Old Missoula

Missoula’s As You Like It Organization State’s Second Oldest Literary Club

“As You Like It,” the second oldest literary club in Montana, was organized in September 1891, only seven months after the Homer Club in Butte, which is said to be the first.

The club was in Missoula during the Spanish-American War, World War 1, World War 2, the Korean War and is active as ever during the current cold war.

Mrs. W. J. McCormick originated the idea for the “As You Like It” Club and in September 1891 in one of the back rooms of the Higgins Block, which was used for the circulating library, a nucleus of women met and began to organize the club. The name was selected by Mrs. W. H. Frances, secretary.

The organizers of the club wanted the meetings to be informal and for the promotion of intellectual culture and social intercourse.

The ten charter members were Mrs. Hiram H. Knowles, Mrs. W. B. Parsons, Mrs. E. L. Hastings, Mrs. J. W. Lombard, Mrs. Frances, Mrs. A. B. Ferguson, Mrs. Brimson, Emma B. Brayton and Mrs. Jacob Reinhard.

In the beginning it was really an “as you like it” club. Each member brought some article dealing with the subject in which she had been most interested during the week, read it and invited discussion.

In the winter of 1894-95, the charter of the club was changed, but not its name. It became a study club, with fixed topics and dates for the presentation of original papers by members of the club. Every alternate meeting, however, was devoted to current events.

Members of the “As You Like It” Club were the promoters of the first Fourth of July celebration in Missoula.

Current officers are Mrs. C. J. Forbis, president; Mrs. Oakley E. Coffee, vice president; Miss Ann Reely, secretary; Mrs. Theodore Jacobs, treasurer, and Mrs. Mary Elrod Ferguson, historian.