Extending the Hand of Sisterhood

By Historian and Archivist FRAN DESIMONE BECQUE, New York Alpha

Every Pi Phi can recall and recount the story of our sisterhood’s founding as I.C. Sorosis in the home of Major Holt on April 28, 1867, at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois. But how many Pi Phis know the precarious situation our Fraternity was in when Monmouth College authorities forced all fraternal organizations on campus to close only 10 years after our sisterhood’s founding?

In those early days, fraternal organizations didn’t have central offices or headquarters as governing bodies. Instead, the Alpha chapter was the center of the organization. For I.C. Sorosis, this was the Monmouth chapter, now known as Illinois Alpha. Members from any chapter were vested with the power to establish a chapter in a collegiate institution provided Alpha gave approval. We are quite lucky our earliest members had such a strong desire to extend the hand of sisterhood, otherwise our nearly 155-year history could have been much more abbreviated.

Extension was an early passion for founder LIBBIE BROOK (GADDIS). Libbie’s singular dedication prompted her to leave Monmouth College and enroll at Iowa Wesleyan University in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, with the specific intent of founding a second I.C. Sorosis chapter. On December 21, 1868, she established our second chapter, followed closely by the third chapter at Mount Pleasant Female Seminary, where extension efforts were championed by fellow founder NANCY BLACK (WALLACE).

From that point on, I.C. Sorosis extended across the upper Midwest with the help of both founding members and other young women passionate about offering an opportunity for sisterhood. When Libbie’s sister MARY BROOK (PEARCE) enrolled at Lombard College in Galesburg, Illinois, she followed in her sister’s footsteps and established the Illinois Beta chapter. In turn, SARA RICHARDSON, an Illinois Beta charter member, encouraged her three sisters to help establish Kansas Alpha in 1873 — now the Fraternity’s oldest continuous chapter.

The growth of the Fraternity was spurred by the dedication and love members felt for the sisterhood and spread through personal connections and random happenstance. Iowa Beta at Simpson College was chartered on October 13, 1874, when ANNA PORTER, an officer at Monmouth, wrote to IDA CHESHIRE (BARKER) asking her to bring together 10 women to organize an I.C. chapter. A chance meeting of two women on a train led to the founding of Iowa Gamma at Iowa State University in 1877.

When the Alpha Chapter at Monmouth College was forced to close in the 1870s, it existed sub-rosa (underground) for a few years, but was unable to serve as the center of operations for the larger organization. Thanks to the extension efforts in that short period, there were enough chapters to sustain the momentum of growth — as well as roughly 275 initiates, most in their late teens and early 20s, who were willing to put forth the effort to keep I.C. Sorosis moving forward. These mold-breaking women attended college at a time when fewer than one percent of women their age were enrolled in any form of higher education.

In the early 1900s, former Fraternity Historian ELIZABETH CLARKE HELMICK, Michigan Alpha, summed up the early history of Pi Beta Phi: “Our Founders were not ignorant of the opposition they would have to contend with in executing their well laid plans. They realized that it meant sacrifice; scattered throughout the pages of our early history we read of the constant devotion and unfailing loyalty to the objects and ideals of Pi Beta Phi. The stirring accounts of the early struggle for recognition, the grave opposition to woman's aggression upon man's privileges and the miraculous growth of chapters and enthusiasm would fill a book throbbing with vital interest.”