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BROMWELL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (214)
2500 East
Fourth Avenue,
80206-4214
(Columbine Street at East Fourth Avenue)

Telephone:
(303) 388-5969
Fax: (720) 424-9355
E-mail: Bromwell@dpsk12.org

Mr. Jonathan Wolfer, Principal

Mothers Club Newspaper Clippings

The president, Mrs. A. W. Floegel, will act as toastmistress. The invocation will be given by Mrs. John J. Dinneen. The club history will be given by Mrs. William J. Gibson. Mrs. Harry Riddiford is in charge of music and decorations.

The Columbine Mothers Club was founded in 1895 and was first known as the Harman Kindergarten Association, and then became the Book Association for Bromwell School. The group was formed in order to provide equipment for the kindergarten. The membership is limited to 36.

The president, Mrs. A.W. Floegel, will act as toastmistress. The invocation will be given by Mrs. John J. Dinneen, the club history by Mrs. William J. Gibson. Mrs. Riddiford has charge of the music and decorations.

Former members are invited to the meeting. Reservations should be made with Mrs. Harry Riddiford not later than April 7.

The club is the outgrowth of the Harman Kindergarten Mothers Assn. which was organized in 1895 by the mothers of children attending Bromwell (then Harman) Elementary school.

The club was organized in 1895 by the mothers of kindergarten children at Harman School, according to Mrs. Lida Brown, club historian. Its purpose, she said, was "to provide materials for the kindergarten not provided by the budget, as well as to help teachers and enrich the social and civic affairs of the community."

It was known as the Harman Kindergarten Club until 1905. Mrs. Brown said at that time help in the school was no longer needed and the group was reorganized as the Columbine Mothers Club.

Officers of the Club are Mrs. Kenneth Lewis, president; Mrs. Don Brigham, first vice-president; Mrs. R.W. Kushaarski, second vice-president; Mrs. Ned Douglass, secretary; Mrs. Clifford Gobble, treasurer, and Mrs. Bert Toothaker, anniversary chairman.

In those days, it seems, the school didn't think it needed a mothers' group, but the mothers disagreed, and formed the club - named for Columbine St., north of the school. They continued to keep themselves informed and to get to know the teachers. The club has been meeting monthly since, although the school now has an active PTSA to assist in its affairs.

Four generations of one family would have attended the luncheon, except for the unexpected hospitalization of Mrs. Bert Toothaker, 87, 1211 Vine St., former president of the club. The senior Mrs. Toothaker was married the year the current building was built (1906) and lived across the street at 405 Columbine St. That area is a park now, but the tree which was in front of her house is still standing.

Representing the family at the luncheon were Mrs. Edwin Toothaker Sr ., a dentist's daughter who lived in the neighborhood and had to take a lot of kidding about her married name. She didn't say if she met her future husband when he broke his tooth falling off Bromwell's old iron fire escape. Mrs. Toothaker, who now lives in Arizona, attended with her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Edwin Toothaker Jr., 540 Columbine St. Assisting with the serving was Jeffrey, 8. His sister, Jennifer, 2, probably will attend Bromwell in the family tradition. Actually, Jeffrey and Jennifer are fifth generation to be associated with Bromwell, because their great- great-grandmother, Mrs. Mary Work, also belonged to the Columbine Mothers' Club.

The present school building is the third to stand on the site. The district was Harman, before it was absorbed into Denver. Mrs. Margaret Weidmar, 790 S. Dexter St., whose mother attended Bromwell when she came from England, remembers being brought piggyback across Cherry Creek by an uncle to go to school because there was no bridge. She also remembers the morning that uncle declined to make more than one trip and set out with a youngster under each arm and Margaret clinging around his neck. At midstream she had choked him sufficiently so they all fell in. Later, she rode horse back across the stream and then sent the horse home. She lived in the neighborhood until the flood in 1933.

Mrs. Ethel Church, now of Arvada, attended Bromwell in 1908, and her mother Mrs. Estella Budd was a club member. Her daughter, Mrs. Phyllis Roberts, lives in the family home at 340 Fillmore St., and her grandson Dean Roberts, finished at Bromwell in 1972.

Recognized on their birthday anniversaries by sixth graders who sang for the group were Mrs. Ella Lewis, 1886 S. Poplar, who attended with her daughter, Mrs. Charlotte Elkins, 4865 E. Louisiana Ave.; and Mrs. Church. Also celebrating a birthday, but keeping very quiet, was Mrs. Grace Gobble, who attended Bromwell 64 years ago. She came from Brighton for the event, as she does for the monthly meetings. Clara Gibson, 90, 1150 Vine St., former president of the club, explained the absence of Mrs. Florence Blunt, 92. Mrs. Blunt was attending a Spanish American War Veterans Convention. Students from Bromwell assisted with the serving.