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 – founded at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. In 1871, a chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon, a men’s fraternity founded at Yale University in 1844, established a chapter at Syracuse University. In September of 1872, Martha Foote [Crowe], Clara Sittser [Williams] and Kate Hogoboom [Gilbert] discussed the situation (Thomson, 1943).
Foote led the charge and pondered, with her friends, the thought of women having fraternal organizations comparable to the ones the men enjoyed. They invited all the college women to discuss the possibility (Thomson, 1943).
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” (Alpha Phi Fraternity, 1931, p. 132).
Years later Clara Sittser Williams shared her recollection of that first meeting with the readership of the fraternity’s magazine: “The first meeting was held in my room in the house which is now 303 Irving Avenue. My mother had sent me some chicken, grapes and so forth. Kate Hogoboom Gilbert and I invited some of the college girls to share our feast. Mattie Foote was one of the first who came in, and she told us about the literary societies of Cazenovia Seminary, where she had recently graduated, said she had been talking with Clara Bradley and proposed that we start one here. Kate Hogoboom was very enthusiastic over it, said some of her gentlemen friends were loyal members of secret societies, and if women were to have the same position in college as men, we must organize one; so the subject was presented to the girls that night. We thought it would be a fine idea socially to form a circle of sympathetic friends whom we would know personally. We had as our aim the mutual improvement of each other, every trying to do our best in college work, always keeping a high ideal before us, never under any circumstances to speak disparagingly of a sister. We were to be very loyal to one another, in joys and sorrows, success or failures, and ever extend a helping hand to our sisters who need our aid. “ (Williams, 1913, p. 145)
Gilbert later said of the founding: “None of us, at that time, knew of the existence of any such organization, but supposed ourselves, with pardonable conceit, to be the only and original national college women’s society” (Alpha Phi Fraternity, 1931, p. 133).
At first the chapter met in the homes of chapter members. Dr. Chidester, Florence’s father, allowed the use of his Irving Avenue home office on Monday evenings. In 1873, the meetings were changed to Friday night (Thomson, 1943).
During the summer following the founding, Foote and Bradley, both of whom had stayed in Syracuse, surprised the chapter upon the start of the school year in the fall: “There was no money, but “Ma” Bradley was a constant source of help and loaned the necessary funds to rent a vacant room over a furniture store down town. A broken cot was patched and painted, an altar was constructed from an old packing case, draped with blue velveteen and decorated with the letters Alpha Phi in gold dress braid, and with the addition of a few old chairs the room was furnished. Blue curtains, trimmed with more gold braid decorated the windows and the two energetic girls waited eagerly the surprise and joy of their friends. The enthusiasm was somewhat dampened by the chapter’s horror of the dreadful debt incurred but the charm of sneaking to the room, the dark stairway lighted only by tallow candles, and the privilege of sitting on the floor during meeting soon overcame their scruples and Alpha Phi continued to enjoy her first secret home.” (Alpha Phi Fraternity, 1931, p. xxi)
The first chapter room was on Salina Street, over Sager and Grave’s carpet store, and the carpet and curtains were in blue and gold, the fraternity’s colors at the time.* The chapter room remained there for six years until it was moved to a suite of rooms on the fourth floor of the Onondaga County Savings Bank Building (Thomson, 1943).
Dr. Wellesley P. Coddington, a Professor of Greek and Philosophy, was, for many years, Alpha Phi’s advisor. He encouraged the chapter to incorporate and having rented a room and acquired some property to furnish the rooms, the chapter felt it a commendable idea. A New York State Law passed on April 12, 1848, while precluding the incorporation of a Greek-letter society permitted the incorporation under the formation of “Benevolent, Literary, Scientific, and Missionary Societies.” The chapter made application under the name “Michaelanean Society” in honor of its president, Rena Michaels. The document was issued to the five members who were of legal age to hold property, Mary F. Cary, Julia Louise Gage, Elizabeth Grace Hubbell, Alice M. Lee, and Lizzie C. Peebles (Thomson, 1943, p. 137). Due to the small number of members of legal signing age, for the first year Coddington signed his name as director of the society. The certificate was filed on June 9, 1873. The Alpha Chapter House Board still retains the name of the Michaelanean Society (Jones, 1992).
Coddington** was so esteemed by the chapter that it was “proposed that his name be cheered at every meeting for five years” (Alpha Phi Fraternity, 1931, p. 23). However, in lieu of yelling, the chapter instead purchased a piece of furniture for his study. Coddington also had a hand in the fraternity’s public motto, he aided in the formation of its constitution and by-laws, he later encouraged the chapter to rent and then build a chapter house, and he introduced the chapter to one of its most famous and honored initiates, Frances Elizabeth Willard (Thomson, 1943).
Willard, a graduate of the Northwestern Female College in Evanston, Illinois, earned a M.A. degree at Syracuse. On October 15, 1875, a Women’s Congress was held in Syracuse. Coddington introduced the Alpha Phis to Willard and they were so taken by this female leader who was corresponding secretary of the newly formed Women’s National Christian Temperance Union, that they asked her to be a member of their fraternity (Thomson, 1943). Willard went on to serve as Alpha Phi’s National President in 1888-89. However, she was unable to preside at the 1889 Boston Convention as “a crusade kept her in England” (Alpha Phi Fraternity, 1931, p. 8).
For nine years the Alpha chapter stood alone until “she sought out as Beta chapter, seven girls at Northwestern, who had cemented already, their friendship. . . by wearing uniform rings” (McElroy, 1913, p. 141). The motto “Toujours Fidele” was inscribed on their rings. Minnie Moulding, Claire Lattin and Adele Maltbie were the nucleus of the group. As sophomores, upon return to campus, they sought an organization similar to the men’s fraternities then at Northwestern. The three consulted their Dean, Jean Bancroft [Robinson], an alumna of the Syracuse Alpha Phi chapter. Bancroft encouraged them to enlarge their circle and they asked four other female students to wear their rings, seniors Emma Meserve and Jennie Marshall, and sophomores Lizzie Hill and Eva Lane. Three members of the Syracuse chapter visited Evanston upon Bancroft’s invitation and before the three left Evanston, the Beta chapter of Alpha Phi had been installed (Alpha Phi Fraternity, 1931). The installation took place on June 6, 1881, at Meserve’s home on the corner of Orrington Avenue and Clark Street across from Willard Hall.
*Alpha Phi’s colors were later changed to silver gray and bordeaux.
**After the turn of the century, Coddington played an integral role in the founding of the last of the Syracuse triad, Alpha Gamma Delta.
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From – Coeducation and the History of Women’s Fraternities 1867-1902, by Frances DeSimone Becque, Dissertation, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 2002, pp. 58-63. All rights reserved. The Bibliography will soon be available as a separate post.
