history

Phi Mu began at Wesleyan Female College in Macon, Georgia, in 1852. Three women, Mary DuPont Lines, Mary Myrick Daniel and Martha Hardaway Redding, founded the group for companionship and intellectual stimulation. On January 4, 1852, the Philomathean Literary Society was formed. In two months, the three founders gathered members, created a constitution and much of the ritual that is still used today. The official announcement to the college of their formation occurred on March 4, 1852. This date established Phi Mu as the second fraternal organization for women, and today is still the second oldest organization.

On August 1, 1904, the Philomathean Society was granted a charter to become a national organization. The Society adopted the Greek letters Phi Mu and established additional chapters on other campuses. Wesleyan College became the Alpha Chapter of Phi Mu Fraternity, and the Beta Chapter was quickly founded at Hollins College in Hollins, Virginia.

Phi Mu became recognized by the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC), an association of national Greek-letter college fraternities for women, in December, 1911. Phi Mu is still actively involved in leadership positions in the NPC, which encompasses 26 fraternities for women.

Today, Phi Mu has a membership of over 130,000 women nationwide. There are over 130 collegiate chapters and more than 300 alumnae chapters in the United States. Alumnae can remain actively involved through Alumnae Chapters, the Phi Mu Foundation, as Regional National Officers or Chapter Advisors.

Mary Elizabeth Myrick Daniel

Mary Elizabeth Myrick Daniel was born May 18, 1835, in Baldwin County, Georgia. Her father was General Stith Parham Myrick, a brigadier general of the Georgia Militia. During the Civil War he raised and equipped his own outfit known as the "Myrick Volunteers". Her mother, Frances Peebles, of Alabama, died when Mary Elizabeth was a child, and her father married E. L. Dawdell. Mary Elizabeth had two brothers.

Mary Elizabeth entered Wesleyan College as a junior and, at 16 years of age, was the oldest of the three Founders. She was graduated in 1853 and received the customary master of arts degree from the College ten years later.

In 1857 she was married to Henry Keels Daniel, a Sumpter County, Georgia, planter and a major during the Civil War. For her wedding day she chose March 4, the fifth anniversary of the announcement of the Philomathean Society's founding. There were six children in the Daniel family, two of whom died in childhood.

Her sadness was compounded when her husband of 13 years died in 1870, leaving her widowed at the age of 35. Her own health was frail for several years. For a short time before her death she lived at the home of her daughter Lila, who had married Dr. L. M. Jones and resided in Milledgeville, Georgia. Mary Elizabeth died on July 14, 1881, at the age of 46. She is buried beside her husband in the Oak Grove Cemetery at Americus. A monument in the shape of the Phi Mu badge marks her grave.

Mary Ann DuPont Lines

Considered to be the leader among the three Founders of the Philomathean Society, Mary Ann DuPont Lines was born in the small town of Quincy, Florida on May 28, 1836. Her father was Charles Henry of the Supreme Court of Florida. Her mother was Mary Ann De Graffenreid Hobson of Greensboro, Alabama. Mary Ann and her seven brothers and sisters lived in a large and elegant colonial home in Quincy.

A staunch Methodist, her father looked to Wesleyan Female College in Macon, Georgia, for Mary Ann's education. He was impressed with its reputation for close supervision and excellent training of its young women students. After attending a private school in Quincy, Mary Ann set out for Wesleyan in October 1851, at the age of 15. She enrolled as a junior and was graduated with an A.B. degree in 1853. A master of arts degree was conferred upon her in 1863, following the College's custom of awarding such degrees to distinguished students ten years after graduation.

On January 31, 1854, Mary Ann was married to Joseph Robinson Lines, who was her brother-in-law. Joseph had married Mary Ann's older sister Eliza in 1851, but Eliza was thrown from a horse and killed during the first six months of their marriage. Mary Ann and Joseph made their home in Jacksonville, Florida. Their family included four children. A daughter died at the age of 16 and a son was killed in a train accident as a young man. There were five grandchildren.

Joseph died suddenly at the age of 38, leaving Mary Ann a widow at age 32. She never remarried. She was 81 years of age when she died on January 4, 1918, exactly 66 years to the day after the secret founding of the Philomathean Society. She is the only one of the three founders who lived to see the Philomathean Society become Phi Mu Fraternity in 1904. A monument in the shape of the Phi Mu badge marks her grave at Evergreen Cemetery in Jacksonville.

The original Philomathean badge was made in 1852 from a twenty dollar gold piece which Mary Ann received from her father when she left for Wesleyan. It is now in the archives of Phi Mu Fraternity.

Martha Bibb Hardaway Redding

The third and youngest of the Philomathean Society's Founders was Martha Bibb Hardaway Redding. She was born on October 9, 1836, in Columbus, Georgia. Her father, Robert Stanfield Hardaway, was a planter with several large plantations, a merchant and legislator. He also served as president of the Mobile and Girard Railroad. Her mother, Martha Bibb Jarrett of Elbert County, Georgia, came from a distinguished family whose various members served as governors of Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky.

"Bibb", as Martha was called, grew up in a family of four children. Her father gave them the benefit of every educational and social advantage possible. For "Bibb", this included Slade's Academy in Columbus, then Wesleyan College. She was graduated in 1853 with a bachelor of arts degree and also received the customary master of arts degree awarded by the College ten years after graduation.

Her friends chided her about being "an old maid", for she was not married until she was 24. Her wedding to James T. Redding on March 12, 1861, followed a courtship of only six weeks. He was a widower with four children, the youngest only 15 months of age. They left immediately for the West by stage coach, where James had several large plantations in Louisiana and Texas.

Scarcely a month after her marriage, the War Between the States started, and her husband was required by the Confederate government to grow provisions for the army. At the close of the War, with no labor to work her many miles of land, the family lost its fortunes and returned to Georgia on $300 from the sale of a mahogany bedroom suite, a wedding gift from Martha's father. Martha died on October 15, 1893, at the age of 56. Her grave is in Riverside Cemetery in Macon, Georgia, marked with a white marble monument in the shape of the Phi Mu badge.

VISIT A PIECE OF PHI MU HISTORY

...FIRSTHAND!

The dining room at the Henry Francis duPont Winterthur Museum in Wilmington, Delaware, is from the girlhood home of founder Mary Myrick Daniel. Architectural elements from the home, built in Midway, Georgia in 1837, were purchased by Winterthur and reassembled at the noted Wilmington museum. The dining room, known as the Georgia Dining Room, was purchased to provide the museum with an example of the architecture of Georgia, one of the 13 original colonies represented in the collection of American arts and architecture.

The former country estate of Henry Francis DuPont, Winterthur is a museum filled with his collection of American decorative arts made or used in America between 1640 and 1860; a 60-acre garden that features color throughout the year; and a research library for the study of American art and material culture.

To learn more about the Winterthur Museum, check them out on the Internet at www.winterthur.org

(article information obtained from the Phi Mu private side at www.phimu.org)

Our Creed

To lend to those less fortunate a helping hand. To think of God as a protector and guide of us all. To keep forever sacred the memory of those we have loved and lost. To be to others what we would they would be to us. To keep our lives gentle, merciful and just, thus being true to the womanhood of love.

To walk in the way of honor, guarding the purity of our thoughts and deeds. Being steadfast in every duty, small or large. Believing that our given word is binding. Striving to esteem the inner man above culture, wealth or pedigree. Being honorable, courteous, tender, thus being true to the womanhood of honor.

To serve in the light of truth, avoiding egotism, narrowness and scorn. To give freely of our sympathies. To reverence God as our Maker, striving to serve Him in all things. To minister to the needy and unfortunate. To practice day by day love, honor, truth. Thus keeping true to the meaning, spirit and reality of Phi Mu.