Post date: Oct 5, 2018 4:59:02 PM
The gavel is a small smoothly turned bit of blond maple, polished by use in the hands of past presidents of the club. To understand its full significance, one has to take a backward look.
The charter members of the Greensburg College Club were among the forerunners of women's liberation. They founded the club in February 1918 to help in the war effort in such ways as making speeches to sell Liberty Bonds. As the war ended only a few months later, they turned to other laudable projects, mainly cultural and educational.
A number of these early members continue political activities, several marching with the Suffragettes and helping to about votes for women in 1920. One such crusader at heart was Alice Barnhart, who served as president of College Club from 1920-1922.
There was hardly a lull between the time when Mrs. Barnhart turned over the presidency to her successor, Ethel Robinson, in February 1922 until the morning that spring when Alice woke to find that the city fathers were about to cut down all the old trees opposite her home at 316 South Maple Ave. The telephone wires sang again, the cameras snapped. College Club cohorts were alerted. Crusaders all, they besieged the City Council with phone calls,with visitations, and finally---alas-- with snapshots showing the fallen trees, their severed trunks showing no sign of decay. This time the crusade had failed...
Or had it failed? The Greensburg City Council promptly created the Shade Tree Commission, which has worked since that time to bring back the beauty of trees lined streets and the Greensburg College Club has its gavel cut from the heart of one of the sacrificed trees.