On November 9, 1874, Sigma Kappa was founded by five young women, the only females enrolled at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. They received a letter from the faculty approving the organization’s petition, which included a constitution and bylaws.
The five founders of Sigma Kappa are Mary Low Carver, Elizabeth Gorham Hoag, Ida Fuller Pierce, Louise Helen Coburn and Frances Mann Hall. In Sigma Kappa’s first constitution, chapter membership was limited to 25 women. The original chapter is known as the Alpha chapter. After Alpha chapter’s membership reached 25, a Beta chapter was formed. A Gamma chapter soon followed. Although there were some early joint meetings, the members did not think it feasible to continue that way. In 1893, a vote was taken to limit Alpha chapter to 25 members and to allow no more initiations into Beta and Gamma chapters. In due time, Beta and Gamma were no more.
The Espilon chapter at Syracuse University was founded in 1905. In 1911, Frances Willard Lyons and her older sister Mabel became members of the chapter. Frances was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and served as chapter president. She spent another two years at Syracuse and earned a master’s degree in 1917.
Frances began teaching high school history in Middletown, Connecticut and she advised the first Girl Scout troop in the city. Her fiance asked her to join him in post-war France. The parents of Frances and Mabel had died in 1897 and 1917, respectively. Mabel married and set sail for China with her husband where he would teach in a school for missionary children until they and the four children born to them there escaped during the Chinese revolution. There was nothing tying Frances to Connecticut save a job. She had volunteered to index the Triangle and was hard at work, “when Captain Howard Spencer MacKirdy sent that cable message to Frances which made her drop everything at home and take that long voyage across the Atlantic to join Captain MacKirdy in France.”
On September 3, 1919, she married Howard Spencer MacKirdy. What was unusual was the location of the wedding and the 3,000 miles she traveled to become a bride. Frances wrote a personal letter to Emma Kinne, editor of The Triangle which was printed in the December 1919 edition. I am printing it in its entirety because it offers a fascinating look at post-World War I France. (The German prisoners of war were held until the spring of 1920 in case anyone is wondering.)
I want to tell you about a very wonderful event that has taken place, and about which an announcement has been sent to you. I think I wrote you that I was going to France. Well, I arrived just three weeks ago, and they have been the happiest weeks of my life, especially in the last few years. On Wednesday, September 3, Mac and I were married at Gievres, which is a U.S. Army base of supply, of which Mac is adjutant. We had a very beautiful wedding, so I feel as if I had stepped off into a world of story-book romance. Coming 3,000 miles to marry one’s soldier lover is unique in itself, but an army wedding is also unique. And besides there are many other little ideas which stand out as peculiarly beautiful, and, yes, even pathetic.
After a civil marriage in accordance with the laws of France, we had the religious ceremony at six o’clock in the evening. I must tell you a bit about the civil ceremony which was odd, to say the least. Going to a quaint little town, into a quaint stone house, whose stone floor was badly broken in spots, where a long bare table and several straight, forward tipping chairs were the only furniture, it seemed an unusual ceremony. Behind the table stood the mayor and his secretary. The mayor wore a sash of red, white, and blue, with gold tassels. Mac and I with four witnesses were seated in the chairs. Then in French the secretary asked Mac and me to rise, and in rapid French he read a long dissertation which proved to be the story of our birth, lives, parents, residence, occupation, etc. This over, he read a question in French to Mac who answered “Oui,” then a question to me, and I gave the same answer. Then followed our signatures and those of cur witnesses. Mac had promised to “cherish” me and I had promised ”to obey him and follow him wherever he went” and previously we had decided not to promise to obey. It did not seem quite right for people to call me Mrs. MacKirdy after just those two words, but so it was.
However, at six o’clock we had a beautiful ceremony. It was celebrated in the barracks of the army chaplain there, who by the way performed the ceremony. It was the Presbyterian ritual. The other ladies at Gievres had had the place decorated and it was wonderful. German prisoners of war did all the decorating under supervision. A long narrow aisle of white canvas stretched along the floor led to an improvised altar, with two white pillars with candle on them. All behind the pillar was evergreen mistletoe, heather, and roses. The Lohengrin wedding march was played by an orchestra composed of German prisoners. The wedding procession came up the aisle in couple led by Lieutenant-Colonel Warner and Major Wheeler then Lieutenant Israel (French) and Lieutenant-Colonel McCleary, then Mrs. Warner, wife of Lieutenant Colonel Warner as matron of honor (in tan georgette with yellow roses which were edged in deepest pink). Then came Colonel Davids, the commanding officer of the post at Gievres, with me. I wore a white crepe de chine dress, with white suede slippers, and a wedding veil tied with orange· blossoms, both of the latter being bought in Bourges, France. I carried a bouquet of white roses and mistletoe. We had a double ring ceremony and our rings were narrow green-gold bands with a wreath of ivy leaves embossed on them. They were bought in Paris and are very beautiful.
There were many guests at the wedding-three high French officers, Colonel Leger (Sous-Intendant), Colonel de Place, Major de Rochars. These, by the way, gave Mac a silverhandled ivory paper knife. Uniforms, of course, were everywhere present. Captain Reid, C.A.C., was Mac’s best man. After the ceremony, the wedding group was taken by a French photographer, then a picture of the decorations, and then a picture of the wedding group and all the guests taken in the yard of the chateau which is the officers’ barracks.
After this we had a wedding dinner in regular army style ‘with all the fixin’s,’ even to a huge wedding cake which had to be cut by the bride. One of the interesting features of the dinner was that it was cooked and served by German prisoners. Some other very unique points of our wedding were gifts received. Lieutenant S- gave us a little oval-shaped box which he had made from the propeller blades of German airplanes captured at Verdun. One German prisoner carved a picture frame with two ovals. On the card accompanying it was written ‘Devotion from a prisoner of war’ (Mac is a much beloved man). Headquarters’ Mess (C.O., etc.) gave us a dozen solid silver teaspoons and a solid silver service spoon and fork. They were bought in Blois, France, and are very odd. The German cooks also made us a German wedding cake with ‘Many Happy Days Together’ in German on the icing.
After a very delicious banquet of consomme, roast duck and chicken, sweet potatoes, etc., frappe, and coffee, the party .adjourned to the chaplain’s barracks and there we had a dance and reception to which were invited many who had not been present before. Of course it was up to the bride and groom t0 lead off. (Yes, I dance.) After about an hour of dancing, Captain Reid took me to my little house, and there I changed my dress to my suit, and soon Mac came. We had a Cadillac limousine which took us to Blois, thirty miles away. Mac had been stationed there at Blois in February as captain of a casual company. He had lived with a very lovely lady and her daughter who had a beautiful home, and he had made arrangements for us to go there. Mme. Gagnot said that it was his French home. She was very lovely to us. We did considerable sight-seeing in Blois. It is a quaint old town, typically French, and I just enjoyed it, I can tell you. Then we came to Paris, where we have been eight days, and what a very wonderful time we have had, too. Every minute has been ideal. We have a very nice room in a lovely hotel, where the Tuilleries are at our “back door,” the Place de la Concorde but a few minutes walk, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, The Invalides, Napoleon’s Tomb, The Seine, Notre Dame, Palais de ,Justice – all are no longer mere names, but beautiful realities.
One day we spent at Versailles, where its glory of yesterday and today just filled our hearts with the romance of it all. One felt as if one stood on a mighty brink where happened and where would linger the thoughts and hopes of the world for ages.
One evening we spent at the Grand Opera, where we saw Thais, and were filled again with wonder. A single day at the Louvre gave us a taste of its marvels. We went there with the idea that it would take six months to see it, and the little that we did, we did carefully. The paintings and everything about which we know so much kept our attention all the time.
Yesterday we hunted up an American church and went there to worship, and to think how happy we were, and to thank God for the beauty of life. ·with my best love to you, dear Emma,
The couple returned to the United States on Thanksgiving Day 1920 after chaperoning 19 French and German war brides across the ocean. Once back in the states, she took on the role of Army wife, following her husband to whatever post he was assigned. The December 1923 Triangle focused on homemakers and Frances MacKirdy was one of the Sigma Kappas featured. By then the MacKirdys had three boys. Randolph (Burt) was born in August 1920, Wayne in October 1921 and Robert in February 1923:
Their first station was Fort Hancock, with a few months at Fort Wadsworth. A year at Fortress Monroe was ended by orders taking them to Fort Adams, R. I., where proximity to Delta, Phi, Boston and Rhode Island Alumnae Chapters gives these groups an opportunity to become acquainted and love at sight one of the finest of our Sigma sisters. To Sigma, Frances is a devoted slave. The TRIANGLE index from 1915-21 is from her hands, performed under difficult conditions; as the capable chairman of the Scholarship Trophy Committee she has evolved and given much time and energy to a plan which will result in the presentation this year of a scholarship cup to the chapter maintaining the highest average. No appeal for assistance is in vain if Sigma needs her. The old cry ‘Ask Frances’ still avails. But deep as is her love for Sigma, unmeasured her loyalty and readiness to serve, these are dwarfed by her devotion to her home, her husband, and her three adorable baby boys, Burt, Wayne and Robert. Whether it is a dinner party for the Commanding Officer of the Post and other guests, or a wardrobe for one of the babies, or sage discussion on the current events and literature, Frances is equally efficient and well prepared to make a success of the undertaking.
Howard MacKirdy died in 1943 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Frances passed away in 1964 at the age of 69 and is with him at Arlington.
