Social culture for Michigan Women at the time that Mary B. DeLamarter was living in Michigan, especially minister's wives, as DeLamarter was, was centered around the church and family. Yet, organizations called "Women's Clubs" added a literary twist to these women's lives and brought them together to share their newly deemed important intellectual thoughts. During their meetings, they would often discuss books, poetry and current events and were promoted to do their own writing and of course the readings in their free time. The study, Intimate Practices, by Anne Ruggles Gere provides much insight into these groups and highlights different clubs around the country. She quotes The Friday Club of Jackson Michigan during one of their 1891 meetings on their thoughts of new technology and provides a snippet of what type of conversation a meeting had entailed:

"And behold all the women were sore afraid, and again they said one to another of a surety, this is the place of departed spirits - for we hear sounds of instruments which are not and we see the form of one who is afar in a distant city. But behold there was one among the women who had much wisdom, and she cried out in a loud voice saying - fools and unbelievers, Know ye not of one Edison who has learned the secrets of the lightning and who can shut up sounds of stringed instruments and of song, that one can command the sounds at will, and the sounds will come forth freely, even as water from a jug?"

Mrs. DeLamarter belonged to a few of these such clubs including the U and I Club and the Women's Historical Club. Though there were no records of these clubs during her time, there was material on the Lansing Woman's Club, namely a History of the Club's first decade written by the members in 1884. The introduction of the document reads that the club was brought together because the "interchange of thought and a unity of purpose will promote mental growth" and "furnish the stimulus needed by weary mothers and busy housewives to keep abreast the stream of duty and progress" (Lansing Woman's Club 1).

DeLamarter was also a member of the Association of Wives of Michigan Conference Ministers of which the "aim" was "to promote sociability among the lady member of the conference [and] to be means of mutual benefit in solving the problems confronting a pastor's wife" (minutes of first meeting of the Association). As a minister's wife at the turn of the century, DeLamarter must have had to adhere to strict social rules. Paul Boyer's article "Minister's wife, Widow, Reluctant Feminist," discusses what these women's had to live up to in the 1930's:

"'To say that the pastor's helpmate was expected to be gracious, charming, poised, equal to every occasion, would be a gross understatement . . . . There is a very real sense in which a church feels that its minister and his wife belong to them, and they want to be proud of their possession' . . . . the strain of living up to this standard was intense. Even her taste in dresses and hats was scrutinized and discreetly discussed each Sunday" (Boyer 260).

If the social conditions in the early to mid-twentieth century were as stringent as this statement depicts, one can only imagine what the minister's wife of the late 1800's must have had to live up to. Pastor's wives in the Methodist Church were also allowed to run Sunday School classes by the late 1800's and so furthered their literary and teaching skills while also interacting with the children.