It almost seems that there has always been a club of some kind in the community. The farm clubs for both men and women played an important part in the lives of the country people. The clubs usually met at the one-room schoolhouses and meetings were held at both Excelsior and Baxter schools until the country school districts were disbanded.

The first regular club meetings started in the Excelsior School about 1916. Before that farmers joined together to form "beef clubs." Everyone who belonged to the club had to butcher a beef and divide and package it for all members who belonged to the club. Some of the older folks remember when someone would knock on the door to leave several big packages of beef. Memory still tells them how delicious the beef steak was. When the club members were out of beef, then the next person would butcher.

In 1916 the farmers in the area around Excelsior School started meeting at the schoolhouse at regular times to work out farm problems and to enjoy a social with their neighbors. The school house was always packed with people and there was never enough seats to accommodate all who came. They did not always have refreshments but there was usually a speaker or a musical program. In addition they had ciphering matches, spelling matches (old secretary books say that Ella Petty and Barton Gallagher were hard to beat), pie suppers, box suppers (with gaily decorated boxes) and masked Halloween parties. The musical entertainment was often provided by the Petty brothers--Leo on the violin and Al on the guitar. Other musicians who played were Ralph Martin on the banjo and Reed Pedego with the guitar.

In 1917 the Excelsior Club decided to become an M.F.A. club. The charter members of the M.F.A. Club were: G.V. Briscoe, L.D. lmhoff, T.D. Hudson, J.R. Petty, G.F. Bull, A.L. George, L.H. Peterson and T.D. Briscoe. They discussed general farm problems and placed group orders for such things as potatoes, flour, binder twine, barrel salt and so forth.

After about 11 years, the M.F.A. club for the men disbanded but the women continued to hold their monthly meetings. Part of the time they were affiliated with the WPFA and for a while with extension clubs but of more recent years it has jut been a community club. The club is now known as the Baxter Club.