Dorcas Society

The Dorcas Society
Estimate date of photo 1921
Photo Taken: Kohlman home Kenosha County, Wisconsin
Check-mark above ladies head in back row is Esther Kohlman (Mrs. Knute) Stangberg.
Name on back of photo says "Stangberg"
(Photo Courtesy of Joe Fonk)

The Dorcas Society is a local group of people, usually based in a church, with a mission of providing clothing to the poor.  Dorcas societies are named after Dorcas (also called Tabitha), a person described in the Acts of the Apostles (Chapter 9, v. 36).
One Dorcas Society was founded in Douglas, Isle of Man in December, 1834, as part of the community's thanksgiving for being spared from an outbreak of cholera.  Other Dorcas societies were established by missionaries in the Americas in the early 1800's.  Dorcas societies were at their height in the 1800's.
(Source:  Wikipedia.com)

More About Dorcas Society
"I am writing to you about the photo of the Dorcas Society, posted on May 28, 2015.  The Dorcas Ladies Aid society was an auxiliary of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Kenosha.  It began in 1895, just three years after the congregation was organized.  There were monthly meetings, and the ladies also served at church suppers and festivals to raise money to help defray church expenses."
(Provided by David Kullman, November 2016)

Now, about the photo itself.  Nancy and I agree that the person indicated by the check mark is not Esther Kohlman Strangberg, but it is our grandmother, Sofie Kullman.  (Note the differences in spelling.  There was a third brother, Albert Kollman.)   Esther Strangberg is seated second from the left, holding her son, Charles Strangberg, on her lap.  Charles was born in 1918, so the 1921 date on the photo seems correct."