Jean Hornish, Chapter ED Circa Ecclesiastes 3:1 says: For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under the sun.

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1 For Everything There is a Season Jean Hornish, Chapter ED Circa 1985 F-45 The materials, which I have used in this presentation, have come from numerous copies of the P.E.O. Record and from reference books from the public library. Ecclesiastes 3:1 says: For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under the sun. When certain circumstances are present, certain things seem to happen. We have often read how out of great joy, or out of suffering, a great piece of art, a literary masterpiece, or an unforgettable work in the field of music comes into being. The time was right; the people reacted to this time. Today we are going to take just a bird s eye view of some of the happenings of the year 1869, the year P.E.O. came into being in the town of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. The campus is named Iowa Wesleyan College and is a college, which is church related. Mt. Pleasant is a little Iowa town not unlike many Iowa towns, which have many brick or frame twostory houses, shaded streets, and rolling, rich farm land around the town. The business districts are often built around a square with a bandstand in a prominent place so that on summer evenings the townspeople could enjoy concerts as they visited with their neighbors. There was a good sturdy oak plank road from Mt. Pleasant to Burlington, Iowa on the Mississippi River; about thirty miles form Mt. Pleasant. The oak planks were eight feet long, and very thick. This was a toll road, which cost 29 cents a mile for a horse and wagon. The year 1869 was a year of new hope. The country was beginning to recover from the effects of the terrible Civil War. Since the untimely death of Abraham Lincoln, the country had been racked by the feuding of Congress and President Andrew Johnson. This almost led to his impeachment. Part of the troubles came about because of strong feelings over the secession of some Southern States during and after the war, what to do about this, the belief by militant members of Congress that the Confederate leaders should be punished, as against the feeling by the President that a softer line of approach should be taken. Congress was all for giving the black people the right to vote, but some felt that the South should be placed under military rule. However, even though things didn t get done on the home front without a lot of trouble, President Johnson was much more successful in the foreign field. While the U.S. was embroiled in the Civil War, Napoleon the II had sent an army from France to overthrow the Mexican government. He placed Maximilian on the throne as Emperor of Mexico. This was in violation of the Monroe doctrine. In 1865 federal troops were sent to the Mexican border. In 1867 the troops were withdrawn and Maximilian was executed. One very important event of this era was the purchase of Alaska form Russia. The Russians were afraid they d lose the colony to Great Britain in some future war, so they offered to see Alaska to the United States for $7,200,000. Seward easily won the approval of Congress, the Senate, and later F-45, For Everything There is a Season 1 Page 1 of 5

2 the House, but for years, people referred to the purchase as Seward s Folly, little dreaming how vital this are would be to the whole of the United States. When Ulysses S. Grant became President in 1869, a new wave of hope came upon the country. Excitement was in the air as the new year dawned. If we had been students at Iowa Wesleyan College as were out founders, just what would have been some of the conditions and the customs of this time? College chapel was held promptly at 8 o clock each day and was compulsory. Men sat in assigned seats on one side and women on the other. College authorities recognized serious responsibilities in the mingling of male and females. In order to register at the college, one had to have testimonials of good moral character. I m not sure you had to be a Methodist, but I imagine that would have helped! A few daring men wou8ld walk or talk to a girl on the campus without expressed permission, but they would, if caught, be called before the faculty and their deportment grades lowered immediately. There were to be no amusements on the Sabbath, no absence from rooms after study hours at night, no unnecessary noise, no loud laughing, no wrestling, no leaving town without the expressed permission of the college president. There was to be no contracting of debts without the knowledge and consent of parents or guardians. However, as we read more of the life and times of the day, we know that outside the college campus, in the homes about, there were many activities going on. We read of taffy pulls, of skating parties, of sleigh rides, of oyster suppers, of strawberry parties with parents as special guests. Popular songs of the day were Meet Me by the Moonlight Alone, In the Starlight, Leaf by Leaf the Roses Fall, Drop by Drop the Spring Runs Dry. At this time The Star-Spangled Banner was becoming popular. Favorite recitations of the day were The Charge of the Light Brigade, Curfew Shall Not Ring tonight. Magazines of the day were Harper s Magazine, Youth s companion, the Nation, Gody s Lady s Book and many religious journals. Women s Suffrage was being discussed not only in magazine articles but also from platforms around the country. This important issue was discussed by our founders on the Iowa Wesleyan campus. In Harper s magazine, Catherine Beecher, elder sister of Henry War Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, is quoted as saying, Women s distinctive profession includes three departments: the training of the mind in childhood, the nursing of infants and the sick, and all the handicrafts and management of the family state. However, there were also such women as Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott who not only were emerging from the homes, but also were now appearing on lecture platforms and were working for women s suffrage and other causes. The Nation carried quite an editorial about the dress and manners and behaviors suitable to the female lecturer. She should sit while speaking, for the world is not yet ready to see her with any pleasure or profit attempt anything approaching energy of manner in public. The declamatory and passionate style of oratory is not suited to her voice or upper limbs. F-45, For Everything There is a Season 2 Page 2 of 5

3 Moreover, the article continues, it is a mistake for her to wear pantaloons, or bloomers, or other sensible clothes on the rostrum. During the Civil War years clothing was hard to come by and if anyone mentioned getting a new dress, someone was sure to say, Remember the poor soldiers. However, things were beginning to look a bit brighter, and a new dress was a real possibility. We read that it took 27 yards of 22-inch materials to make a dress. Most girls of the day had one good silk dress for the Sabbath and two calico or gingham dresses for weekdays. Calico was 75 cents a yard and a good black silk was $3.00 a yard. In the Lady Gody Book we read that a walking suit was made with two skirts, the lower one touching the ground. This would often be edged in pleating. The upper skirt had an apron front; the pannier back would likely be trimmed with fringe headed often by two bands of satin. The tight jacket was trimmed to correspond, and of course there would be a matching bonnet to complete the costume. Young women such as our seven founders who were vitally interested in education, in women s suffrage, and in being a part of community affairs, would I am sure have disagreed violently with one of the popular writers of the day who, when asked whether if women were offered the opportunity to vote, replied, I believe not. They are all too luxurious and careless, too desirous to please those lords of creation who think that women s place is in the home, and that her sweetest desire is to please. The year 1869 saw many changes; fraternities were springing up on college campuses, among them Iowa Wesleyan. There was a need for close friendships, for sharing, for inspiration, and out of this need P.E.O. came into being. In 1869 Congress passed the 15 th amendment, which stated that people could not be kept from voting because of race, color, or previous conditions of servitude. The National Prohibition Party was organized by a convention in Chicago. During the year the National Women s Suffrage Convention met in Cleveland. The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher was a great aid in the organization of the American Women s suffrage Association, and all this indicated the increasing activity of women regarding the ballot box and the events of the day. The Women s Christian Temperance Union came into its own. We find the Carrie Nation who caused such a furor in Kansas by breaking windows and wielding hatchets in saloons, was only three years older than one of our founders. In 1868 Charles Dickens made his second trip to America. People stood in line all night to get tickets for his lectures. In 1869 Thomas Edison filed papers for his first invention. Three or four years after our founders graduated from college, Caruso was born in Naples, Italy. In 1870 John D. Rockefeller incorporated the Standard Oil Co. of Cleveland, Ohio with a capital investment of $1,000,000. Two years before P.E.O. was organized Johann Strauss (the younger) conducted The Blue Danube for the first time at a concert in Vienna. F-45, For Everything There is a Season 3 Page 3 of 5

4 In 1869 chewing gum, soon to become a great American favorite, was patented. During the same year an event of great importance took place. A one word telegraphic message DONE was flashed all over the United States as Governor Leland Stanford of California drove a golden spike into the last railway tie at Promontory Point, Utah, thus completing the first transcontinental railway in America. In India, Mohandas K. Gandhi was born. The first formal intercollegiate football game was played between Princeton and Rutgers during the year Of course by the year 1968, Oregon had been a state for ten years. The thousands of settlers who had come across the plains in such numbers during the 40 s and 50 s had built homes and become homesteaders or residential settlers. Railroads were being built, Oregon Agricultural College at Corvallis was founded that year, and four years before, Albany College (now Lewis and Clark College) was founded. Willamette College, founded in 1934, was the first college west of the Mississippi. During these years cargoes of wheat were being taken out of Portland; taken, not to Russia, but around the Horn to Europe. Stagecoach transportation was established between Portland and Sacramento, and such arguments as to whether a person who had not made the terrible journey by covered wagon to Oregon, but had come the easier way by water, should be allowed to vote in state affairs. Well, these problems didn t seem to loom so large at this time in history. In the January Centennial issue of The Record, there is an excellent article on our seven founders entitled Lovingly in P.E.O. To quote the last paragraph: Each founder brought some rare gift to P.E.O. From Mary Allen, P.E.O. gets its poise; from Alice Bird, its literary bent; from Hattie Briggs, its homemaking tendencies; from Alice Coffin, its interest in education; from Suela Pearson, gaiety and charming sociability; from Franc Roads, its vision and progressiveness; and from Ella Stewart, its desire fro social service. As I have been thinking of conditions under which the founders lived, and our world today, there are many differences, but there are also similarities. These young women were attempting to relate themselves to their world in terms of the heritage. They were trying to find meaning and purpose for their lives. Many of our young women have the same high goals. The heritage was one with deep religious roots. When we follow their varied careers, we see how well they used their educational opportunities, and the opportunities for service in varied fields of work. Today our world needs the same high ideals, the same dedication to given tasks, the same integrity, and the same desire to make the world a better place in which to live. I should like to close with a poem from one of the Records entitled Keep the Dream in the Making by Helen Lowrie Marshall. Keep some little dream in the making If youth you would like to hold. Old Father Time is defeated by dreams--- A dreamer never grows old. For dreams have a way of quickening The heart, as the years pass you by. F-45, For Everything There is a Season 4 Page 4 of 5

5 You can always tell the man with a dream By the ageless gleam in his eye. So keep a small dream in the making It needn t be big or bold Just some little dream to beckon you on And you ll never, no never, grow old Our founders had a dream and they have never grown old. F-45, For Everything There is a Season 5 Page 5 of 5

A-14. Margie Cassias Chapter M E1 Paso, Texas

A-14. Margie Cassias Chapter M E1 Paso, Texas A-14 "From Iowa with Love" was presented January 28, 1984, for Founders' Day Luncheon at the Marriott Hotel, El Paso, Texas, by Chapter M. It met with great success, due largely to the authentic costumes