B-10
Those Wonderful B.I.L.s
THE P.E.O. RECORD, September-October 1995, P. 7
By Rosemary A. Wood, Historian
What would have happened to all the P.E.O.s over the years without our B.I.L.s? Would we have had the same kind of organization we do now or would it be vastly different? Can we think back to the decades since our founding and imagine how the husbands must have felt to see their ladies going off to meetings and conventions—even to different towns and states—without a man to take care of them? Unheard of! “How brave our wives are,” thought the husbands. “What in the world is P.E.O.? What do the letters stand for? And how do we fit in?”
Lulu Corkhill was initiated as one of the first P.E.O.s in 1869 and went on to be an important and beloved member of the Sisterhood. She was involved in many facets of the organization and was president of Illinois State Chapter in 1907. The title of B.I.L. is credited to her husband, Mr. H. B. Williams. He explained in later years that when he lived in Centerville, Iowa, in 1882, he was one of a group of several young men who termed themselves the A.O.B. – Ancient Order of Bachelors, the object of their group being “to keep their hearts with all diligence”. Also in the town was the A.O.M. – the Ancient Order of Maids. In a report to the Iowa convention of P. E.O. in 1929, Mr. Williams said of the A.O.M.s, “They were a fair lot of damsels and with their curls, frezzes, waterfalls, and other mantraps, were mighty hard to resist. The A.O.B.s, while on friendly terms, seemed true to their motto, “Millions for defense, but not one cent for entangling alliances.”
Then he reported, there were rumblings of a mysterious feminine society that had invaded seven Iowa towns – Mount Pleasant, Fairfield, Leon, Oskaloosa, Bloomfield, Farmington, and Council Bluffs. “Some of the brave boys of the A.O.B., inheriting the heroic and venturesome spirits of their pioneer fathers, and with the inherited curiosity of their grandmother, Eve, made an occasional sortie into those fortified cities, fully realizing they were taking their hearts, if not their lives, in their hands”.
As might be expected, Centerville itself fell prey to the P.E.O. invasion, and when a chapter came into being there, the A.O.B. fortress began to crumble. “Within six months”, Mr. Williams said in his convention address, “the A.O.B. was annexed and captured by P.E.O., some succumbing to the wiles of the prize of their sortie to other towns, but many finding their downfall to be a member of the Centerville chapter.” So as the A.O.B.s became husbands of P.E.O.s, and thus brothers-in-law to each other, so to speak, Mr. Williams referred to them as such, and soon this became B.I.L.s
B.I.L. is the name that has endured for over a hundred years, but there were other groups of husbands functioning with a variety of other names. One of the most enterprising was the O.E.P., headquartered at Moulton, Iowa. The O.E.P.s entertained the P.E.O.s royally, for favors at one function giving Haviland china plates, with gold-painted edging and centered with a golden star. The O.E.P.s had as their emblem, “the man in the moon watching over the star”. The emblem was in the form of a one-inch celluloid lapel button, similar to a campaign button, with the letters O.E.P. surrounding a man’s face with one eye open and one closed, and a single star under the P. The men wore their celluloid emblems on their lapels for all to see and took their responsibilities of “watching over their stars” seriously. O.E.P.s hosted grand parties for their P.E.O.s twice a year, each one an attempt to outdo and outshine the previous one.
Nebraska had the M.M. Council. It was organized in about 1892 at Superior and met on the second and fourth Wednesday of every month. Their badge was a gold star with a crescent just above it. M.M. Councils were formed in other Nebraska towns, and the best guess as to the meaning of their secret was Married Martyrs. Men dwelt often of the “martyr” angle because often the early P.E.O. meetings were held in the evening, this perhaps the only evening the lady was not at the hearthside, and there was much ribbing about “cold suppers—bread, water, and toothpicks”, and when a man’s castle was the site of the meeting, it was obvious that P.E.O. meant Papa Eats Out, Papa’s Evening Out, and the like.
There were other titled martyrs, the O.M.H. at Villisca, Iowa, for instance. Did those letters stand for Old Man of the House? We don’t know, but perhaps. It would seem the main purpose of all such groups was to stage parties, and do all sorts of other nice things for the girls with, occasionally, a bit of high jinks thrown in. The P.E.O.s reciprocated socially, of course, but it was the B.I.L.s who swung the big affairs.
A basis for gathering socially was needed in that era when pioneer Midwest towns provided little in the way of entertainment or recreation. Our Founder, Mary Allen Stafford, once said she wondered if P.E.O. would have survived its change from college to community orientation had it not been for social aspects, so needed at that particular period. Due credit then must go to the B.I.L.s—the ladies and their parties might never have made it alone.
Our B.I.L.s—how we love them! They have always enjoyed a certain camaraderie, seemingly pleased to have a P.E.O. in the family. And we P.E.O.s are delighted to have such loyalty from our men. B.I.L.s have always lent moral and financial support to the projects of P.E.O. B.I.L.s gave to Cottey College the beautiful chapel on its campus, the recreational area known as B.I.L. Hill, and the Lodge that was first built there. Thousands of individual gifts to P.E.O. have been given by B.I.L.s. They still respond with good humor to the toasts at traditional social events. They supply programs, they build exhibits, they chauffeur, they tote. They continue to do “nice things for the girls”. And occasionally still, Papa Eats Out, all because of P.E.O.
So here’s to the B.I.L.s—for all their understanding, support, and for clever guessing as to the meaning of our letters. May they always be as intrigued, and so intriguing to us.