‘Petticoat Mafia’ Governs Town Like Garden Club

What happens when the garden club takes over the government of a Kentucky coal town?

Think bake sales instead of tax increases, benefit concerts instead of bond measures and a thrift shop instead of fiscal belt tightening.

“We’ve paid for a new $26,000 police car, a $145,000 fire truck, a $58,000 garbage truck and a $30,000 dump truck,” said Mayor Betty Howard. “We couldn’t have done it without the shop.”

Beginning in January, Howard will preside over a town council made up entirely of women between the ages of 54 and 80 who have worked their way to political power from the Benham Garden Club.

Over the last decade, members of this so-called “Petticoat Mafia” have used old-fashioned civic club know-how to help give this Appalachian hamlet of 700 a newfound look of prosperity.

“These gals have come up with lots of ways to pay for things,” said former councilman Gary Huff. “Things anybody else might do to raise money at home, they do for the city. Everybody I see thinks they do a fantastic job.”

Huff gets credit for starting the garden club’s political movement about eight years ago. The town needed a new firetruck to replace the obsolete pumper that was the only fire protection. Knowing the town didn’t have enough money to buy one, Huff recommended yard sales to generate money. The women jumped on the idea, and the other initiatives grew from there.

They now raise about $36,000 a year--one-fifth of the town’s budget--by opening their special events to neighboring communities from across eastern Kentucky.

Halloween haunted houses, gospel music shows and Christmas dances are all standing-room-only happenings, putting more money in town coffers.

While other towns in the mountain region struggle under tight budgets, Benham has been able to build a park, complete with a mile-long walking track and monuments honoring coal miners who have lived and died in the town since International Harvester built it in the early 1900s.

For about 30 years, everything in Benham--houses, stores, church, barbershop, hospital, even the cemetery--was owned by the company. Everyone who lived here worked for the company and had to abide by its rules. Anyone who didn’t wasn’t permitted to stay.

“They gave you notice to move out, and cut you off work,” said 80-year-old Thelma Brock, a newly elected member of the town council. “We were the closest thing you could get to a communist society in a free country.”

That’s not a slam against International Harvester, Howard said. People appreciated the standard of living, the health care and the cozy houses that the company provided. And, she said, the company further endeared itself to residents in the early 1960s by selling them the homes they had been living in for an average of $400 each, a fraction of their actual worth.

Still, when a group of Russians visited Benham shortly after the fall of communism in the Soviet Union, Howard said, residents here could identify with them. When International Harvester disbanded the company town in 1961, residents were left to form their own government, just like the Russians.

For the first time, Benham residents had to pay for water and sewer service, garbage pickup, electricity and taxes.

“Here sat a group of coal miners, and they had to pass city ordinances and set the course,” Howard said. “Before that, we had only the company rules to follow. It was a growing experience for people who had always been accustomed to living in a company atmosphere.”

Over the last decade, the garden club brigade has built its power slowly, claiming the mayor’s office in 1994 and regularly occupying three to five seats on the town council. But in the November election, three men now serving on the council opted not to seek reelection to allow the club members to take all six council seats.

“They have the interest of Benham at heart. The city is in good hands,” said outgoing Councilman Tom Soltess.

The mayor and council members are only seven members of an army of women who volunteer their time for the fund-raising initiatives. More than a dozen of them work in shifts at the This N’ That Shop next door to town hall. For special fund-raisers, many others step forward as volunteers.

“That’s really important, not only for the money, but it gets your citizens involved,” City Manager Cecil Lockaby said.