Happy Founder's Day Delta Gamma!!
 

Although DG celebrates it's Founders Day in March, the real founding took place on Christmas Eve in 1873. Three young girls (ages 14-16), Anna Boyd Ellington, Eva Webb Dodd, and Mary Comfort Leonard were boarding students at the Lewis School for Girls in Mississippi. Because of the weather and the train schedule, they were not able to go home to their families for Christmas. They found comfort in each other and decided to form a special club to strengthen their friendships and academic pursuits. The Delta Gamma Club was formed on that cold winter night.

They selected our motto and the Greek letters Delta Gamma. They wrote the Constitution and started developing the initiation ritual. They designed our first pin, the dear little letter H with the Greek letters DG on the crossbar.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y63...deltagamma.gif

I bet they'd be thrilled to see how big their little club has grown!

Congratulations to all Delta Gammas. What a sweet story your founding is.

Because of a Delta Gamma, I became a sorority woman. DG will always hold a very special place in my heart. And all the DGs I've ever known are truly wonderful women! So - Happy Founders Day to DGs everywhere!

Happy Founders' Day! I love the little H pin. :)

Happy Founders Day, Delta Gamma! What a wonderful beginning, arising from true friendship among such young women!

Happy Birthday, Delta Gamma! I love the story of how Delta Gamma expanded to Indiana, through the efforts of George Banta. http://wp.me/p20I1i-xb

Very true, WhiteDaisy.
Merry Christmas to you and to all my Delta Gamma sisters!:)

In your interesting link you say George Banta is Phi Gamma Delta, then you say he had a "connection" to Phi Delta Theta that assisted with Delta Gamma Eta Chapter at Buchtel College.

So is George Banta a Phi Gamma Delta or Phi Delta Theta?

Guess I'm looking for the definition of your word "connection".

George Banta was a Phi Delta Theta (he served as national president) who was initiated into Delta Gamma in the late 1800s in order to initate his fiancee, Lillian Vawter, into Delta Gamma and thus enable our Delta Gamma Fraternity to grow.
I wish I could post a link to an online history, but we apparently do not have a comprehensive history online.

The 1915 Copy of the ANCHORA, available on Google Books here: http://books.google.com/books?id=9qF...page&q&f=false has a pretty complete early history, including loads of info on George Banta.

Sorry, it was a typo of sorts. Banta was a Phi Delta Theta. My apologies.

Thanks!!

I admit I am confused.

Were these teenagers (14-16) enrolled in high school or college?

Anyway, congratulations to a wonderful organization.

My SIL is a UGA DG.

It was considered then as a sort of prep school as women of that period did not typically go to college....at least in the south. That was beginning to change but many still went to these schools out of elementary school and got a sort of blend of high school and college which allowed many to teach once they graduated. It was typically the final level of formal education for women of means.

Thanks.

I didn't realize that. It's very interesting. So technically DG wasn't founded as a college sorority? Were there any other sororities at schools like this since you said it was common back in the day?

Gosh...I don't know....never much thought about it.

There were others. Badgeguy may know more. Many schools like the Lewis school closed during the years of Reconstruction. It is one of the things that is remarkable about DG and the Macon Magnolias. They were able to grow and survive when other groups could not or merged.

If you look at some of the schools where Theta, Kappa, Pi Phi and Delta Gamma had chapters in the 1870s and 1880s, you'll find a number of schools that were seminaries or short-lived (St. Mary's School, Smithson, Moore's Hill, Baptist Young Ladies Seminary, Jacksonville Female Academy, Carthage College). There were no academic accrediting bodies back then as there are today. Communications being what they were in the 1870s and 1880s, it's amazing that any of the groups survived. Moreover, Pi Phi and Kappa were forced to close their Alpha chapters in the early 1880s. Luckily, both organizations had grown enough to survive this loss.

The fact that Delta Gamma survived is due in very large part to George Banta's efforts to bring it to Indiana where the groups were taking a foothold.

Now that I've taken a few days to recover from vacation, I finally got around to getting on here. Happy founders day to all of my sisters! I am so grateful to be a part of this amazing organization and so proud to be connected to each and every one of you :D