F-8
Letters They Might Have Written
Ione Clark, Sun City, Arizona
1997, Revised May 2005
Costumes: Dresses of the period of 1869 (long black skirt, white blouse)
Stage setting: An old table with perhaps a fringed cloth, old-fashioned oil lamp, and
inkwell with pen. Taller chest or table topped by seven candles in holders. Straight
chair by the table. Perhaps a fern on a stand.
Suggestions:
As narrator mentions a Founder’s name, she lights one candle in
memory of that one. As she is lighting it, the Founder comes to the stage and sits at the
table, pretending to write a letter. When the Narrator finishes the description of her, the
Founder stands, reads her letter, and then returns to her original place. Movements
should be slow and reading done with expression.
Order of Appearance:
NARRATOR, HATTIE BRIGGS, FRANC ROADS, ALICE
COFFIN, MARY ALLEN, SUELA PEARSON, ELLA STEWART, ALICE BIRD
Script to follow: For NARRATOR with seven Founders letters on separate pages.
NARRATOR:
It was just an idea once, a thought, an inspiration born out of the friendship between
seven girls, and the thought bound them together in a circle that had neither beginning
nor end. They must have thought they were building something beautiful and lasting.
The seven were just girls, but the maturity of their idea belied their ages. The heritage
that held them together they left to the world—to generations of women who believed in
their idea. Though they had a diversity of lives, personalities, associations, and abilities,
they became one, and in their unity lay strength. It made them sisters in love, in
thought, in action, forever. This is our heritage—a gift to us from seven young girls.
Each year, as we honor our Founders, we are reminded of the difference in customs
and life since that January of 1869. We try to imagine what was in their minds and
hearts in the midst of a busy college life, as they laid the foundations for our beloved
P.E.O.
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What would they be thinking about in the year of 1869? What was going on in the world
around them _____ years ago? The Civil War was over. Thomas Edison was 22.
Victoria was Queen in England. Croquet was popular. Bustles were becoming. The
feminist movement was alive with the status of women changing. The girls felt fortunate
to be receiving a college education.
In an attempt to comprehend their position, we have imagined what they might have
written to family or friends in winter or spring of 1869. Certainly the organization of
P.E.O. would have been uppermost in their minds. Yet, we are sure they were
interested in all phases of life about them in the world in those days. Let’s go back in
time and light a candle in memory as we honor each of our Founders.
HATTIE enters and sits at table as NARRATOR lights candle.
NARRATOR: (lighting first candle)
This first candle is in memory of HATTIE BRIGGS. She was a leader on the campus of
Iowa Wesleyan College. Her father was a Methodist minister and a trustee of the
college. Their home at the northwest corner of the campus attracted a stream of young
people during the school year. It was Hattie who was the first to mention her dream of
P.E.O. She was a joyous leader, whose key statement was “Let’s have a society of our
own." She left us the dream, and though she did not linger long, the seed was hers.
She lived only eight more years after the founding of P.E.O.
HATTIE reads letter, finishes, and leaves.
FRANC enters and sits at table as NARRATOR lights second candle and says:
NARRATOR: (lighting second candle)
This candle is in memory of FRANC ROADS. Franc was considered “ahead of her
time." She was the artist in the group, energetic and dynamic. Her mother was also an
artist. Franc taught art after graduation, attended the Art Institute of Chicago, and was
interested in the feminist movement. She was to count Susan B. Anthony, Frances
Willard, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucy Stone among her friends. In addition, she
worked many years to get women admitted to the General Council of the Methodist
Church. She taught us to reach toward the star, to look for new things to accomplish.
She married her classmate Simon Elliot. Her interest in education led her to study in
many universities and enjoy one including one summer of study in Europe. We can but
imagine what was in her thinking in 1869 as she wrote . . .
FRANC reads her letter, then leaves.
ALICE VIRGINIA COFFIN enters and sits at table as NARRATOR lights candle and
says:
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NARRATOR: (lighting third candle)
Our third candle is in memory of ALICE VIRGINIA COFFIN. Alice was a southern
beauty. Her mother died when she was nine, but she, her sister Mary Frances, and two
brothers were a close family, conscious of their colonial ancestry and devoted to their
father. Alice was to become a teacher, greatly loved by her pupils and her young
nieces and nephews. She loved gaiety but was very perceptive, and education (then
often called "general improvement) was important to her. Early in her teaching career
she left the Methodist Church and became an Episcopalian, not only because she was
impressed with the ritual of that church but because she was fond of dancing, and the
Methodist Church frowned on that activity. It was Alice, born in Kentucky, who chose
our emblem—the star we all wear to bind us to our sisters. We imagine her writing to
her sister during the winter of 1869.
ALICE reads letter, then leaves.
MARY ALLEN enters and sits at table as Narrator lights candle and says:
NARRATOR: (lighting fourth candle)
Our fourth candle is in memory of Mary Allen. Mary was born in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.
Her home was the hospitable center of Wesleyan college life. Much of the early P.E.O.
history was made in the Allen home. God was her companion. Her unswerving faith
gave spirituality to the dream and made it an ideal she could cling to, finding in it rich
virtue. Mary was noted for her sense of humor and a ready wit. As wife of a Methodist
minister, Charles L. Stafford, her happiest days were when her husband served as
President of Iowa Wesleyan and she returned to Mt. Pleasant to live. We imagine her
writing to a congenial relative, a cousin perhaps, about the happenings of P.E.O. and
her life in 1869.
MARY ALLEN reads letter and departs.
SUELA PEARSON enters and sits at table as Narrator lights candle. (Please note that
“Suela” is pronounced Sue-EE-la not Sue-EL-la, per Joyce Goff, International President,
2004).
NARRATOR: (lighting fifth candle)
Our fifth candle is in memory of Suela Pearson. Suela was the youngest of the seven
and a favorite of all. She had beauty, charm, and intelligence, we are told. She was
wealthy and pretty as a flower, but not spoiled. Music was her specialty, and she loved
to sing. Following her graduation, her doctor father moved the family to Washington,
D.C. If she had written her cousin in Ohio in the winter of 1869, no doubt she bragged a
bit about P.E.O.
SUELA reads letter and departs.
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ELLA STEWART enters and sits at table. NARRATOR lights candle and says:
NARRATOR: (lighting sixth candle)
This candle is in memory of Ella Stewart. Ella’s life was one of devoted service to
others. She loved people—all people—and readily identified herself with every person
she met. Her natural intuition and training made her unusually sensitive to others. But
more than that, Ella was a doer, quick to respond to the needs about her and capable of
enlisting help when needed. She filled her role to perfection.
ELLA reads letter and departs.
ALICE BIRD enters and sits at table. NARRATOR lights candle and says:
NARRATOR: (lighting seventh candle)
This last candle is in memory of Alice Bird. Adventuresome Allie, brilliant student with
total recall, an intellectual, an expert at Latin, with a tremendous knowledge of literature.
She felt a kinship with literary characters whom she dramatized and quoted freely. She
was not what she called a “man worshipper” but had lots of fun. She was a forceful
reader and singer, and in demand on city and college literary programs. To give
Hattie’s idea reality, Alice created a vow and drew up the constitution to give the dream
strength, dignity and substance.
ALICE reads letter and departs.
NARRATOR:
Without these seven the dream would not be ours. How rich, our heritage. Let us light
the eternal fire in our hearts and again pledge our devotion to the dream and to each
other—handing on the torch to generations to come, knowing that if we can only plant
the seed in the spring of each generation, someday there may be an end to war and
hate, and only love will inhabit the world.
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CANDLE ONE
HATTIE BRIGGS LETTER
Dear Aunt Mary,
I take my pen in hand to tell you all the family are well and hope you are too. I am
studying hard this term. I have an interesting course that includes Moral Philosophy,
Logic, Astronomy, Evidences of Christianity, and Political Economy. Already we are
busy working on our commencement orations.
I have six very good friends here at school and recently we organized a society. But
it’s not a Greek society. We want to be different. We are P.E.O. s and the name is
secret. We have agreed to tell NO ONE the meaning—not even our husbands after we
marry. I’m not sure you will approve of that, for you, no doubt, think a wife should have
no secrets from her husband. But we have pledged ourselves to secrecy. No member
shall ever reveal its meaning.
Last week a teacher drove some distance west to see the special train that was
going to Ogden, Utah, to meet the Union Pacific train from San Francisco. He said the
train was all trimmed in red, white, and blue and carried many flags. There was a solid
gold spike aboard which they were going to put into the last tie that will join the rails
from one coast to the other. Think of the speed with which people will travel from the
Atlantic to the Pacific!
There are some folks here who wonder if this speed is a good thing. They think that
our wild rush for speed and the trains opening up all over the country have much to do
with young people going so wild. Did you hear that Jessie and Frank James robbed a
bank in Creston last week and killed the teller? But I think the war has a lot to do with
the present wickedness. Wars always bring grief and disaster. How good it is to know
that it is over at last and we can look forward to peace and tranquility in our beloved
land. But oh, how things have changed. The men coming back to college after the war
are part of the cause. Sometimes you see a man actually walking alone with a girl! Last
year he would have been called on the carpet. You don’t even see many professors
frowning when they hear laughter.
The family sends greetings.
Your niece,
Hattie
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CANDLE TWO
FRANC ROADS LETTER
Dear Auntie,
It is with great joy that I take my pen in hand to tell you of an exciting event
her at Wesleyan. I know I have told you of my six best friends, “the seven sisters” we
are sometimes called. Well, we have decided to be sisters indeed and have organized a
sorority. Alice Virginia and I designed the pin. I’m enclosing a drawing of it. I’m sure
even my artist mother will approve. (She also approves that I’m learning to paint china.)
As soon as the pins are made, we plan to walk into assembly together wearing them.
The girls thought that if we wore aprons just alike it would be really a spectacle, and I
told them I was sure my mother would design them for us. I can just see us—aprons
alike, the stars blazing—walking into Assembly Hall. We are keeping quiet about it until
that day. Although, no doubt, some have wondered at our frequent meetings in the
Music Room—always behind closed doors. And it’s not just aprons, pins, and so forth;
we want it to help build our ideals and character. We’ve written fine ideals into it, and we
hope to grow and develop by following them. Of course we know living up to fine ideals
is up to us ourselves, but surely having “sisters” with the same standard will help.
I have heard rumors that there has been dissention in the Women’s Suffrage
Movement. Miss Anthony and Horace Greeley shouted at each other at a recent
meeting, and Miss Anthony and some of the women left. They are organizing the
National Women’s Suffrage Association, while Miss Lucy Stone and Mrs. Julia Ward
Howe are organizing the American Women’s Suffrage Association. It is surely too bad
that they can’t work together for such a great cause. I read in the American Woman’s
Home Magazine that women should have more rights because of the “great social and
moral power in their keeping.” I wonder if women will ever be permitted to vote. When I
think that in our own beloved church, women are not allowed on the General Council, I
despair of women ever being allowed to vote for President.
Do take care of yourself during this awfully cold winter.
Your loving niece,
Franc
CANDLE THREE
ALICE VIRGINIA COFFIN LETTER
Dear Mary Frances,
I hope this finds the family well. Has Father escaped the grippe this winter? Are the
girls well? The weather has been extremely cold here. I packed my bed tick just as full
of straw as I could but the cold came right through anyway and I had to break the ice in
my water pitcher this morning.
I told you in my last letter about our new P.E.O. Well, we made our first appearance
in Chapel the other day. It was thrilling! The night before, we completed our aprons
which Franc’s mother had designed for us. They are black and white calico, ruffled all
around, left shoulder high for our P.E.O. pin—a golden star. You can imagine the
excitement when we walked in together. I was especially happy because the star was
my idea.
Aside from P.E.O. there isn’t too much excitement to report. There was a bob sled
ride the other night with oyster stew to warm us when we got back. Oh, there are lots of
teas and parties in Mt. Pleasant, but I wish we could dance here at Wesleyan! I can’t
see that it is a sin. If it is, why does music set my feet to tapping? But the Methodists will
never change. Anyway, we P.E.O.s are going to have fun (as well as our serious
things). We’ve already had some parties and I think someday it would be fun to have a
party where all the girls wear calico.
Have you heard about a Mr. Singer who is going through the country selling sewing
machines? They say he leaves the machine with any family that will agree to pay him a
small part of the cost in cash and the rest in small payments over the next two years.
The bank will accept payment and send the money to St. Louis and you use the
machine while paying for it. No doubt Father will not approve of any such procedure.
He’ll think our colonial ancestors wouldn’t have liked the idea. It is hard to think of
buying anything if you don’t have the money to pay for it. I just can’t imagine such a
method becoming popular, but I’d like to have a sewing machine, wouldn’t you?
Soon I’ll tell you more of the P.E.O. We plan this spring to have sunbonnets alike
and for graduation we are going to make colored dresses—we are so tired of black silk
for all special times. And they have to wear so well that they can be made over and
even “turned.” Now that the war is over, why shouldn’t we be gay? Of course the
parents haven’t agreed. It’s about 75 cents per yard and 75 cents for the lining. That’s a
lot less than $3.00 for the black silk material, for which we’ll need 27 yards each. We’ll
have to pick a lot of gooseberries to get that much money!
Your affectionate sister,
Alice Virginia
CANDLE FOUR
MARY ALLEN LETTER
Dear Cousin Jane,
I take my pen in hand to tell you of an exciting event at Iowa Wesleyan. Seven of
us girls have formed a society. We didn’t do it hastily. We thought about it for some
weeks and much thought went into the organization plans. We have a solemn pledge.
Perhaps it is hard to believe that SOLEMN part when I tell you I helped to write it! But I
can be serious at times. Our pins are a beautiful star. I hope you can see mine soon.
I’ve forgotten to tell you our name. It is P.E.O. and don’t tease me to know what it
means for I’ve sworn—perhaps I should say, I have pledged (a more ladylike word,
don’t you think?) never to reveal the meaning of the letters.
Have you heard of a new machine that has been invented for writing letters? It
seems to me it would be most difficult to use. Father sent me a picture of one and it is
surely a funny-looking thing. It has a set of keys that have letters and numbers on them
which you hit to make a print on paper. I suppose it would be useful for some special
printing that you wanted if you didn’t care how long it took. It is called a typewriter. Isn’t
it amazing the foolish things people dream up? Who knows, I may even write you a
letter on one some day! Father was much impressed by the picture and I wouldn’t be
surprised if some time soon he bought one.
When are you coming to Mt. Pleasant? I am so anxious for you to know my P.E.O.
sisters!
Your fond cousin,
Mary
CANDLE FIVE
SUELA PEARSON LETTER
Dear Cousin Clara,
How is college for you? I am truly working hard on my music. I’m doing some
solo work now and my latest numbers are “Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still” and
“Leaf by Leaf the Roses Fall.” You really would be pleased with the progress I’ve
made.
I’m a P.E.O. now. I can just hear you say, “What’s that?” And I can only tell you
part of it. Seven of us have formed a sisterhood. We have all studied parliamentary
procedure so we’ll be able to do it properly. We’ve always been close fiends, but
now we are truly sisters. It has been great fun and we have everyone in school
guessing what the P.E.O. on our pins means. I do love secrets and P.E.O. is that!
We seven are planning to cut our hair short before graduation—like Anna
Dickerson’s when she was here to give her famous lecture “Paupers, Idiots, and
Women.” Have you heard her speak?
Weren’t you pleased to hear that my Father went to Washington for the
inauguration of General Grant—I suppose I should say “President Grant” now. So
your state of Illinois has furnished the country with a second president! Father said
the dome on the capitol building is finally finished and it really is beautiful. It can be
seen from almost any place in the whole city. However, the memorial to Washington
is still awful-looking. It sticks up in the air with scaffolds all around it and looks like
the dickens! Father’s words, not mine! Father said it was started 20 years ago and
they have run out of money twice. I asked him why Congress doesn’t just vote to
spend enough money to finish it and then raise the taxes a little bit to get the money.
He was disgusted with my lack of good sense and said the voters would never stand
for high-handed spending. The monument will have to wait until there is money in
the treasury to spend on it, he says. Maybe some day we can travel to Washington
together and see it completed!
I miss our family gatherings hoping for a visit with you this summer!
Your affectionate cousin,
Suela
CANDLE SIX
ELLA STEWART LETTER
Dear Mother and all the family,
I take my pen in hand to report my safe arrival in Chicago. The trip was not bad.
I was fortunate to have a seat near the stove so did not suffer from the cold. The red
plush seats are ever so elegant. It is remarkable how swift the trains are—we must
have been going 30 miles an hour at times. I’m so glad that women can travel alone
now. There are so many opportunities opening up for us these days!
Chicago is wonderful. Aunt Nellie lives in a suburb quite far from the center of
town. Hyde Park is really aristocratic. Her house is frame with a frame stable behind
it filled with straw and grain for the horses. The sidewalks are wooden planks, and
the streets are paved with wooden slabs. Aunt Nellie says the Chicago Tribune
reported recently that the city holds “miles of firetraps, pleasing to the eye but all
sham and shingles.” But Chicago is supposed to have the best fire-fighting
equipment in the country so no one really worries.
I have seen quite a lot of the city. A horse car runs east the University of
Chicago at 34th & Cottage Grove all the way to the city limits at 39th St. We went
north across the Chicago River one day but had to wait almost an hour for the bridge
to lower. Aunt Nellie says it is always like that due to the lake traffic. I never saw so
many boats in my life and the smoke fairly choked me.
The stores are breathtaking. Mr. Field and Mr. Leiter have stores in the Potter
Palmer Building at State & Washington. Aunt Nellie says it is the “most splendid
commercial structure in the world.”
There are cultural advantages, too, in Chicago. I hope to attend the Crosby
Opera and to hear Theodore Thomas’s orchestra at the Academy of Music on
Michigan Avenue. It is so thrilling to be in such a great city.
Aunt Nellie has been so interested in our new P.E.O. She thinks we have
planned it all well—although, of course, I couldn’t tell her all the significance of our
name and pledge. She thinks we may sometime have to have dues. She admires
my pin and I have worn it everywhere. Many have asked about it and I’ve proud to
tell them of the “seven sisters.”
I will be home soon. How are you managing without me? I do hope all of the little
ones are well.
Love from,
Your Ella
CANDLE SEVEN
ALICE BIRD LETTER
Dear Auntie,
I hope this finds you well. I am enjoying my usual good health and have not had a
cold all winter although the weather has been atrocious. I have been busy practicing
with the quartet, the Judediah Club. We sing in Assembly each month. Was there ever a
time when there was more beautiful music to choose from? We really have trouble
deciding. There are the war songs—“Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “Just before the
Battle, Mother,” and that beautiful Negro spiritual “Oh, Dem Golden Slippers.” Some
Southern songs, too, are being sung, and I think that is good, for the war is still fresh in
everyone’s mind. But such songs as “My Old Kentucky Home” and “Darling Nelly Gray”
are so beautiful we want to sing them too. We’d like to include “I’ve Been Working on
the Railroad” and “Little Brown Jug” but we aren’t sure the faculty will approve of them,
or of the cowboy songs “The Old Chisholm Trail” and “Get Along, Little Dogey.” Have
you heard “The Man on the Flying Trapeze”? I understand it is being sung in music halls
so we wouldn’t dare sing it here! Of course “Silver Threads among the Gold” and “Listen
to the Mocking Bird” must be included for they are most respectable. Of course, no
musical program would be complete without “Aunt Dinah’s Quilting Party.” So you can
see how hard it is to choose from all the wealth of musical treasures.
I have saved my exciting new until last. Seven of us, all dear friends, have formed a
new society. The first time we discussed it we decided on our name and insignia. Then
Mary Allen and I were given the task of writing the pledge and constitution. We spent
several hours and a great deal of thought on it, for we considered our task to be of great
importance. I sat at the window looking out at the snow and thinking for a long time. We
expect to take in more members, and we want to be sure they will recognize the
seriousness of joining us.
Much to my surprise, I was elected president. Imagine being the first president of
P.E.O.—for that is our name. I can’t tell you what it means or what the pledge is for
those are our secrets. This is not to be just a college thing. We’ll keep in touch after
graduation because we want to work together. Oh, we know we won’t all live near, but
we’ll communicate. Just think—our little society may become big. Someday it might
have our daughters and grand daughters in it. Isn’t that a thought! I wonder if they’ll be
serious about our ideals and yet have fun, too. What will they think about the
Constitution Mary and I wrote?
Do take care of yourself.
With much love from
Alice