Dear Job’s Daughters everywhere:

A few days ago, while looking up the definition and description of the musical instrument known as a recorder, I came upon the first dictionary definition: “one who sets down in writing or the like, for the purpose of preserving.”

Since I was the first Recorder of Bethel 1 of Job’s Daughters, the thought came to me that it might be useful and interesting to those who follow me to do just that about the memories I have of the time this organization first came into being.

I shall never forget that wintry Saturday night in January 1921 when my mother and dad returned home from attending their meetings at the Masonic Temple and found me still up, studying for a school examination. They were excited and enthusiastic about their visit over their coffee cups after the meeting with Dr. and Mrs. Mick, who had announced that evening that they felt they were ready with the organization they had been working on, to be called Job’s Daughters, for girls with Masonic affiliation.

The DeMolays had been organized for the sons of Masons not long before, and now the Micks, who had two lovely daughters, were hopeful that their girls and others like them could also share in similar ritualistic work. So the Micks, themselves, had set about creating such an organization.

I had never been in a Masonic Temple before, but arrived there that first Saturday morning with a signed petition in my hand, along with several other girls who rode up in the elevator with me, all shy and giggly about the unknown prospect ahead. It was rather a small group of us who came for that very first meeting with Mrs. Mick in the Eastern Star room, and since we were not as precocious as youngsters are today, we were visibly impressed and awed by its formality and rich atmosphere.

Mrs. Mick explained the organization itself, read portions of the ritual from typewritten sheets, told us about the offices and the choir, and about the robes for which money would have to be raised. A concert, planned for June, was to be a money-making project which would not only bring in needed funds but would also publicize this new organization, the first of its kind for young girls in the Masonic family.

After the election of officers, we returned the following Saturday morning, for this was to be our regular meeting day, with parts quite well memorized. Then began the task of learning our positions on the floor and how we were to conduct ourselves.

As Mrs. Mick and the Guardian Council or visiting parents listened to the words of the ritual spoken aloud, changes were suggested almost weekly, different songs were tried out and their arrangement in the ritual changed; and I am afraid there were days when we young officers felt quite frustrated and close to discouragement at having to change what we had already worked so hard to memorize. I know from my own experience that many encouraging words and some prodding took place on the part of many parents during that revision time to keep up our lagging enthusiasm and interest.

When it came to the marches, if we had not been so deadly serious about them, it would probably have been almost hilariously funny to watch us trying to follow the intricate patterns on the floor. You see, there was no Bethel of any kind in existence anywhere for us to visit and observe. Whatever we worked out, no matter how ragged it was; it still was actually the very first beginning, and oh, how hard we tried to be proper and dignified and absolutely correct. Council Members or parents stood at strategic corners to make sure we angled our corners sharply, that we crossed lines at proper intervals, and otherwise helped to set our feet in the right directions. And from time to time, the marches, too were changed!

While we were memorizing and marching, and marching and memorizing, several of our mothers met together with patterns and cheesecloth to work out an appropriate robe. I can remember standing for my mother while she draped material on me, using my father’s bathrobe cord over the cheesecloth as she fussed for the right effect. When a pattern had been agreed upon, our mothers made our robes of white voile, which seemed quite elegant to us in those days; drapery cord, with tassels sewed to each end, was used for the ties. The Queen’s and Princesses’ capes were made of purple velvet later worn over heavy white satin robes, and with these they wore dainty crowns. The rest of us wore polished cotton slips under our robes, and whenever we sat down and then stood up, the voile clung to the slip, so that each officer was instructed to smooth out the skirt of the one ahead of her when we stood up to march. Oh, those robes were a far cry from the beautiful roes of today!

The first officers were given their obligations by Mrs. Mick; later these first officers conducted an initiation for the choir members. Finally on March 19 of that same year, after just six weeks of intense rehearsals and a drive to bring in a large group of Masonic affiliated girls to share the honor of being charter members of Bethel 1, the first formal meeting and initiation were held.

As the weeks went by, a recognizable smoothness developed, especially in each initiation, and we took pride in the result and in the performance, so that those early days of revisions and discouragement were soon forgotten. We had created a beautiful, dignified, meaningful pattern for ourselves and other Bethels that were being organized, who visited our Bethel to observe us. Always there is pride and satisfaction in accomplishment, and we had this in large measure.

I have made no attempt to duplicate the history of the “mechanics” behind the founding of Job’s Daughters. That story has been well and carefully documented elsewhere. I have only tried to “preserve in writing” the impressions of a young schoolgirl who quite unknowingly was given an opportunity to be a participant and an officer in an event that made important history in the larger family of Masonry…my confidence in the Order itself, and its potential for enriching the lives of the thousands of girls who have shared the lessons from the story of Job and his daughters, remains undiminished.

By dramatizing this classic story, thousands of girls all over the world are now and will ever be reminded throughout their lives that they were, “the fairest in all the land.”

Sincerely,

Irma Swoboda (Mrs. R. W. Jacobsen)
First Recorder, Bethel 1, Omaha

[A recollection of the beginning of Bethel 1 (Omaha) as written by their first Recorder, Irma Swoboda, was first published in the Supreme News Exchange (SNE) in 1978. While I was SNE Editor, the above excerpts from the original article were published in the March 1990 Special Issue on History. Copies of this Special Issue are available from the Supreme Office.]

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