June 9, 1902, is a defining date for two organizations, Alpha Xi Delta and the P.E.O. Sisterhood. P.E.O. was founded as a collegiate organization at Iowa Wesleyan University on January 21, 1869. Alpha Xi Delta was founded on April 17, 1893 at Lombard College in Galesburg, Illinois. Iowa Wesleyan is about 60 miles from Galesburg with the Mississippi River separating the two.
In the years between 1869 and 1902, the P.E.O. members who had been initiated while students at Iowa Wesleyan stayed active in the chapter even though they were no longer college students. Many remained in or near Mount Pleasant. Others formed town chapters after leaving the college. In 1889, the chapter at Iowa Wesleyan became a strictly collegiate one, Chapter AJ, which was relettered Iowa State Chapter S in 1893. The Mount Pleasant chapter that would later be named Original Chapter A was comprised of those who were not enrolled in college.
The early P.E.O. chapters that had been founded at nearby schools, including Mount Pleasant Seminary, Jacksonville Female Academy and Bloomfield Normal School, did not survive and P.E.O.’s growth was in community chapters. The chapter at Iowa Wesleyan was finding it difficult to operate on a college campus with the rules put forth by the community chapters. After the turn of the century, the governing body of P.E.O. made the decision to withdraw the charter of the Iowa Wesleyan chapter. The students wished to remain a collegiate organization and discussed becoming a chapter of a Greek-letter organization.
The Alpha Xi Delta chapter at Lombard, having made the decision to become a national organization, and the collegiate members of P.E.O., having decided to become a chapter of a Greek-letter organization, discussed the decisions that needed to be made on both sides. Anna Gillis (Kimble), a member of the Alpha Xi Delta chapter at Lombard College, was from Mount Pleasant. Her influence may have helped the Iowa Wesleyan women make the decision to become the Beta Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta.
Anna Gillis Kimble
On that Monday in 1902, the Alpha Xi Delta members entered the Lombard College Chapel wearing tri-colored ribbons for the first time. The ribbons signified that they were now a national organization. After chapel, the Alpha Xi Delta installing officers made their way from Galesburg to Mount Pleasant.
The installation of Alpha Xi Delta’s second chapter took place at the home of Ellen Ball. Cora Bollinger-Block presided at the installation. Helping her were Ella Boston-Leib,* Alice Barlett-Bruner, Jennie Marriot-Buchanan, Virginia Henney Franklin, Anna Kimble, and Edna Epperson-Brinkham. With the installation of the chapter, it signified, too, the day that P.E.O. became a community organization.
The home of Ellen Ball where the festivities took place in 1902, as it appeared in 2018.
In 1913, Iowa Wesleyan College authorities allowed the chapter to initiate the P.E.O. alumnae as Alpha Xi Deltas. Afterwards, the Mount Pleasant Alumnae Club of Alpha Xi Delta was formed.
The only P.E.O. founder to be continuously involved with P.E.O. was Alice Bird Babb. Her daughter Alice Babb was a member of the Beta Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta.
The Mount Pleasant, Iowa, Alumnae Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta had a breakfast each year at a hotel. On June 4, 1924, P.E.O. founder Alice Bird Babb was their guest and she spoke at the event. Babb mentioned she had always wanted to be an Alpha Xi Delta, but she “never expected to be here while college was in session.”
Mount Pleasant alumna Ruth Willits wrote a report of this event for The Quill. It appears as if the initiation had not been planned in advance:
The idea was an inspiration to us and it grew so fast that by six o’clock that evening we had seen an initiation ceremony given in the historic room in Main Hall – that room so interesting to P.E.O. – the room in which our initiate had helped found P.E.O. in 1869. I’m sure I never saw the ceremony performed more beautifully. Something seemed to tell all of us that we were renewing our vows to Alpha Xi Delta.
This spur of the moment initiation might be why she was initiated with Bess Randle Van Brussel’s badge. Babb was 74 years old when she became an Alpha Xi Delta. She died in 1926.
The Alpha Xi Delta chapter was active until Iowa Wesleyan University closed after the spring 2023 semester.
Anna Gillis-Kimble was the first Alpha Xi Delta delegate to attend the Inter-Sorority Conference (now known as the National Panhellenic Conference) in 1904. She served as the first Editor of The Alpha Xi Delta of the Alpha Xi Delta Sorority (now The Quill). Her role in making Alpha Xi Delta a national organization was only one of her contributions to her beloved sorority.
* Ella Boston Leib also served as Alpha Xi Delta’s Grand President, National Panhellenic Conference delegate, and Chairman of NPC as well as the President of Illinois State Chapter of P.E.O. For more information about this, please take a look at this post http://wp.me/p20I1i-Gz .
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2014. All rights reserved.
