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History of Alpha Gamma Delta

It started as a dorm room discussion of college friendships between two sisters and grew into an international sisterhood of thousands of friends on and off the college campus. It grew into Alpha Gamma Delta.

The two sisters, Marguerite and Estelle Shepard, talked of the need for a women's fraternity on the Syracuse University campus, a subject that had first been broached by Dr. Wellesley Coddington. Dr. Coddington, one of the first five faculty members of Syracuse University, was a professor of Greek, Latin, and German. He was a loyal member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Nu Theta, and Eclectic Fraternities. Dr. Coddington had seen the enrollment of Syracuse University double in the years from 1900 to 1904, with the only addition to the fraternity system being a chapter of Delta Gamma in 1901. He saw that because of this incongruent growth many women were being denied the opportunity for membership in a fraternal organization. Having come to share his conviction, Marguerite and Estelle started to make a few inconspicuous contacts.

Whispered conferences were held and mysterious messages were passed to a chosen few in those early days of May 1904. By May 17, the core group had grown to a total of seven. Six of those enthusiastic young women, Marguerite, Estelle, Georgia Dickover, Jennie Titus, Grace Mosher, and Ethel Brown, met that night to arrange an initial working structure. Temporary officers were elected and committees were formed to write a constitution and contact a jeweler about creating a badge. Jennie Titus was appointed to consult Dr. Coddington about a Greek letter name.

The seventh of the group, Edith MacConnell, was unable to attend these first meetings because she was in the hospital recuperating from a serious accident. She kept up-to-date on the developments through frequent visits from her future fraternity sisters.

In the last two weeks of May, Mary Snider, Georgia Otis, Emily Butterfield, and Flora Knight joined the core group, giving Alpha Gamma Delta its eleven Founders.

Alpha Gamma Delta was officially founded Monday, May 30, 1904 in Dr. Coddington's home. The constitution and bylaws were read and approved; the badges were first worn; the official colors were chosen. Officer elections were held with Jennie Titus elected to serve as the president.

The first rush was held in September of 1904 in Wichell and Princess Halls, the two dormitories for women at Syracuse. An attic room occupying the third floor of a large house at 1005 East Genesee Street was Alpha Gam's home for the first year. The room was stark but functional for chapter meetings and initiations. It was in this room that on October 21, 1904 that the invitation to become a chapter of an older fraternity was refused and definite plans were made for extension. Unlike other groups that were founded as local groups or literary societies, Alpha Gamma Delta was founded to become a national women's fraternity.

In the five years that followed, eight chapters were chartered in Wisconsin, Connecticut, Minnesota, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Maryland, and Washington, a remarkable record in those years of limited travel and relatively slow communication. Alpha Gamma Delta became international in 1919 when Tau Chapter was established at the University of Toronto.

Steady growth has marked the progress of Alpha Gamma Delta throughout the years, due in large measure to the goals set forth by our Founders and the strong foundation they laid for their new fraternity.

History of Alpha Gamma Delta

The founders of Alpha Gamma Delta: