Happy 100th, Zeta Phi Beta!

Posted on January 16, 2020 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. turns 100 years old today. The idea for the organization happened when Arizona Cleaver was walking with Charles Robert Samuel Taylor, a Phi Beta Sigma at Howard University. Taylor suggested that Cleaver consider starting a sister organization to Phi Beta Sigma. She, along with her four friends, Pearl Neal, Myrtle Tyler, Viola Tyler, and Fannie Pettie, are the five pearls (founders) of Zeta Phi Beta.

Although there were already two sororities on the Howard University campus, Cleaver and her four friends were interested and started the process. They sought and were granted approval from university administrators. The five met for the first time as a sanctioned organization on January 16, 1920. They named their organization Zeta Phi Beta. It is the only National Pan-Hellenic Council sorority constitutionally bound to a fraternity; that fraternity is Phi Beta Sigma.

In 1923, Zeta Phi Beta was the first of the NPHC sororities to establish a chapter in Texas. Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, was the chapter’s home. The college was founded in 1873 by the Freedman’s Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It was the first black college west of the Mississippi River. West Texas was a challenging site for the college, given the overt racism and Jim Crow laws of the time. The 2007 film, The Great Debaters, starring Denzel Washington, is based on a true story about the Wiley College Debating Team which was coached  by Melvin Beavnorus Tolson. In 1935, the Wiley team debated and beat the national champion team from the University of Southern California (the film changed the team to that of Harvard University).

Zeta Phi Beta made history with its 1937 Grand Boule’ (national convention). About three years earlier, Lambda Zeta, a graduate chapter based in Houston, was chartered. Violette Anderson, the 8th Grand Basileus (national president), asked Lambda Zeta to host the convention. It was the first time any black GLO held a convention below the Mason-Dixon line. The meetings took place in Houston’s black business area. The Y.W.C.A. cafeteria provided the meals because downtown Houston had no restaurants available to blacks. The delegates were housed with members and friends.

Violette Anderson
Violette Anderson

Although she had sought the locale and made the connections, Anderson was unable to preside at that Houston Boule’. An article in the January 29, 1938 Pittsburgh Courier with the subtitles “SPIRIT OF LATE BASILEUS INSPIRES SORORS TO ACTION” and “Progress Under Leadership of the Late Attorney Violette Anderson Is Recalled” offers some insight:

CHICAGO, Jan. 27—When Attorney Violette N. Anderson passed just before the 1937 Boule, the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority lost a most conscientious, industrious and outstanding Soror and Grand Basileus.

During the four years that Soror Anderson was the grand basileus it was evident that she had not only stressed and worked for the development of finer womanhood for Zeta, but had done so for all humanity.

It was Soror Attorney Anderson who made the personal contacts which made Zeta alive in some of our leading colleges, universities and cities. Her guidance as a Zeta, a Christian, a lawyer (the first race woman attorney to practice before the Supreme Court), a club woman, and a good citizen, kept all Zetas alive and living up to their ideal of ‘Finer Womanhood.’

Under her administrative leadership, the sorority carried on its wide-awake recreational project for the handicapped in Coatesville, Pa. That project was directed by Soror Gertrude Hamm, of Washington, DC , and her assistants. The project received nation-wide favorable comment.

Although at the Boule in Houston, Texas, during the holidays, all Zetas were saddened by the death of their grand basileus, Attorney Violette N. Anderson, they were happy to know that her last year for Zeta closed with over one hundred active Zeta Phi Beta Chapters, and an incomparable published book of Zeta’a accomplishments. ‘Time Marches On,’ thus a new grand basileus, Soror Nellie B. Rogers, was elected for 1938. Mrs. Rogers is a native of Indianapolis, Ind., and other than being a teacher in the public schools there, she is a singer and an active worker in religious, civic, social and educational circles. She has her A. B. degree, is working on her master’s degree, and studies with the Musical College of Indianapolis.

Congratulations, Zeta Phi Beta, as you start on your next 100 years!

The 15th Boule took place in Washington, D.C. in 1935. (Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution)
The 15th Boule took place in Washington, D.C. in 1935. (Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution)
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Anna J. Cooper, Ph.D., on Alpha Kappa Alpha’s Founding Day

Posted on January 15, 2020 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, the first Greek-letter organization for African-American women, was founded on January 15, 1908 by nine young female Howard University students. They were led by the vision of Ethel Hedgeman (Lyle); she had spent several months sharing her idea with her friends. During this time, she was dating her future husband, George Lyle, a charter member of the Beta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha.

After choosing a name for their sorority, the nine women wrote a constitution and a motto. Additionally, they chose salmon pink and apple green as the sorority’s colors and ivy as its symbol. A group of seven sophomore women were invited to become members. They did not partake in an initiation ceremony and all 16 women are considered founders. The first “Ivy Week” took place in May 1909 and ivy was planted at Howard University’s Miner Hall. On January 29, 1913, Alpha Kappa Alpha was incorporated.

One of its prominent members was Anna J. Cooper, of the Xi Omega chapter. In 1884, she graduated from Oberlin College, one of the first institutions to enroll African American students. Before entering Oberlin she had been married and widowed. She taught and was principal of M Street High School in Washington, D.C. In 1924, at the age of 65, she earned a Ph.D. from the Sorbonne in Paris, France, after completing many of the credits at Columbia University in New York. Xi Omega hosted a reception for her on December 29, 1925, at Howard University, on the occasion of the degree presentation, since she had been unable to return to France for the festivities.

Cooper was a feminist who worked tirelessly to advance the status of African American women. She is known as the “Mother of Black Feminism.”  She was the author of A Voice from the South, published in 1892. That year, she helped found the Colored Women’s League. She has been honored in many ways. There is a United States Postal Service stamp with her portrait on it. Wake Forest University has the Anna J. Cooper Center on Gender, Race, and Politics. The Episcopal Church (USA) has a feast day in her honor on its liturgical calendar. She died in 1964 at the age of 105.

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Mary Church Terrell on Delta Sigma Theta’s Founding Day

Posted on January 13, 2020 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On January 13, 1913, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. was founded at Howard University. All 22 founders – Winona Cargile (Alexander), Madree Penn (White), Wertie Blackwell (Weaver), Vashti Turley (Murphy), Ethel Cuff (Black), Frederica Chase (Dodd), Osceola Macarthy (Adams), Pauline Oberdorfer (Minor), Edna Brown (Coleman), Edith Mott (Young), Marguerite Young (Alexander), Naomi Sewell (Richardson), Eliza P. Shippen,  Zephyr Chisom (Carter), Myra Davis (Hemmings), Mamie Reddy (Rose), Bertha Pitts (Campbell), Florence Letcher (Toms), Olive Jones, Jessie McGuire (Dent), Jimmie Bugg (Middleton), and Ethel Carr (Watson) – had been members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, which was founded at Howard University on January 16, 1908. When a disagreement about the future of the organization arose between the active chapter and the alumnae, an ultimatum was given, decisions were made, and in the end, the active members left Alpha Kappa Alpha and became Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Myra Davis went from being the president of the Alpha Kappa Alpha chapter to being president of the Delta Sigma Theta chapter. Many of the first meetings were held in Edna Brown’s living room. The 1913 Valedictorian and Class President, she married Frank Coleman, a founder of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. Florence Letcher’s hobby of collecting elephant figurines led to the animal becoming the sorority’s symbol.

Nearly two months after its founding, on March 3, 1913, the women took part in the historic suffrage march in Washington, D.C. They were the only African-American women’s group to participate. Honorary member Mary Church Terrell, an ardent suffragist and civil rights activist, joined them in their march. She inspired and mentored the women. Terrell wrote the Delta Oath in 1914.

The daughter of former slaves, Terrell was an 1884 graduate of Oberlin College. She taught high school, was a principal, and was appointed to the District of Columbia Board of Education. Terrell was a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and picketed at the White House. She was the first president of the National Association of Colored Women. Terrell dedicated herself to suffrage and equal rights. She signed the charter that established the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. A year later, she was one of the founders of the College Alumnae Club, which later became the National Association of University Women (NAUW). She was awarded three honorary doctorates. She died in 1954.

Mary Church Terrell
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On Carrie Chapman Catt’s Birthday

Posted on January 9, 2020 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

“Carrie Chapman Catt, the person who was instrumental in getting women the right to vote, was in a sorority? You’ve got to be kidding me!,” exclaimed a student in the women’s studies discussion session I led years ago as a graduate student. Well, technically Catt was a member of a women’s fraternity, but the terms “sorority” and “women’s fraternity” are essentially the same, so yes, in fact, she was. And so this post will not be about Carrie Chapman Catt, the suffragist as there are many who write about her in that way, but as Carrie Chapman Catt, the fraternity woman.

Carrie Lane (Chapman Catt) was among the first females to graduate from Iowa State University. While there she became a member of Pi Beta Phi. Although she worked her way through school, she made time to be a member of the chapter. After graduating as valedictorian and the only woman in her class, she started teaching.  While she was teaching school in Mason City, Iowa, she posed for pictures wearing her Pi Beta Phi arrow badge.

After graduation, Catt remained an active member of Pi Beta Phi and she utilized her fraternity connections. In 1887, she wrote the Iowa Beta Chapter of Pi Beta Phi at Simpson College offering to speak in Indianola, where Simpson College is located. She attended Pi Beta Phi’s 1890 convention in Galesburg and spoke about “The New Revolution.”

Carrie Chapman Catt is in the second row, fifth from the left, in this photo taken of the 1890 Pi Beta Phi convention attendees.

In May 1902, Elizabeth Gamble, Pi Beta Phi’s Grand President wrote to a friend:

While in Chicago station I met Mrs. Catt on her way from Montana – Had a long talk. She is going to try to get the N.Y. City – Pi Beta Phi together for a meeting Saturday morning before I sail, to organize. Have you met Mrs. Catt? I liked her.

When Gamble arrived in New York City a few days later, prior to boarding a ship for Europe, she received a letter at the St. Denis Hotel where she way staying. The Pi Beta Phi Alumnae in New York City had not yet organized an official alumnae club. Catt wrote to Gamble:

We talked with the Manager of the St. Denis over the telephone and secured their consent to hold our meeting in the reception room near the elevator, on the second floor, from 9:30 A.M. to 11:00 on Saturday morning. I then sent a letter to the seventeen names whose addresses were given on the list. There will not be time for them to send replies to me, and therefore, I did not ask them to do so. I do not know how many will come or whether any will come.

I would suggest that you speak to the management on Saturday morning, mentioning the fact a promise was given for this room, and that they should inform the elevator boy that the persons wishing to see Miss Gamble should be shown to this reception room. It would be well for you to be there a few moments before half past nine. I shall expect to be there promptly if possible, but as I live a long ways away, I may be delayed. We must arrange to dismiss you at eleven o’clock sharp so that you many have the full hour for you to reach your Steamer. Hoping to see you Saturday, I am, Yours Fraternally,”

She was the keynote speaker at Pi Beta Phi’s Eastern Conference in 1924. There, the portrait of First Lady Grace Goodhue Coolidge, a fellow Pi Phi, was presented to the nation.

She was the first fraternity woman to receive Chi Omega’s National Achievement Award, a gold medal presented to a woman of notable accomplishment.

Mrs. Roosevelt presents the National Achievement Award to Carrie Chapman Catt. Mrs. Catt’s dress was navy and the corsage was given to her by Pi Beta Phi’s Grand President, Amy Burnham Onken. Miss Onken attended the presentation at the White House.
From a display at Chi Omega’s Executive Office

In 1939, she was one of the speakers at the Panhellenic Day at the New York World’s Fair.

Genevieve B. Earle, Kappa Alpha Theta, Carrie Chapman Catt, Pi Beta Phi, Josephine Schain, Pi Beta Phi and Eloise Davison, Gamma Phi Beta, at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

In Catt’s honor, Pi Beta Phi celebrates Chapter Loyalty Day on her birthday, January 9.

The inside of the favor for the Founders’ Day Luncheon of the New York Pi Beta Phi Alumnae Club. It took place at the Hotel Astor on April 15, 1924. Catt signed each favor.
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Zenobia Wooten Keller on Phi Mu’s Founding Day

Posted on January 4, 2020 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

The Philomathean Society was founded on January 4, 1852, at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. Mary Ann DuPont (Lines) likely came up with the idea. She joined with Mary Elizabeth Myrick (Daniel) and Martha Bibb Hardaway (Redding) and they are the founders of Phi Mu. Founders’ Day is celebrated on March 4, the day the new society was announced. In 1904, the Philomathean Society became Phi Mu and established its second chapter at Hollins College in Virginia.

At the 1919 Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, Zenobia Wooten Keller, became National President, following in the footsteps of Nellie S. Hart. She was a charter member of Theta Chapter at Belmont College, established in April 1907. In addition to being her chapter’s president, she was vice president of her class. She earned a “Certificate of Distinction” for having the highest GPA for two semesters. A soloist for the Belmont Glee Club, she was also its president. She served as vice president of the YWCA and on the yearbook editorial staff.

In 1908, she was elected First Vice President and three years later she became National Secretary. The Chicago Alumnae Association was established in 1909, the first of Phi Mu’s alumnae associations. She served as its president. She married Irvine M. Keller, a Sigma Alpha Epsilon, in 1912. A year later, she served as President of Gamma Province while serving as chair of Phi Mu’s Discipline Board. Additionally, she attended the 1913 meeting of the National Panhellenic Congress, as the Conference was then known. At the 1910 Phi Mu Convention, she seconded the motion to abolish all chapters institutions that were not up to NPC standards (sometimes call B-rank chapters or non-collegiate rank chapters). The motion carried and by closing the chapters, Phi Mu could join NPC. It also meant that Keller’s chapter was one of the chapters that had to close.

She rejoined the national council in 1916. It was noted that “poise and dignity are indeed characteristic of our new President. Business-like she can be; but she is very human and approachable, too.” After serving as National President from 1919-1923, she served as National Secretary until 1956. That year Phi Mu honored her at convention as its Woman of the Years. She died later that year at the home of her only child, a daughter.

Keller spent 45 years as a national officer and nearly 50 years as a Phi Mu volunteer. For 33 years, she ran the Phi Mu Executive Offices. Her knowledge of Phi Mu business and history was likely second to none. Woman of the Years was certainly an appropriate title for her.

 

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On Alpha Omicron Pi’s Founding Day

Posted on January 2, 2020 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Although Alpha Omicron Pi was founded on January 2, 1897, its Founders’ Day celebration begins on December 8, Founder Stella George Stern Perry’s birthday.

One of AOPi’s early members was Madeleine Zabriskie Doty. In 1900, she earned a B.L. from Smith College. She then enrolled in law school at New York University. There she became a charter member of the Nu chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi.

The members of AOPis Nu Chapter. Doty is the second from the left in the top row.
The charter members of AOPi’s Nu Chapter. Doty is the second from the left in the top row.

In the alumnae notes section of To Dragma, she is identified as Madeleine Z. Doty ’02. One early post stated that she was writing under the pen name of Otis Notman for the New York Times Saturday Book Review Supplement. In addition to freelance writing, she also practiced law.

I found her in the May 1916 To Dragma, the Social Service edition, in an article which appeared in the April 1916 Good Housekeeping magazine. The article was reprinted in its entirety. Its title,  Wanted – a Mother, seemed nebulous. Here is the introduction to the article, written by William Frederick Bigelow, Editor of Good Housekeeping:

Once upon a time a young woman took her law sheepskin as a license to open an office and offer her services in getting people out of trouble. The usual number of clients came to her, and she was satisfied until it occurred to her that she was doing only what a man could do and probably do better. In other words, her womanhood was counting for nothing. So she decided to turn her attention and energies in a direction where the fact that she was a woman and knew women could count. She chose prison reform. As a beginning she served a voluntary week in prison and came out hating the prison system with an intensity that fired her with an unquenchable zeal. A few weeks ago, Warden Kirchwey of Sing Sing introduced her to a thousand convicts as the best friend the man behind bards ever had. Many of those convicts knew her personally; she had won their confidence and held secrets of their lives that no one else knew. To her they had admitted things that they had lied to keep from judges and officers of the law. One of these things was that the majority of inmates were “old” offenders, that two-thirds of them had, as children, been in reformatories. This being true – and she verified the stories – the best place to work for prison reform was seen to be in the institutions which took young and essentially innocent young boys and gave them criminal tendencies. The beginning of this work was in this magazine last month. Madeleine Z. Doty hopes by the grace of God and the help of good women of America to open the doors of reformatories, to break the connection between them and  the prisons. Will you join her?  

Madeleine Zabriskie Doty

Doty wrote several articles and books about her experiences and spent her life as a reformer. Here is a National Humanities Review review of one of her books:

An epoch making book on prison conditions has just come from the press of The Century Co. in Society’s Misfits.  A member of the Commission on Prison Reform Miss Madeleine Z. Doty, with a friend, spent a week as a convict in the state prison at Auburn, NY. Her description of the treatment of women prisoners equals the account left by O. Henry. The everlasting nagging of the matrons, the unyielding system which took all life and enthusiasm out of the prisoner, the threat of the cooler or dungeon in which women were thrust for the slightest infraction of rules and left for hours, possibly days, on bread and water. All these things emphasize the fact that prison reform is just in its infancy. Miss Doty made a study of 1,700 records and 200 stories gathered from the convicts of Auburn and Sing Sing Prisons. After gaining the prisoners’ confidence, she asked them why they were there. A study of these records and the verification of the stories led her to state that two-thirds of those confined in prison had been as children in some sort of juvenile institution. The pitifulness of the stories told made plain why so many reformatories do not reform. Physically, mentally, and morally, children in institutions were being abused. When not abused, the spirit was neglected. There was no love. Another study of the records reveals the fact that 50 percent of the two-thirds came from broken homes in which either the father or the mother died before the child was 15. Hundreds of lonely little children in institutions exist year after year unkissed, unloved, uncared for. The heart sickens without love the soul grows hard evil enters and society pays. Imagine a system which prevents a child from hearing from his mother more than once a month and not this often if he happened to be naughty in the meantime. Can you imagine a system which allows children eight and nine years age to be beaten to the point of unconsciousness, their wounds smeared over with iodine and then forced to kneel or stand in an awkward position for hours at a time in the sight of all the other inmates?

Doty died in 1963. Her papers are in the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. There is a file of correspondence from Dorothy Canfield Fisher, a Kappa Kappa Gamma.

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The Promise of 2020 Vision

Posted on December 31, 2019 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On this the last day of the decade, I find it hard to write a post. Does anyone read these things? Does anyone care about Greek-letter organizations? The anti-fraternity sentiment of the late 1800s is alive and well today. There are those who see GLOs as nefarious and without any redeeming qualities. Moreover, each year collegiate members prove these detractors correct by the transgression, small and large, that capture the media’s attention.

One stupid little act by one random member on any campus in North America will reflect poorly on every person who has ever joined a fraternity or sorority. Our detractors do not care about the letters, nor do they care that 95%+ of collegiate membership are good and productive members. The rotten apples become the face of us all.

I, along with many others, contend that when the fraternity and sorority experience is done correctly, it is one of the best experiences a college student can have. Am I preaching to the choir? Probably. More than once this year, I have asked myself why I bother to write these posts and maintain this blog. Does any of it really matter?

This year holds many centennials including women finally obtaining the right to vote in federal elections and my favorite Phi Gam being elected Vice President. And then Kappa Alpha Theta and Kappa Kappa Gamma turn 150. And there is March, Women’s History Month, when I try to write a post a day about #NotableSororityWomen. It’s an Olympic year and it’s always fun to know which competitors also juggled GLO membership alongside athletics. And there’s a Presidential election with a sorority woman still among the top contenders. Can I stop writing when there are so many potential posts?

Who knows what the new decade will bring. Before 2019 ends I give gratitude to those of you who believe and work for the fraternity and sorority experience. Thank you.

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Remembering Jerry Herman, Zeta Beta Tau

Posted on December 28, 2019 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

As I was working on yesterday’s post, the words to Look Over There from the musical La Cage aux Folles was an earworm running through my head (specifically, When your world spins too fast, And your bubble has burst, Someone puts himself last, So that you can come first.) It wasn’t until after I hit “publish” on the post that I found out that Jerry Herman passed away on Thursday night. Herman became a member of Zeta Beta Tau at the University of Miami.

Herman moved into the fraternity dormitory and shared a suite with three Zeta Beta Tau members. Their suite had a piano and Herman played all the popular songs and Broadway show tunes. He was a natural to write and produce the fraternity’s entry in the annual musical competition. Potpourri, for he had spent summers doing the same thing at summer camp his parents ran in upstate New York. His first effort for the 1951 Potpourri was about a college on Saturn.  The Zeta Beta Taus won handily. And they won easily again the following year. In 1953, there were not enough entrants in the Potpourri competition because no one wanted to compete against the ZBTs. Herman suggested they do a musical revue, Sketchbook , instead, so that all interested students could take part. The 1953 Sketchbook was a Jerry Herman production, with 19 of his original songs. Because there were nearly 100 students in the cast, and more working behind the scenes, the venue changed from the small Ring Theatre on campus to the Dade County Auditorium. In 1974, the University of Miami built a new theater and named it the Jerry Herman Ring Theatre. 

Zeta Beta Tau was created on December 29, 1898 when a group of young men attending several New York universities met at the Jewish Theological Seminary and formed an organization called Z.B.T. (yes, with the periods between the letters). The organization was inspired by Richard J. H. Gottheil, a Columbia University professor of languages. For a few years the organization served as an organization for the Jewish students who were excluded from the other Greek-letter organizations in existence on the campuses where they were studying. In 1903, the organization became Zeta Beta Tau. Six years later, there were 14 chapters, all but one in the Northeast. The first chapter outside the Northeast was at Tulane University. In 1913, the fraternity became international with the establishment of a chapter at McGill University.

Although Zeta Beta Tau began as a Jewish fraternity, in 1954, sectarianism was eliminated as a membership qualification. Five other national Jewish fraternities became a part of Zeta Beta Tau. Phi Alpha merged into Phi Sigma Delta in 1959. Two years later, Kappa Nu merged into Phi Epsilon Pi. Phi Sigma Delta and Phi Epsilon Pi merged into Zeta Beta Tau in 1969-70.

In 1967, Herman and his sometime collaborator Jerome Lawrence won a Zeta Beta Tau Man of Distinction Award. Lawrence joined ZBT at The Ohio State University.

The Jerry Herman Ring Theater at the University of Miami courtesy of the University of Miami
The Jerry Herman Ring Theatre at the University of Miami (courtesy of the University of Miami)
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Remembering Bob McCully, Sigma Nu’s Grand Historian

Posted on December 27, 2019 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Yesterday, I received a copy of the Fall/Winter 2019 The Delta of Sigma Nu. In it was a tribute to Sigma Nu’s Grand Historian, Robert A. “Bob” McCully. He was a regular attendee at the Fraternity and Sorority Archivist Conference and he passed away on July 3, 2019. He loved Sigma Nu and its rich and vibrant history. And he loved sharing that history with his brothers.

Drew Logsdon, Editor of The Delta, wrote:

He inspired a generation of Sigma Nus to appreciate the Fraternity’s history and take note of its preservation…Bob’s spirit will never leave Sigma Nu. The archival work he did, the columns he wrote, the connections he made to young brothers, and the ever-lasting presence of his touch on the Headquarters campus will last forever.

I know I speak for the Fraternity and Sorority Archivists’ group when I say that Bob’s presence will be sorely missed at our conferences. May his memory be a blessing.

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Happy 146th, Delta Gamma!

Posted on December 25, 2019 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Imagine three young school girls longing to be at home with their families on Christmas. Eva Webb [Dodd], her cousin Anna Boyd [Ellington], and Mary Comfort [Leonard], all from Kosciusko, Mississippi, were unable to be travel home from the Lewis School in Oxford, Mississippi, over the Christmas holidays in December of 1873. The 100 miles between Oxford and home must have seemed like the other side of the world. Phones had yet to be invented, so they could not even talk with their families on Christmas.

They spent the holidays with the lady principal, Mrs. Hays. Her son was a fraternity man at the University of Mississippi. According to founder Dodd (1909):

When the idea first came to three homesick girls during the Christmas holidays of 1873 to found fraternity or club as we then called it, little did we realize that we were laying the cornerstone of such a grand fraternity as Delta Gamma. The school we attended at Oxford, Miss., was not much more advanced than a high school of today. During the week we decided on our motto and selected the Greek letters to represent it. We did not know that there were any other fraternities for girls in the United States known by Greek letters when we gave our club its name. We spent the holidays deciding on our pin and initiation and writing our constitution. In January 1874, we had our first initiation. We initiated four girls. The initiation was in one of the rooms of the house where we were boarding. We were careful to select only the girls we thought would be in sympathy with us and make our fraternity worthy of its name. (p. 226)

During the first few years of its existence, Delta Gamma installed several chapters at southern seminaries. These were schools for young women, not religious institutions as we regard seminaries today. These included: Fairmount College in Monteagle, Tennessee, a chapter that was formed in 1877; Water Valley Seminary, in Water Valley, Mississippi, established in 1877; and Bolivar College in Bolivar, Tennessee, a chapter founded in 1878. By 1881, all three of these chapters had disbanded. In 1880, a short-lived chapter was installed at Trinity College in Tehuacana, Texas. It was the last chapter installed in the South until after the turn of the century. The “Mother” chapter at Oxford was active until 1889 (Robson, 1968).

It was a man who took Delta Gamma north. Phi Delta Theta George Banta was a student at Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana. He was seeking to have a national woman’s fraternity come to Indiana to even the field for his fraternity during the Indiana State Oratorical Contest. Through a chance conversation on a train with a Phi Delt from the University of Mississippi, Banta learned of Delta Gamma’s existence. He corresponded with the chapter. On May 27, 1879, Corinne Miller of the Alpha chapter wrote Banta to let him know he was voted to full membership. Banta then initiated three women, Mary Vawter, her cousin and Banta’s future wife, Lillian Vawter,** and Banta’s cousin Kitty Ellis.

The chapter at Franklin College lasted from 1878 until 1885, but even in its short life it provided the impetus to expand in the north and gave new life to Delta Gamma. Banta was later a pioneer in the fraternity publishing world and he attended Delta Gamma conventions and shared with the members in attendance his part in Delta Gamma’s history.

The Delta Gamma chapter at Franklin College installed a chapter at Hanover College, in Indiana. It was the first women’s fraternity on Hanover’s campus and it was in existence from 1881 until 1887. Lillian Thompson of the Franklin College chapter was instrumental in locating potential members.

The Franklin College chapter also established the Eta Chapter at Buchtel College in Akron, Ohio, on March 15, 1879. It is Delta Gamma’s oldest existing chapter. Banta’s Phi Delta Theta connection proved to be an influencing force in the founding of the Delta Gamma chapter. It was with the assistance of Buchtel College’s Phi Delta Theta chapter that the Eta chapter of Delta Gamma became a reality (Delta Gamma Fraternity, 1966). March 15 is the date that Delta Gamma celebrates Founders’ Day.

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