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Note: This Program was presented to the Waukesha County, WI Reciprocity Group’s Founders Day celebration on January 22, 2011.
Two “actresses” and a narrator presented. The “staging” was two rocking chairs with an end table set with a tea pot and tea cups. The script was camouflaged in newspapers. The two ‘ole gossips wore clothing appropriate to the mid 1860’s.
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Narrator: Chapter AQ’s Pat Shonkwiler was initiated into P.E.O. at the age of 18 in 1946 - yes, she really is a 65 year active member of P.E.O. Pat grew up during World War II and was initiated at the close of that war - which caused her to think of our seven founders as young women who had grown up during our country’s Civil War. Several years ago, Pat wrote a vignette about our founders, their families and the times in which they lived – the mid-1860’s. Pat’s script inspired today’s playlet which was written by Mary Almasi for this presentation.
And now, let us travel back in time to 1869 - to a porch in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, across the street from Iowa Wesleyan College where we can listen in on the conversation of two ‘ole gossips”.
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Speaker #1: It is so nice to see the young women of Mt Pleasant growing up so nicely and with such nice friends.
Speaker #2: Why, here comes Mary Allen now. She’s the daughter of Mr. Ruben Allen who writes property abstracts here in town. He’s quite successful in his real estate business. I often see Mary inviting her friends over to her home. Mrs. Allen is so gracious and loves hosting family and friend
#1 Wesleyan and now is a senior at the college itself. My how the time goes by. I think she’ll graduate this coming June.
#2 Why, I can remember when Iowa Wesleyan became a college in 1847. That was the same year the Chicago Tribune was first published and, just think what a big and important paper it has become.
#1 Remember James Harlan who was the college’s young visionary President in 1853. Then he went on to become a Senator in Washington. The Harlan family became close friends with President and Mary Lincoln. When was it that their son Robert married the Harlan’s daughter?
#2 That was just last year in 1868.
#1 Oh, there’s Mary Alice Bird walking along with Mary Allen. I think Mary Alice is a couple of years younger that Mary Allen.
#2 They say Mary Alice is brilliant in Literature and the classics. She sings beautifully also.
#1 Mary Alice was only 15 years old when she started her classes here at Wesleyan. Was her father the 1st physician here in Henry County?
#2 Yes, he was. Do you know that Mrs. Bird originally came from back East and lived in Indiana a while. Mary Alice’s mother is such a cheerful, busy lady and so active here in Mount Pleasant.
#1 What have you been reading in your newspaper today? January 1869 –
#2 Here’s big news: The New York Herald is going to sponsor Henry Stanley to go to Africa to look for Dr. David Livingston. I do wonder what the chances are of finding Dr. Livingston?
# 1 I’m excited to read that Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton have founded a National Women’s Suffrage Association. That will get the men in town talking.
#2 Have you read any of that new book called Little Women by Louisa May Alcott that was published last October? Maybe that would be a good selection for book club next month.
#1 Is there any news about that new territory way up north that the U.S. purchased from Russia two years ago in ’67?
#2 Are you asking about Alaska? They say it is very big and very beautiful. with lots of mountains, glaciers, water, trees. I hope it was a good thing to purchase.
#1 Well, it is sure a long way from Mt. Pleasant.
#2 Oh, there are three more of those seven girls who are so often together. They say they are all such good friends.
#1 There is Hattie Briggs. She has such a radiant smile and is so bright and cheerful. Hattie is a real leader both at college and in her church. I think they are walking over to the Brigg’s home just on the corner of campus. That Dylan Payne who is a classmate of the girls says,” the hinges on the front door of the Brigg’s home are well oiled hinges.” A lot of students, especially the boys, visit frequently.
#2 The college is fortunate to have Reverend Briggs as a trustee and a member of the executive committee of the college. The Briggs family does a lot for our town of Mt. Pleasant.
#1 One of the other girls walking with Hattie is Alice Coffin. Alice , her father and the other children moved here to Mt Pleasant from Newton, Iowa. Mr. Coffin wants the children to get a good education here at Wesleyan. Before they moved here, the Coffin family lived in New Orleans, Louisville Kentucky where Alice was born, and Indiana.
Poor Alice lost her mother when she was nine years old. There is to this day a spot of sadness in her demeanor.
#2 I hear Alice loves to dance, but of course she cannot at Wesleyan- a good Methodist college. She is a beautiful girl. So tall and blonde and always dressed in the latest fashions.
#1 Mr. Coffin comes from a very long line of American ancestors. Mr. Coffin’s ancestor was one of 10 men who purchased Nantucket Island in 1660 and was the 1st governor of the Island. Another of Mr. Coffin’s ancestors founded the Society of Friends on Nantucket.
#2 Mr. Coffin himself was part owner of a steamship on the Mississippi River and helped move troops and supplies during the Civil War for our country. Yes, yes, a long line of good American citizens.
#1 I do believe the 3rd girl walking with Hattie and Alice is Francis Roads.
#2 Yes, it is Franc. She has such lovely dark hair arranged in those pretty curls. I hear she has a very winning personality and is very bright. She enrolled here at Wesleyan at age 14 and will have finished her studies this coming June in just three years. Imagine, only 16 years old now.
#1 She is quite often seen keeping company with Simon Elliot, the son of Charles Elliot who was President of Wesleyan until 1866.
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#2 Mr. Roads, Francs father, is a pretty successful businessman and now is a public official here in Mt Pleasant.
#1 Well, look there, now the three are walking over to the Road’s house. When I had tea with Mrs. Roads last week she was sewing white aprons for Franc and her friends. I do wonder why they would all want matching aprons? You just never know what good friends can be up to. My, my!
#2 I was just thinking . It has only been three years since President Lincoln was assassinated by that handsome, awful actor John Wilkes Booth. Now, President Johnson has not accomplished much , reconstruction has not gone very well since the war, and now Ulysses Grant has been elected President . He will be inaugurated this month – January 1869. It seems like an important time in history.
#1 We sure all remember April 1865 when Lincoln died. I wonder if anyone will remember January 1869 for any reason?
#2 Here come two more of those seven close friends. They also are walking over to the Road’s house. They seem to be gathering for a visit or maybe planning something important.
#1 One of the girls is Suela Pearson. Dear Suela is a true beauty, intelligent, affectionate and such a good girl. The other girls, I hear, think of Suela as the most beautiful and popular of their group. She is a magnet to the boys on campus and has a long list of beaus.
#2 Suela’s parents are quite will known here abouts. Dr. Clement Pearson is President of the Hannemenn Medical Society of the homeopathic school of medicine. Mrs. Pearson is very cultured. Suela has been a student at the Iowa Wesleyan Academy since grade school and became a freshman at the college just after her 15th birthday.
#1 Ella Stewart is walking along with Suela. Ella is such a lovely girl. She is always thinking of others, loves people and is often busy responding to the needs about her. Have you noticed there is a scent of violets about her? She’s of Irish descent and has a bit of keen wit and repartee.
#2 I like Suela’s parents as well. Her father was well respected when he was the presiding elder of the Methodist Church of Mt. Pleasant district. Mr. Stewart was an early pioneer minister here in Iowa when it was still a frontier. Ella lost her father when she was 16 and now Mrs. Stewart has the boarding house here in town.
#1 Oh, those seven girls. Now they are walking over to old Main on campus. Walking all together, they are. I do wonder what they are up to?
#2 Do you remember that the Stewarts used to live in an apartment upstairs in the old colligiate institute building before it became old Main for Iowa Wesleyan? Mr. Stewart eventually became financial agent for the college. Yes, the Stewarts are a good family.
#1 Well, It’s about time to call it a day. But, look, here come those seven girls again walking from Old Main. Why, they each have on a sash that has the letters P.E.O. across the front. Oh, I do believe they have formed a club!
#2 How lovely! I do hope we learn more about what the letters on their sashes mean. The letters P.E.O. I do wonder!
Narrator: Two post scripts to the events in this presentation:
You heard that Senator Harlan’s daughter Mary married Robert Lincoln in 1868. Senator James Harlan, former President of Iowa Wesleyan College in Mt. Pleasant, had earlier been Mary Todd Lincoln’s escort at President Lincoln’s second inauguration. Much later, the Lincoln’s grandchildren, Robert and Mary Harlan’s two daughters and son, spent summers in Mount Pleasant with their grandparents, Senator and Mrs. Harlan. In 1889 ( twenty years after the founding of PEO) the two Lincoln granddaughters Mamie and Jessie were both initiated into P.E.O. Original Chapter A, Iowa.
Additional information about the 1860s and how the times influenced our Founders can be found in the January-February, 2011 issue of our P.E.O. Record.
The members of Chapter AQ thank you for listening to our two “ole” gossips - and we challenge you to share their stories about the founding of P.E.O. in 1869.