A-13 P. E. O: HISTORY - IN HOROSCOPE & POEM MARY ALLEN WAS A CAPRICORN HER HOROSCOPE DOES TELL OF INNATE POISE AND DIGNITY WHICH BECAME OUR FOUNDER WELL. HER NATURAL GRACE AND MANNER BECAME HER, SO THEY SAY, AS DID HER LOVE AND HUMOR HELP BRIGHTEN EVERY DAY. ALICE BIRD WAS A TAURUS LITERATURE HER PURSUIT TO QUOTE, READ, OR CREATE SHE WAS INDEED ASTUTE. THERE WAS A QUARTETTE IN WHICH SHE SANG IN THOSE COLLEGE DAYS HER PRIDE IN HOME AND FAMILY EARNED HER THEIR LASTING PRAISE. HATTIE BRIGGS WAS LIBRA RADIANT WAS HER SMILE GOOD-HEARTED, MODEST, RETIRING YOUR HEART SHE WOULD BEGUILE. SHE WAS THOROUGHLY DEMOCRATIC A COMFORT TO BE NEAR SHE TAUGHT BOTH ART AND MUSIC: WE HOLD HER VERY DEAR. ALICE COFFIN WAS ARIES. A FIRE SIGN IS SHE AN IMAGINATIVE TEACHER AS KIND AS SHE COULD BE. SHE WAS DELIGHTFUL COMPANY THOUGH MEDITATIVE TOO: TALL, BLOND AND WILLOWY WITH EYES OF SPARKLING BLUE. 1
FRANC ROADS WAS AQUARIUS VIVID PERSONALITY. THE GIRL OF FAR VISION MOST PROGRESSIVE WAS SHE. SHE HAD ARTISTIC TALENTS WHICH SHE USED IN MANY WAYS; PAINTING CHINA, TEACHING, STUDY THROUGH OUT ALL HER BUSY DAYS. SUELLA PEARSON WAS A VIRGO GRACE AND CHARM HAD SHE. INTELLIGENT AND AFFECTIONATE SPIRIT OF GAIETY. THE MOST POPULAR OF THE SEVEN, SO THE OTHER FOUNDERS SAY: YET HER LIGHT SHOWN ON ALL WHO PASSED BY HER WAY. ELLA STEWART WAS A TAURUS A KEEN WIT HAD SHE DEVOTED SERVICE TO OTHERS AND QUICK RE-PAR-TEE. SHE WAS SMALL IN STATURE WITH CURLY AUBURN HAIR SHE WORKED TEACHING WAYWARD BOYS WITH HER MANY TALENTS RARE. THOSE WERE OUR SEVEN FOUNDERS WHO IN 1869 CHOSE A STAR TO GUIDE US TILL THE END OF TIME. ' TWAS A JANUARY MORNING, A THURSDAY, I AM TOLD, THAT THESE GIRLS GOT TOGETHER TO PLAN THEIR ACTION BOLD. THEY WOULD FORM THEIR OWN SOCIETY ON THAT FATEFUL DAY QUICK, THEY FOUND THE OTHERS AND GOT THINGS UNDERWAY. 2
THEY MET IN THE MUSIC ROOM WITH THE BIBLE FROM MAIN HALL OPEN ON THE TABLE AS THEY STOOD ROUND, ONE AND ALL. THEY MADE THEIR PLEDGE OF SECRECY TO ONE ANOTHER THEN AND CHOSE THE NAME OF P. E. O. AND THE STAR FOR A PIN. IT WAS ONLY TWO YEARS LATER THAT GRADUATION CAME: FOR FIVE OF OUR FOUNDERS THINGS WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME. AS THEY MARRIED THEN OR MOVED AWAY TO A DIFFERENT TOWN THEY MISSED THOSE WARM FRIENDSHIPS AND THE LOVE THAT BOUND. AND SO THE ORGANIZATION DID GRADUALLY EXPAND FIRST, TO NEARBY TOWNS THEN FINALLY. THROUGHOUT THE LAND. A CONVENTION WAS FORMED IN 1883; MADE UP OF ALL THE CHAPTERS THAT BY THEN, HAD COME TO BE. AT THE '85 CONVENTION NEW CHANGES WERE INSTALLED TO LET THE COLLEGE CHAPTER PLEDGE, WITHOUT CONSENT OF ALL. IT WAS ALSO SUGGESTED THAT A CATALOG THEY WOULD PRINT PLUS, A QUARTERLY PAPER, BUT THERE WAS NO MONEY TO BE SPENT. THERE WAS SOME DISCUSSION IN 1888 ABOUT WHAT MADE A CHAPTER GRAND THERE ALSO WAS DEBATE! 3
THE RECORD HAD ITS BEGINNING IN 1889 EFFIE HOFFMAN ROGERS REALLY HAD A TIME ON 400 COPIES, SHE USED HER SEWING MACHINE TO BIND AND EACH OF THESE ADDRESSES, HER WEARY HAND DID SIGN. IN THE FOLLOWING CONVENTIONS FROM NINETY TO NINETY-TWO THERE WAS CONSIDERABLE CONFUSION ON EXACTLY WHAT TO DO. TO DEFINE THE DIFFERENT DUTIES OF CHAPTERS GRAND OR STATE THE ORGANIZATION WAS NOT CLEAR ON WHAT DUTIES TO DELEGATE. THE ' 93 CONVENTION MADE THE DISTINCTION LOUD AND CLEAR: FOR, LOCAL, STATE AND SUPREME WE USE TILL THIS VERY YEAR. THEY HAD THE CONSTITUTION WITH ITS CHANGES GALORE TO BE PRINTED AND DISTRIBUTED IN EARLY 1894. IN 19 OUGHT 2, OUR SISTERS HAD A YELL ON THE FLOOR OF SUPREME CONVENTION OR AT A PICNIC IN THE DELL THEIR VOICES RAISED TOGETHER AND SOUNDED RATHER WELL. (WHO ARE - WHO ARE - WHO ARE WE WE ARE - WE ARE - WE ARE THE P-E-O - P-L-E) OUR FIRST HISTORY WAS PUBLISHED IN NINETEEN THREE, THEY SAY; IT WAS REFERRED TO AS THE WHITE HISTORY ONE THOUSAND COPIES WERE PRINTED ON THAT DAY. IN 1904, THOUGHTS OF OUR LOAN FUND DID APPEAR. THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION WAS HELD IN ST. LOUIS, THAT YEAR: 4
OUR P.E.O. LADIES HAD THEIR OWN SPECIAL DAY AND $658.00 WAS THEIRS, TO DO WITH AS THEY MAY. IN 1929, COTTEY COLLEGE BECAME OUR VERY OWN WHEN VIRGINIA COTTEY STOCKARD PRESENTED US HER COLLEGE HOME. THIS JUNIOR COLLEGE IN NEVADA IS KNOWN BOTH NEAR AND FAR IT'S AMONG OUR TREASURED PROJECTS AND IS LOVED AS IS OUR STAR. OUT OF THE NEED OF UNDERSTANDING, IN 1945 OUR INTERNATIONAL PEACE SCHOLARSHIP FUND CAME ALIVE. IN THE YEAR OF ITS BEGINNING, ONLY 3 SMALL LOANS WERE MADE: ISN'T IT EXCITING, THIS YEAR ALMOST 100 HAVE NOW BEEN PAID? THROUGH THE YEARS ARE MANY THINGS THAT HELPED OUR ORDER GROW. COUNTLESS DEDICATED WOMEN TIME AND SERVICE DID BESTOW. SO WE WEAR OUR SYMBOL PROUDLY AS WE MEET HERE TODAY AND THINK OF ALL THOSE PAST YEARS THAT BROUGHT US TO THIS DAY. TO CONCLUDE OUR REMINISCING OF THE GIRLS OF YESTERDAY WE INVITE YOU NOW TO LISTEN AS THEY WILL SING AND PLAY A MEDLEY OF OLD SONGS SUNG, PERHAPS, THAT JANUARY DAY. (Girls representing Founders sang "Love's Old Sweet Song", "You Tell Me Your Dream" and "Blest Be The Tie") 5
(Parts of the above program, with minor changes, were copied from Founders' Day Program by Marilyn Stubbeman, Chapter DC Texas, April 12, 1969, and other parts were written by Chapter J Texas and used as the Founders' Day Program for Valley P.E.0. Council, held in Mission, Texas, January 22, 1972. 6