Maids and Matrons Club

The county library that took in the club's books rested on a law another club woman won. Lillian Gunter of Gainesville, a member of the XLI Club, a women's literary society, learned, the Handbook of Texas says, that rural Texans had no legal way to set up and support a public library. She studied the New York and California systems at her own expense and wrote legislation, and when the courts overturned a 1917 law she tried again. Her County Free Library Law of 1919 is still in effect. She founded the Cooke County Library in 1920.

What the plaque says

Maids and Matrons Club In 1906, three years after the founding of Brownfield, eleven women gathered together to form a club. Named Maids and Matrons, the club became primarily a study group in 1907, and the members founded the town's first library that year. Affiliated with the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs in 1915, the club continued to operate the library and supported numerous civic causes. When the Kendrick Memorial County Library was organized in 1957, the club donated their entire 3,000-volume collection of books to form the nucleus of the institution's holdings. (1990)

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Brownfield — steps away
• Colonel B. F. Terry and Terry's Texas Rangers — 0.2 mi
• City of Brownfield — 0.2 mi
• Brownfield Municipal Power Plant — 0.4 mi