St. Paul daily globe., 1895-11-18
THE HsANCTIFICATIONI OF
BELTON, TEN, A CURIOUS
ORGANIZATION.
FIN DE sIEcLE WOMEN
OF THE VERY NEWEST TYPE
THE ONLY MEMBERS OF
THE BAND.
THEY HOLD QUEER BELIEFS.
The Property Being Possessed in
CommOn-The Society Pros
porous.

BELTON, Tex, Nov. II. = While
New York has been wrestling with
the New Woman in embryo this
thriving little city has for years had
a whole colony of new" women. 1t
has been called an Adamless Eden.
These women have invested their
earnings and grown rich. Their in
fluence is felt considerably in this
locality. They have now adopted
bloomers for their everyday APP
parel.
BeEtOn'S new women are united un-
der the more or less euphonious APP
pellation of "The Santificationists.
From that title one would conclude
that the organization was a strictly
religious one. 1t is not. They are
new" Women-bloomer women
wi6h all the requisites of that enig-
matical creature. They are up-to-
date in all matters. They advocate
woman's suffrage, and their every
move indicates that they can get
along very well without the stronger
sex. These women were devoutly
religious in the beginning, many of
them leaving husbands to join the
society from purely religious mo-
tives. They believed in being sane
titled, and thought they could not
be in that happy state while living
with their husbands.
GREAT BUSINESS WOMEN.
There are now thirty-five of these
women. They started by hiring out
as servants. Mrs. Margaret Henry,
a leading light used to cut wood.
They placed their earnings in the
common fund. 1t was judiciously
invested, and it multiplied a hun
dren fold. The women bought
farms. They bought city real es-
tate. Money was loaned on mort
cages and notes. Everything these
women touched seemed to win.
Finally they organized themselves
into the Central Hotel company.
This hotel, which is in the city, is
said to have cost $5O,OOO 1t is famed
throughout the Lone Star state. The
latest investment of the band is a
new opera house here. 1t is a mag
nificent playhouse in every respect,
and would do honor to a city MANY
times as large as Bolton. Some per-
sons estimate the wealth of the band
now at $200,000. 1t is impossible to
get any word from any member of
the society on that question. 1t is
all on a cooperative system. The
property is the common property Of
all. ALI work gand all reap benefits.
The founder and president of the
order is Mrs. Martha McWhirter.
Mrs. Gertrude Scheeble is secretary
and Miss Lizzie Holtzclow is treas
urer of the common funds. Mrs. Nc
Whirter is a remarkable woman. She
is now about 70 years old. She is
native of Tennessee and the mother
of five children. She and her hus-
band and children moved to the Lone
Star state forty years ago. She was
always of a religious turn of mind
and at that time Methodist.
At the beginning two brothers,
Matthew and Arnold Dow, were i'm
portant factors in the new sect. They
coached the women in their new be-
liefs, and it is said advised them that
to become sanctified they must leave
their husbands. That is what was
brought out later at a trial. AT any
rate, the women began to break up
happy homes. The natives rose up
en- maSSe, and one night a masked
mob took the brothers from Their
home and thrashed them and Or
dered them to leave the country.
They refused to go. They claimed to
be Scotchmen and British subjects,
look into the case. Then the broth
ers were up for trial on charge of
lunacy, but were discharged. Short
ly afterward they left here. Mat
thew Dow is now mayor of little
city in Washington.
Mrs. McWhirter became convinced
about twelve years ago that life
OF cellDacy was the only proper life.
So she left her husband. I have
it on the authority of her SON that
she never spoke to her husband aft
erwards. He died three years later
The women believed in total self
abnegation. They thought they
should all do work of some sort. So
they started the "Sanctificationist"
laundry. The laundry had its head
quarters at the house of Mrs. Mar
garet Henry, one of the flock. Thir-
ty-f1ve is a small number for a So
ciety of fifteen years standing. One
or two dropped away. And all the
time the little capital was increas-
ing. At one time they even did
their own butchering, killed their
own cows and sheep and hogs. Think
Of that, ye new woman of New York.