P.E.O. Record
The Moving Hand
When as a newly elected chapter president, I was chosen as a delegate to the convention of Missouri State Chapter, I was told by our past presidents that now I would really know what P.E.O. was all about. And I did learn! Seven years on the state board widened my vision, and IPS trusteeship and 10 years serving on the executive board of International Chapter provided more information and knowledge about P.E.O. than I thought I would ever need.
WRONG! When I accepted the appointment of the Executive Board of International Chapter to begin the preparation of a new history of our great organization, I discovered a great body of information I had only skimmed. I needed to become better acquainted with the women whose intelligent perseverance had led us to our place in history. I needed a better sense of what happened when.
Days have been spent at our P.E.O. offices in Des Moines. Let me tell you my favorite things to do when I am there. You may question my good sense, but I have delighted in spending hours in the archives, reading presidential correspondence and, believe it if you will, reading old state proceedings! There is always time to concentrate on three large albums that hold the photographic portraits of all the presidents of the highest body of P.E.O.
Each time I have looked at each face in those albums, I have tried to think of the concerns of her day and how she worked to improve her office. One of my favorites is from my state. Mary D. Lawrence was the first woman who was admitted to the bar in Missouri. She was the only one of those pictured presidents who has written a message, and such a perfect message from a past president. It was that old line of poetry, “. . . The moving hand, having writ, moves on.”
I consider myself fortunate indeed to have been appointed as the most recent moving hand, writing, and then moving on. I have been following three other such history writers: Sarah Dewey, Winona Evans Reeves and Stella Clapp whose volumes reflect the development of P.E.O. during their age.
It was 1903, and the Sisterhood was 34 years old. Sarah Dewey, who chaired the committee that produced the first history, wrote that the permanence and rapid growth of the organization (or, in her words, “the order”) seemed phenomenal. The formal title of the first published volume was “The History of the P.E.O. Sisterhood,” but it is better known for its binding, the “white history.” Not really a history, it was instead a collection of the writings of past and present officers of the Sisterhood. The name of this highest body in P.E.O. had changed from Grand Chapter to Supreme Grand Chapter.
The golden anniversary of P.E.O. was celebrated in 1919. The second history, authored by Winona Evans Reeves, was a modest presentation. Wartime paper shortages limited the publication to 3,000 copies of this small volume, and all copies were quickly sold.
In 1923, Supreme Chapter authorized the publication of a second edition of Volume I of “The Story of P.E.O.” In 1936 Winona Reeves once was again called upon to write Volume II of “The Story of P.E.O.”
Because P.E.O.'s growth had been phenomenal, tentative plans for a third volume of “The Story of P.E.O.” were mentioned at the 1957 convention. We had waited over 30 years to authorize the creation of our third history, the one nearly all of us should have read. To honor the centennial of the Sisterhood, Stella Clapp, a past president of Kansas State Chapter, was selected to write our history. She selected the title for her 1968 history from the Book of Proverbs, “Out of the Heart.”
So we've come almost 30 years, and it's time to compose another history. This past president has spent hours and days in reading and research. She has initiated this new work and done it joyfully. However, it is obvious that some questions must remain unanswered, for we have always destroyed the old when revisions were made. This next history, P.E.O.'s, fourth history is indeed a work in progress, and should begin—at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, in 1869. But it must include all the moving hands that having written move on. That's you and me!
I recently read the president's page of John Kenny, the new president of Rotary International. I think what he writes is true of P.E.O.'s past and will be true of its future.
He writes: “In Scotland, we have a saying that I'm fond of quoting, ‘We must look beyond our own parish pump. It means that we must look beyond our own home and our own community. We must be aware that ours is only one community of one country, of the many communities. “In every one of those communities, there is work to be done. We will not stand idly by; we will accept our responsibility. We can, and we must. For we know that our organization is only as great as its local clubs-and our clubs are only as great as the members with them. The future of Rotary is in your hands.”
My dear sisters, we have been handed a glorious past. We now must create a worthy history, beginning in our own chapters. The future of P.E.O. is in our hands!