Happy Founders’ Day Gamma Phi Beta!

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On November 11, 1874, Gamma Phi Beta was founded at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.  Gamma Phi’s founders are Mary A. Bingham Willoughby, E. Adeline Curtis, Frances E. Haven Moss, and Helen M. Dodge Ferguson. Below they are pictured at the 1907 Syracuse Convention. It was the last time they would all be together.

In a 1912 issue of The Crescent of Gamma Phi Beta, Frances Haven Moss told the story of her beloved sorority, “My father having been elected Chancellor of Syracuse University, I found myself in Syracuse, NY in September 1874. Having had two years in Northwestern University and a year of music in Brooklyn and not being over strong physically my education was supposed to be completed. The recently opened department of fine arts proved a great temptation, however, and I was a happy girl indeed, when I found myself registered as a sophomore in the same. 

“The first social function I attended in Syracuse was a church oyster supper and there I met my future husband who was assisting two young ladies in caring for one of the tables. These young ladies, I learned later, were members of a society called Alpha Phi and an invitation to join the same was soon extended to me. After due deliberation I thanked them for the honor but declined. I never was so surprised in my life for I found myself entirely out in the cold. I soon discovered that there were other girls in just the same position. As misery loved company we drifted together and finding each other congenial, the question was broached – ‘Why shall we not found a society of our own!’

“No sooner was the matter mentioned than we found all our friends not only ready but eager to help. Three out of the four girls had brothers in the university and there were others who were not brothers but were just as deeply interested. Any one of them would have gladly drawn up a condition for us with by-laws and initiation complete. But my father gave us our motto; Helen Dodge drew up the constitution and her brother who was studying for the ministry added the Hebrew letters to our pin; he who became my husband wrote for us the words for a song and helped design our pin; dear Professor Brown offered us the use of his parlor for our meetings and though we  could not accept because there were Alpha Phis rooming in his house, in recognition of his encouragement and long continued support, we chose our colors, light and dark brown.

“Before we secured our pins we had taken in our first initiate and you never saw a prouder set of girls than the first five who appeared with the generous badges, a monogram enclosed in a crescent fully guarded by the letter ‘S’. Truly we felt ourselves successfully launched upon what we hoped would be a great success.” 

For more information about the history of Gamma Phi Beta, see http://wp.me/p20I1i-e5  and http://wp.me/p20I1i-6h (this link includes a picture of an early Gamma Phi house on Irving Avenue)

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Happy Founders’ Day Sigma Kappa! Colby College Was Home to the Alpha, Beta and Gamma Chapters

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Sigma Kappa was founded on November 9, 1874, 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, membership in Sigma Kappa 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 Delta chapter was installed at Boston University in 1904. In 1905, Sigma Kappa became a member of the National Panhellenic Conference. Sigma Kappa’s Alpha chapter closed in 1984 when Colby College banned all fraternities and sororities from campus.

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Celebrating 175 Years of Educating Women at Mount Holyoke College

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Thursday, November 8, is a very special day at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. A Founder’s Day celebration of MHC’s 175 years will begin with an ice cream social hosted by MHC President, Dr. Lynn Pasquerella, an alumna of the college, at the grave of MHC’s founder, Mary Lyon, in the center of campus.

Lyon was an early pioneer in the quest for women’s education. During her own education she was introduced by her mentor to an environment where women were treated as intellectual equals, an uncommon experience in the early 1800s. Her dream of having her own school prompted her to establish a women’s seminary (a seminary in Mary Lyon’s day and age was a secular school for women, not a religious training institution). It took her two years to find interested people who gave $15,000 to help make her idea a reality. Chartered in 1836, Mount Holyoke Seminary opened on November 8, 1837. Training women to become strong teachers was its primary mission.

Mary Lyon’s last year of full-time teaching was 1847-48 and she died the following year. By the late 1800’s, it had become necessary for the seminary to evaluate its educational status in order to keep up with the changing American society. Mount Holyoke Seminary moved away from being a seminary and became a full-fledged women’s college. The admission standards were changed in order to attract a more diverse student body. Four-year graduation requirements were established. The college began hiring professors rather than teachers. Science and literary courses were added and new buildings were constructed.

Field Memorial Gate Dedication, October 9, 1912

A campus landmark celebrated 100 years a month ago. The Fidelia Nash Field Memorial Gateway was dedicated on October 9, 1912 during the 75th Anniversary celebration. A gift of Helen Field James and  Joseph Nash Field to honor the memory of their mother, the gate is made of  brownstone and wrought iron. It is at the main entrance on College Street, near Lyon Hall. Their brother, Marshall Field, Chicago department store magnate, died in 1906.

Sigma Theta Chi Society, 1900

Around 1900, there were two Greek-letter literary societies at MHC. Sigma Theta Chi (pictured above) and Chi Phi Delta. A college publication noted, “The Sigma lately furnished the reading-room handsomely, and both are working heroically in the interests of endowment.”

Mount Holyoke, the first of the “Seven Sisters” colleges, would be followed by six others: Vassar (1861), Wellesley (1870), Smith (1871), Radcliffe (1879), Bryn Mawr (1885), and Barnard (1889). Two of these colleges were started as co-ordinates to men’s colleges. Radcliffe began as the co-ordinate to Harvard and Barnard was Columbia’s co-ordinate.

As the mother of a proud Mount Holyoke College alumna, I am well aware of how the college can change women’s lives. Thank you, Mary Lyon, for the adventures you have fostered in the lives of American women since 1837. Here’s to another 175 years of uncommon experiences!

Photos from the Mount Holyoke College Archives Digital Collection.

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On Election Day, Let Us Honor Carrie Chapman Catt, a Proud Fraternity Woman!

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Today is Election Day. One hundred years ago women did not have the right to vote in presidential elections. A fraternity woman, Carrie Lane Chapman Catt, an Iowa State Pi Beta Phi, was a leading force in the suffrage movement.

Carrie Chapman Catt wearing her Pi Beta Phi arrow badge. In the 1880s, a standardized manner of wearing the badge had yet to be determined and it was common for members to wear it in all sorts of ways, including pointing downward.

Catt was born on January 9, 1859, in Ripon, Wisconsin. She enrolled at Iowa State University in the fall of 1876 and was an active member of what is today known as the Iowa Gamma Chapter of Pi Beta Phi which was chartered on May 11, 1877, only 10 years after the Fraternity was founded. She was the first initiate after the chapter’s chartering.  She was a chapter officer. In addition, she worked washing dishes for nine cents an hour and in the library for ten cents an hour. She graduated from Iowa State in 1880 as valedictorian and she was the only woman in the class.

She utilized her Pi Beta Phi connections. In 1887, she wrote the Iowa Beta Chapter of Pi Beta Phi at Simpson College offering to speak in Indianola, the college’s home. She attended Pi Beta Phi’s 1890 convention in Galesburg, Illinois, and spoke about “The New Revolution.”

At the 1924 Eastern Conference of Pi Beta Phi, when the portrait of Vermont Beta and First Lady Grace Goodhue Coolidge was presented to the nation, she was the keynote speaker at the banquet. She was the first fraternity woman to receive Chi Omega’s National Achievement Award, a gold medal presented to a woman of notable accomplishment.

Catt was the President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1900-04 and 1915-20. She was hand-picked by her predecessor, Susan B. Anthony. Catt’s brilliant organization and oratory is credited with making the 19th Amendment a reality.

At the 50th National American Woman Suffrage Association Convention held in St. Louis, as the organization’s President, Catt proposed the creation of a “league of women voters to finish the fight and aid in the reconstruction of the nation.”

On February 14, 1920, in the Gold Room of the Chicago’s Congress Hotel, 520 South Michigan Avenue, hundreds of members of the National American Woman Suffrage Association gathered for a victory convention. They were anticipating the passage in Congress of the 19th Amendment. It had taken 72 years, but women finally had the right to vote. Catt called the session to order at 2:30 p.m.  According to the Convention minutes, “joy unconfined burst forth. For three-quarters of an hour, horns tooted, state delegations stood on chairs, sang, gave their yells, formed in groups and marched around the room waving American flags. The Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey marched amicably arm in arm to the platform.” That evening, the organization was officially disbanded. A new and independent group, the League of Women Voters, was formed with political education as its focus.

 © Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2014. All Rights Reserved. If  you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory/

Posted in Alpha Kappa Alpha, Carrie Chapman Catt, Delta Delta Delta, GLO, Greek-letter Organization, Greek-letter Organization History, National Panhellenic Conference, Notable Fraternity Women, Notable Sorority Women, Pi Beta Phi, Sorority History, Women's Fraternity History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on On Election Day, Let Us Honor Carrie Chapman Catt, a Proud Fraternity Woman!

Celebrating a Century of Championing Literacy!

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Della “Dell” Gillette, was born in Traverse City, Michigan. She studied library science at the University of Illinois and worked as a librarian. In October 1912, Elizabeth Clarke Helmick, Settlement School Committee Chairman, secured her services as a teacher at the Pi Beta Phi Settlement School in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Helmick met her in Chicago and hosted her for several days. Gillette met with the alumnae club and the Pi Beta Phi chapter at Northwestern University. Pi Beta Phi Founder Emma Brownlee Kilgore also attended the meeting. From there, Gillette stopped in Champaign to visit with her own chapter. In her zest for the Settlement School, she helped fan the flames of support for the project. Her chapter soon sent boxes of books for the students.

Gillette was the first Pi Beta Phi Settlement School teacher who was a member of Pi Beta Phi. The first teacher, Martha Hill, was a Tennessean and had taught throughout the state. Gillette was a foreigner, so to speak, and her tenure would have lasting impact on the Settlement School. From all accounts, she was a very earnest and determined woman, deeply committed to her work, and always going the extra mile. The Gatlinburg community loved her.

On January 31, 1913, the first American flag to fly from a pole over Gatlinburg was raised in front of the Settlement School building. Gillette introduced the students and their families to a real Christmas celebration. She started a library and began a sewing club for the older girls. While they worked on sewing projects, Gillette read to them. Two boys’ baseball teams were organized. When school ended at the end of March, it was the first time that the children had gone to school for eight months in one year.

Several years after Gillette left Gatlinburg and traveled back to Traverse City to become Mrs. Theron Morgan, it was said, “To this day, Miss Dell is lovingly spoken of, and there is not a person in Gatlinburg who doesn’t hope she will come back and visit them.”

On the weekend of November 2, 2012, “Miss Dell” returned to Gatlinburg. A statue created by sculptor Doug Young adorns the Centennial Plaza in front of the Arrowcraft Shop on the Parkway. Pi Beta Phis from across the country and Canada, as well as distinguished guests, including descendents of Pi Phi teachers, students and Settlement School Committee members, gathered to dedicate the plaza and unveil the statue of Gillette handing a book to a young student.

Additional information about the Pi Beta Phi Settlement School can be found on the Pi Phi Blog at www.piphiblog.org

The Fall 2011 Arrow located on the Pi Beta Phi website has an article about Dell Gillette. The Pi Beta Phi website also has a plethora of information about the celebration and the weekend’s activities.

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Happy Founders’ Day Alpha Sigma Tau

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On November 4, 1899, eight young women, Mable Chase, Ruth Dutcher, May Gephart, Harriet Marx, Eva O’Keefe, Adriance Rice, Helene Rice, and Mayene Tracy, formed a sorority at the Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University) in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Alpha Sigma Tau was the name they chose. The organization became a national one in October 1925.  In 1926, Alpha Sigma Tau joined the Association of Education Sororities (AES). Alpha Sigma Tau became a full member of the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) when the merger of AES and NPC was formalized in 1951.

In 1945, Alpha Sigma Tau chose the Pine Mountain Settlement School in southeastern Kentucky’s Harlan County as its philanthropy. Pine Mountain Settlement School was founded in 1913 by Katherine Pettit and Ethel DeLong Zande. William Creech Sr., a local citizen, donated the land in order to help provide education and other opportunities to local children and their families. Kansas City architect Mary Rockwell Hook designed plans for the campus and its buildings.

From 1913-20, Pine Mountain was a boarding school. It became a boarding high school in 1930 and a vocational component was added at that time. In the early years, the school included a working farm, print and wood shops, and a sewing room, as well as a medical clinic. Emphasis was also placed on traditional crafts.

Harlan County took on joint responsibility for the operation of a community elementary school by 1949. Environmental education became the school’s focus in 1972 when the Green Hills Elementary School in nearly Bledsoe opened. Classes in Appalachian culture and native crafts are also offered.

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A Red Door Greeting and Happy Founders’ Day to Sigma Phi Epsilon

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

November first is Sigma Phi Epsilon’s Founders’ Day. Twelve young men at the University of Richmond, one of whom, Carter Ashton Jenkins, was a Chi Phi member from Rutgers University, founded the fraternity in 1901. Jenkins first sought a charter from his fraternity, but the request was declined because the Baptist school was considered too small.

Instead Jenkins found 11 other congenial men who were also eager to share a brotherhood built upon “the love of God and the principle of peace through brotherhood.”  They named the organization Sigma Phi unaware that there was already a men’s fraternity by that name. The group then took the name Sigma Phi Epsilon.

One of the fraternity’s traditions began at Syracuse University. New York Alpha was the organization’s 18th chapter; it was founded on the campus in 1905. The chapter currently resides at 721 Comstock Avenue. The first red door made its appearance in 1928 at the chapter’s former home on Walnut Place; that building is now the Slutzker International Center.

The Slutzker International Center at Syracuse University, the former home of Sigma Phi Epsilon on Walnut Place. The red door tradition began at this house.

In 1928, a few of the brothers painted the front door red, one  the fraternity’s colors. The “welcome to all” tradition caught on quickly and red doors became a mainstay of Sig Ep chapters nationwide.

And here’s a shout out to my Sig Ep husband Dan, a member of the Virginia Epsilon chapter at Washington and Lee University. It was he who bought me this web-site and encouraged me to write about these topics that I find so fascinating.

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1893 World’s Fair Closed 119 Years Ago, Fraternity Women Met for Second Time

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

One hundred and nineteen years ago, on October 30, 1893, the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition closed at the end of the day. It commemmorated the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival on his journey across the Atlantic Ocean.

The Columbian Exposition also marked the second organized meeting of Panhellenic women. On July 19-20, 1893, a group met. This gathering at the World’s Fair was one of the items discussed at the prior meeting that took place in Boston in 1891 at Kappa Kappa Gamma’s invitation.

A “Congress of Fraternities” during the Fair was not only discussed when the seven women’s fraternities met in Boston, but the idea was also mentioned in both men’s and women’s fraternity magazines. During the 1890s, fraternity magazine exchanges were the primary manner in which information was shared between the organizations.

More information about this meeting can be found at http://wp.me/p20I1i-hk

New York State Building, 1893 Columbian Exposition

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The Ace of Clubs House, a Must See in Texarkana, Texas

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Texarkana is a city that is half in Texas and the other half, across State Line Road, is in Arkansas. A most unusual building, the Draughon-Moore Ace of Clubs House, is at 420 Pine Street on the Texas side. Built in 1885 by a native Tennessean, James Harris Draughon, its shape mimics the playing card form. It is an Italianate Victorian two-story brick home with a rectangular wing and three octagonal wings. A 20-foot tower and a spiral staircase add to the home’s uniqueness. Legend has it that the house’s shape commemorates the winning card in a game that helped Draughon fund his ventures. The home’s second owner, William Lowndes Whitaker, Sr., resided there from 1887-94 when attorney Henry Moore, Sr. purchased it. A kitchen wing and bathroom were added in the early 1900s. When Henry Moore, Jr. married Olivia Smith of Tyler, Texas, in 1920, they took up residence in the home. The younger Moore died in 1942, but his widow continued to live in the house until her death in 1985.

Ace of Clubs House, Texarkana, Texas

“And the fraternity connection?” you ask. Well, there are two. On November 10, 2012, the Texas A&M – Texarkana chapter of the history honor society, Phi Alpha Theta, will sponsor a photo shoot at the house. “Experience the fun side of history,” reads the flyer. For a $10 fee, historical clothing will be provided and a disk of photos will be given to ech participant.  Phi Alpha Theta was founded on March 14, 1921 at the University of Arkansas. A second chapter was founded a year later to the day at the University of Pittsburgh. Its purpose is to recognize excellence in the study of history.

Olivia Smith Moore, wife of Henry Moore, Jr., served Pi Beta Phi as an officer for more than three decades. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Missouri where she was a member of the Missouri Alpha chapter of Pi Beta Phi. From 1936-46, she served as a Province Vice-President. She then served as Treasurer of the Settlement School Committee until 1951. The Committee was charged with overseeing the work of the Pi Beta Phi Settlement School in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. In 1952, she was elected Grand Treasurer and served in that position until 1967. At the 1967 Centennial Convention, she was named Grand Treasurer Emerita. She often began her Grand Treasurer’s convention reports with the phrase, “We took in scads and we spent oodles.” Despite the joking, “Miss Olivia,” as she was known in the fraternity, kept a very careful eye on the organization’s funds. During her years of service, her Neiman Marcus shoe collection became legendary. Pi Beta Phi convention delegates considered it a treat to see the more than three dozen pairs of shoes she usually took to convention lined up on a chest of drawers in her hotel room.

Miss Olivia on stairs of the home, circa 1960s

Today, the home is part of the Texarkana Museums System. Miss Olivia deeded the home to the Texarkana Historical Society upon her death. Structurally, the home was in very good shape, having been well cared for throughout its existence. The museum opened in 1988. Rooms are decorated to provided glimpses into specific decades for “a walk through history.” The master bedroom is in the 1930s style. The closet is filled with boxes and boxes of Miss Olivia’s Neiman Marcus shoes. Some of her Pi Phi memorabilia can be found in the home.

Tours are given on a regular schedule and the home’s lawn and outbuildings can be rented for weddings, receptions, meetings, photo shoots, and lawn parties.

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The First NPC Meeting and the 36¢ Assessment

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

The National Panhellenic Conference’s 2012 meeting in St. Louis, Missouri begins today. NPC’s first meeting was in Chicago in 1902. After the first meeting, two copies of the minutes were mailed to each of the groups that sent representatives to the meeting. The seven founding organizations are Pi Beta Phi, Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Delta Gamma, Alpha Phi, Gamma Phi Beta, and Delta Delta Delta.

The amount assessed to the seven groups for the copies of the minutes was thirty-six cents. The excerpt above references a letter Minnie Ruth Terry, Alpha Phi, sent to each of the organizations that attended the meeting.

For more information on the first NPC meeting see:  http://wp.me/p20I1i-7N

To view the postcard (“We trust that nothing will prevent your being present.”) that was sent to each representative, see http://wp.me/p20I1i-d7

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