“Present the Bill to the Ladies Aid”

Judging by the earliest Treasurer’s records for the Wabash Ladies Aid, the women of the church were financial geniuses. Mrs. Arthur Anderson noted in 1908 that the oak and velvet pulpit chairs and collection plates were purchased for $30 and the next year, 18 choir chairs (still in use) were acquired at 70 cents each. That was just the beginning. All supplies—lamps, communion sets and linens, honour rolls, Bibles, choir books, hymn books, even a Heintzman & Co. piano--were all paid for by the Ladies Aid. The main sources of income were quilting, socials, collections on Anniversary Sunday, and annual dues of 10 cents. When the new “Gassilean lights” were purchased on trial in 1912, the trustees (moved by Hopper and Daugherty) voted to “install the two lamps and present the bill to the Ladies Aid.” The Ladies Aid/Women’s Association/United Church Women continued to take care of the bills passed along to them until the U.C.W. dissolved in recent years, with former members subsequently invited to join in with Bothwell U.C.W. as a combined group.