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“In the Beginning…”

(Narrative, historical)

Founders Day, 1974

Updated 2002

By H. Osterheld and A.V. Edelblut

This is to refresh your memories of P.E.O.’s unique beginning with tributes to our Founders. So let’s take a peek at the 1860s. Certainly the lives of our seven Founders were conditioned by the events of their times and perhaps even by their birthdays...by their horoscopes…if you’re a believer in astrology.

The post Civil War years were years of mighty progress. The 1862 Homestead Act provided the incentive for Western Expansion. There was the growth of railroads. Good Mississippi steamboat landings, main traveled roads and remarkable rich soil made Iowa an early Mecca for pioneers who brought with them traditions and memories of their eastern homes. Iowa, by 1869, had been for some time a place of comfortable homes, complete with plus furniture and wood-burning stoves, flower gardens and vegetable gardens. Iowa was more advanced than its westerly neighbors. Before statehood these sturdy folk had built permanent homes, schools, churches, academies, and a few colleges.

Colleges existed then for the purpose of bringing some of the culture and beauty of the ages into the new-found wilderness. They were growing in numbers and actually accepting GIRLS as students. Girls were actually attending, too, and happy and proud to do so. Higher education for women was frowned on by some but firmly established in Iowa!

It is difficult to reason why Mount Pleasant, a small town, should have been the site for so many early schools, but Iowa Wesleyan was the first college west of the Mississippi to give a college degree...the first to admit women students...and so it attracted pioneers interested in higher education for their children.

Mount Pleasant was not isolated from the rest of the world, for it was situated on the railroad and telegraph lines ran parallel with them. Mount Pleasant also had postal service which daily brought in newspapers, periodicals and letters.

So for our seven young Founders, eagerly facing a new era, the time was right for just such a social awakening among women. To set the stage, in 1777 some men students at William and Mary formed a fraternity and it was ninety years later that women followed suit. Pi Beta Phi was formed in 1867 at Monmouth College in Illinois. A second chapter was organized at Mount Pleasant. That a stranger from another state should come into the home domain and organize a group did NOT set too well, so Hattie Briggs and Franc Rhoads talked together.

Hattie suggested they start a secret organization of their own. They ran to tell their five closest friends, and thus began the formation of P.E.O. They kept their organization secret, even going devious routes to their meeting places so no one would see them. They had a secret code. When wearing their pin, the star, on their left shoulder, if touched by the first finger of their right hand, it meant “lady in distress”...a signal used most frequently to ease away from the company of a seemingly dull male companion.

To this organization each founder brought her own gift of character and personality. So strong has been the power of each gift that the characteristics remain today a vital and important part of each chapter and each member. Yet, though serious girls, they were not pompous. They were fun loving, humorous, and warm, too...these seven Founders.

Hattie Briggs was first to dream pf P.E.O. and though she didn’t linger long, she left us the dream. Hattie was born a LIBRA. Her biography tells us she was full of joy...with no thought for personal gain. Her horoscope says she was harmonious and fortunate with feelings of affection and inclined towards pleasures and cheerfulness. She would be generous, congenial, light-hearted and witty, also merry and harmonious in nature. How many of you here are also Libras? You must have been born between Sept. 23rd and Oct. 22nd.

Franc Rhodes was dashing and artistic...destined to be a champion of causes, maybe because she was an AQUARIUS. Her biography says she was known as the girl with the far vision, so progressive that she was years ahead of her time. Her horoscope says, “The sign of Aquarius signifies originality and gives its natives the ability to become advanced thinkers.” Her biography continues, “It was her delight to offer suggestions and propose changes, then to be happy whether or not her suggestions were accepted.” Her horoscope says, “You may, at times, show a tendency to make sudden decisions and partake in unexpected activities. You have a powerful imagination and a desire to accomplish things.” Her biography: “So eager was she to be about the serious business of living that she seemed always to be giving life a little nudge.” Changing social conditions and the advancement of women were life-long challenges to Franc Rhodes. How many of you share her horoscope? The dates are January 20th to February 18th.

Two of our Founders, Alice Bird and Ella Steward, share not only the same horoscope but the same birth date, May 8th. They were born under the sign of TAURUS. Taurus people have “patience, one of your strong points, especially when dealing with the faults of others. Also your loyalty, not only to family and friends, but also to groups, country, and perhaps political parties, as well as your reliability and track record in completing whatever project or activity you have committed yourself to.” Alice was practical and literary. She loved to write and composed our oath and the original constitution. She gave the dream of P.E.O. its dignity and structure. Ella gave us a heritage of love. She wanted to serve humanity. She also chose the delicate hues of the Marguerite for our flower. Who shares the Taurus dates of April 20th to May 20th?

Alice Coffin is our ARIES. These dates are March 21st to April 19th. Are there any Aries among us? We read that Alice Coffin was an idealist, the jolliest of the jolly and very musical; also that she was tall, sophisticated and beautiful, suffering an unfortunate love and never married. She was a successful teacher and influenced uncounted young people, all because of a warm and sympathetic nature. Her horoscope tells us that she was a “born leader and not a follower, was positive and not fearful, was impatient to capture the unattainable, was forever searching in corners for fear that the impossible would hide from her.” Could this explain why she could not be compatible with her one love?

Suela Pearson was a VIRGO with an angel’s smile, evidently the most physically attractive of the Founders. Her intellect isn’t stressed but her popularity and love of people seemed evident. Her horoscope tells us to expect a Virgo to be “practical, self-sacrificing, modest and helpful.” Suela married late, for all her great popularity, but she married well. Her horoscope says that, “the Virgo will have one talent, usually very well developed and several latent ones.” Suela seems to have been very skillful in elocution and dramatics. Virgos are born between August 23rd and September 22nd. Are there any Virgos among us?

Mary Allen woke, worked and slept with God in her thoughts, animated and decisive...brought an abiding faith in God and religion. She knew that an organization, to survive and prosper, must have God in its center. Mary Allen was a CAPRICORN. Interestingly, her biography and her horoscope agree that she was characterized by a delightful sense of humor. Capricorns, although highly intelligent and sympathetic, are wary of intruding their personality upon others. Mary Allen was highly a regarded homemaker and mother which, as we all know necessitates being both sympathetic and intelligent. Capricorns are Christmas children born between December 22nd and January l9th. How many are there here?

Here then, astrologically, are our Founders. I suspect that those ladies consulted the stars from time to time for fun and seriously. After all, a star became their emblem. You do not need to be reminded that the Wise Men who followed a Star were astrologers.

So we gather occasionally to thank the girls who were the right ones with the right conditions and the right horoscopes, perhaps, and who originated our sisterhood. In closing this glimpse into the past, let’s pledge to ourselves that here in the present our devotion to the dream and to each other will prevail.

I’d like to quote from the poem, “Heritage” by Gene Lindberg whose reference to the women pioneers is so like that of our Founders:

“Their dreams, deep-rooted in the past, must never die!

Though, now at last, their able part in them is done,

The part you play has just begun.

Their dreams are yours, a trust to keep.

Where they have planted, you must reap;

Must hold the goal they sought to win.

Where their trail ends, your trails begin.”

So it was, in our “beginning...”

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