The Importance of Indiana in Sorority History

Posted on December 11, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On December 11, 1816, Indiana became the 19th state. Today Indiana is home to many GLO headquarters, but its importance in the history of women’s fraternities happened about a century and a half ago.

Between 1867 when Pi Beta Phi was founded as I.C. Sorosis at Monmouth College and 1881, when Alpha Phi’s second chapter was chartered at Northwestern University, there were only four of today’s National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) groups which were expanding on to other campuses. Their names are Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Delta Gamma and Pi Beta Phi. 

Kappa Alpha Theta was founded in 1870 at Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University) in Greencastle.  Although the first decision to allow women to attend Asbury was made in 1860, it was rescinded several times with debate following each decision. Bettie Locke, the daughter of a mathematics professor, was a formidable student.  During her sophomore year, Bettie received an invitation to wear a Phi Gamma Delta badge.  The badge did not come with a dating arrangement as later tradition would have it, nor did it come with the benefits given to men who were initiated into the fraternity.  When Bettie declined the badge because it did not come with full membership rights and responsibilities, the Phi Gams substituted a silver cake basket, inscribed with their Greek letters.  With encouragement from her father, a Beta Theta Pi, and her brother, a Phi Gamma Delta, Bettie  began plans to start her own fraternity.  She and Alice Allen studied Greek, parliamentary law and heraldry with an eye towards founding a fraternity for women.

The family of Carole Cones-Bradfield, great granddaughter of Bettie Locke Hamilton, stopped by the Kappa Alpha Theta HQ for a tour in 2016. Carole had passed away, and she generously donated many items to the Theta archive that belonged to her great-grandmother. CEO Betsy Corridan is pictured holding Bettie’s famous Theta cake basket. On the left is Dane Hartley, great-grandson of Bettie Locke, a DePauw alumnus, and a Phi Gamma Delta. He was Carole Cones-Bradfield’s cousin. On the right is Landis Bradfield, Carole’s husband.

On January 27, 1870, Bettie stood before a mirror and repeated the words of the initiation vow she had written.  She then initiated Alice Allen, Bettie Tipton, and Hannah Fitch.  Five weeks later, Mary Stevenson, a freshman, joined the group.  

A few months later, a chapter of I.C. Sororis, whose Greek motto was Pi Beta Phi, was founded at Indiana Asbury. Laura Beswick, who was in the first group of female students, was a founder of that chapter. A Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter joined the two in 1875 and as sometimes happened when a new group came to campus, another chapter faltered. The chapter that faltered was the Pi Phi chapter and it was gone by decade’s end. Alpha Chi Omega was founded at DePauw in 1885. Two years later, Alpha Phi joined the mix at DePauw.

Indiana University became home to Theta’s second chapter  Bettie Locke’s father had a friend who was a trustee at Indiana University  The friend had a daughter, Minnie Hannamon, who was college age.  In April 1870, a letter was written to Minnie, and Bettie visited Bloomington in early May.  On May 18, 1870, Bettie installed Kappa Alpha Theta at Indiana University with the initiation of the three charter members.

In 1873, Kappa Kappa Gamma made its appearance at  Indiana. A male student at Monmouth College, where Kappa was founded in 1870, had a female cousin attending Indiana. Correspondence ensued and the chapter was installed. A Pi Beta Phi member arrived to study at Indiana and saw what she considered to be material for a Pi Phi chapter. A charter was issued in March 1893. In December 1898, the Delta Gamma chapter was the last women’s fraternity to be installed on the IU campus prior to 1900.

Northwestern Christian College, the name Butler University had when the first women’s fraternity was founded there, was the next site of expansion for the women’s fraternities in Indiana. Theta was again the first group on the campus, chartering in 1874. A Kappa chapter followed in 1878 and Pi Beta Phi chartered in 1897.

Franklin College, followed Butler in expansion and Franklin College has a special place in the history of the women’s fraternity system and that story starts in Mississippi. Delta Gamma was founded at the Oxford Female Institute, also known as the Lewis School, at Oxford, Mississippi. Delta Gamma’s three founders were weather-bound at the school over the Christmas holidays in December of 1873 and founded the organization. Delta Gamma was brought to the north by a man, the only man to be an initiated member of Delta Gamma.

In May 1878, 20-year-old George Banta was on a train returning to Franklin College from a Phi Delta Theta Convention. He sat with Monroe McClurg from the University of Mississippi chapter and shared with him his concern over the fraternity political situation in Indiana, noting that Indiana needed another female Greek group. McClurg agreed and offered a solution. McClurg told Banta about Delta Gamma and facilitated communication between Banta and Delta Gamma. After a visit to Oxford, he was initiated and given the power to form chapters. The first chapter he organized was at Franklin College. Among its charter members was Lille Vawter, who would soon become his wife. Banta bringing Delta Gamma to Indiana is a very big deal and his assistance was instrumental in Delta Gamma’s future. 

Emma Harper Turner, who was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter at Franklin College, before its charter was withdrawn by Kappa’s Grand Council, sought an honorable dismissal from Kappa. She then became a charter member of the Pi Beta Phi chapter at Franklin. She quickly became a member of Pi Phi’s Grand Council, serving as Grand President. She formed the Alumnae Association in 1893 and it was she who proposed the founding of the Pi Beta Phi Settlement School in 1910.

Emma Harper Turner, Pi Beta Phi’s Grand President. She started her fraternity life as a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter at Franklin College (there is a post about her on this site.)

Hanover College was also the site of an early women’s fraternity system with a Delta Gamma chapter founded in 1881 and a Theta chapter in 1882.

The women’s fraternity system took root in Indiana in the late 1800s and the state has provided a fertile ground for growth its growth ever since then.

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Was Mrs. Parker (of Pen Fame) a Pi Beta Phi?

Posted on December 9, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

During my first forays to the Pi Beta Phi chapter house, I heard that Parker pens have arrows because Mrs. Parker was a Pi Phi. And I believed it until I became the Fraternity’s historian. But my friend Penny Proctor, who became a Pi Phi at Hillsdale College, offers this guest post. I thought I had published it, but it’s been in my email for many a moon. Enjoy this post courtesy of Penny Proctor.

Dear Fran,

Since our recent conversation, I’ve been interested – no, obsessed – with the Parker Pen myth.  You know, the one we all learned as new members: “There’s an arrow on Parker Pens because Mrs. Parker was a Pi Phi!”  After I heard that some Wisconsin Beta alumnae remembered a connection between Pi Phi and Parker Pens from their collegian days, I was hooked and have spent hours researching when I should have been doing laundry or something else useful.

I’m a big fan of the show Mythbusters, now cancelled but living in reruns.  If you aren’t familiar with the show, it takes a critical look at science-related popular myths and urban legends and comes up with one of three outcomes:  Confirmed, meaning there is proof; Plausible, meaning the myth is reasonably possible but cannot be proved or disproved; and Busted, meaning it is disproved.  After this came up, I decided to take a run at it, Mythbusters style.  Here is what I have learned, in my journey thought the wondrous and arcane internet.

A little background on Parker Pens:  George Safford Parker first incorporated the company in 1888.  Mr. Parker was at that time a teacher in Janesville, Wisconsin who supplemented his income by selling fountain pens manufactured by the John Holland Pen Company.  When those pens kept breaking, he felt compelled to repair them, and eventually decided he could design a better product.  He opened Parker Pen in 1888 and obtained his first patent on a pen in 1889.  Even so, he remained in teaching at least part time for a few more years, until his major success, the Parker Pen Lucky Curve in 1894.  It appears that the arrow on the clip was first adopted in 1932 and it became the symbol of Parker; they even named their headquarters “Arrow Park.”   The family sold the company in the early 1990s and there is no longer any Parker Pen presence in the U.S.

“Mrs. Parker was a Pi Phi.”  The first Mrs. Parker was Martha “Mattie” Clemens, who married George S. Parker in 1892, at the age of 22.  They met while he was an instructor and she a student at the Valentine School of Telegraphy in Janesville.  There is no evidence that she attended any other college or university, nor is there any record that she was ever initiated into any chapter of Pi Beta Phi as a collegian or alumna.  The myth that “Mrs. Parker was a Pi Phi” always carried the implication that it referred to the first Mrs. Parker.  Therefore, this part of the myth is Busted.

“The Parker Pen arrow is based on the Pi Phi arrow.”  Although George S. Parker sold his first “Parker Pen” product in 1892, the company did not trademark its distinctive arrow logo until 1932.  At that time, Kenneth Parker was second only to his father George in the corporate hierarchy.  Kenneth married in 1923 and acquired a sister-in-law named Jane Gapen Watrous.  Jane graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1910 and was a member of Wisconsin Alpha chapter of Pi Beta Phi.  After Jane’s death in 1925, her daughter came to live with Kenneth and his family.  It is possible, if not likely, that Kenneth was aware of the Pi Phi badge – it surely was among Jane’s effects at her death.

Arrows and spears were common motifs for pen and pencil advertising in the late Victorian and early Edwardian period, so the choice of an arrow as a symbol for Parker Pens was a natural.  According to the trademark registration, the Parker arrow was design by a Joseph Platt of New York, but those who have studied the company suspect that Kenneth was the source of the arrow concept.  The pointed tip and feathered shaft of the 1932 Parker trademark is definitely reminiscent of the Pi Phi arrow, albeit pointing downward.

But if indeed Pi Phi badge inspired the Parker arrow, why didn’t someone – either Pi Phi or Parker – take note of the connection when it first appeared?  My speculation: it was a matter of pragmatism by both parties.   Although Pi Beta Phi had used the arrow badge since 1867, it did not trademark it until 1928.  Thus, it was still a relatively fresh filing in 1932.  Any public mention by either party of an homage to the Pi Phi arrow might have raised legal obstacles to Parker’s trademark application and cost Pi Phi money it probably didn’t have in 1932 (the depths of the Great Depression) to defend its trademark.  Silence by both parties was likely in their best legal and financial interests.

So, in the parlance of Mythbusters, the connection between the Parker Pen arrow and the Pi Phi arrow is Plausible – neither confirmed nor disproved, but still within the realm of reasonable possibility. (I like “Plausible” – it leaves open the possibility, and that possibility is a lot of fun to contemplate.)

“Mrs. Parker was a Pi Phi” (part 2):  Some Pi Phi alumnae of the former Wisconsin Beta chapter at Beloit College are consistent in their belief that “Mrs. Parker was a Pi Phi” despite the clear evidence that Mrs. George S. Parker could not have been a member.  Beloit is not far from Janesville, the home of the Parker family, and the members of WI Beta recall invitations to the Parker’s lake house the chapter received in the early 1960s.  Here’s the twist – by that time, the statement was true:  the then-current Mrs. Parker was a Pi Phi.  The wife of Daniel Parker, grandson of the founder and at the helm of the company during the 50s and 60s, was indeed a member of Florida Gamma (Rollins College), as documented in Pi Phi’s member database and in the Rollins College yearbook for 1945.  She married in 1947, far too late to have influenced the selection of the Parker arrow design, but she may well have extended some special courtesies to the nearby Wisconsin Beta chapter.

As a Mythbusters fan, it gives me a lot of pleasure to write that this myth hits the trifecta:  it is simultaneously Busted, Plausible and Confirmed.  The simplified myth is Busted:  The Parker arrow was not adopted because Mrs. George Parker was a Pi Phi (she was not).  But it is Plausible that the Parker arrow may possibly have been inspired by the arrow badge of Kenneth Parker’s sister-in-law, Jane Gapen Watrous, and it is Confirmed that Mrs. Daniel Parker was a Pi Phi.

 

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Happy 177th Alpha Sigma Phi!

Posted on December 6, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Alpha Sigma Phi was founded on December 6, 1845, at Yale University (it was then known as Yale College). The Yale of 1845 was worlds away from the Yale of today. In 1845, only a very small percentage of American young men (and a minuscule amount of young women) were enrolled in any form of higher education. Alpha Sigma Phi’s founders are Louis Manigault, Horace Spangler Weiser and Stephen Ormsby Rhea.

Two famous actors were members of Alpha Sigma Phi – Vincent Price and Ted Cassidy.

Vincent Price, an Alpha Chapter initiate, although known primarily for his acting roles, was an art historian and advocate for the arts. He gave countless lectures on art, amassed a large collection of works, and used any opportunity, including appearances on Johnny Carson’s show, to promote the arts.

Price was born on May 27, 1911 and grew up in St. Louis. His father was a Yale alumnus and his grandfather invented baking powder. It made his grandfather quite wealthy for a time, “and then he lost all his money in the crash of ‘92 (1892). I’ve never forgiven him for this, never. Because I should have been born with a silver spoon in my mouth,” quipped Price.

After college, Price’s father began and was president of the National Candy Company in St. Louis. His family was quite musical. Price’s interest in the visual arts was fostered because he “couldn’t tell what my right hand was doing to my left hand on the piano. They didn’t work together. And so I developed a love for the visual arts, and theirs was entirely musical. We had no pictures around the house at all, except one horrible sort of picture of some cows in a landscape and a couple of family portraits. My family apparently had no taste in who painted their portraits at all, and they were dreadful.”

In 1929, he traveled from St. Louis to New Haven. Price entered Yale “with a real interest and a real sort of feeling that college was going to give me a wonderful visual education. It really didn’t do that very much. Yale was at that time the old Yale, academic and scientific. And I went to academic, my father went to scientific, my brother went to scientific. And there wasn’t much interest in the arts, in letting the undergraduate really into the arts, because you had to be on the dean’s list to be able to elect courses. I finally was so discouraged that I made an effort and got on the dean’s list, so that the last two years I took almost entirely art courses. And in my art history course I think I got a ninety-eight or something, which is not bad. But it’s a game that I’ve always played all my life, of identifying art.”

In speaking of the professors who had an influence on his life, he mentioned “a man who taught a course in Shakespeare who was a very big influence on my life, and sort of put me in touch with the theater, which I didn’t really have. . . . St. Louis is a good theater town, but really being near to New York, and being in New Haven where shows were tried out, was very important to me, and certainly aimed me towards the theater, though I didn’t know how to get in. But two years after I got out of Yale I was starring on Broadway, so it worked out all right.”

After graduating from Yale, he taught at the Riverdale Country School and had quick access to the theaters in New York. Price said, “because I could go in for very little money and see all the plays. And then I went to the Courtauld in London and there I fell in love with the theater, and that was that.”

Ted Cassidy, who had an iconic role as Lurch and Thing in The Addams Family television show, was a member of the Alpha Sigma Phi chapter at West Virginia Wesleyan College.

Ted Cassidy

Price’s quotes are from an oral history interview with Vincent Price, 1992 Aug. 6-14, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

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Bob McGrath, Phi Gamma Delta and Sesame Street Icon

Posted on December 5, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Bob McGrath will live on forever as his character on Sesame Street. Robert Emmett McGrath was his given name and Bob Johnson was the name of the role on Sesame Street. He was the human corralling a cast of Muppet characters. Sesame Street was a mainstay of the childhoods of my offspring and I have wonderful memories of watching it with them.

But McGrath was more than his role on Sesame Street. Born on June 13, 1932, he attended the University of Michigan where he was a member of the Glee Club and Phi Gamma Delta. He graduated in 1954 and spent two years in the U.S. Army. An accomplished musician, he served in Germany where he booked gigs for and performed with the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra. After his Army stint, he earned a Master’s in voice from the Manhattan School of Music.

The January 1962 issue of The Phi Gamma Delta magazine included an article about his stint with Mitch Miller.

Phi Gamma Delta Magazine, January 1962

According to the University of Michigan Alumni Association website:

At the start of 1969, BOB MCGRATH, ’54, was a classically trained vocalist with network TV appearances and international tours to his name. A chance reunion with U-M fraternity brother and former “Captain Kangaroo” producer Dave Connell, ’55, MA’56, brought the premise of a new children’s educational show—“Sesame Street”—to McGrath’s attention. Although he initially turned down the chance to audition, McGrath became enthusiastic about the idea after watching video of the distinctive work of Jim Henson and his Muppets. McGrath successfully auditioned and became one of the four original human cast members when “Sesame Street” premiered on Nov. 10, 1969. He enjoyed an on-screen presence for 45 seasons.

In 2010, McGrath served as master of ceremonies at the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club 150th anniversary celebration. He was also awarded the Glee Club’s first Lifetime Achievement Award.

McGrath died on December 4, 2022, at the age of 90.  

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On Phi Sigma Sigma’s Founders’ Day

Posted on November 26, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Phi Sigma Sigma was founded at Hunter College on November 26, 1913 as Phi Sigma Omega. When it was discovered that the name was already in use, it became Phi Sigma Sigma. Its founders are Lillian Gordon Alpern, Josephine Ellison Breakstone, Fay Chertkoff, Estelle Melnick Cole, Jeanette Lipka Furst, Ethel Gordon Kraus, Shirley Cohen Laufer, Claire Wunder McArdle, Rose Sher Seidman and Gwen Zaliels Snyder.

In the 1940s, during World War II, Phi Sigma Sigma began a fundraiding drive. Its goal was to provide a Red Cross Clubmobile as a way to assist the men who were fighting on the front lines.  The Clubmobiles supplied coffee and donuts to the soldiers who were in isolated and remote areas. Women drove the Clubmobiles which looked somewhat like today’s recreational vehicles. It was reported that the women who drove and staffed  the Clubmobiles made and served 20,000 donuts per day. The Phi Sigma Sigma Clubmobile was assigned to follow troops in the North African  invasion.

The check covering the cost of the Phi Sigma Sigma Clubmobile was presented to the American Red Cross on February 20, 1944. The event took place at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Forty-five collegians, alumnae and national officers attended. Luncheon chairman Kitty Bralow, who had served as National Philanthropy Secretary, led the War Project. Clarisse H. Markowitz, Grand Archon, spoke about Phi Sig’s philanthropic purposes. She told how grateful she was that the War Project had come to fruition.

Later that day, out of town guests were treated to a buffet supper at the Xi chapter house at Temple University.

 

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Happy Founders’ Day, Alpha Sigma Alpha!

Posted on November 15, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Alpha Sigma Alpha was founded on November 15, 1901, at the State Female Normal School (now Longwood University) in Farmville, Virginia. Its founders had been asked to join some of the other sororities on campus, but they wanted to stay together. The five, Virginia Lee Boyd (Noell), Juliette Jefferson Hundley (Gilliam), Calva Hamlet Watson (Wootton), Louise Burks Cox (Carper) and Mary Williamson Hundley, started their own sorority, and they called it Alpha Sigma Alpha.

(Sarah) Ida Shaw Martin, who as a collegian at Boston University was a founder of Delta Delta Delta, played an integral role in Alpha Sigma Alpha’s early history. Martin had written the Sorority Handbook, first published in 1907. She was an expert on women’s fraternities/sororities.

Alpha Sigma Alpha sought Martin’s help in 1913. While 13 chapters had been installed, only the Alpha chapter was viable. Martin encouraged the organization to consider extension to the Pi Alpha Tau organization at Miami University. In May 1913, the Pi Alpha Taus became an Alpha Sigma Alpha chapter. Alpha Sigma Alpha realized Martin’s knowledge and assistance could help the group grow. She was elected its National President. Although she never presided at a convention, she was guiding the proceedings from behind the scene. Martin led Alpha Sigma Alpha until 1930, when Wilma Wilson Sharp was elected National President.

Wilma Wilson Sharp

Wilma Wilson was a charter member of the Zeta Zeta Chapter at Central Missouri State University when it was installed on April 4, 1919. She became National Registrar three years later. In 1930, she was elected National President. She served until 1936 when she became National Finance Chairman and two year after that, National Education Director. In 1941, she again became National President and served until 1952. In 1947, when Alpha Sigma Alpha entered the process of becoming a full fledged member of the National Panhellenic Conference, she was its first NPC Delegate; she spent a decade in that chair. As a testament to her decades of service, she was named National President Emerita. She wrote The Alpha Sigma Alpha Creed.

The Wilma Wilson Sharp Award recognizes an alumna member of Alpha Sigma Alpha “who has distinguished herself through service to her community, her profession and has shown significant leadership qualities, loyalty and continued service to Alpha Sigma Alpha.”

The Alpha Sigma Alpha Foundation’s Wilma Wilson Sharp Society recognizes donors who have included the Foundation in their estate planning.

The Alpha Sigma Alpha Creed

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Happy 100th, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.!

Posted on November 12, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. was founded on November 12, 1922 by seven young brave African American women educators in Indianapolis, Indiana. On December 30, 1929, a charter was granted to the Alpha chapter at Butler University making the organization a national college sorority. It is the only one of the National Pan-Hellenic Conference sororities not founded at Howard University, site of the Alpha chapters of  Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta, and Zeta Phi Beta.

Sigma Gamma Rho’s founders are Nannie Mae Gahn Foster Johnson, Mary Lou Allison Gardner  Little, Vivian Irene White Marbury, Bessie Mae Downey Rhoades Martin, Cubena McClure, Hattie Mae Annette Dulin Redford, and Dorothy N. Hanley Whiteside.

Last week, a package arrived from a friend in Indianapolis. Inside was a signed copy of Walking in the Founders’ Footsteps: Sigma Gamma Rho  and a program for the Historical Marker Dedication Program which took place on July 11, 2022. What a wonderful gift. I would loved to have been at the marker dedication and if I get to Indy again I will visit it.

As I am writing this on Friday, November 11, 2022, the Sigma Gamma Rhos are on the Butler campus holding a Where It All Began Centennial Ceremony from 6:30 p.m. through midnight. On the 12th, they will celebrate with a National Centennial Day of Service to honor female veterans.

Among the fun facts I learned from reading the book:

Nannie Mae Gahn designed the Sorority’s official pin.

Vivian Irene White Marbury lived the longest life of any of the Founders. She celebrated her 100th birthday in 2000.

Dorothy N. Hanley Whiteside was the first female “paperboy” for The Indianapolis News.  After she retired from teaching she opened Hats by Dorothy, a millinery business.

And I suggest a look at this website dedicated to the Centennial and the Sorority’s history.

https://www.sgrho100.org/

What a fabulous century you’ve had, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.! May the next century carry many blessings and continue the legacy set forth by the women who began your sorority.

 

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Happy Founders’ Day, Gamma Phi Beta!

Posted on November 11, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

A church oyster supper was the first social event Frances Haven (Moss) attended after enrolling in Syracuse University in 1874. Her father, Dr. Erastus Otis Haven, had been recently elected Chancellor of the university. At that supper, she met the man who would later become her husband, Charles Melville Moss. She also met two members of Alpha Phi, a women’s fraternity founded at Syracuse in October of 1872.

Instead of accepting the invitation to join Alpha Phi which had been offered to her, she joined with three other women – Mary A. Bingham (Willoughby), E. Adeline Curtis, and Helen M. Dodge (Ferguson) –  and they found an organization of their own. The date was November 11, 1874. The organization is Gamma Phi Beta, the first of the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organizations to use the term “sorority;” Syracuse Latin professor Frank Smalley suggested the word to the young women.*

Frances Moss was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and grew up in Evanston, Illinois, as her father was associated with both the University of Michigan and Northwestern University. Although the Big 10 athletic conference was not in existence when she was in those two locales, she spent most of the rest of her life in a third Big 10 town, Urbana, Illinois, where her husband was on the faculty of the University of Illinois.

On May 24, 1913, the Omicron Chapter of Gamma Phi Beta was installed at the University of Illinois. The chapter was originally founded as a local organization, Phi Beta. Its intent, from the beginning, was to become a Gamma Phi Beta chapter. Frances Haven Moss and Violet Jayne Schmidt, a member of Gamma Phi’s Beta Chapter at the University of Michigan, took charge of the effort.

Petition books were created and sent to chapters and alumnae clubs for during the early 1900s, petition books were integral in the process by which local organizations were accepted into membership. Dr. Moss, as a faculty member, added a letter to the petition book endorsing Phi Beta’s efforts. The petition was approved. It was  the only Gamma Phi chapter to be founded by one of Gamma Phi’s four founders. Alida Helen Moss, the Moss’ youngest daughter, became a member of the chapter. Alida is the only daughter of a Gamma Phi Beta founder to become a Gamma Phi herself. Frances and her husband helped the chapter obtain a house.

pink carnation

To read more about…..

*Dr. Frank Smalley and the word “sorority,”

Dr. Erastus Haven, the father of Frances 

The history of Gamma Phi Beta,  http://wp.me/p20I1i-6h. This link includes a picture of an early Gamma Phi house on Irving Avenue in Syracuse.

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Happy Founders’ Day, Sigma Kappa!

Posted on November 9, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Sigma Kappa was founded on November 9, 1874, by five young women, the only females enrolled at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. They received a letter from the faculty approving the organization’s petition, which included a constitution and bylaws. The five founders of Sigma Kappa are Mary Low Carver, Elizabeth Gorham Hoag, Ida Fuller Pierce, Louise Helen Coburn and Frances Mann Hall.

Sigma Kappa Founders

The Founders of Sigma Kappa

Florence Carll Jones compiled a Sigma Kappa calendar which appeared in a 1922 Triangle of Sigma Kappa. She, along with Frances Lyons McKirdy, who created an Index, were thanked. Their work was called labors of love for these kinds of documents were not easy to compile when quickly edited spreadsheets were the things of dreams. “The work of these two busy Sigmas is another example of the busiest sisters always finding time to do the extra tasks, that others, with fewer responsibilities, are ‘too busy’ to do.”

I’ve included the December calendar, too, because it will be here before we know it and I love the thought of giving a lovely thought. Happy Founders’ Day, Sigma Kappa!

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Happy Founders’ Day, Alpha Sigma Tau!

Posted on November 4, 2022 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On November 4, 1899, eight young women, Mable Chase, Ruth Dutcher, May Gephart, Harriet Marx, Eva O’Keefe, Adriance Rice, Helene Rice, and Mayene Tracy, formed a sorority at the Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University) in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Alpha Sigma Tau was the name they chose. The organization became a national one in October 1925.

Founders Helene and Adriance Rice were biological sisters. Two biological sisters were members of Theta Chapter at Wayne State University, which was in existence from 1923-1985. They were Helen Juers and Bertha Juers (Pettke). 

Detroit Free Press, January 11, 1925 (Please note Helen Juers’ name was misspelled in the caption.)

The sorority’s first National Convention took place in 1925 in Detroit, Michigan. One of the orders of business was the establishment of The Anchor, the sorority’s magazine. The Juers sisters likely played a role in that convention and the dance at the boat club mentioned below may have been a part of the convention festivities.

Detroit Free Press, June 14, 1925

Helen, born in 1902, was about 18 months older than her sister. She died at the age of 25 in 1928. Bertha died in 1991 and remained a loyal member of Alpha Sigma Tau.

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