Phi Delta Theta 1908 University of Illinois

In a huge box of family things given to me by my brother was a hand-tooled leather holder for a dance card.  It belonged our grandfather, Amos Claycomb, with his initial on the back.  He’s written in pencil who his dance partner was and their sorority.

The dance is the 14th Annual Dance Illinois ETA of Phi Delta Theta, held February 14, 1908 at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

The best part for a family historian are the cards slipped inside the cover.  One has the patronesses of the fraternity.

 

Mrs. St. T. Busey, Mrs. R. R. Mattis, Mrs. E. S. Swigart, Mrs. E. N. Raynor, Mrs. G. W. Gere, Mrs. J. L. Polk, and Mrs. B. F. Harris

And one has the frat members for 1908.

 

Active Chapter:  Charles Samuel Pope, Elmer Otis Furrow, Mark Edmund Nebeker, Charles Bowen Busey, William Harrison Burch, George Davis Beardsley, Amos Townsend Claycomb, William Wyman May, Ray Carlisle Sparks, Eugene Samuel Cunningham, Ernest Thompson Ingold, Samuel Monroe Brown, George Bonny Matthews, Lewis Vinton Manspeaker, Herman Mohr, Roy Spencer Kimball, Walter John Hughes, Alva Brace Meek, Sidney M. Morris, Carl Page Watson, William Carl Watson, Ernest Swanson, Wellington Birther Huffaker, George Snider Ward, Alva William Dazey, Arthur Henry Harms, Lyman S. Weeks, Clyde Lynn Way, Merlin Clay Aleshire, Charles Emmet Trees, Henry Pratt Lyman, James Greenleaf Alexander, and William Agar Benitz.

 

I wonder if the case was used often with different inserts for each dance.  Actually, I didn’t know men had dance cards.  I thought it was just women.  So much to learn.