National History
Phi Mu started as the Philomathean Society which was organized at Wesleyan College on January 4, 1852 in Macon, Georgia by Mary Ann DuPont (Lines), Mary Elizabeth Myrick (Daniel), and Martha Bibb Hardaway (Redding).  Two months later, on March 4, 1852, the organization was publicly announced.  Since then, March 4 has been observed as our Founders Day in honor of Mary, Mary, and Martha.  Phi Mu is the 2nd oldest sorority in the nation, we are 153 years old in 2005.

Our Founders
 
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 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.

Joseph died suddenly at the age of 38, leaving Mary Ann a widow at age 32.  She never remarried and was 81 years of age when she died on January 4, 1918, exactly 66 years 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.
 

Martha Bibb Hardaway Redding
The 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.

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.  She was barely 15 years of age when she helped to found the Philomathean Society.  She was described as studious and talented, with a spirited personality.  The summer following her graduation, as a graduation present, she accompanied her father and mother on a six-month trip to Canada.

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 stagecoach, where James had several large plantations in Louisiana and Texas. 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.
 

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 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.  Mary Elizabeth was said to be timid and retiring.  An original oil portrait now displayed in the Philomathean Room in the Cannon Ball House, Macon, Georgia, reveals her dark hair and eyes.

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 who died in childhood.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.
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Delta Theta’s History
The Delta Theta Chapter of Phi Mu Fraternity began on Transylvania University’s campus in 1939, when it absorbed the Alpha Delta Theta Sorority.

The National Sorority of Alpha Delta Theta sprang from the tiny germ of Alpha Theta, a local sorority, founded on the Transylvania Campus in the fall of 1919.  No one knows of who first thought of Alpha Theta.  It seemed as if by magic the idea came at the same time to the minds of about four girls.  It was not long until others were invited to join, and Alpha Theta was founded with the following members: Violet Young, Martha Hall, Zenaide Harrod, Juanita Minish, Valleria Grannis, Irene Duncan, Ruth Dutt, Hazel Grow, Williebel Chilton, Mary Owsley, Mrs. A. F. Hemenway, faculty member, and Patroness Mrs. W. C. Bower.

In the very beginning, Valleria Grannis made the highest record of any woman student in the history of the college at her graduation—a record of all A’s throughout her college course.  This was the foundation for the high scholastic record, which Alpha Delta Theta has established.  At the Convention of 1937, Alpha Delta Theta ranked first on two-thirds of the campus, and had the highest scholastic standing ever established by any national sorority.

In 1921, the girls of Alpha Theta decided to become a national organization.  They were not, however, willing to conform to the ideals and purposes of an already established sorority.  They decided to found a new national sorority in which the ideal of every member would be:

“To live each day as if it were the last;
To lift each moment to its clearest height;
To profit by the pages of the past
That I may judge between the wrong and right;
To hold my friends above my own desire,
And take the heavy end of friendship’s load,
Yet blame them not if they perchance should tire,
And chose a gentler path, a smoother road;
To serve humanity as though ‘twere God,
And see the human in His face divine:
To answer Truth’s command and Beauty’s nod
And make their splendid consummations mine;
To dare to follow where I cannot lead—
This is my Alpha Delta Theta creed.”

In order to found a sisterhood with such ideals, two delegates were sent to the National Panhellenic Congress, with a petition from Alpha Delta Theta to be accepted as a member from that organization.  Their petition was granted and in 1924 Alpha Delta Theta was notified that she had been given associate membership and in 1926, she was received as a full member.

Since it’s founding, Alpha Delta Theta has secured 26 chapters in 20 states.  In addition to its active chapters, Alpha Delta Theta had 18 Alumnae chapters.  It was the fastest growing national sorority ever founded.  It was also the youngest sorority to ever have a president of National Panhellenic.

As far as we know, Alpha Delta Theta is the only national organization to be founded on the campus of Transylvania College and to achieve success.”
~excerpt from 1938 Crimson, Transylvania College Year Book

The very next year, in 1939, Phi Mu Fraternity absorbed the national sorority of Alpha Delta Theta and since that time we have been the Delta Theta chapter of Phi Mu Fraternity.