Washington Women's History Consortium
Women's Clubs and Organizations
Serena F. Mathews 1927-1929
President, Washington State Federation of Women's Clubs
Mrs. John W. Mathews was the seventeenth President of the Federation. She was the daughter of William B.
and Catherine Remfrey Wallis, born in Darlington, on the banks of the Pecatonica River, in Wisconsin.
Her education was received from the public and high schools in Darlington and Washington State University, Pullman.
Pullman was her home after coming west in 1892. She taught in the public schools of that city and after her marriage,
she served as a member of the school board, during which time the school was raised from the 10th grade to a full
four-year accredited high school.
Her husband, John, was a lawyer. To them were born three children, Homer H., Catherine, and Charlotte.
Mrs. Mathews took a deep interest and official part in many altruistic and civic organizations of her home city.
She was chairman of the Red Cross and discharged the duties of practically every office of her church.
Active club work began for her in 1889 when she joined the Fortnightly Club. Her mother was a charter
member and her daughter the first of the third generation to claim membership in it.
She was elected President at Walla Walla during the convention in June 1927. She presided at the thirty-second
and thirty-third conventions. The thirty-second was in the auditorium of the Junior High School in Aberdeen, June
26-29, 1928. The theme was "Modern Trends in Education." The thirty-third was June 18-21, 1929, in the First
Methodist Church in Yakima, with a total of 404 voting to members. The theme was "Home, the Balance Wheel of the Community."
Any great undertaking by an organization must necessarily overlap from one administration into another. Thus it was with
that of the tree campaign.
On February 28, 1928, a check in the amount of $25,000, drawn in favor of the Snoqualmie Falls Lumber Company, was
handed to Mr. W. L. McCormick and he in turn handed Mrs. Mathews the deed to the land.
Dedication of the Park was to have been in the spring of 1929, but bad roads precluded the plan. The next year the
Commission had no funds, so the dedication had to be postponed until a later date.
At the 1927 session of the legislature an appropriation of $190,000 was made for the establishment of a Reformatory for
Women in the state of Washington. If the money was not used by April 1, 1929, it would revert to the general treasury.
The clubwomen were anxious to have the Reformatory become a reality, and in order to get speedy action, it was resolved
to ask the Governor to appoint the committee to select the site, as provided in the bill. Two clubwomen were appointed
to work with the Director of Business Control, to select the site. During the session of the 1929 legislature, it took
heroic effort on the part of clubwomen to prevent the repeal of the bill.
At Aberdeen, it was recommended, moved and carried that WSFWC join the Western Federation.
An attempt was made to establish a state headquarters. For a time an office was modestly maintained at 404 Haight Building,
Seattle. Helen N. Stevens edited the Bulletin from there and it served as a repository for many papers and documents.
Others were to have been transferred later, but financial as well as other elements contributed to the failure of the project.
Other activities of the Federation during this regime included interest in the county library bill, child welfare
legislation, an institution for the feeble minded in Western Washington, Indian welfare, a labor program for inmates of
penal institutions, extension of the civil service system, conservation of the evergreen huckleberry and the strengthening
of the prohibition laws.
The years 1927 and 1928 were notable for the study of World Peace. The nations of the world were working to find a way
out of their misunderstandings and disagreements.
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