When the South Pymatuning Township Homemakers Group formed on March 9, 1927, it was known as the South Pymatuning Sewing Circle and had 12 members.

The club celebrated its 75th anniversary Tuesday with a lunch at Tara in Clark. The speaker was Janet McDougall, director of Mercer County Cooperative Extension, which oversees the homemakers groups in the county.

The club's co-presidents, Joanne Orbin and Esther Szakach, said the club is a way for its members to be "neighborly."

"We're like a do-gooder organization for the benefit of mankind in general," Mrs. Szakach said.

The dues are no longer 5 cents a month, as they were when the club was founded, but at less than $4 a year, the current dues hardly make the club rich.

There is some question over which is older -- the South Pymatuning or the Carpenters Corners homemakers. Carpenters Corners is between Clarks Mills and Sandy Lake.

Mrs. McDougall said both groups claim to be the oldest, but the one that formed first was never verified. She said the clubs were probably founded at about the same time.

At one time there were more than 65 homemakers groups in Mercer County. The number has dwindled to fewer than 10, Mrs. McDougall said, adding that many of the clubs have not continued as homemakers groups, evolving into neighborhood social clubs.

According to the South Pymatuning Homemakers Group's history, Mrs. Orbin said, the club originated from Mercer County Grange meetings held at the former Fairview Schoolhouse, which closed when South Pymatuning Elementary School was built.

"Anyone who knows anything about rural life knows the Grange was a social hub," Mrs. Szakach said. "They'll remember those Grange meetings very, very well."

The club has 20 to 25 members and continually tries to get younger members.

"We don't want to be a dowdy organization of retired people," Mrs. Szakach laughed.

Members meet once a month in each other's homes for light lunch and dessert. Mrs. Orbin said the club tries to have a speaker at each meeting.

At holiday time, club members send gifts to retirement homes and make donations to the Salvation Army. Most recently, the club made a donation toward the South Pymatuning Township Easter egg hunt.

"It's just as much a social organization as it is a 'do-good' organization," Mrs. Szakach said. "In this day of television and everybody working, we forget how to socialize and we forget to be neighborly ... It's nice to be neighborly. That's the concept of the whole thing."