Three fraternity badges – one a Psi Upsilon badge belonging to a Founder, and two I.C. Sorosis badges belonging to early members of Pi Beta Phi – have recently found new homes.
This story of the Psi Upsilon Founders’ badge was post on the Focus on Fraternity History facebook group.
A Chi Psi from the University of Oregon posted that his great-great-grandfather, Edward Martindale, was “one of the original seven founders of the Psi Upsilon fraternity from his days at Union College. He was also a Colonel during the Civil War and credited with liberating the notorious Confederate Libby prison while commanding the black 83rd regiment. I’ve always admired him because he turned down promotions to brigadier general twice to stay with his troops. Just yesterday I finally got my hands on his Psi Upsilon founders pin, so here are a few photos and one portrait photo of him wearing the pin that I thought I’d share.” Colonel Martindale’s badge is now in the Psi Upsilon archives thanks to his Chi Psi great-great-grandson.
Psi Upsilon’s national convention in 1898 where Martindale was a keynote speaker. He is in the front row on the right.
The second badge belonged to a charter member of the Pi Beta Phi chapter at Iowa State University. I wrote about it in the latest issue of The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi.
For a readable copy of the article click here. It’s on page 21 in the digital file.
Shortly after that I.C. badge arrived at Pi Phi HQ, another one surfaced on eBay and it was purchased by a friend, Susan Bruch.
She promises that it will someday have a home in the Pi Phi archives. She wrote the Story Behind the Pin.
In February of this year I was fortunate to acquire an antique Pi Beta Phi pin when the pins were marked with I.C. rather than the Greek Letters of Pi Beta Phi. Many of you asked me about the pin, if I knew who owned it, and what was the story behind the pin and the original owner of the pin. Thanks to my fellow history mavens, especially Penny A Proctor, this is who we believed owned the pin, her story, and the story of her family. Nelly Peery Price was quite a pioneer in her day – the first woman to graduate from the law school at Iowa State University.
Nelly Peery Price As Original Owner Of The I.C. Pin
The pin, being an original I.C. pin, had to belong to someone initiated between 1867 and 1888.
The pin has initials on the back which seem to be “NP” in Copperplate script.
There is only one listing in Sister Search of initiates between 1867 and 1888 with the initials “NP” – Nelly Peery Price, initiated into Iowa Zeta in 1886- which is the correct time for her to be the owner of the pin.
Nelly’s family was financially comfortable, if not wealthy, and could afford a pin.
Although she spent most of her adult life in Iowa, she moved to San Diego, California in 1938 and lived there until her death in 1948.
The pin was sold at an auction house in Beverly Hills, CA from the estate of Oriental Art collectors from San Diego.
The story of Nelly cannot be told without including the story of her sisters Bessie, June and Hortense. They were the children of Stephen Peery and Emma Hendrick Peery. Stephen was born in Virginia but after a brief sojourn in southern California relocated to Grundy County, Missouri, shortly before the Civil War broke out. He went into partnership with J.H. Shanklin, “one of the ablest financiers Missouri ever knew” and was credited with raising the money needed to extend the Missouri Pacific Railroad into Kansas City. He was active in local politics and was elected a judge. It seems clear from the family’s life style that he became quite wealthy by the standards of the day. He began suffering health problems in the early 1890s and moved to San Diego, and then Phoenix, for his health. In San Diego, he immediately formed a real estate development partnership with his nephew J.W. Walker and invested $250,000 in irrigation and similar improvement projects. For that, he is remembered as one of the architects of modern San Diego. Sadly, he committed suicide in 1896, apparently despondent about his failing health and intent on avoiding a lingering death.
His wife Emma Hendrick is also an interesting personality. She was born in Missouri, but by 1864 she had married, and her honeymoon apparently was a covered wagon journey to southern California with her siblings and some of Stephen’s family. Her first child, daughter Bessie Evans Peery, was born in California. It appears that only Stephen and Emma returned to Missouri, where they had Herbert, Nelly, Jennie June, and Hortense. Emma was a believer in education and women’s equality; she instilled in Bessie the idea that Bessie was to become a physician (according to a recollection by Bessie), and she probably raised Nelly with the idea of becoming a lawyer.
Bessie and Nelly both matriculated at the State University of Iowa in Iowa City in the mid-1880s, and in 1886 they joined the still fledgling Iowa Zeta chapter of Pi Beta Phi together. Bessie earned her medical degree in 1889 but remained in the area as part of the “Iowa Kappa” chapter, which was actually Iowa City alumnae. Nelly earned her bachelor’s degree and left for a year, but then returned to pursue a law degree, which she earned in 1893. She remained a member of the active chapter while in law school and served as the chapter president in 1892 and as the chapter delegate to Convention in 1890. After graduation, she married and settled in Elkader (Clayton County) Iowa, where she became a council member of the Alumnae Association. Nelly was the only female in law school at the time and has the honor of being the first woman to graduate from the State University of Iowa Law School.
Younger sister Jennie June (“June”) was initiated at Iowa Zeta in 1892 and it may have been only for the purpose of transferring to Stanford to help establish California Alpha chapter. She is credited in The Arrow with being one of two Pi Phis who organized the establishment of the chapter and immediately became the chapter’s Arrow Correspondent. She graduated with a B.A. in English from Stanford in the spring of 1897. She remained engaged in the Southern California Alumnae Club.
Despite earning her law degree, Nelly never practiced law. She married a fellow law student, Valmah Tupelo Price, around 1895. After his graduation, they settled in Elkader where he maintained a successful practice until his death in 1931. They had two children, Herbert Peery “Peery” Valmah, Jr. and a daughter who died as a toddler. While in Elkader, Nelly remained active as an alumna and in January 1897 wrote an extensive letter to The Arrow discussing a proposition to allow individual chapters to develop and manage scholarship and loan funds (she opposed the idea). By the time of her husband’s death, her son Herbert was already living in Los Angeles and her three sisters were living together in San Diego.
Nelly began to divide her time between Missouri, San Diego, and traveling with her sisters – they took extensive trips around the country and the world together – and finally, in 1938, made a permanent move to San Diego. San Diego papers show that Bessie, Nelly and June were often in attendance at events held by the Southern California Alumnae Club. Nelly died in 1948 and is buried back in Iowa with her husband.
None of the sisters pursued a paying occupation after 1900, corroborating the family’s wealth. San Diego newspapers show that the Peery sisters were of great interest to the society editors, and their luncheons, visitors, travels and “courtesies” were frequently reported. In 1910, sister Bessie was heralded as one of the best and most experienced motorcar drivers in the country, having logged more than 4,000 miles. She and sister June became the first women to successfully drive through the mountains surrounding San Diego. The Peery sisters are mentioned often at Pi Phi events, such as Founders Day or alumnae club meetings.
Special thanks given to the History Mavens who assisted with the research: Penny Proctor, Fran Becque, Cara Sutcliffe, and Betsy McCune.
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And while we are on the topic of jewelry, here is a new version of a white gold camphor glass crest ring, obtained by the Chi Omega Archives in 2016 has been reproduced under the careful guidance of Chi Omega Archivist, Lyn Harris. It is gorgeous!
