“Happy Birthday Mizzou! Founded in 1839 as America’s first public university west of the Mississippi,” read the status of one of my Pi Phi friend’s facebook page. How could I not cobble together a quick post from my dissertation, Coeducation and the History of Women’s Fraternities 1867-1902?
It was not until 1871 that women at the University of Missouri, a land-grant institution, were admitted to all classes (Stephens, 1962). But even then, they did not have full use of the library or permission to attend chapel with the men.
The land-grant institutions opened up affordable education for women. These institutions were developing professional programs based upon the emerging technologies (Nevis, 1962). Whereas the first generation of college women at coeducation colleges appear to have studied at small denominational schools and tended to work for a period of time as teachers, the second generation took their place alongside their brothers at the land-grant state supported institutions and many opened their horizons to the spheres of medicine, engineering, and other traditionally male occupations.
When the National Panhellenic Conference was founded in 1902, there were only two women’s fraternities at Mizzou. They were the Monmouth Duo, Pi Beta Phi and Kappa Kappa Gamma, the two organizations founded at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois. When the Theta chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma was installed on April 2, 1875, the anti-fraternity sentiment was not as intense as it was five years later. In 1880, action was taken by the faculty to bar students from joining the secret societies, as the fraternities were called.
During the early 1880s, the chapter operated sub-rosa. According to Burton-Roth and Whiting-Westermann (1932): “Invitations were issued only after a thorough and congenial acquaintance had been made with every prospective member. Since the older girls were well known as Kappas before the sub-rosa period, this acquaintance had to be gained gradually and unostentatiously. Accepting a bid in those days involved an element of risk, yet not a single invitation was refused during this entire period and no girl was initiated without the consent of her parents. One member resigned, and was afterward married to a member of the faculty. She now has a Kappa daughter.
“Initiations were carried on in the usual way, never being discovered nor interrupted, although certain sub-rosa girls tell harrowing tales of narrow escapes.” (p. 125) In 1884, the chapter was able to operate in the open again.
Kappa Kappa Gamma’s 1904 Convention
Kappa Kappa Gamma was the only women’s fraternity on the University of Missouri campus until 1888 when Beta Sigma Omicron was founded as a local organization. In 1891, a second chapter was installed at the Synodical College at Fulton, Missouri, making Beta Sigma Omicron a national organization. The Alpha chapter closed in 1892. Beta Sigma Omicron merged with Zeta Tau Alpha in 1964.
In 1899, a local organization, the Iazug Club, was founded at the University of Missouri by seven young women. The Missouri Alpha chapter of Pi Beta Phi was installed on May 27, 1899. The ceremonies took place at the home of the Belchers, on University Avenue and Hill Street. For $2 a month, the chapter rented a room on 9th Street and Conley Avenue (“Our new chapter,” 1899).
A few of the women who belonged to the two chapters during this came achieved some prominence. A University of Missouri Pi Beta Phi, Gratia E. Woodside, was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Missouri in June 1900. At that point, she became the only woman to try a case before that body. In 1903, Woodside opened a private practice in St. Louis and became the only female lawyer in St. Louis and only one of two female lawyers in Missouri (“Some professional Pi Phi women,” 1904).
Helen Guthrie Miller, Kappa Kappa Gamma, was a suffragist. She was a member of the government tuberculosis committee, President of the Missouri Equal Suffrage Association and auditor of the National American Women’s Equal Suffrage Association (Jesse, 1915).
And although I ended this post at 1902, I need to add this interesting snippet. The Alpha Mu chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta was chartered on February 12, 1909, making it the third NPC group on campus. The Alpha Mu chapter and the University share a birthday.
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