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Happy Founders' Day, My Dear Pi Beta Phi!
On Sunday, April 28, 1867, ten young women crowded into a small bedroom in the home of "Major" Jacob Holt in Monmouth, Illinois and created a women's fraternity called I.C. Sorosis. Its Greek motto, Pi Beta Phi, became its official name in 1888 although several chapters started using the Greek letters previous to the vote. The first issue of the Arrow, published in 1885 by the chapter at the University of Kansas, stated on the first page, "Official organ of Pi Beta Phi."
Two of the founders were unable to make it to the meeting but agreed to do whatever the ten agreed upon. Today, the small bedroom in Holt House appears as it might have looked in 1867. When I am in there, I try to imagine the ten young women hurrying up the staircase and I try to listen for their hushed voices as they created the organization I joined more than a century later. To them I owe a debt of gratitude.
P.S. "Major" Holt wasn't really a Major, but that is a story for another day.
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