HE M R AD EM E RB E R
Iowa Wesleyan University, I.C. Sorosis and P.E.O. By Fraternity Archivist and Historian FRAN DESIMONE BECQUE, New York Alpha
Pi Beta Phi’s founders were intent on expanding beyond Monmouth College. LIBBIE BROOK (GADDIS) enrolled at Iowa Wesleyan University (IWU) in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, for the 1868–1869 academic year. Libbie may have chosen IWU because a chapter of Beta Theta Pi was established there in June 1868, and Libbie, no doubt, knew Beta men at Monmouth. On December 21, 1868, the second chapter of I.C. Sororis was established as Libbie and five IWU female students became charter members. They first wore their arrows publicly at a New Year’s party at Hallowell’s Restaurant, given by the Beta men. There were fewer than 100 students enrolled in IWU’s collegiate program, and the arrows must have created a buzz.
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Legend has it that Libbie asked some, but not all, of a close-knit group of seven friends to join the I.C. chapter. One of those women, Franc Roads Elliott, later recounted that she and Hattie Briggs were sitting on a wooden stile near the entrance to campus. There they discussed “a grave invasion of a delegate from Monmouth, Illinois, for a sorority called the I.C. She was making inroads on our student body with the intention of forming a sorority to be patterned after the one at Monmouth College.” Franc and Hattie decided that they would start a society of their own. They went to find close friend Mary Allen to tell her. Then, they let Ella Stewart, Suela Pearson, Alice Bird and Alice Virginia Coffin in on their secret. The seven founded the P.E.O. Sisterhood on January 21, 1869, and they chose the star as their emblem.
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