Delta Gamma was founded at the Oxford Female Institute, also known as the Lewis School, in Oxford, Mississippi. The school was established before the Civil War and eventually was absorbed by the University of Mississippi. Delta Gamma’s three founders, Eva Webb Dodd, her cousin Anna Boyd Ellington, and Mary Comfort Leonard, all from Kosciusko, Mississippi, were unable to return home over the Christmas holidays in December of 1873. That is when Delta Gamma was founded but Founders’ Day is celebrated on March 15. Phi Delta Theta and Delta Gamma both celebrate Founders’ Day on March 15 and they share a member, George Banta, an initiate of both organizations.
Gratia Alta Countryman, the daughter of immigrants, was born on November 26, 1866. At the age of 15, she graduated from high school and enrolled at the University of Minnesota. There she was the first initiate of the Lambda chapter of Delta Gamma in 1883. She served her chapter as Secretary and President.
While at the University of Minnesota, she served as a First Lieutenant of Company Q, a military training unit for women. Company Q existed between 1886 and 1892.
When the publication of The Anchora of Delta Gamma was put in Lambda chapter’s hands to produce, she became a member of the editorial staff. She later served as its Business Manager.
Countryman graduated in 1889 and was hired by the Minneapolis Public Library that fall. The library had not yet opened to the public. A 1892 Anchora reported that Countryman, “formerly at the head of the cataloging department of the public library of Minneapolis, has recently been appointed assistant librarian.” Her boss at the time was Herbert Putnam who later served four decades as Librarian of Congress.
On Washington’s birthday in 1892, 30 Delta Gamma actives and alumnae met at Countryman’s home at 11 a.m. and had lunch and some of the women wore costumes. The party ended at 4 p.m. and the report noted, “what a good time we had!”
A Phi Beta Kappa chapter was installed at the University of Minnesota on December 13, 1892. Countryman was one of the eight women, four of them Delta Gammas, who were elected to membership.
She and three friends biked through England on her first trip to Europe in 1896. At the library she was promoted to head cataloger and assistant librarian to James K. Hosmer before she became chief librarian in 1904. She was the nation’s first female head librarian. However, her starting salary was one third less than what her male predecessor earned.
Countryman was elected Delta Gamma’s National Secretary in 1903, but due to her job responsibilities, she was unable to fulfill her duties and Lambda chapter member Lois Tenant served pro tem. Countryside is listed as Delta Gamma’s Secretary from 1903 to 1904.
The Minnesota Library Association was organized on December 29, 1891 and Countryman was its fifth President, serving from 1904 to 1905. She also founded the Minnesota Library Commission and was its Recording Secretary until 1918.
Countryman was a frequent speaker at events. On February 16, 1911, she was one of the speakers at a Minnesota Alumni event. She had spent several weeks during January 1911, on the east coast, “buying books for the new Walker library,” according to an Anchora report.
In 1912, she organized the Foreign Policy Association’s Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She served as its President until 1914.
The 1918 Gopher yearbook included this tribute to Countryman:
To head a library system as large as that of Minneapolis is a task worthy of the best of men. It is a Minnesota woman, Gratia Countryman, of the class of ’89, who holds that position. How well she has filled it is testified by the extent of the library activities in Minneapolis. Go down into any foreign district in Minneapolis and there you will find a branch of the Public Library. There you will find the children of our adopted citizens learning the ideals of American democracy from the best of teachers, good books. Gratia Countryman has made the Public Library a great, living institution for providing education and clean entertainment to the citizens of Minneapolis.
Countryman never married. However, she became guardian to a young boy, Wellington Wilson, who spent his days at the library. In May 1917, she wrote, “We have taken in a homeless little boy to live with us. He is nearly eight years old and bright and affectionate. We have grown very fond of him in the four weeks we have had him….If he turns out to be as nice a child as he seems, I may possibly want to adopt him.” He lived with Countryman, children’s librarian Marie Todd, and their maid at 3721 Girard Ave South. Adopting a child was a bold move for an unmarried woman of 50. Wilson later changed his name to Wellington Countryman and named his daughter Alta in his adopted mother’s honor.
The Inter-Racial Service Council of Minneapolis awarded Countryman the Civic Service Honor Medal for her work with immigrants. The following year her Alma Mater awarded her an honorary degree for distinguished public service, the first to be awarded to a female.
She served as President of the American Library Association in 1934. She was forced to retire from the Minneapolis Public Library at the age of 70 in 1936. During her tenure, the library’s collection grew to 400,000 books in 17 branch libraries and many library stations. Countryman died in 1953 at age 87.
