The birthplace of the women’s fraternity system is only a few miles west of Galesburg. Pi Beta Phi was founded on April 28, 1867 in the southwest second floor bedroom of the home of “Major “ Jacob Holt at 402 East Fourth Avenue. In 1869, a second chapter was founded at Iowa Wesleyan College by Libbie Brook, after she convinced her parents she needed to switch schools because of an eye problem.
Mary Brook, Libbie’s sister, followed on the mission of expansion, entering Galesburg’s Lombard College. There, in 1872, she established the Illinois Beta chapter. It was Pi Beta Phi’s fifth chapter. It was the only women’s fraternity on the Lombard campus until 1893, when ten young women decided to start their own organization. They named it Alpha Xi Delta.
On the other side of the Mississippi River, about 80 miles west of the Lombard College campus, the original chapter of P.E.O. at the Iowa Wesleyan College, was in a quandary. P.E.O. had begun as a collegiate organization and made its debut on the campus about a month after the organization of the Iowa Alpha Chapter of Pi Beta Phi. For many years, the two were intense competitors on the campus. P.E.O. ultimately became a community organization and left the college field. In 1902, Iowa Wesleyan College’s Chapter S of the P.E.O. Sisterhood became the Beta Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta. This move certified that Alpha Xi Delta was now a national organization, rather than just a local on the Lombard campus, and the P.E.O. Sisterhood became an organization of community adult women. Pi Beta Phi and Alpha Xi Delta were now competitors on two campuses, Lombard and Iowa Wesleyan. In 1915 Delta Zeta established a chapter on campus and Theta Upsilon joined the three other groups in 1928.
Meanwhile, across town in Galesburg, at Knox College, a women’s fraternity system was being established. The Illinois Delta Chapter of Pi Beta Phi was chartered on March 7, 1884 through the efforts of the chapter at Lombard. The Knox College chapter produced a Pi Phi Grand President Grace Lass, who during her term of office 1895-99, married fellow Knox grad Francis Hinckley Sisson, a member of the Xi Chapter of Beta Theta Pi. He, too, would go on to serve his fraternity as President of the national organization.
In 1889, the Epsilon chapter of Delta Delta Delta became the second women’s fraternity at Knox College. Kappa Beta Theta was a local organization founded in 1888 by sisters Patsie and Ola Ingersoll and it was formed with the intention of securing a charter from a national women’s fraternity. Beta Theta Pi had a chapter at Knox College and a Knox Beta told his brother, who was a member of the Beta Theta Pi chapter at Boston University. The Boston University Beta gave the information to his friend, Delta Delta Delta founder Sarah Ida Shaw. Shaw began correspondence with the Knox College women. A Tri Delta charter was granted on July 9, 1889. A member of the Simpson College chapter, Hattie Berry, initiated the chapter in August 1889, at the home of one of the charter members, Alta March. A reception was held at the Phi Gamma Delta Hall at Knox College. Shaw later noted that the “Galesburg girls refused to have Gamma (as a chapter name) because they considered the letter hideous in form and sound, so it was given to the second in the province, Adrian (College), which came in only six months later.”
The Tri Delta chapter also produced a National President, R. Louise Fitch. She served from 1915-19. Prior to taking office, she was the second editor of the Trident, serving from 1905-15. It is interesting to note that after graduating from Knox in 1902, she served as Editor of the Galva Weekly News in Galva, Illinois.
A third organization, Phi Mu, established a chapter at Knox in 1912. The chapter closed in 1989.
The 1929 stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression hit Lombard College extremely hard and the college closed its doors. The last class graduated in 1930. Knox College invited the Lombard students to transfer to Knox, with the same tuition cost as Lombard, and without loss of academic standing. Knox also incorporated the Lombard alumni into the Knox Alumni Association. The men’s and women’s fraternities attempted to make the best of the situation. The Pi Beta Phi chapters joined together to create Pi Beta Phi’s only doubly named chapter, Illinois Beta-Delta. The Alpha Xi Delta Chapter approached Zeta Pi, a local organization at Knox, about the members becoming members of Alpha Xi Delta. Seven collegiate and 29 alumnae members of Zeta Pi were initiated into Alpha Xi Delta in September 1929. It remained the Alpha Chapter. The chapter was declared dormant by the national organization in 1973. The Delta Zeta chapter also moved to Knox and it closed in 1964. It is unclear what became of the Theta Upsilon chapter (that organization became a part of Delta Zeta in 1962).
In 2007, the Eta Kappa Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma was established at Knox College. Kappa Kappa Gamma and Pi Beta Phi comprise the Monmouth Duo; both were founded at Monmouth College. Moreover, both organizations maintain historical residences in Monmouth. Pi Phi’s founding site, Holt House, and Kappa’s Stewart House, former home of Kappa Founder Minnie Stewart, are open to the public and available as meeting and reception space. In 2010, Alpha Sigma Alpha joined the NPC groups on campus.
Knox College’s role in the early history of the women’s fraternity system is an interesting one with early chapters of Pi Beta Phi and Delta Delta Delta, their alumnae serving their respective organizations as Grand Presidents, and a link to the founding chapter of Alpha Xi Delta.
Grace Lass Sisson in her wedding gown.
