The Woman's Commonwealth (also Belton Sanctificationists and Sisters of Sanctification) was a women's land-based

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

first established in

Belton, Texas Belton is a city in the U.S. state of Texas on the Interstate 35 in Texas, Interstate 35 corridor between Austin, Texas, Austin and Waco, Texas, Waco. Belton is the county seat of Bell County, Texas, Bell County and is the fifth largest city in t ...

. It was founded in the late 1870s to early 1880s by

Martha McWhirter Martha White McWhirter (17 May 1827 21 April 1904) was an American religious leader and advocate for women. She was the founder and leader of Woman's Commonwealth in Belton, Texas. Early life McWhirter was born in Gainesboro, Jackson County ...

and her women's bible study group on land that was inherited when the women's husbands died or quit the home.

Members

Residents of the commune were women and their dependent children; many of the women fled abusive homes to join the community. At one point, there were between 42 and 50 women members on record, including at least one African American woman who is thought to have been a former slave.

Ideology

The Sisters embraced first wave feminist ideologies, and sought spiritual, economic, and social equality for women. To that end, they practiced

celibacy Celibacy (from Latin ''caelibatus'') is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both, usually for religious reasons. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, the ...

as a way to liberate women from the spiritual degradation of heterosexual intercourse, the oppressive needs of children and child rearing, and male violence. In the 1880s, the citizens of Belton blamed the Sanctificationists for rising separation and divorce rates, and of undermining the meaning of marriage through their practice of celibacy.

History

The Sanctificationists were economically successful; they ran several boarding houses and two hotels, formed holding companies to manage their properties, and operated two farms to provide food for their multiple dining rooms. They started the first public library in Belton, the Woman's Wednesday Club Library, out of one of their boarding houses. In 1899, the entire commune moved to

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

where they opened boarding houses and a hotel, and participated in urban feminist organizations. In 1903, there were ten remaining members who purchased a farm in rural

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

to provide food for their urban dining halls, and to provide a pastoral retreat for themselves in a rural landscape. McWhirter died in 1904, and the commune began a slow decline. The last member of the commune died in 1983 at the age of 101.

Impact

The George and Martha McWhirter House at 400 North Pearl St., Belton, Texas, is on the

National Register of Historic Places listings in Bell County, Texas This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Bell County, Texas. This is intended to be a complete list of properties and districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Bell County, Texas. There are fou ...

. At the address, there is a historical marker dedicated to the Sanctificationists. Jan Berliner Statman considers the Woman's Commonwealth to be one of the first

women's shelter A women's shelter, also known as a women's refuge and battered women's shelter, is a place of temporary protection and support for women escaping domestic violence and intimate partner violence of all forms. The term is also frequently used to ...

s in the United States. A brief article published in the lesbian separatist periodical, ''Austindyke (''alternately spelled as ''Austin Dyke),'' in 1979 and then reprinted in ''Sisters United'' in 1980 described the Woman's Commonwealth as a forerunner of the

lesbian land A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

movement.Peticolas, Anne. (1980). "Reclaiming hystory: The Belton Sanctificationists." ''Sisters United'' 20(6): 13. It is unclear whether the Sanctificationists influenced the movement that flourished in the 1970s and 1980s.

References

{{Reflist

External links

A Guide to the Woman's Commonwealth Archive, 1760-1993
at the

Dolph Briscoe Center for American History The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History is an organized research unit and public service component of the University of Texas at Austin named for Dolph Briscoe, the 41st governor of Texas. The center collects and preserves documents and ar ...

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...