Seven Women Who Made a Difference
Part 2 of Linda Suskie's Tales from Arasapha Garden Club's First 50 Years
Editor’s Note: At the beginning of of US Women’s History Month, we are pleased to share the stories of seven remarkable, local women who made a big difference in their - our - community. Thanks to Arasapha Garden Club chair and historian Linda Suskie for continuing to offer fascinating tales from the organization’s first 50 years, as it celebrates its 90th Anniversary in 2024.
Some readers may have seen a shorter version of this story in The Weekly.
Seven Women Who Made a Difference
By Linda Suskie, guest contributor
Arasapha Garden Club was founded 90 years ago in 1934. As I read about Arasapha’s first 50 years, I was struck by how fortunate New Castle was to have so many remarkable women lead community improvement initiatives.
There are dozens of Arasapha members who made a real difference over Arasapha’s first 50 years. I’m highlighting seven members whose achievements I found especially intriguing. While some of these women came from distinguished families or had husbands in positions of prominence, I am deliberately not mentioning their families or husbands here because I want to focus on the accomplishments of these extraordinary women.
Anne Read Rodney Janvier
Anne Janvier’s birth name was Annie, but she apparently was known as both Annie and Anne. Three of her many community accomplishments had an especially profound impact on New Castle.
Anne Janvier’s first major community accomplishment was founding A Day in Old New Castle. The idea came from Reverend Joseph Earp, pastor of Immanuel Church, and he called the first meeting to discuss the idea. But Anne Janvier presided at that first meeting and organized and chaired the first Day in Old New Castle in 1925. Anne Janvier continued to chair A Day in Old New Castle for its first fifteen years until her death in 1940.
Anne Janvier’s second major community accomplishment was leading the development of the Amstel House into a museum. She chaired the Amstel House Committee, a group of local residents formed in 1929 to acquire the Amstel House and turn it into a museum.
Anne Janvier’s third major community accomplishment was helping to found Arasapha Garden Club with Mary Shaw and Harriett Cavanaugh. Anne Janvier and Mary Shaw organized the first meeting in January 1934. You can read more about the founding of Arasapha in the first story of this series.
Mary Shaw
Although Mary Shaw was the only one of these seven women who never married, I think of her as the mother of Arasapha. Yes, she, Anne Janvier, and Harriett Cavanaugh are collectively credited with suggesting the club, and she and Anne Janvier organized the first meeting in January 1934. But Mary Shaw chaired that first meeting and continued to preside over Arasapha until 1942.
While others of her time focused on restoring New Castle’s important historic buildings, Mary Shaw focused on general improvements to the town, especially beautifying its open spaces. Under her leadership, Arasapha planted 400 streetside trees and improved the Green, Veterans Triangle Park, the narrow park between Market and Second Streets, the stretch of Chestnut Street between East 4th and East 6th Streets, and vacant lots throughout the city. Also under her leadership, Arasapha advocated for cleaning up trash in city streets. In leading all these projects, Mary Shaw inspired others to make their own improvements to New Castle’s open spaces.
Without her focus on beautifying and improving New Castle, the city might look very different today. Yes, it would still have beautifully restored buildings, but they might be situated in a less picturesque environment.
Florence Bayard Hilles
I think of Florence Bayard Hilles as Arasapha’s celebrity member. A prominent and active suffragist in the early 20th century, she was once arrested for blocking traffic while picketing the White House. She served three days of her 60-day sentence before receiving a presidential pardon. In the 1930s she served six years as national chair of the National Woman’s Party.
Florence Bayard Hilles was in her 70’s when she was an Arasapha member. In the 1930s and 1940s she hosted Arasapha summer meetings at Ommelanden, her now-vanished estate on River Road south of New Castle, where she raised lotus lilies and other plants. She donated trees from Ommelanden to Arasapha’s tree planting program.
By odd coincidence, one of the leaders of the movement opposing women’s right to vote was also active in New Castle in the 1930s. Mary Wilson Thompson headed the Delaware Society for the Preservation of Antiquities, which purchased the Dutch House in 1937. The two women would have moved in overlapping circles and must have run into each other from time to time. The 19th amendment to the Constitution, giving women the right to vote, had been ratified in 1920, but I still would have loved to have been a fly on the wall whenever these women met!
Isabel Jenkins Booth
I think of Isabel Booth as New Castle’s Energizer Bunny—I wish I could have bottled her energy. In the late 1920s, for example. Isabel Booth was concurrently president of the Century Club (a New Castle women’s club), the Business Girls Club of the YWCA, and the new local chapter of the Visiting Nurse Association (VNA), while also serving as Vice President of the Delaware State Federation of Women’s Clubs.
By the early 1940s, Isabel Booth was still president of the local VNA and had launched two annual fundraisers for it: a book sale and a rummage sale. In 1942, under Isabel Booth’s leadership, the two events were combined and a flower sale added to create a Flower Mart event. The next year the event was renamed May Market.
Isabel Booth now headed not only the VNA and May Market but also Arasapha. In 1944 the VNA became part of the wartime equivalent of the United Way and could no longer hold May Market as a fundraiser. No doubt because of Isabel Booth, May Market moved to Arasapha. Isabel Booth continued to chair May Market through 1946.
Without Isabel Booth’s vision, New Castle would not have May Market, Arasapha’s beloved signature fundraiser and a treasured annual community event.
Isabel Booth’s last significant contribution to Arasapha was in 1959, when the club experienced some internal turbulence. The club president resigned abruptly, and the club could not find anyone willing to run. Eventually Isabel Booth, now in her 60’s and less active, was persuaded to come back as president for one year, adding some much-needed stability while the club worked its way through its issues. We don’t know if the club would have survived had she not stepped up.
Edna Appleby Deakyne
An obituary for Edna Deakyne described her as one of New Castle’s leading citizens. She was best known as the owner of the Old Court House Tea Room, which operated from 1925 to 1942. She was a charter member of Arasapha in 1934 but became more active after the Tea Room closed.
Edna Deakyne was president of Arasapha in 1944, when May Market moved from the Visiting Nurse Association to Arasapha. Isabel Booth likely had lead responsibility for the move. But Deakyne, as Arasapha president, is described as “instrumental” in bringing May Market into the organization.
In 1948 the Wilmington Garden Club visited the Amstel House garden and, displeased with the garden they’d created, launched a rehabilitation of it. Edna Deakyne stepped up to chair Arasapha’s Amstel House garden committee, which worked alongside Wilmington Garden Club in 1949 and 1950. Edna Deakyne continued to chair the Amstel House Garden Committee through 1955. A 1954 newspaper editorial said she was “due much credit for the present beauty of the garden.”
But what fascinates me most about Edna Deakyne has nothing to do with Arasapha. In her youth, Edna was the subject of several Saturday Evening Post covers painted by Ellen Pyle, and at least one by Charles A. MacLellan.
Mary Earle
Like Edna Deakyne, Mary Earle was a businesswoman; she worked as a floral and interior designer and wrote a book on fruit arrangements. Her first major community accomplishment, in 1949, was chairing New Castle’s first antiques show. The event was sponsored by the Presbyterian Church’s women’s group, which she also chaired, and raised over $1100 toward restoration of the church. The antique show became an annual New Castle event for over 70 years.
In the 1950s Mary Earle oversaw Arasapha’s major rehabilitation of the Dutch House garden. Wilmington architect Victorine duPont Homsey was hired to update the 1935 Wheelwright design for the garden. Many elements of the Homsey design remain in the garden today; learn more on the Dutch House garden page on Arasapha.org.
But Mary Earle’s most significant contribution to Arasapha was conceiving of its annual Christmas decoration project in 1963. Her proposal had two elements: decorating the town with all-natural materials and lighting the cupolas around the Green. Today the cupolas are lit year-round, and every year Arasapha decorates over 100 wreaths with all-natural materials. Learn more about the history of the project in a previous story, “Holiday Greening - A History.”
Leona Galford
I think of Leona Galford as Arasapha’s white knight. She repeatedly took on challenging, often thankless jobs that no one else was willing to do and thereby saved the day. In 1973 Arasapha couldn’t find anyone willing to serve as president, and there was talk of the club folding. Leona Galford agreed to serve as president, keeping the club going.
By the 1970s the Dutch House garden rehabilitation led by Mary Earle was 20 years old, and the garden again needed rehabilitation. Leona Galford led major rehabilitations of first the Dutch House garden and then the Amstel House garden.
In the 1980s Arasapha was not earning enough at May Market to support the Amstel and Dutch House gardens. Just as she saved Arasapha in the 1970s by becoming president when no one else would, Leona Galford now saved the day again. In 1988 Leona Galford greatly expanded the number and variety of herbs sold at May Market and featured them at a separate table. In 1992 she launched an annual project to raffle a quilt that she designed and that was hand sewn by Arasapha members. Arasapha’s quilt raffle continued for almost 30 years, and herbs sales continue today. Over the decades they have brought in thousands of dollars to support the Amstel and Dutch House gardens.
Who knows what Historic New Castle would be like today without the contributions of these seven women? New Castle would still have beautifully restored buildings, but they might be in a less picturesque setting. There might be no Day in Old New Castle, no May Market, and no Antiques Show. The Amstel and Dutch House gardens might not be the gems they are today. Holiday decorations in Historic District might be tacky plastic instead of all-natural greens. The cupolas around the Green might be unlit. And there might be no Arasapha Garden Club with its 90-year history of beautifying and improving Historic New Castle.
A Note from Linda: For more information on Arasapha’s history, visit Arasapha.org/history. There are many holes in club archives! If you have any documents, photos, or information related to Arasapha’s history, please contact us by email.
Our local Garden Club’s good work isn’t just in the past, either…
Arasapha Seeking Donations of Home & Garden Goods, Plants for May Market 2024
New Castle’s annual herald of Spring, May Market will be held again on May 3-4, 2024. As Arasapha prepares its plant orders, logistics and small army of wonderful volunteers, the chairs of the fundraiser’s Donated Home & Garden Treasures and Donated Plants sections are looking for donations!
From Arasapha:
Arasapha is amazed each year by the wonderful plants, fine pieces of home decor and furnishings, and array of useful garden items donated for May Market by our community! These donations help us to make the most of this beloved annual fundraiser, which supports our programs and the historic gardens at New Castle's Dutch and Amstel House Museums.
Please consider what items from your home or garden might find new life through our Donated Plants and Donated Home & Garden Treasures sales. Thank you!
For May Market, we accept:
House and garden plants, including annuals, perennials, vegetables, and starts
Garden tools and accessories, including pots, planters, baskets, and garden ornaments
Home goods including small appliances and toys
Jewelry, art, antiques and vintage items
Small pieces of furniture, and
Native Plant donations are especially welcome!
All donations should be clean, undamaged, and in good working condition. Toys should be complete with no missing or broken pieces or parts. We do not accept clothes, books, or dirty, damaged, or otherwise unsellable items. Please donate books at the New Castle Public Library at 424 Delaware Street for Library Friends book sales - see their website for guidelines.
Facebook users can respond to Arasapha’s Donation Day event for reminders.
Thanks again to Linda Suskie for continuing to eloquently document the rich history of one of the community organizations that makes New Castle the unique town that it is.
Subscribe below to enjoy the rest of Linda’s series of glimpses into Arasapha’s fun and sometimes feisty history, which we look forward to featuring throughout 2024.
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