The Beehive Girls of Granger: A 1916 Dinner Party

The Beehive Girls’ Dinner Party – 1916

In the summer of 1916, a group of young women in Granger known as the Beehive Girls gathered for a special dinner party. The Beehive program was part of the LDS Church’s Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, where teenage girls were organized into groups called “swarms.” Each swarm had a leader called a Bee-Keeper and an assistant. The girls chose symbolic names, worked on goals called “cells,” and met often for service, learning, and social activities.

On this occasion, the Granger swarm met at the home of Assistant Beekeeper Leah Eldredge to honor their president, Alice Woodbury. The dining room was decorated with pink rambler roses, a popular climbing rose of the day, with a large bowl of roses forming the centerpiece of the table. Each girl’s place card was hand-painted with a rose and inscribed with her symbolic Beehive name—an elegant touch that showed both creativity and care.

Those present at the table included many names that later became well known in the Granger community. The honored guest list included:

• Mrs. Alice Woodbury

• Miss Leah Eldredge

• Miss Zula Curtis

• Miss Mary Hoggan

• Mrs. May Arnold

• Miss Fannie Curtis

• Miss Inez Eldredge

• Miss Margarette Wallace

• Miss Ruth Burton

• Miss Lurena Eldredge

• Miss Elaine Nielson

• Miss Bessie Coats

• Miss Fern Eldredge

• Miss Veloy Curtis

• Miss Evalyn Burton

• Miss Thelma Parkinson

• Miss Almira Eldredge

For the young women who gathered that evening, it was simply a delightful summer dinner. But looking back from today, over a century later, we recognize many of these names as grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and community builders of Granger and West Valley City. The Beehive Girls’ party of 1916 is more than a charming social note—it is a snapshot of friendship, faith, and the beginnings of legacies that still shape families and neighborhoods in our day.