On January 21, 1869, the P.E.O. Sisterhood was founded by seven young women. They were among the 85 or so collegiate level students enrolled at Iowa Wesleyan University. Legend has it that some, but not all of the seven had been asked by Libbie Brook to join the second chapter of I.C. Sorosis (now known by its Greek motto, Pi Beta Phi). On that unseasonably warm January day, Franc Roads and Hattie Briggs were sitting on the steps of a wooden stile at the southeast entrance to the campus and made the decision to start a society of their own. They gathered five others, Mary Allen, Ella Stewart, Alice Bird, Alice Coffin, and Suela Pearson, and took the 35-word oath that Alice Bird had written.
Eunice Viola “Ola” Babcock Miller was born on March 1, 1871 in Washington County, Iowa. After graduating from Washington Academy, she enrolled at Iowa Wesleyan University in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Upon receiving her degree, she taught school. In 1895, she married Alex Miller, a newspaper man. They had three children, but their son died in infancy. Daughter Ophelia was born in 1899, followed by Barbara in 1907.
Photo circa 1908 when she was part of the Iowa State Chapter
Although she was a student at Iowa Wesleyan when P.E.O. had a chapter there, she did not become a P.E.O. at that time. She was initiated into the P.E.O. Sisterhood by Chapter J, Washington. She was a young mother and gave birth to one of her daughters while serving on the board of Iowa State Chapter. She presided at the 1909 Iowa State Chapter convention. The newspaper article below is from the year her daughter Barbara was born.
Ottumwa Semi-Weekly Courier, May 11, 1907
In 1926, while Ola was serving on the Supreme Chapter executive board, Alex Miller ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor of Iowa. On February 6, 1927, he died of a heart attack. Later that year, Ola Babcock Miller was installed as president of Supreme Chapter. The 1929 Convention of Supreme Chapter at which she president was held in Chicago, Illinois.
Muscatine Journal, September 18, 1929
Ola was active in the Democratic party and often gave speeches on suffrage and social reforms. The Iowa Democratic Party nominated her for Iowa Secretary of State in 1932, mostly out of respect for her husband and his service to the party. Her name appeared on the ballot as Mrs. Alex Miller and she did not campaign. Although the outcome was close, less than 3% of the vote, she was the victor. Ola Babcock Miller became the first female Secretary of State in Iowa. She won reelection in 1934 and 1936. Ophelia’s husband, George H. Gallup, Ph.D., who was working for Young & Rubicam, an advertising agency, saw the importance of polling in election strategy. His mother-in-law’s 1932 foray into a political election is said to be the birth of the Gallup Poll.
Barbara Miller, a University of Iowa Kappa Kappa Gamma, was married in 1933 and her mother took a plane from Iowa to New York to attend the wedding. Edward George Benson was an Alpha Tau Omega. Barbara was also a P.E.O. (Des Moines Register, July 9, 1933)
Ola is known as the “Mother of the Iowa State Highway Patrol.” When the son of one of her friends died in a highway accident, she advocated for safer highways. Highway patrols were in use in several states and Ola sought to bring the idea to Iowa. She crossed the state speaking for the need of a road patrol to keep the highways safe.
Although she did not have the authority to do so, on August 1, 1934, Ola created a highway patrol with 15 motor vehicles. They were to patrol highways to help prevent accidents. In May of 1935, the governor officially created the Iowa State Highway Patrol. At that time the patrol had been increased to 50 men under Miller’s command.
She came down with pneumonia in 1936 and despite being sick, continued attending and speaking at events. She became very ill and was admitted to a Des Moines hospital. There, on January 25, 1937, Ola Babcock Miller died. Among the more than 3,000 people who paid their respects at her funeral services, were all 55 Highway Patrol officers.
More than 40 years later, in 1975, she was one of the first four women inducted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame. In 1999 the Old Historical Building, at the corner of East Grand and 12th Street in Des Moines, was renamed the Ola Babcock Miller State Official Building. It houses the State Library of Iowa. In 2019, a plaque honoring her was unveiled on the Iowa Women of Achievement Bridge in Des Moines.
The home in which the Millers lived in Washington, Iowa, is now an Airbnb. These pictures are from the home’s facebook page. In 1925, Ophelia Miller, a Kappa Kappa Gamma (and P.E.O.) married George H. Gallup, a Sigma Alpha Epsilon) in this house. Washington is about 30 minutes from Mount Pleasant and two hours from Des Moines. Wouldn’t it be fun to stay in Ola’s home while visiting P.E.O.’s founding site in Mount Pleasant and the Executive Office in Des Moines? Road trip, anyone?
The Ola Babcock Miller House
