Page 2

prosperous and progressive. The financial
institutions are thus first National
Bank of Sandy Spring, the Savings
Institution of Sandy Spring, and the
Mutual fire Insurance Company of
Montgomery County. Among the community
betterment associations are
a farmers club which dates from
1844 and a womans society, called
The Association for Mutual Improvement,
which was organized May 1^st, 1857.
So far as can be discovered this is the
oldest womans club now in existence
in the United States. As there were practically
no clubs for women in 1857, there was
no model upon which is base the organisation
and government by this Association.
The Association resembled the Business
Meeting of Women Friends, the only
public gathering of women in Maryland
at that time (1867), in that they
both had a single officer, sometimes
called "the clerk" However, the Constitution
of the Mutual Improvement
Association is so perfect that it could scarcely
be improved upon to-day. This

Note:
Mrs. Pierce, a charter member of the association, celebrated her one hundredth birthday in 1924