Fraternity History & More

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.

Carrie Washburne Staehle was born on April 11, 19oo, about six months after the sorority was founded. She became a member of the Alpha Chapter of Alpha Sigma Tau on January 12, 1924. And while she was not a founder of her beloved sorority, she was indeed a builder and played an integral role in the growth of Alpha Sigma Tau.

In 1926, Alpha Sigma Tau joined the Association of Education Sororities (AES). She served as national president of the sorority from 1934 through 1949. Alpha Sigma Tau became a full member of the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) when the merger of AES and NPC was formalized in 1951. Staehle served as Alpha Sigma Tau’s NPC Delegate for 20 years from 1947, when AST became an associate member of NPC until 1967. From 1952 until 1960 she was National Secretary and from 1960 until 1976, she was Director of Publications. She was named President Emerita in 1970.

April 11 of each year is known as Carrie Washburne Staehle Day. Of her service, Alpha Sigma Tau said:

Renowned Past National President Carrie Washburne Staehle, Alpha, was a natural change agent – and innovated and managed change at a critical time in Alpha Sigma Tau’s history. As a leader, she inspired her Sisters to grow, develop, perform, and (perhaps most importantly) embrace change to help our Sorority achieve the “loveliness of its ideals.”

Carrie Washbourne Staehle died on June 17, 2001, at the age of 101, according to an obituary published in the Alameda Times. As a member of the Alpha chapter, she lived the history of the organization and was alive at its centennial. What a magnificent role she played in the sorority she loved!

In June 2023, Ketanji Brown Jackson became an honorary initiate of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She became the third sorority woman to be a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

Amy Comey Barrett, an initiate of the Kappa Delta chapter at Rhodes College, was the second sorority woman appointed to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Barrett, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in English. She is a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, Mortar Board and is in the Rhodes Student Hall of Fame.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an Alpha Epsilon Phi, was the first sorority woman to serve in that capacity. Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman Justice, was not a sorority woman, although many think she was.

I am reminded of the quote from a post which was highlighted previously. In 1921, Mary Love Collins, Chi Omega , said “All women are lifted up by heights attained by one woman.”

The 1921 edition of The Sorority Handbook by Ida Shaw Martin contained this information about the two organizations who celebrating their founding on October 24. Delta Zeta founded in 1902 was not yet 20 years old and Alpha Epsilon Phi was about 12. Note that they both have full governing councils. The women serving their organizations were young career women and homemakers. These women dedicated themselves to nurturing and growing their o

Delta Zeta was admitted to membership in the National Panhellenic Conference in 1910. Alpha Epsilon Phi did not become a full member of NPC until 1951, although it had been given associate membership in 1947.

Alpha Epsilon Phi*

October 24, 1909

National Council

Chapter Roll – Adelphi, Cornell, Denver, Hunter, Illinois, Newcomb, New York State College for Teachers, New York University, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Syracuse

Alpha Epsilon Phi has 11 college chapters, and 5 alumnae associations. The total membership is 500, the active membership 200, the average initiation (yearly total) 75. The badge shows the three sorority letters, jeweled in pearls, and placed in sequence upon a narrow gold bar. The pledge pin is a triangle enameled in white with a narrow border of green. The coat-of-arms displays three pillars, supporting entablature that carries the three sororoity letters, and resting upon a broad base inscribed with the sorority name in Greek. At the base of the central pillar is the Book of All Ages carrying the motto, Multa Corda Una Causa. Above the book is a lamp of friendship. At the base of the outer pillar burns bowls of incense. The sorority has no national flag.

Colors – Green and White. Flower – Lily-of-the-Valley. Jewel – Pearl. Open Motto – Multa Corda Una Causa. Insignia – Three Pillars, Book of All Ages, Lamp of Friendship. Patron – None. Call – None.

Magazine – Alpha Epsilon Phi Quarterly – 1918

Convention – New York City – 1921.

*For Jewish Women

Delta Zeta

October 24, 1902

Grand Council

President, Rennie Sebring Smith, Y.W.C.A., Muncie, Ind.

Vice-President, Ruby Long, Cashmere, Wash.

Secretary, Louella Reeder, Baldwin, Kansas.

Treasurer, Mrs. Carl G. Malott, Box 411, San Benito, Tex.

Historian, Mrs. John M. Coleman, Loveland, Ohio

Big Sister, Mrs. Nettie W. Shugart, 231 N. 14^th St., Lincoln, Neb.

Registrar, Henrietta Schlegel, 73 Harwood Ave., Mt. Washington, Pa.

Parliamentarian, Alys Sutton, 1640 Fowler St., Portland, Ore.

Editor, Arema O’Brien, 78 W. 4^th Ave., Columbus, O.

Chapter Roll – Baker, California, Cincinnati, Cornell, Denver, DePauw, Eureka, Franklin, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas State College, Lombard, Louisiana, Miami, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio State, Oregon State College, Pittsburgh, Washington State, Washington State College, Wisconsin

Delta Zeta has 22 chapters and 13 alumnae associations. The total membership is 2,200, the active membership 450, the average initiation (yearly total) 200. The badge is a Roman lamp, flanked with Mercury wings and supported by the cap of an Ionic column. The sorority letters appear in black enamel on the bowl of the lamp, the official jeweling being a diamond in the flame of the lamp and four pearls at the base of the cap. The pledge pin is diamond-shaped and is inlaid with a gold lamp.

Colors – Old Rose and Nile Green. Flower – Killarney Rose. Jewel – Diamond. Open Motto – None. Insignia – Lamp, Bible, Scroll, Distaff, Bodkin.

Magazine – The Lamp –  1909

Convention – New York City, 1922

From Alpha Epsilon Phi’s website: Alpha Epsilon Phi Sorority was founded on October 24, 1909 by seven Jewish women at Barnard College in New York City.  Their goal was to foster lifelong friendship and sisterhood, academics, social involvement and community service while providing a home away from home for their members.  The dream that was born in a dorm room at Barnard College in 1909 continues to succeed, prosper and thrive on over 50 college and university campuses nationwide.

From Delta Zeta’s website: We’re nearly 270,000 women strong with 170 active collegiate chapters! Our Founders might not have imagined 117 years plus of sisterhood, or so many sisters. But they’d be delighted to know they have inspired a group of women, who have made a promise to live truly, and to continue doing so one generation after another.

Happy Founders’ Day, Delta Zeta and Alpha Epsilon Phi!

October 15 is Founders’ Day for both Alpha Chi Omega and Zeta Tau Alpha. In 1885, Alpha Chi Omega was founded at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. Thirteen years later, in 1898, Zeta Tau Alpha was founded at the State Female Normal School (now Longwood University) in Farmville, Virginia.

Alpha Chi Omega’s  seven founders, Anna Allen, Olive Burnett, Bertha Deniston, Amy DuBois, Nellie Gamble, Bessie Grooms and Estelle Leonard, were students in the DePauw School of Music. With the guidance and support of James Hamilton Howe, Dean of the School of Music, they created an organization that at its beginning insisted its members possess some musical culture. The first appearance of Alpha Chi Omega was in Meharry Hall of East College. The seven women wore scarlet and olive ribbon streamers attached to their dresses to display the organization’s colors.

Zeta Tau Alpha‘s founders are Alice Maud Jones Horner, Frances Yancey Smith, Alice Bland Coleman, Ethel Coleman Van Name, Ruby Bland Leigh Orgain, Mary Campbell Jones Batte, Helen May Crafford, Della Lewis Hundley, and Alice Grey Welsh.

Ravinia, in Highland Park, Illinois, north of Chicago, was a hopping place. In August of 1920, it was in its 16^th season. The moniker, “summer opera capital of the world” was becoming its claim to fame.

Alpha Chi’s Alpha Alpha Alumnae Chapter held a picnic at Ravinia on Thursday, August 5. The women attended the Chicago Symphony orchestra’s afternoon concert. Then they enjoyed a meal on the porch of Ethel Sutherlin Bergey’s home at Ravinia. Her husband Theodore spent the summer coaching grand opera. Some of the women stayed afterwards and attended the Symphony’s evening performance.

Ethel Sutherlin Bergey was a member of the Alpha Chapter of Alpha Chi. An alumna of the De Pauw School of Music, she studied there under Alpha Chi’s patron James H. Howe. In 1891, Alpha Chi’s first convention took place in her home. She studied opera in Europe and was “well known in the music world,” according to a profile in an Alpha Chi publication.

Zeta Tau Alpha’s Eighth Convention took place at the Congress Hotel in Chicago from August 3 until August 9 and there were about 80 women in attendance. Among the convention’s highlights was a talk by National President Dr. May Agness Hopkins about her war work in France. Hopkins also spoke on “The Upbuilding of a Nobler and Purer Womanhood.”

Fern Eaton’s report in The Themis included this tidbit, “I haven’t told you about the theater part Monday night, which we all attended, nor of the highbrows who went to Ravinia to hear the Metropolitan opera singers in Carmen, nor – shall I say it? – the lowbrows who could not resist the big circus over in Grant Park….”

Although the Zetas attended Ravinia on Wednesday and the Alpha Chis were there on Thursday, one can hope that perhaps the Zetas who might have been sporting their badges ran into Ethel Sutherlin Bergey and they exchanged Panhellenic greetings. I also suspect that over the past 100 years, Panhellenic women have been meeting and enjoying performances at Ravinia.

On October 13, 1870, Kappa Kappa Gamma made its debut at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois. It has been said that Kappa’s organization took place earlier in the year, but its public appearance didn’t take place until October “because they were unable to secure their badges more promptly.” Having walked the Monmouth campus and downtown many times, I always try to envision what life was like for those 1870 coeds. It never fails to amaze me that Kappa and its Monmouth Duo partner, Pi Beta Phi, are here today. Both were forced to cease operations when the college banned all fraternal organizations in the late 1870s.

In those days, the Alpha Chapter, the Mother Chapter, was typically the head of governance of the organization. It issued charters and ran the show. Lucky for both Kappa and Pi Phi that the women who joined the other young chapters of the organizations took charge of things and continued without their respective Alpha chapters. Those who follow the founders often don’t have their status or glory, but their work as “builders” is of vital importance to the organization.

One of the most influential of early Kappa builders was Tade Hartsuff of the Mu Chapter at Butler University. As an undergraduate she advocated for a Grand Council governance model and she proposed the founding of a fraternity magazine. She served as Kappa’s first Grand President while still an undergraduate. During her term of office, Kappa invited six groups to a meeting in Boston. It was the first attempt at Panhellenic cooperation. She was Grand President from 1881-1884. She graduated the same year that she left office.

In 1886, she married John Bugher Kuhns, a member of Phi Delta Theta. She loved attending Kappa conventions and she was at the 50th anniversary celebration on Mackinac Island. At the Golden Jubilee Tade Hartsuff Kuhns gave to Kappa Kappa Gamma the full length portrait Elizabeth Gowdy Baker painted of her. I’ve seen it in person and it is breathtaking. Baker, an alumna of the Monmouth College Kappa chapter, captured Kuhn’s spirit, and the painting is simple and yet elegant at the same time.

The 50th Anniversary of Kappa Kappa Gamma was celebrated in 1920 at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan. Although two founders, Louise Bennett Boyd and Jeannette Boyd were still alive, they were unable to attend the festivities. No only were the two Kappa sisters, they were also sisters-in-law, Louise having married Jeannette’s brother. The two wrote a letter which was published in The Key:

Dear Kappa Sisters: Permit us to thank you for the many kind words spoken of the early Kappas, and especially of the ‘Founders’ at the recent Convention, and also for the lovely invitation to be their guests during the Convention and ‘in transitu.’ We regretted very much that we could not accept the hospitality of the Kappa girls and have a part in all the interesting ‘doings’ of the Convention. We more than ever regret it since meeting a number of those who attended and who have given us such glowing accounts of the gaities they enjoyed. I presume we might have contributed a unique group at the ‘bal masque’ as the greatgrandmothers of the order – any way, we should have enjoyed looking on.

We very highly appreciate the favor done us in giving us an honorary connection with the ‘Students’ Aid Fund’ which will prove such a blessing to many an ambitious girl of the future and we trust that it may grow into a rival of the Carnegie Fund in the coming years. If we can be of any service in the way of information at any time, we shall be glad to know of it. With greetings to all the Kappa girls we are, very sincerely, Yours in the Kappa bonds.

Helen C. Shepherd, a member of the Upsilon Chapter at Northwestern University, wrote of her convention experience. Although 100 years have passed, I think her words are as true today as they were then:

The greatest impression which I received was the ‘spirit’ of Kappa. I had never realized or thought how big Kappa really is, and I believe there are others like me. It seemed to me that Kappa was centered only around the chapter in which I was initiated and the alumnae of my own chapter. I was very much startled when I realized that all the girls in the big dining room of the Grand Hotel at Mackinac knew the secrets and ideals of Kappa Kappa Gamma….So many new ideas that other chapters have tried I have brought home, and the one which stand out the foremost — is the ‘spirit’ of Kappahood. I hope that I can express to my chapter that which seemed most impressive to me.

The pictures from the convention which were published in The Key were wonderful. Here are a few of my favorites. I was glad to see that Tade Hartsuff Kuhns, one of Kappa’s greatest builders, was there to enjoy the festivities.

Happy 150th, Kappa Kappa Gamma. With love from a member of your Monmouth Duo partner.

Alpha Phi is the oldest of the Syracuse Triad, the three women’s National Panhellenic Conference organizations, Alpha Phi, Gamma Phi Beta and Alpha Gamma Delta were  founded at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.  In 1871, a chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon was established at Syracuse University. 

In September of 1872,  Martha Foote (Crowe), Clara Sittser (Williams) and Kate Hogoboom (Gilbert) discussed  the situation. Foote led the charge and pondered the thought of women  having fraternal organizations comparable to the ones the men enjoyed.  They  invited all the college women to discuss the possibility.

In September 1872, 10 women – the original three and Jane Higham, Clara Bradley (Burdette), Louise Shepherd (Hancock), Florence Chidester (Lukens), Ida Gilbert (Houghton), Elizabeth Grace (Hubbell), and Rena  Michaels (Atchinson) met and pledged allegiance to the sisterhood.  Minutes from the first meeting noted that Michaels was chosen president, plans were  made for weekly meetings at which literary exercises would be part of the  program, and a 25¢ tax was levied for the purchase of a secretary’s book.  The  first debate was “Resolved – that women have their rights.” Founders’ Day is celebrated on October 10.

Elizabeth Northup, grew up in Waltham, Massachusetts, where she graduated from Waltham High School in 1888. She entered Boston University and became a member of the Eta Chapter of Alpha Phi. Northup earned an A.B. in 1894 and graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors. She later earned a Masters of Arts degree at BU.

Northup served as Alpha Phi’s President from 1896-1898. Anna Hersey (Cadmus) was elected President at the 1896 Convention but was only able to serve for four months. Northup took over and presided at the 1898 convention in Boston. It rained throughout the convention but “this could not dampen the spirits nor lessen the enjoyment of the members.”

Northrup served as editor of The Alpha Phi Quarterly for three years, from 1894 until 1897. The “pages of The Quarterly under her evinced intelligent interest in the people and affairs of other colleges and in the ‘Sparks from Many Forges’ alumnae set forth their various observations and opinions.”

In 1926 Alpha Phi’s convention took place at Swampscott, Massachusetts. There, Northrup was authorized to write a memorial service.

She was one of the few women who served as a trustee of Boston University. In the fall of 1941 she spoke to the Sigma Kappa Boston Alumnae Chapter as a member of the Boston City Panhellenic Speakers’ Bureau. The Sigma Kappas said she was “a charming speaker.”

Northup edited publications for the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, the New England Conservatory of Music, and the Waltham Watch Company. In addition to her service to her Alma Mater, she was a trustee of Asbury Temple Methodist Church and the Waltham Public Library. Northup was also a steward of the Immanuel Church.

Elizabeth Northup died on May 28, 1962 at the age of 92.