charter member who by 1896 was living in Los Angeles with her husband, Col. Eugene E. Edwards.

The inscription on the bottom of the cup tells more of the story: "Presented to 'The History Club' Chariton Iowa. Sallie Leffler Edwards, Los Angeles, California, 1896. For 'Auld Lang Syne."

A loving cup ceremony or "service" was part of the History Club's ritual on grand occasions and this cup was intended for that purpose.

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The History Club, launched on Valentines Day 1878, generally was recognized as the oldest of Chariton's many women's clubs and perhaps the most prestigious. Its charter members were Annie L. Mallory, Laura R. Gibbon, Harriet C. Underhill, Della A. Storie, Ellen M. Brant, Elizabeth Jane Temple, Sallie Edwards, Emily McCormick, Margaret McCormick and Julia Palmer.

Annie Mallory was married to Smith H. Mallory and her home, the Ilion, the site of many glittering social occasions. Elizabeth Temple was married to Edward Ames Temple, founder of what now is the Iowa-based Principal Financial Group. Emily and Margaret McCormick and Julia Palmer were influential and affluent single women.

During its heyday, the club met every Monday afternoon and on three other grander occasions during the year, including a "symposium" held on the club's anniversary date. Membership seems always to have been limited to 10-12, but as the number of eligible members grew, the History Club launched as an auxiliary the Clio Club, named after the mythological muse of history.

Here's a report of the "symposium" held on Valentines Day, 1903, as reported in The Chariton Herald of Feb. 19. The Misses McCormick lived in a fine new house that they had built for themselves at the southwest corner of the intersection of South 8th Street and Woodlawn, replaced after a fire by the house currently on that site.

On last Saturday evening, St. Valentines night, the members of the History Club, with the Clios as guests of honor, were entertained most delightfully at the home of the Misses McCormick. The occasion was the 25th or silver anniversary of the History Club.

The entertainment was in the form of a five-course banquet, 23 ladies being seated at the long table which was handsomely decorated with pink, white and green candles --- the colors of the two clubs --- and pink carnations. Dainty valentines served as plate cards, and the loving cup service was used, each lady responding to a toast in honor of the occasion.

the Clios have been organized for 14 years and are called the "daughters" of the History club, the latter having now been in existence for a quarter of a century. Mrs. Underhill, of Ottumwa, one of the charter members of the History club, was among those present at the banquet, and Mrs. Mitchell, of the Clio Club, was also present from Ottumwa.

Souvenirs of the occasion consisted of folders with the club monogram in silver on the outside and a carnation and a rose, the two club flowers, painted on the cover, the handiwork of Miss Eloise Copeland. Inside the folders each one present wrote her favorite quotation, with her autograph, so that the folders made a most appropriate and desirable souvenir of the quarter-century anniversary of the club.

The charter membership of the History Club, organized in 1878, was as follows: Mesdames Gibbon, Brant, Storie, Temple, Mallory, Underhill and Edwards and Misses Margaret Palmer, Emily and Margaret McCormick. Of those ten, Mrs. Temple is dead, Mrs. Underhill lives in Ottumwa, Mrs Edwards in Los Angeles and Miss Palmer in Lincoln. The others, with the addition of Miss Josephine Millan, Mesdames Rev. Russell, Arnold, T.M. Stuart, and Braden, constitute the present membership. Mrs. T.M. Stuart is president of the club. 

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Sarah "Sallie" Leffler (1844-1908) was a daughter of distinguished Lucas County pioneers Isaac and Lethenia (Mitchell) Leffler, he a former U.S. representative from Virginia and the recipient of many government appointments over the years --- the final one as receiver at the federal land office opened in Chariton during 1853. He died in Chariton during 1866, as did Lethenia during 1879. Their remains were returned to Aspen Grove Cemetery in Burlington for burial.

Sallie married Col. Edwards (1835-1915) in Chariton on May 1, 1863. He was a prominent attorney in Chariton after the war, but the couple eventually moved west and settled permanently in Los Angeles.

Sallie ordered the custom-made History Club loving cup from the Ceramic Art Co. (now Lenox) of Trenton, N.J., and that's the firm's mark on the bottom of the cup.

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Finally, here's a photograph --- also from the historical society collection --- of the History Club gathered for tea about 1901 in the southeast parlor of Annie Mallory's Ilion.

Laura R. Gibbon is at far left and Annie Mallory, in the center, behind the hot water dispenser. Laura's granddaughter, Harriet (Copeland) Holman, made an attempt to identify the others, but didn't recognize everyone. She thought the following other members might have been present, however: Margaret McCormick, Ellen Brant, Della Storie, Jennie Russell (wife of the Episcopal rector of the day), Sara (Mrs. Theodore M.) Stuart, Harriet Underhill and Emily McCormick.