Women's Civic Improvement League

Progressive Reformers Take to the Street

“It is up to the city fathers to get busy. The Women’s Civic Improvement League has been launched.”

Kalamazoo Gazette, 11 November 1913

Nearing the end of 1904, the Women’s Civic Improvement League (WCIL) took shape as a federated organization comprised of “delegates” from the memberships of the Ladies’ Library Association, the 20th Century Club, the People’s Church, St. Luke’s Guild, Daughters of the American Revolution, Women’s Christian Temperance Union, Celery City Club, Hebrew Ladies, the Benevolent Society, and the Methodist Episcopal Pastors Union. It was a year before, when Caroline Bartlett Crane, one of the city’s most active and outspoken voices for progressive social reforms, approached the Ladies’ Library Association and the 20th Century Club with a philanthropic vision for the formation of a “league” that would carry out “helpful action” (Matheny, p.2) through targeted services and community projects; with the goal of positively impacting the everyday lives of residents. A secondary objective was to convince local government of the need to deepen its role in ameliorating social and economic conditions brought about by a half century of industrialization, urbanization, widening income inequality and a paucity for concern toward public health. The league developed into an important lobbying voice within the sphere of local politics, pushing forward an agenda that the male-dominated government could not easily ignore.

By 1900, progressive reformers across the nation were aggressively tackling chronic challenges from urban poverty and unemployment to child labor and city sanitation. The league would ultimately settle on the formation of several committees that would center their activities. At the core of the league’s moral outlook was the notion that ‘cleanliness’ was an important part of both civic and personal well-being. The mission (“object”) of the league was outlined in their adopted constitution and by-laws:

“The object shall be the promotion of out-door-art, public health, general welfare of the city and the bringing into mutual acquaintance and helpfulness all women and women’s organizations interested in these things.” (1904)

Led by educated, high-minded women from the upper echelons of Kalamazoo’s wealthy class, efforts to address these concerns of the day often possessed a not insignificant amount of moral paternalism and stuffy classism, but it was with this affluence and privilege that allowed many of the delegates the freedom and financial resources to commit to the league’s mission. Despite the ways in which classist views motivated groups like the WCIL, Crane understood the importance of rejecting the pitfalls of philanthropy that reinforced classist views toward the poor while claiming to do so out of goodwill. In 1896, Crane warned her fellow “club-women” that while improvement was an important part of their mission, exoticizing groups and individuals as mere objects was to be avoided:

“Let us dismiss all that class, which surely does exist, of those who follow philanthropy, as they would bacteriology, if it were the fad, and exploit their “subjects” and “cases,” with a due sense of the humorous and grotesque, if not of the pitiable; with a due sense, also, of the value of the “lower classes” as a foil to sweet charity in their own persons.” (Rynbrandt, xiv)

Despite the group’s name, men were not restricted from joining, but could only become associate members. As a show of support, then Mayor Folz (his wife Jennie was also a key member of the WCIL) immediately joined the group in the Spring of 1904, making sure the league knew that their work was an important part of the city’s vision for helping better social conditions.

Clean Streets Movement

One of the first steps the league took was the hiring of a nurse, Miss Xantippe Chase, who was originally hired on a 13-week trial basis, but who was later hired as a permanent staff member. Soon after taking the position, Chase was nicknamed “a ministering angel.” Chase would go on to make 5000 visits “ranging from newly delivered babies to bed-ridden senior citizens.” (Encore, p.40). Later, a visiting housekeeper was added to the General Welfare Committee after Miss Chase determined a need for working parents to have additional support in maintaining a well-cleaned home.

Disgusted by the filthiness of downtown roadways and sidewalks, Caroline Bartlett Crane devoted her energies toward a street-cleaning. This was at time period when a polluted mixture of horse droppings, dirt, tobacco spit, and various other bits of refuse and litter, caught within even a small amount of wind, would cause an unhealthy and unpleasant experience for pedestrians. After given permission by the city council to experiment with the cleaning of Main Street, from Church Street eastward to the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern tracks, Crane studied the issue by examining successful strategies used by other cities. Having been promised access to brooms from the city, but then later denied them, Crane initially limited her efforts to circulating informational flyers to business owners, and putting out of thirty trash cans that were then picked up twice a week. And while the brooms never came, Crane persisted, eventually lobbying city officials to adopt the Waring Method by the end of 1905. The men who were charged with the task of street and sidewalk sweeping and then flushing were called “White Wings,” as they were clad in white uniforms and helmets. While some of the men resented their bright attire, and being supervised by a woman, most of the laborers enjoyed their decent wages ($1.75 a day), and the praise and respect handed out by appreciative citizens. And while it may have fallen on many deaf ears at the time, the league was able to convince the police to act more aggressively in enforcing a 1902 anti-spitting law, an effort to dissuade men from hawking their chewing tobacco upon sidewalks and in public buildings; a not uncommon sight in the early 20th century. Many health officials at the time believed there was a relationship between the spread of tuberculosis and breathing in air compromised by expelled tobacco. Because of Crane’s plucky persistence in 1904, city officials were forced to acknowledge the health benefits and economic value from how a city appears and smells.

General Welfare (aka Charities Organization)

While Crane focused on street cleaning and sanitation, local philanthropist Caroline H. Kleinstuck led the General Welfare Committee, the portion of the league that sought to respond to any number of issues related to charity, and those residents requiring of a helping hand. Kleinstuck’s first step was in developing a staffed office charged with compiling a list of local charities, a kind of local clearinghouse of organizations (or “central charities bureau”) that worked with the needy and unemployed. Their goal was to reduce the likelihood that multiple organizations would assist the same individual or family. Equipped with appropriated funds from the city and in-kind support from the Board of Trade, the Michigan Telephone Company, A.M. Todd, the Kalamazoo Gas Company, and the Kalamazoo Valley Electric Company, Kleinstuck found an office in the old Kalamazoo Hospital on John Street from which to accept applications for help.

Todd, Kalamazoo’s “Mint King,” helped with aiding unemployed men by donating lumber for the creation of a wood-yard. Men could earn a meal each day from their labor while they awaited their next job opportunity. Women were also assisted when having difficulty finding employment. Second hand clothing and fabric was donated to the league by the Bauer Laundry Company. Women stayed busy sewing while receiving a free meal each day. Over the course of 1905, the committee received applications from those seeking assistance, which varied in scale and need. Sometimes a financial voucher was provided for someone who simply needed a direct cash infusion, while others required specific attention, as when a local child required a medical procedure or when a sixteen year old girl landed in jail. The league solicited money and food donations throughout the year, but especially around the holidays.

By 1905, the committee’s work was organized under the name of the Charities Organization. It moved their operations from the old hospital building into a home at 320 W. Kalamazoo Avenue. The visiting nurse, housekeeper and executive board also retained offices there. After two years, the league was able to account for the kinds of success they had initially hoped would take root.

“The league had gained more important recognition in the state, for it had become affiliated with the County and State Federation of Women’s Clubs and had applied for membership in the American Civic Association.”

“At the close of two years the League’s membership totaled thirteen affiliated societies, nearly 300 individual members and twenty associate members.” (Matheny)

The Later Years, 1906-1912

The success of the Charities Organization resulted in its widespread popularity within the community. Their goal of positively impacting the general welfare of the city and its citizens led to the adoption of many of its goals and ideas by city and county government. The success also resulted in an increase in financial support outside of contributions made by league members, including giving from “bankers, lawyers, merchants, editors, restaurant owners, and council men of the community.” (Matheny) Over the next six years, the league continued to expand its staffing capacity as well as the number and types of services it helped to facilitate, including a campaign to promote “family savings in the poor and less thrifty homes, and thus to help provide family reserve funds in time of emergency.” (Matheny) This project involved working with underprivileged families, teaching them how best to adopt budgeting and spending practices. A Playground Committee was initiated to help local children have a safe environment to play during the summer months. The WCIL continued to be an influential voice in local, state and national politics, lobbying on behalf of reforms and legislature they believed would enhance public life, and help to ameliorate chronic social problems linked to poverty, unemployment and poor health conditions. “Some of the subjects which the league endorsed were: the Anti-cigarette bill petition, Civil Service Reform, Child Labor, Training for Crippled Children, Forestry and Reforestation, and an appropriation bill for the Lapeer School for the feebleminded.” (Matheny) The league also entered into endorsing certain candidates running for local office.

The visiting nurse continued to be an essential community service, focusing their efforts at providing medical support for the elderly and pregnant women. Believing a healthy community was connected to access to healthy food, the league purchased 13,000 packages of seeds and “distributed for vegetable and flower gardens. These gardens paid richly, in some cases in dollars and cents.” (Matheny)

An article published in the Kalamazoo Gazette in the summer of 1912 outlined the league’s philosophy and approach toward their philanthropic objectives:

1. To give to every destitute or unfortunate person in Kalamazoo applying for assistance the wisest, kindest and most adequate care possible that experience suggests, without duplication of effort, time or money.
2. To prevent begging, imposition and pauperism.
3. To provide not only for temporary relief of need and distress, but also for the permanent welfare of the unfortunate.
4. To encourage thrift, self-dependence and industry and to aid the poor to help themselves.
5. To aid in the diffusion of knowledge on subjects connected with the relief of the poor.

The newspaper article went on to praise the league’s intrepid and progressive spirit, adding that if not for the league, many of the social problems that ailed the community would not have been addressed so effectively, and with such a compassionate approach.

“There is no more vital and sacred mission in any city than that performed by the society dealing with the individual family. While social ideas and plans are ripening daily, while the thing is in the very air and people are getting infected everywhere, a lot of this infection never “takes,” it’s dissipated, frittered away, dispersed, de-energized. The soil is not rich enough for growth. What is required? Getting down to facts, learning about individual families, filling a need in terms of human blood and life, in terms of men and women and children, of patience infinite: of the tears of bravery, of the sweetness of children who in their nurture have turned their young mothers into old women because of their overwhelming burdens, of the fortitude of fathers and mothers faithfully working out their unnecessarily and dreadfully narrowed destinies, of the slaughter of this or that blue-eyed baby because selfishness and the germ stalked in together with milk out of this heritage of experiences, intimate experience in some cases.”

Kalamazoo Gazette, 19 June 1912

In 1912, during the league’s annual meeting, a dramatic change was made to allow men to become full members. While some applauded the change in league composition, others rued the inclusion of men, and subsequent name change to the Kalamazoo Civic Improvement League. In 1948, the KCIL changed their name to Family Service Center, switching their focus toward working with families struggling with marital troubles and/or children with behavioral difficulties. As of 2025, the current name of the organization whose origins extend backward to the forward-thinking women of the WCIL, is Family & Children Services.

Article written by Ryan Gage, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, July 2025