Alpha Xi Delta “When the 17th of April Rolls Around Again”

Posted on April 17, 2016 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

“When the 17th of April rolls around again the Alpha Xi Delta idea will be eleven years old,” reads an account in the first issue of Alpha Xi Delta of the Alpha Xi Delta Sorority.  “The seed planted so carefully by ten brave girls has borne good fruit, and those who have taken their places have been imbued with the motives of the original ten.” Today is the 123rd  anniversary of the founding of Alpha Xi Delta.

Alpha Xi Delta was founded at Lombard College in Galesburg, Illinois on April 17, 1893. Its founders are Cora Bollinger Block, Alice Bartlett Bruner, Bertha Cook Evans, Harriett Luella McCollum, Lucy W. Gilmer, Lewie Strong Taylor, Almira Lowry Cheney, Frances Elisabeth Cheney, Eliza Drake Curtis Everton, and Julia Maude Foster. At age 15, Alice Barlett Bruner was the youngest of Alpha Xi Delta’s founders; Eliza Curtis Everton, a 25-year-old widow, was the oldest founder.

Cora

Cora Bollinger Block

This account of the founding, titled “A Retrospect. Alpha Xi Delta 1893-1903.” appeared in the first volume of Alpha Xi Delta of the Alpha Xi Delta Sorority published in February 1904 (It later took on the name The Quill of Alpha Xi Delta and the organization chose to call itself a women’s fraternity):

Ten years ago it required no small amount of courage to put a sorority in the field of endeavor where Alpha Xi Delta first saw the light. Let us then look over the situation, in brief it was this: two fraternities and one sorority were in operation at Lombard College, Galesburg, Illinois; the sorority was affiliated exclusively with one of the fraternities; the result to the other fraternity is easy of imagination—it was without an organized ally and suffered thereby. It is not an unusual thing to find some of the smaller schools with but one sorority, neither is it always a bad thing, but in the case of Lombard ten years ago the spirit was such as to make us qualify the statement and say simply that the atmosphere was not a happy one. This difficulty originated in the false standard that had in some way been set up. The choosing of new members amounted not so much to a consideration of scholarship and character as to the trivalities of wealth or social attainments. In consequence a class of young women was formed having the opposite attributes and the time seemed ripe for the organization of a local society. This project had the greatest encouragment of the fraternity referred to above, the Delta Theta chapter of Sigma Nu. This fraternity helped the movement on and in the spring of ’93 the air was fairly vibrant with the plans of the budding sorosis.

It reads in the history of the first year of the sorority: ‘The spring of 1893 was a season of mysteries in Lombard. There were strange whisperings and dark councils. There were hurryings to and fro among ten gentle maidens and breathless plannings and hairbreadth escapes from detection.’

Can we not see it all as pictured in these vivid words of our dear sister Frances Cheney? And how we all would like to have been there would we not? Like an old war-horse, scenting the battle from afar, I sympathize with those dear girls and only wish mine had been the honor to be numbered with the ‘council of ten.’ 

Girls of a type strong, earnest, and enthusiastic were the chosen friends for this work, and it was work, too, because there was no pattern to go by, and the girls had to use their own intuition, coupled with some help from Sigma Nu, to get into a semblance of form and order the ideas and ideals for which they  wished to work. Among those of the Sigma Nu who gave help aand encouragement one calls to mind the names of James Alvin Clark, C.W.E. Gossow, Jasper Everton, Ben Downs, Robert Higgins and Joseph Crum. (The first three named are now ministers of the Universalist Church, the last a physician and another a lawyer.)

Alpha Xi Delta did not lack for friends among the “Barbs” or non-fraternity faction of Lombard, for the need of another society for the young women was generally recognized, and it may be well to mention here as an encouraging friend at that time one Richard or “Dick” Brown—now a lawyer in Iowa—a strong “Barb” leader, but who was broad and far-seeing enough to recognize the good another sorority would do.

In her endeavors, Alpha Xi Delta has been singularly blessed with staunch supporters and right good friends among the faculty of Lombard and among the students of no matter what frat politics, and the question arises—what have we done to merit it? and what can we do to bind closer to us our present and past friends and attract and retain those of the future?

These are questions for the individual Alpha girl to ponder in her own heart and the answer will be read in the success of the coming years. No sorority is better than the individuals who compose it; no matter how high may be its ideals, the chapters compose the sorority and the individual members the chapters, and it rests with each and every one of us to make or mar this work we have undertaken.

That our ten charter members worked long and well with the spirit of Caesar’s words, ‘Avt viam miveniam avt faciam’ inspiring them we know and one fine morning, April seventeenth, eighteen hundred ninety-three, the thunderbolt, so to speak, descended and the ten girls walked, none too seriously into chapel wearing on their breasts for the first time our beloved quill and the light and dark blue, ’emblem of undying truth.’ May it be for their followers, as it was for them, a fitting emblem, for indeed they were true blue, those girls; and I think we are all glad that they chose the blue to wave over them as they entered the battle-ground of sorority life. We now have a third color, the gold, added when Alpha Xi Delta became national, and this was necessary as another sorority has the blue also. This, too, is very appropriate for the girls who have worn the blue have proved pure gold.

The cordial reception of the brother fraternity compensated for coldness of the other contingent, and Alpha Xi Delta was fairly launched. Many of the girls can remember the cordial letter of welcome from Sigma Nu that was handed in on the occasion of the first official ‘frat’ meeting. We are dignified now and say ‘sorority’ but to many of us the best name for Alpha Xi Delta will be the pet name of the ‘frat.’

We ought all to realize the bravery of our founders, for it was surely no easy task when those ten young girls took the decisive step, and again I say, all honor and glory be theirs.

Lombard College was founded in 1853 by the Universalist Church and it was coeducational from its beginning. Originally called the Illinois Liberal Institute, its name was changed in 1855, after a fire damaged much of the college. Businessman and farmer Benjamin Lombard gave the college a large gift to build a new building and the institution was named in his honor. Among its students was Carl Sandburg.

In 1902, Iowa Wesleyan College’s Chapter S of the P.E.O. Sisterhood became the Beta Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta. With this move, Alpha Xi Delta became 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. (See http://wp.me/p20I1i-1EP and http://wp.me/p20I1i-9L)

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.

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2016. All Rights Reserved. If  you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory/

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Losing Lincoln, the Titanic, and a Murder in Belize

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Two historic events which took place on April 15 had their beginnings on the evening of April 14. The RMS Titanic’s collision with an iceberg happened at 11:40 p.m. on Sunday April 14, 1914. The ship sank in the early morning hours of April 15.

President Abraham Lincoln was shot a little after 10 p.m. on Friday April 14, 1865. John Wilkes Booth shot the President in the presidential box at Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. At 7:22 a.m. on April 15, 1865, the 56-year-old the President died. Lincoln did not attend college and was not a fraternity man.

I can’t help thinking of Lincoln assassination without hearing the lyrics to Stephen Sondheim’s (Beta Theta Pi, Williams College) Ballad of Booth from Assassins. Below is the introduction to the song, the part being sung by a balladeer.

Someone tell the story,
Someone sing the song.
Every now and then
The country
Goes a little wrong.
Every now and then
A madman’s
Bound to come along.
Doesn’t stop the story-
Story’s pretty strong.
Doesn’t change the song…
Johnny Booth was a handsome devil,
Got up in his rings and fancy silks.
Had him a temper but kept it level.
Everybody called him Wilkes.
Why did you do it, Johnny?
Nobody agrees.
You who had everything,
What made you bring
A nation to its knees?
Some say it was your voice had gone,
Some say it was booze.
They say you killed a coutry, John,
Because of bad reviews.
Johnny lived with a grace and glitter.
Kind of like the lives he lived on stage.
Died in a barn in pain and bitter
Twenty-seven years of age.
Why did you do it, Johnny,
Throw it all away?
Why did you do it, boy,
Not just destroy
The pride and joy
Of Illinois,
But all the U.S.A.?
Your brother made you jealous, John,
You couldn’t fill his shoes.
Was that the reason, tell us, John-
Along with bad reviews.

The Titanic’s maiden voyage turned out to be her last. More than 1,500 passengers and crew perished. Only 705 of the people who boarded the ship survived. Among the fraternity men who perished on the Titanic were:

John Jacob Astor IV, Lieutenant Colonel in the Spanish-American War, businessman, real estate developer, investor, inventor, and author (Delta Phi, Harvard University).

Major Archibald Willingham Butt, journalist, and military aide to U.S. presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft (Delta Tau Delta, University of the South).

George Dennick Wick (Kappa Alpha Society, Williams College)

Major Archibald Butt

Major Archibald Butt

***

My thanks to Nora Ten Broeck, Alpha Sigma Alpha, for her tenacious efforts to see justice brought forth in Anne Swaney’s murder. Swaney, a news producer for ABC in Chicago, was a member of the Illinois Epsilon Chapter of Pi Beta Phi at Northwestern University. She was murdered in January 2016 while vacationing in Belize. Little progress has been made in the murder investigation.

Nora – ASA ‏@ASAalumna

#justice #AnneSwaney #American #murder #Belize #January2016 @FBI @POTUS @USMissionBelize @StateDept @ABC7Chicago

***

It’s also Founders’ Day for FarmHouse and Triangle Fraternities. See http://wp.me/p20I1i-Lh for a post about those organizations. 

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2016. All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory.

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“Feminism and Sororities” – Nothing New About It!

Posted on April 12, 2016 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Kudos to the Kappa Alpha Theta members at Columbia for making it to the pages of the Sunday issue of The New York Times. The title of the article was “When a Feminist Pledges a Sorority” as if that were a new concept. In fact, there is a strong foundation of feminists creating and joining sororities. I would argue that women’s empowerment and sororities is nothing new. Throughout the history of sororities* one can find women who have been trailblazers and pioneers in their fields. Of course, for one who does not wish to believe this no amount of proof will be sufficient. 

Sisterhood has really never gone out of style and it has been a cornerstone of National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organizations since the beginning.

I offer ten women whom most anti-sorority people would never believe belonged to a sorority. (*I know all too well that although the organizations are colloquially called sororities, the majority of the 26 National Panhellenic Conference groups are officially women’s fraternities or fraternities for women). These ten women were from a “top of my head” list. There are scores of others who belong on this list.

Screenshot (70)

Carrie Lane Chapman Catt (1859-1947), Pi Beta Phi (Iowa State University). Catt was President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1900-04 (and 1915-20, too). She was instrumental in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment granting women the right to vote.

Carrie C. Lane is first on the chapter roll for the Spring 1880 term.

Carrie C. Lane (Chapman Catt) is first on the Iowa Gamma Chapter roll for the Spring 1880 term.

Mary Ritter Beard (1876-1958), Kappa Alpha Theta (DePauw University). Ritter was a suffragist and a noted historian.

Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Ph.D., (1879-1958), Kappa Kappa Gamma (Ohio State University). Fisher was an author, educational reformer, and social activist. After World War I, she did post-war relief work in Europe, enlisting her Kappa sisters’ assistance in helping orphaned children.

Alice Duer Miller (1874-1942), Kappa Kappa Gamma, Barnard College (Phi Beta Kappa, too!). Miller was an ardent suffragist. In the years when women were trying to gain the right to vote, she wrote a column, Are Women People? devoted to the cause of equal suffrage. In 1915, she penned:

“Mother, what is a feminist?”

“A feminist, my daughter,

Is any woman now who cares

to think about her own affairs

As men don’t think she oughter.”

Kappa Kappa Gamma, Beta Epsilon Chapter, Barnard College

Kappa Kappa Gamma, Beta Epsilon Chapter, Barnard College.

Ada Comstock Notestein (1876-1973), Delta Gamma, University of Minnesota. Notestein served as  Dean of Women at Smith College from 1921-23. Since 1975, Smith College’s Ada Comstock Scholars Program has helped hundreds of non-traditional age women to complete a Bachelor of Arts. In addition, she served as President of the American Association of University Women from 1921-23 and President of Radcliffe College from 1923-43.

Ada Louise Comstock

Ada Louise Comstock

E. Jean Nelson Penfield, (1872-1961), Kappa Kappa Gamma (DePauw University). Penfield was one of seven women who chartered the Woman’s Suffrage Party of Greater New York. She also served as Kappa Kappa Gamma’s National President. 

E. Jean Nelson (Penfield) as a student

E. Jean Nelson (Penfield) as a student

Edith and Grace Abbott, both Delta Gammas (University of Nebraska). Grace (1878-1939) was the highest ranking woman in the United States government for over a decade as the head of the U.S. Children’s Bureau from 1921-34. She was the first woman to be nominated for a Presidential cabinet position—Secretary of Labor (unfortunately her nomination was not confirmed). Edith (1876-1957) was the first woman to become dean of an American graduate school, the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration.

Reverend Doctor Anna Howard Shaw, (1847-1919), Kappa Alpha Theta (Wooster College) An honorary member (alumna initiate), Shaw was a suffragist, physician, first ordained female Methodist minister, and President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

Frances Willard, 1839-98, Alpha Phi (Syracuse University). Willard was an honorary member (alumna initiate) and she served as Alpha Phi’s National President. She was a suffragist, social reformer, and an American educator. She was also instrumental in the establishment of the second chapter of Alpha Phi  at Northwestern University in 1881.

Frances Willard, Alpha Phi

Frances Willard, Alpha Phi

For further evidence, please see the #WHM posts done in March 2016 for Women’s History Month. Using the search box on the right will bring up more posts about #amazingsorority women.

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2016. All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory.

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“The Grand Old Man of Theta Chi” on Its Founders’ Day

Posted on April 10, 2016 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Theta Chi Fraternity was founded on April 10, 1856 at Norwich University, in Norwich, Vermont. Frederick Norton Freeman and Arthur Chase, military cadets, met in Freeman’s room in Norwich’s Old South Barracks. After taking an oath, they declared each other “true and accepted members” of the Society. Chase became President and Freeman Secretary. The next evening two more cadets – Edward Bancroft Williston and Lorenzo Potter – joined the order.

Theta Chi’s Beta Chapter at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was installed on December 13, 1902. Other chapters quickly followed. The Alpha chapter lasted until 1960 when Norwich disbanded all its fraternities.

Robert Liston Irish was an 1885 initiate of the Alpha Chapter. He was “initiated in the room in the Barracks set aside for the use of Alpha Chapter by the Norwich University authorities,” according to an article in a 1937 Rattle of Theta Chi. He graduated in 1889 with a degree in chemistry. A year later he earned an M.A. from Norwich. He taught at his alma mater for a short time “before entering business activities in Vermont and Brooklyn. Finally in 1899 he achieved an M.D. degree from the Bellevue Medical College.” He also served as a Trustee at Norwich University from 1916-31.

Dr. Irish established a medical practice in New York City. He served a stint as the state examiner of lunacy. In 1931, he was honored by his fraternity after decades of service, including installing the first Theta Chi chapter on the west coast at the University of California – Berkeley in November 1913.

In the summer of 1928, he was on the west coast and attended a banquet hosted by the San Francisco alumni. It was his first visit to San Francisco since he installed the chapter at Stanford in 1920. When it was Dr. Irish’s turn to speak, he “responded to the tributes with memories of the earlier efforts of the Fraternity in California and he proposed an eloquent toast to Theta Chi on the Pacific Coast which was drunk with relish. Harking back to the supreme crisis of the Fraternity, he began to build it anew, brick by brick, in his memory. He saw again the temporary obstacles to expansion and the triumph of strong leadership. In conclusion, he expressed his pride in the far western units of the 45-link chain which now makeeth whole.” During that trip, he toured Berkeley and met with the chapter there. Then he (and hopefully his wife Kathleen) left for six weeks in the Hawaiian Islands.

The December 1931 Rattle of Theta Chi, included this tribute to Dr. Irish:

“For many years the title of ‘The Grand Old Man of Theta Chi’ has been given by common consent to Dr. Robert L. Irish, Norwich ’89. That title now become official in accordance with the following resolution passed unanimously by the National Council:

Whereas: Brother Robert L. Irish has been a member of Theta Chi Fraternity from 1885, and since 1911, when he became a member of its National Council, has rendered conspicuous and distinguished service to the fraternity and its membership, serving on that body for twenty consecutive years,  four of which as national president, three as national treasurer, and the remaining ten as national counselor, and who, especially in the early days of expansion, through visitation, information, and inspiration instilled into the heart and minds of the younger chapters and their undergraduate members the spirit and the ideals of our fraternity, and how at the expiration of his tenth biennial term, in view of certain re-election, voluntarily resigned from the National Council for the sole purpose of permitting others to serve the fraternity he had nurtured and loved so well. Now, therefore be it

Resolved: That the National Council of Theta Chi Fraternity give due recognition to the continuing power of his idealistic and unselfish service by conferring upon him the title of ‘The Grand Old Man of Theta Chi,’ and be it further

Resolved: That the appreciation of the Theta Chi Fraternity be expressed to him through its National Council at this meeting held in the City of New York, November 28, 1931. Be it further

Resolved: That these resolutions be entered upon the minutes of the National Council and published in The Rattle of Theta Chi. 

Robert Liston Irish, M.D.

Robert Liston Irish, M.D.

Dr. Irish died on June 6, 1937. He was “probably known by more members of the fraternity than any other Theta Chi and was held in affection esteem universally,” according to an article in The Rattle of Theta Chi.

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2016. All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory.

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Museum Mystery, Chi Omega Trending, and the New/Old Gymnasium

Posted on April 7, 2016 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

It is official. The #WHM posts nearly did me in as they were combined with a to-do list that has its own zip code. But I loved writing about those “Unsung Heroines.” April has several Founders’ Days that I want to write a post about and I’ve come across other things in my travels that I hope to get to soon. Until then, I offer you these tidbits.

The first is from my facebook feed:

Student Life and Culture Archives
April 5 at 1:28pm ·

The Student Life and Culture Archives will be featured in the season premiere of “Mysteries at the Museum” on the Travel Channel this Thursday! Here are a few behind-the-scenes shots of the crew filming the segment.

“Mysteries at the Museum” follows host Don Wildman as he digs into the world’s greatest institutions to unearth extraordinary relics that reveal incredible secrets from the past. Through compelling interviews, rare archival footage and arresting recreations, “Mysteries at the Museum” illuminates the hidden treasures at the heart of history’s most incredible triumphs, sensational crimes and bizarre encounters.

Student Life and Culture Archives's photo.
Student Life and Culture Archives's photo.

The show’s website gives this clue about tonight’s episode. My guess it that the yearbook is the connection to the Student Life and Culture Archives:

Indestructible Mike; Bubble Trouble; The Penny Man

***

My facebook feed told me this was trending the on April 5. I’m not sure if it was just my facebook feed because I tend to follow many GLO pages, or if it was there for everyone to see. Thought my Chi Omega friends would get a kick out of this.

Screenshot (68)

***

I spent last night speaking to Panhellenic women at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. The three groups on campus were founded within 14 months of each other. There was a fourth group which was installed between the now second and third chapters, but it left campus in the 1990s. Ths is from a Tri Delta history: “James Millikin University was founded in 1900 through the beneficence of James Millikin and the co-operation of the citizens of Decatur, and the Synods of Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.” Beneficence, “the doing of good; active goodness or kindness; charity,” is a terrific word to use often and by which to live.

The "New Gymnasium" at Millikin University was used as an illustration in the articles about the foundings of the NPC groups on the Millikin University campus. The women let me know that what was new in 1913 was now the "old Gymnasium" in 2016.

This photo of the “New Gymnasium” at Millikin University was used as an illustration in the articles about the foundings of the NPC groups on the Millikin University campus. The women let me know that what was new in 1913 was now the “Old Gym” in 2016.

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2016. All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory.

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April 5, 1895, Chi Omega, and Mary C. Love Collins

Posted on April 5, 2016 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Happy Founders’ Day to Chi Omega! It was founded on April 5, 1895 at the University of Arkansas. Ina May Boles, Jean Vincenheller, Jobelle Holcombe, and Alice Simonds, with guidance from Fayetteville dentist, Dr. Charles Richardson, a Kappa Sigma, created the organization. Dr. Richardson was known as “Sis Doc” to generations of Psi Chapter members (the founding chapter at Arkansas is known as the Psi Chapter) and he is counted as a founder. He crafted Chi Omega’s first badge out of dental gold. I think it’s a safe bet to say that Chi Omega is the only National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organization to have its first badge crafted out of dental gold.

While a student at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Mary Love (Collins) belonged to Omega Psi, a local organization. In 1907, it became the Delta Chapter of Chi Omega. Mary Love, as she was known to her Chi Omega and NPC friends, was initiated into Chi Omega as an alumna.

Omega Psi at Dickinson College. It came the Delta Chapter of Chi Omega in 1907. She is included in this photograph.

Omega Psi at Dickinson College. It came the Delta Chapter of Chi Omega in 1907. She is included in this photograph.

Although not a founder, Mary Love Collins played a major  role in Chi Omega for 62 years, serving as its National President for 42 years. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. She was a lawyer at a time when few women chose that profession.

Mary Love Collins

Mary Love Collins at the 1913 NPC meeting. She is in the dark suit, fourth from left in the middle row. In her later years, she was often seen wearing a white suit.

Chi Omega calls her “a brilliant administrator, author, and dedicated fraternity woman.” She was also involved in the National Panhellenic Conference serving as Chairman in 1919-21 and attending NPC meetings for decades. Moreover, she was an ambassador for Chi Omega wherever she went.

Mary Love Collins, 1914

Mary Love Collins, 1914

At the 1914 National Panhellenic Conference meeting, it was decided that:

every fraternity have a definite system of instruction of chapters by Council on N. P. C. matters; that all laws, ruling and agreements of the N. P. C. be codified and harmonized by Mrs. Collins of Chi Omega and Miss Hagaman of Delta Gamma, both lawyers; that the subject of secrecy be studied; that the N. P . C. encourage general fraternity extension and cooperate in the extension of all fraternities.

In 1916, she visited the Chi Omega chapter at my alma mater, Syracuse University. This was part of their chapter report following her visit:

At Thanksgiving, Upsilon Alpha sent basket dinners to five poor families of the city. Just before the close of college for Christmas, presents were sent from the chapter to the Day Nursery. Many of the girls have been working individually in visiting the College Settlement, the Orphan Asylum, and the Old Ladies’ Home.

On the afternoon of December fifth Upsilon Alpha entertained at an informal alumnae tea. We all enjoyed the opportunity of becoming better acquainted with our alumnae and professors who were present.

Mrs. Collins spent the week-end of December fifth with us. We were all so pleased with her visit, from which we gained much help and inspiration.

If she worte a thank you letter to the Upsilon chapter, she mgiht have signed it with this signature.

If she wrote a thank you letter to the Upsilon chapter, she might have signed it with this signature.

 

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2016. All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory.

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#notablesororitywomen for #WHM Redux

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

For the month of March, I, with a little help from a few of my friends, produced a post a day, almost all of them about #amazingsororitywomen for #WHM (Women’s History Month). Please know that I lost some sleep over the #amazingsororitywomen hashtag because I know that some of these women are #amazingfraternitywomen and the hashtag #amazingsororityandfraternitywomen was too darn long. I put them all together in the category #amazingsororitywomen. The distinction is only recognizable to those who know the minutiae  of fraternity and sorority terminology.

These posts were not read by many people. Some of these women belong to a catergory I like to call “Unsung Heroines.” Most of them do not appear on the “Famous Alumnae” lists, but their lives are interesting nonetheless. Please pass along these posts to those who might like to know more about an Unsung Heroine of their organization.

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2016. All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory.

 

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#WHM – Gertrude Friedlander Markel, Lawyer and Alpha Epsilon Phi

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Gertrude Friedlander became a member of Alpha Epsilon Phi while she was a student at the University of Pittsburgh. After she graduated, she entered law school at the same institution. She was only one of three women enrolled in law school. She earned her law degree in 1925.

Getrude Friedlander and her Alpha Epsilon Phi sisters at the University of Pittsburgh

Gertrude Friedlander and her Alpha Epsilon Phi sisters at the University of Pittsburgh

She served Alpha Epsilon Phi as a National Dean (National President) from 1927-29.

HE Arm'R X CTTTZEX. FRIDAY, .July 1, 1927.

       The Auburn (NY) Citizen             July 1, 1927

According to an article which appeared in the October 9, 1975 Pittsburgh Press, Markel said, “Even after I graduated it was tough getting started. It was difficult for a woman lawyer to find a niche. I didn’t want to go into a law firm that would use me as a clerk. I wanted to practice law. So I started my own firm.”

At the start of her career, while preparing for a murder case, where she was sure of her client’s innocence, she traveled to Chicago. While there, on a whim, she called famed lawyer Clarence Darrow. That call led to her having dinner with Darrow at the Palmer House and a life long friendship. Darrow’s suggestion that she bring in psychiatrists to help establish her client’s mental capacity helped her convince the jury of his innocence. When she won the case, and her client was found innocent, Darrow sent her a letter congratulating her on a job well done.

On June 9, 1929, she married Jacob A. Markel. Together the  established their own law firm, Markel and Markel. In the early 1930s, they added two sons to their family, Bennett in 1931 and Myron in 1934. After graduation from Columbia University’s School of Law in 1959, Myron joined his parents in their law firm.

In 1975, the Allegheny County Bar Association honor her for her 50 years of service. Of the 17 lawyers receiving certificates that year, only two were women.

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2016. All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory.

 

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#WHM – Elva Doyle Reed, Alpha Sigma Alpha

Posted on March 30, 2016 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

For today’s post about an Alpha Sigma Alpha, I was going to write about Dale Zeller, an educator. When I went searching for information about her, I found a tribute to Elva Doyle Reed written by Ida Shaw Martin. Mrs. Martin, as she was called, started her life as Sarah Ida Shaw, and that name will be familiar to every member of Delta Delta Delta. Martin also served as National President of Alpha Sigma Alpha, but that is a story for another day.

On the last page of the December 1916 Phoenix of Alpha Sigma Alpha, appeared this sad news:

It is with hearts crushed beneath a heavy load of sorrow that we record the death of our beloved National Secretary, Elva Doyle Reed. No sorority ever possessed a more lovable member, a more devoted worker, a more efficient National Officer. From the moment of her initiation at the Miami Convention, to which she went as the delegate from Kirksville, to the day of her death, Alpha Sigma Alpha was to her almost a religion.

Alpha Sigma Alpha owes to Elva Doyle Reed a deep debt of gratitude. So long as the Sorority shall stand, it will be a monument to her devotion, to her belief in its destiny as an educative force, to her faith in its ultimate and abundant success. Our hearts go out in  the deepest sympathy to the sorrowing parents, to the broken-hearted husband. Our love would enfold most tenderly the little son that never looked on the sweet face of his mother.

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The next issue of The Phoenix, dated January 24, 1917, which was edited by Martin, devoted four pages to Reed’s death. It began “In Memoriam,” and continued with:

Elva Doyle Reed was the first member (‘after reorganization’ is handwritten above it) of Alpha Sigma Alpha to attain the crown imperishable. ‘Tis said Death loves a shining mark. He could not have found in Alpha Sigma Alpha a more beautiful character, a more beloved member, a more widely-known worker, a more efficient Councilior. The loss to Alpha Sigma is irreparable, for there is no one that can ever fill her place in just the way that she did. Her taking away in the full flush of heart from a work that she loved, form a post here she was rendering a distinct and invaluable service is something to which it is not easy to be reconciled. It was her mother who has eased in a measure the poignant pain over the loss of her, for it was her mother who said, ‘She has only gone ahead, so as to be ready to welcome her sorority sisters.’ Ah, mothers understand! Heaven is a sweeter place because Elva Doyle Reed is there.

Alpha Sigma Alpha is so young, having but two years to its credit since the reorganization of the Sorority in November of 1914, that it has not had time to arrange for many of the things that form a vital part of long-established orders. It has as yet no burial service, no memorial service, no regulation concerning the wearing of mourning. When, however, the telegram came announcing the Sorority’s great loss, your National President sent out instructions at once to all the Chapters. These instructions were based on the best Hellenic custom, and explained the official draping of the badge with black grosgrain ribbon as well as stating the length of the mourning period. The instructions reached the Eastern chapters in time for them to wear mourning on the day of the funeral. Alpha Beta received word direct from Iowa City, and so had an opportunity to add a sheaf of narcissi to the spray of white chrysanthemums sent in the name of the National Sorority, as well as to be represented at the funeral in Shelbyville, Mo., on December 12th, by Ida. A. Jewett, Faculty Adviser, Marion Gardner Blackwell, State Secretary, and Dale Zeller, Chapter President.

The death of Elva Doyle Reed came home with particular force and significance to Alpha Beta, for the Chapter was in the midst of the Initiation Service when the telegram reached Kirksville and it had at hand letters of greeting and instruction from her. There was no break in the Service, because those in charge felt that it would be Elva’s wish that the Chapter go on with the sacred ceremony, but every ASA in Kirksville was sad that night and for long days afterwards. They recalled with pain that Elva’s burial day was the second anniversary of her installation of the Kirksville group as Alpha Beta Chapter, when, assisted by Lennye Tucker, she had initiated forty-three young women into Alpha Sigma Alpha, alumnae, active and pledges of Kappa Theta Psi. Those present on that occasion will long remember the joy, the inspiration, the fervor in Elva’s face as she welcomed former associated in the larger and more significant membership of a National Sorority.

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#WHM – Edwyl Reddings, Musician, Dean, and Tri Sigma

Posted on March 29, 2016 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Edwyl Reddings, by all accounts, was a fine musician. Born in Colorado, she traveled to Granville, Ohio, to attend Denison University. She graduated in 1911 before the institution’s National Panhellenic Conference organizations were founded there.

“Miss Edwyl Redding to repeat recital,” was the headline in the June 20, 1911 Montrose Daily Press. The article read:

At the earnest solicitation of many friends Miss Edwyl Redding, who recently graduated from the Dennison (sic) Conservatory of Music with high honors on the piano, will repeat the recital that she gave there following the graduation, for the benefit of Montrose people on Thursday evening at 8:15 o’clock at the opera house. There will be no admission charged and Miss Redding cordially invites all her friends to be her guests on this occasion. Miss Redding is a Montrose girl, having been born here. We have spoken of her great ability as a pianist many times in these columns, and it will be a great pleasure to hear her in this classical recital. She will use a Baldwin piano, the use of which was donated by A. E. Smith.

The October 13, 1911, issue of the same newspaper reported, “Edwyl Redding will play the big pipe organ.” According to the report:

Friday Miss Edwyl Redding, the accomplished daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. O. Redding, received an offer over the telephone to take the position as pipe organist in the Congregational church at Grand Junction, and she has accepted the same. She receives a good salary for handling the organ and will engage in teaching both on the pipe organ and piano. Miss Edwyl is a very talented young musician graduated in music last spring from one of the large conservatories in Ohio. She will take up her new work soon. 

In 1918, she joined the faculty of the Western State University of Colorado (now  Western State Colorado University) in Gunnison, Colorado. She spent the next 42 years at the institution, teaching and mentoring. In addition to her academic responsibilities, she served as Dean of Women during part of that time.

Edwyl Reddings, 1920s

Edwyl Reddings, 1920s

The Sigma Chapter of Sigma Sigma Sigma was installed on February 21, 1925 with 10 charter members. A sponsor was also initiated at the time. I wonder if the sponsor was Edwyl Reddings. She is on the Sigma Chapter roll and she must have been an alumna initiate.

In the 1930s, she earned a Master’s Degree from Western State University and another from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in New York.  She studied piano and organ in Europe and the United States. She was a concert pianist, accompanist, church organist and, in the 1920s, she provided music for radio station KFHA in Gunnison. She won many awards for her performances.

In 1941 she was recognized by Tri Sigma with the Emily Gates Alumnae Award for the “soul stirring music she had written for Sigma Sigma Sigma’s hymn, ‘Stately and Royal.’

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Redding was also a member of P.E.O. and A.A.U.W. She died in 1987 at the age of 95. Her legacy lives on at Western State Colorado University through the Edwyl Redding Memorial Piano and Organ Scholarship for full-time students pursuing instruction in piano and organ. The funding for the scholarship came from a bequest from Redding’s estate as well as from gifts from former students, colleagues, and friends. Two of Redding’s compositions, “Alma Mater- Western State Colorado University of Colorado” and “Ode To Western,” the official hymn of the University, are another legacy which lives on at the University.

Edwyl Reddings, 1940s

Edwyl Reddings, 1940s

© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2016. All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory.

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