At each P.E.O. Convention there is a room where the hosting state delegation can showcase the state and its history, industry and resources. I spent lots of time looking at the display of the history of the Texas State Chapter of P.E.O. There were three old copies of the P.E.O. Record on the table and while I turned to the marked pages with information about the Texas State Chapter, I also looked at every page, fascinated with the world of P.E.O. in the 1920s and 1930s.
One of the most interesting tidbits I located in the April 1928 P.E.O. Record was about the first President of P.E.O.’s Ohio State Chapter, Julia Bishop Coleman. Her name might seem familiar to Delta Zetas because she was one of the sorority’s founders. A 1904 Miami University graduate, she married Dr. John McFerren Coleman in 1911. She served on Delta Zeta’s National Council from 1920-26, first as Historian, then as Vice President and President.
Coleman became a charter member of the Loveland chapter of P.E.O. when it was organized in her home in June 1911. The chapter was installed by Mrs. Edith Prouty Prichard. The P.E.O. chapters in Ohio organized the Ohio State Chapter of P.E.O. on September 5, 1927 when 18 delegates gathered at Coleman’s home for registration for the State Convocation. The business meetings took place at the home of Bessie Lee, President of Chapter A. The Ohio State Chapter received its charter at the 1927 Supreme Convention in Oklahoma City. Coleman was elected to a second term at the first Ohio State Chapter convention.
Julia Bishop Coleman, Delta Zeta Founder and P.E.O. State President
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2013. All Rights Reserved.
