Waco in the second half of the 19th century evolved from a frontier village to farming community to a post-Civil War boom town, in large measure because of the suspension bridge of 1870 that crossed the Brazos River for the first time.

Just as that structure spanned the natural barriers separating Wacoans from each other, the emerging class of female civic leaders sought to link their neighbors more closely through the creation of social institutions.

Among those early dynamos was Kate Rotan (1851-1931), the first of the Waco’s great clubwomen.

Kate Rotan was dubbed “Mother of the Texas Federation of Women’s Clubs” because of her role as the organization’s first president (1897-99). She also led numerous civic organizations closer to home.

Born in Kentucky in 1851 to James L. L. and Eliza Ann (Sturm) McCall, Kate and her family moved to Waco the next year. The home-schooled woman later graduated from Waco Female College in 1865, and started teaching school two years later.

It was while teaching at an East Waco school that she met Edward Rotan, a fellow educator, and they married on Aug. 22, 1869. John Edward Rotan (1844-1932), a Tennessee-born Confederate army veteran, moved to Waco in 1867 and taught at schools in Speegleville and East Waco.

The Rotans scraped by on the modest wages of teachers for a few years. The family fortune turned around when merchant W.R. Kellum invited Edward into partnership in a country dry goods store. The business prospered through the 1870s and became the largest wholesale grocery supply firm in the South.

After William Riley Kellum’s death in 1890 at 72, Rotan became president of the newly renamed Rotan Grocery Company. In 1892, he also became president of the First National Bank — the same year the couple had the last of their nine children. He served the institution until 1920, later becoming its chairman of the board.

Edward Rotan’s commercial success led to the couple’s construction in the 1880s of a handsome mansion at 1503 Columbus Ave. (now an attorney’s office) and a move in 1917 to 2425 Austin Ave. (still a private home).

Church work, then clubs

Affluence, with servants to care for the children and tend to household chores, gave Kate Rotan the greatest gift any 19th-century woman could ask for — leisure time.

The energetic homemaker transformed into a city-shaker, first by diving into church work with First Presbyterian’s sewing circle, which made clothing and quilts for the ragged souls of Six Shooter Junction.

From there, Rotan had a hand in founding Waco’s first literary club, which in turn gave birth to the Woman’s Club of Waco in 1892. Members who set their minds on self-improvement met in each others’ homes to study current events, the arts, science and literature over cups of tea and fancy fare.

In the spring of 1897, Kate Rotan and the Woman’s Club of Waco sent invitations to dozens of women’s clubs across the state to attend a convention in Waco for the purpose of forming a league of ladies’ organizations.

She was impressed with the response: delegates from 18 clubs arrived that May to form the nucleus of what would be dubbed the Texas Federation of Women’s Clubs. She was elected its first president, and set about organizing the “higher and nobler” educational work of the federation with the aim of inspiring “everywhere a love for the good, the true, the beautiful.”

Citywide federation

Representatives of the Woman’s Club of Waco, the Press Club, the Euterpean Club (a music appreciation society) and the Waco Literary Club, the next year, formed a city-wide federation — a move that was roundly ridiculed in the local press that looked askance at women “neglecting” their domestic duties.

The Women’s Federation clubhouse is located at 2900 Bosque Blvd.
Duane A. Laverty / Waco Tribune-Herald

Rotan argued the club woman was a better mother and homemaker precisely because she cared for the common good.

For example, at the April 1898 TFWC convention, members resolved to establish a free, public library in every county across the state (in an era when only six were operating throughout Texas.)

That work began with “travelling libraries” (what we would now call book-mobiles) to bring quality reading material to every rural hamlet.

By the time Rotan called the second state convention to order in 1899 and then end her two-year term, Texas could boast an additional 12 public libraries and two travelling libraries.

Kate Rotan was also a leader in the heritage groups that celebrated certified American bloodlines: she was regent of the Henry Downs Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and a national committeewoman of the Colonial Dames.

Aiding ‘wayward girls’

She had a heart for “wayward girls,” the unwed mothers and homeless young women of her community, so she founded a shelter for them in Waco.

She was a member of the state board that established the Gainesville State School for Girls and was president of the Antoinette Rotan Home for Elderly Women, established by her daughter.

In 1911 she purchased and cleared the land for Riverside Driveway (then known as Rotan Drive), which connected the downtown area with the (then-new) Cameron Park, as a gift to her city.

Kate Rotan died at age 80, on Oct. 17, 1931, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Waco. Her husband survived her by less than half a year, dying on March 10, 1932, at 87.

Additional Sources: The Handbook of Waco and McLennan County, Texas (Waco: Texian, 1972); Texas Federation News; Waco Tribune-Herald clip files; The Texas Collection at Baylor University; A Spirit So Rare: A History of the Women of Waco, by Patricia Ward Wallace.