Quote:
Originally Posted by HQWest
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.
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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.