Founding Date

Jul 1st, 1852

The Zeta Chapter charted in July 1852 at Maryville College and closed later that year. Maryville College was erroneously called Washington College in Fraternity documents from 1856-1998. The chapter is located in Maryville, Tennessee.

The Mistaken Name:

Washington College or Maryville College?

By Towner Blackstock (Davidson 1994)

Since at least 1856, Phi Gamma Delta’s roster of chapters has placed the original 1852 Zeta Chapter at Washington College in Maryville, Tennessee. However, recent investigation of records, including original Grand Chapter minutes, reveal that a chapter existed at Maryville College rather than at Washington College. 

An undated Grand Chapter minute recorded between May 14 and July 13, 1852 reads as follows:

A communication from Bro. G. E. Eagleton formerly of Union Chapter, was read, containing a petition from Marysville College for the privilege of establishing a chapter of our order at that place. The petitioners were Messrs J. D. Thomas, W. H. Vernor, F. N. Gary, W. McCampbell, N. B. Goforth, and Jno. H. Lovelace.

On motion a charter was granted to the above named gentlemen. On motion Bro. G.E. Eagleton was appointed legate to establish the chapter.

Maryville College was founded in 1809 in Maryville, Tennessee, located just east of Knoxville. The small Presbyterian school was respected, although like most antebellum colleges it remained beset with financial difficulties.

 Comparisons of Fraternity and Maryville alumni records show at least five of the seven men found on Zeta’s roster attended the school. Regarding the two missing brothers, J. D. Thomas was reportedly the legate sent by the Union Chapter for Alabama’s installation in 1855 (although records indicate that it was really Woodlief Thomas, Union 1854). F. N. Gary (misidentified some places as "Gorry") is credited in the Fraternity’s membership card catalogue as being the founder of the first Zeta Chapter at "Washington." The source of this claim is unknown. 

A tragedy may explain Thomas and Gary’s absence. Most of the College’s records were destroyed when fire incinerated the president’s home. The Civil War destroyed much of the rest of campus.

The chapter had folded long before these tragedies. Circumstances at Maryville deteriorated in the early 1850s. College histories describe the mental decline of the aged Dr. Issac Anderson, president and one of only three faculty members. In 1855 he was replaced by action of the Presbyterian Synod after one of the other professors resigned. Many students left school well before that; enrollment had declined to around 46 by 1853-54. Only two men graduated in 1854! 

At the Fraternity’s 1856 convention, William McLaren (Jefferson 1850) gave another reason for the chapter’s demise. While reporting on the condition of the Fraternity he noted a chapter had been founded "at Washington College, Marysville, Tenn. . . ." He further stated ". . . the Washington Chapter was annulled by the Faculty of the College, its members leaving the Institution rather than (remaining) to abandon the Fraternity."  While we know not all the members left-- Goforth graduated in 1854-- perhaps Gary and Thomas did leave to attend other schools, and as such are not found as Maryville students in the 1854 College catalogue. 

Why did McLaren get the wrong name for Maryville? Grand Chapter minutes never mention a Washington College distinct from the one in Pennsylvania. The only school of that name in Tennessee existed in Limestone, near Johnson City in the northeast corner of Tennessee. Today it is a boarding school called Washington College Academy. Among other errors, McLaren called Baylor "Bailey" and the University of Nashville "the University of Tennessee, Nashville, Tenn." In his defense, the report was written at the convention, almost surely without the benefit of the Grand Chapter’s minute book. The Fraternity had not yet printed a catalogue. And no one present at the convention possessed more correct information; there were only eight delegates— none from Union or Maryville. 

One other possible explanation for the Washington name may stem from the chapter at Union University. The Alabama and Baylor chapters, chartered by Union in 1855 and 1856, respectively announced to the Grand Chapter their names as "Euilada Chapter" and "Tryon Chapter." Did Union brothers start a naming tradition that pre-dated modern Greek-letter designations? If so, perhaps the brothers at Maryville called themselves the "Washington Chapter" and this name became confused as the name of the institution. This speculation is bolstered by the fact Maryville's legate (installing officer) came from Union: George E. Eagleton, class of 1851. 

Regardless of its origin, why was the error not corrected more quickly? The brothers of Zeta appear to have had no contact with the Grand Chapter after the death of their chapter. They never sent a representative to a convention, and their entries in Fraternity catalogues were not updated until long after the Civil War. The only correct mention of the College’s name was found in the single copy of the Grand Chapter minutes, whereas the minutes of the 1856 Convention and other relatively well-distributed records contained the erroneous name. Thus historians perpetuated the "Washington" name based on the most accessible but unfortunately incorrect documents. 

Of the seven known brothers of Zeta Chapter, one became a state representative in Tennessee and a candidate for the US Congress; another became president of Mossy Creek Baptist Seminary, which later became Carson-Newman College.

Maryville College itself still exists. It closed in 1861 and, like much of eastern Tennessee, was physically and financially devastated by the Civil War. Greatly weakened, it reopened in 1866 and moved to a new campus in 1871. Today it remains a small, private liberal arts college. No other fraternity is known to have ever established a chapter there. 

Many thanks to Debbie Long of Maryville College's Lamar Memorial Library

Known Phi Gamma Delta Initiates at Maryville College

Napoleon Bonaparte Goforth (Maryville 1854), born of Hugh and Mary Goforth in the Boyds Creek community in Seiver County, Tennessee on May 20, 1828. Listed as a Junior in the 1854 College catalogue. His biography appears in the Baptist Church’s Eastanalle Association Minutes. It notes that he graduated with honors from Maryville in 1854 after four years of study. From 1859 to 1862 and again from 1870 to 1882 he served as president of Mossy Creek Baptist College, later Carson College, in Tennessee. It is known today as Carson-Newman College. He also founded and led the Riceville Literary and Classical Institute. According to the USGenWeb Project, Riceville Cemetery on County Road 80 has the burial place of N.B. Goforth, who died in 1907.

John H. Lovelace (Maryville 1857), from Troup County, Georgia and West Point, Georgia. Minister later living in LaGrange, Georgia. Listed as a Sophomore in the 1854 College catalogue. The Fraternity’s 1856 catalogue indicates he served as chapter treasurer. Reportedly died in 1895 in Washington, Tennessee.

William McCampbell (Maryville 1855), from Jefferson County, Tennessee. Listed as a Junior in the 1854 College catalogue. The Fraternity’s 1895 "Unfinished Catalogue" indicates him as deceased, and states he served in the Confederate forces but gives no rank or unit. Fraternity membership records state he died at Dandridge, Tennessee. Biographical information at the University of North Carolina indicates he was an attorney in Rogersville and later Dandridge. He married Susan Jones Heiskell (1834-1917) in 1858. They had two children, Fred and Annie. At some point they moved to Franklin, Tennessee.  He was captain of Company C, 39th Tennessee Infantry (W. M. Bradford's), as was Brother J. D. Thomas.

Rev. William Hardin Vernor (Maryville 1854), from Lewisburg, TN. Presbyterian minister (D.D.). Listed as a Senior in the 1854 College catalogue, one of only two in his college class. The Fraternity’s 1856 catalogue indicates that he served as chapter secretary. Son of Ezekiel Enloe Vernor and Jane Leeper McCleary. Married Ellen Wilson White Hannum August 2, 1854 in Blount County Tennessee; had one son, Henry Enloe Vernor. The Fraternity’s "Unfinished Catalogue" of 1895 gives the following summary: "S.W.T.S, '54-'55; President, Masonic Female College at Lumpkin, Ga, '58-'59; Principal, Masonic Female College, Lewisburg, Tenn., several years; Principal, Odd Fellows Female Institute 18 months; Evangelist, Presbytery of North Alabama since January 1^st, '70. Presbyterian Minister." The 1895 catalogue gives his residence as Columbia, Texas. Died of pneumonia on December 24, 1900 in Little Rock, Arkansas.  In 1882 Baylor University, Independence, Texas, conferred an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree on W.H. Vernor, then a minister living in Little Rock, Arkansas.  See Murray, Baylor at Independence, p. 289.

Alfred Caldwell (Maryville 1853): According to Moore and Foster’s Tennessee, The Volunteer State Vol. II (S.J. Clarke, Nashville 1923, p. 77), "He graduated at Maryville College, having taken the Junior and Senior class in one year." The Biographical Directory of the Tennessee General Assembly, Volume 1 (Nashville, 1975, p. 109) gives the following information: "House, 33^rd General Assembly, 1859-61; representing McMinn County . . . . Born in Jefferson County July 5, 1829; son of John and Margaret (Shadan) Caldwell. Graduated from Maryville College . . . ; graduated in law, 1854, from Cumberland University, Lebanon . . . Taught school in early life; began practice of law, c. 1854, at Athens, McMinn County . . . later lived and practiced law at Knoxville, Knox County; named a trustee of East Tennessee University, Knoxville, 1877 [renamed University of Tennessee in 1879]; trustee of Tennessee Deaf and Dumb School. Retired, 1882, to his farm at Strawberry Plains, Jefferson County. Presidential elector, 1860, on Constitutional-Union ticket of John Bell and Edward Everett; unsuccessful candidate for Confederate Congress, 1861; unsuccessful candidate for U.S. Congress, 1872, and for governor at Democratic convention, 1878. In Confederate army although he had been opposed to secession; enlisted at Athens August 15, 1863, as private in Company H, 5^th East Tennessee Volunteers which later became 43^rd Tennessee Infantry; captured at Bristol, December 14, 1864; sent as prisoner of war first to Nashville, Davidson County; to Louisville, Kentucky, and thence to Camp Chase, Ohio, January 15, 1865; one of detachment of paroled and exchanged prisoners of war at Camp Lee near Richmond, Virginia, February 28, 1865. Member Presbyterian Church. Died at Strawberry Plains November 6, 1886; place of burial not indicated."

Franklin Newman Gary (Maryville 1852): Fraternity membership records credit him as "Founder of original Zeta Chapter" but state little else. This claim may be true, since he seems to be the first graduate of the known members.  He was identified in Fraternity records only as "F.N. Gorry" or, in the 1856, 1862, and 1870 catalogues, "F. N. Gary." The 1925 Fraternity catalogue states that he practiced law and died in Riceville, McMinn County Tennessee in 1880. Correct information comes to us from his great-great-great-great-niece, Sheila Douglass. She references Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century, page 394: "GARY, FRANKLIN NEWMAN, soldier, lawyer, was born Nov. 26, 1828, in [Newberry County] South Carolina. In 1852 he graduated from Maryville College, Tennessee. He became district attorney of Tyler, Texas, and was one of the best known lawyers in that state. During the civil war he served as captain in the twenty-third Texas infantry, C. S. A.; and died in 1886. His son, Hanson Gary, is a successful lawyer of Tyler, Texas." She further says, "Also in the city of Tyler, Smith County, Texas there is an elementary school named after Franklin N. Gary. He died on January 30, 1886 and is buried at Oakwood Cemetery, Tyler Smith County, Texas."

John Dallas Thomas (Maryville 185_): We do not know Brother Thomas's graduation year, due to insufficient records at the College. The 1856 Fraternity catalogue indicates he served as chapter president. The 1898 and 1925 catalogues give conflicting and erroneous infomation; moreover, he is sometimes erroneously given as Legate, or installing officer, of the University of Alabama chapter in 1855.  The following facts are from his obituary in The News (Cartersville, Georgia) of March 20, 1901, and his tombstone. Born June 17, 1825 in Dandridge, Tennessee. Practiced law there until the Civil War, and according to the 1860-1861 Tennessee Gazetteer & Business Directory, was master and clerk of the Jefferson County Chancery Court.   Was captain of Company C, 39th Tennessee Infantry, as was Brother McCampbell.  "After the war, he went into business and met with marked success with Fain & Parrott, of Atlanta, until 1868, when he came to Bartow county, where he has since resided.  Soon after making his home he went into the iron business, operating the upper Stamp Creek furnace, owning a half interest in the property.  He has been in merchandise in Cartersville twice, retiring only a few months ago. He was married twice, his first wife being Miss Mary W., daughter of the late Dr. John W. Lewis, one son, Mr. Dallas Thomas, being the result of the union.  His second wife was Miss Uliah Attaway, daughter of the late Mr. S. W. Attaway, who survives him."  Died March 17, 1901; buried Riverview Cemetery, Canton, Georgia.

Many thanks to Debbie Long of Maryville College's Lamar Memorial Library for her assistance in looking up information on these brothers at the College.