History Articles
Phi Gamma Delta: The First Seventy-Five Years
Phi Gamma Delta: The First Seventy-Five Years
By Towner Blackstock (Davidson 1994)
(c) Copyright 2003 The Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta, Inc. All Right Reserved. Reproduction by any means electronic or print is prohibited without express written permission from the author.
Introduction
A chapter chronicler once wrote that "the beginnings of any movement are frequently rather shadowy."1 The founding of Phi Gamma Delta is no exception. Yet much is known about the first half of the Fraternity’s history, even some things left undiscovered by William F. Chamberlin (Denison 1893), author of the landmark The History of Phi Gamma Delta. With the recent publishing of The History’s third volume, the history from 1926 to 1996, let us remember what came before. The first seventy-five years of Phi Gamma Delta offer a remarkable story of idealism, dedication, perseverance, and success that begins with the leadership of six men, a leadership that grows exponentially with each succeeding generation.
John T. McCarty transferred to Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania in 1846. He left behind the deteriorating situation at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, a campus shaken by smallpox and cholera outbreaks, and by ongoing student dissent against the faculty. Jefferson was in far better order despite its larger size.2 However, McCarty soon missed the exciting rivalries of Miami’s two fraternities, who vied to control the offices and honors of the two literary societies. Jefferson had the literary societies, but only one fraternity, Beta Theta Pi.3
McCarty’s entrepreneurial spirit, along with several close friendships, inspired him to take advantage of this opportunity. In his room at a boarding house close to the College, McCarty and five friends met on April 22, 1848 to flesh out the secret "association" they had informally discussed.4
Sam B. Wilson had the chair, and to him and James Elliott went the task of creating a constitution to codify their idea. Daniel Crofts,Naaman Fletcher, and Ellis Gregg rounded out the group. When they met again on May 1, 1848, the "Immortal Six" signed the document, elected officers, and appointed Wilson "to draw up a report in relation to the establishment of foreign chapters." The Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta was born.
Wilson presided during the month and a half remaining in the academic year, with McCarty as treasurer and Fletcher as secretary. The first initiation on May 8 added James B. Pennington and Albert Gallatin Jenkins, both Jefferson class of 1848. A month later the "Grand Chapter" approved a petition for a charter from five students at nearby Washington College.
By Jefferson College’s commencement on June 14, 1848, the Grand Chapter of "The Delta Association" had initiated nineteen members plus the original six. Fletcher, the one Founder not yet graduating, would lead the chapter and Fraternity in the coming year.5
In the first years the Association shook its legs and sought to perfect its inner workings. The third president, David Hall (Jefferson 1850), wrote an initiatory speech to complement the constitution and oaths written by Wilson and the other Founders; this charge remains in many ways unchanged and still thrills brothers today.
Expansion took a back seat until December 1849. A graduate brother convinced a group at the University of Nashville to petition for a charter.6 The first request came from the South because that region sent many students to Jefferson, and the South had few fraternity chapters anywhere. Nashville received a charter in January 1850. "Thus it stands the third of that mystic brotherhood which shall embrace and own the talent of the nation," said the minutes of the Grand Chapter. Unfortunately, five months later the University of Nashville trustees closed the school, and the chapter expired.
This did not set a good trend. However, in 1851 at Union University in nearby Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the Fraternity found a chapter it could keep. That same year a transfer student, Felix McGavock (Nashville 1850), established a chapter at the University of North Carolina, and a petition was approved from the University of Virginia, although a chapter was not installed. The efforts of brothers like McGavock would time and again save and grow the fraternity.
In 1852 a chapter at Maryville College, Tennessee opened for a few of months, before closing in the face of faculty opposition to secret societies.7 The Fraternity’s first convention, held that year, authorized graduate chapters; it is not known that any were created. The fraternity lacked any significant number or concentration of graduates. Nevertheless graduates already played an important role in fraternity affairs. William E. McLaren (Jefferson 1851), for example, presided at the 1852, 1856, and 1863 conventions. He would later help revise the Ritual and serve as the third archon president from 1901 to 1903.
Sometime in 1854 the University of North Carolina chapter closed, leaving Phi Gamma Delta with just three chapters. The Fraternity needed an expansion windfall. So on February 2, 1855 the Grand Chapter determined "to send four charters to Union Chapter with the privilege of filling in all blanks, etc." As a result of this division of responsibility, Phi Gamma Delta gained eight chapters in two years. Jefferson approved Marietta College, Ohio. Union followed with the universities of Alabama and Mississippi; the latter died after a brief time. Another transfer, John Mason Martin (Alabama ’56), founded the chapter at Centre College, Kentucky in the fall of 1855 but it died out the following spring. Marietta lasted two years, and Alabama four.
A few months into 1856 the chapter at Washington College became the Grand Chapter according to a plan of rotating the responsibility among all chapters. They were apparently less than successful and the 1856 convention returned the Grand Chapter to Jefferson.
Despite this difficulty, 1856 proved the Fraternity’s most successful year yet. Jefferson granted charters to Indiana Asbury and Alabama’s Howard College,8 and Union established a chapter in Texas at Baylor University. Bethel College, Kentucky also received a charter. These four chapters would last until the Civil War. Membership rose to 249, a fact recorded in 1856 in the Fraternity’s first catalogue. A catalogue was an important instrument of pride and prestige, though its publishing costs saddled the Grand Chapter with debt.
Remember the Grand Chapter minute about owning "the talent of the nation?" At this time two brothers were elected to the House of Representatives. Albert Gallatin Jenkins (Jefferson 1848) entered for Virginia in 1857, and Zebulon B. Vance (North Carolina 1854) followed him the next year for North Carolina. Both would serve until Secession in 1861.
The forward march continued with charterings at Pennsylvania College9 in 1858, Virginiaand the revived chapter at North Carolina in 1859, and Allegheny College, Pennsylvania in 1860. With the eighteenth chartering at Kentucky University, Harrodsburg10 in November, Phi Gamma Delta sported twelve living chapters in the South and West, ranging in size from six to thirteen members each. Yet this happy state of affairs could not mask the turbulence ripping across the country. That same month, the Republican Party’s Abraham Lincoln won the Presidency.
By February, seven southern states seceded from the Union. War threatened to wrench apart the nation. Despite the atmosphere, that month the Union University chapter apparently established a chapter at Soule University, Chappell Hill, Texas. But following the fall of Fort Sumter in April 1861 many chapters and even colleges closed outright as students flocked to arms. By 1863 all of the eight southern chapters, including those in Kentucky, are believed to have closed.
The five northern chapters remained open. They even added two chapters, at University of Western Pennsylvania11 in 1863 and Hanover College, Indiana in 1864. A wartime attempt to install a chapter at Maryland Agricultural College12 failed, and Washington’s charter was revoked in July 1862 after they refused to pay an assessment for the 1862 catalogue. The chapter was apparently quickly re-established.
After Robert E. Lee’s surrender, the nation and the Grand Chapter turned to "reconstruction as the order of the day." Veterans returned to campuses to finish or begin school. The Grand Chapter smelled opportunity. In November 1865 they celebrated the first eastern chapter, Upsilon at the New York Free Academy, later called the City College of New York, or CCNY. Bethel reopened. Baker University in Kansas received a charter, as did Waco University in Texas.13 Many other campuses came under active investigation for possible expansion.
These labors brought four new chapters in 1866, and seven more by 1870.14 Most of these were northern, but the three in the South were supplemented by revived chapters at Union, Mississippi, and Virginia. Adding to the rebound, chapters in Indiana initiated prominent political figures like former Senator and Governor Henry S. Lane (Wabash Initiate), and Union General Lew Wallace (DePauw Initiate). General Morton C. Hunter (Indiana Initiate), one of this wave of honorary initiates, would preside at the 1874 Convention. Things looked grand for Phi Gamma Delta!
However, the post-war boom soon met disappointment. It was discovered that Chi Chapter at Waco was never installed.13 Chapters were declared extinct at Northwestern (Picture of Charter on left) in 1869 and Western Pennsylvania in 1870. In April 1870, the brothers of Phi Chapter at Baker transferred their chapter to Northwestern, only to have it close shortly thereafter. Many such closings resulted from post-war financial and enrollment crises at campuses nationwide.
Mixed success continued as twelve new and two revived chapters arose between 1870 and 1879. Six of these died within five years of their chartering.15 Chapters at Hampden-Sydney, Indiana, Marietta, and Ohio State held on. So did Yale, which remained operational despite losing its charter from 1876 to 1879 for wanting to become a "junior class society." Washington and Jefferson was resuscitated. Sadly, the Union University chapter died in 1873, when the school itself folded. All said fifteen chapters closed.16 Phi Gamma Delta ended the decade with eighteen chapters, one less than at the decade’s onset.
Then the long trend of chapter closures began to break. State universities emerged across America in the wake of large Federal land grants. Enrollments increased, and both student life and academic curriculums grew more rounded. College fraternities were increasingly accepted as campus features, partly because fraternal organizations in the larger society experienced a tremendous surge in popularity. They also benefited from an increasing number of directly involved local graduates, including many professors. The 1880 Convention spurred this involvement by creating the position of section chief. As a result of all this, 1880 to 1889 saw eighteen new chapters, including the first in California.17 Ten chapters fell inactive, but ten chapters were resuscitated.
The growth did not just mean expansion. During the Seventies the Fraternity established annual dues, created a coat of arms, developed a membership certificate, printed the third and fourth catalogues (1870 and 1878, incurring great debt), enhanced the Ritual, and started the quarterly magazine. The hands of many active graduates are evident in all of these advancements. These brothers included William McLaren (Jefferson 1851), Frank Keck (CCNY 1872, Columbia 1875)(Picture on left), and William Clarke (CCNY 1869, Columbia 1871) to name only a few. Members continued to achieve prominence outside the Fraternity; in 1879 Phi Gamma Delta boasted one U.S. senator and nine representatives.
On the negative side evidence shows that hazing arose in a few chapters in this decade. This paralleled the rise of freshman class hazing that reached a pitch at the turn of the century. Pledge education did not exist anywhere in the Fraternity; men were initiated right after they accepted the offer of membership. Therefore, any "horseplay" would occur just before or possibly during the initiation ceremony.
A housing movement also emerged this decade. Most chapters had long rented a hall or room as a gathering place. Students lived in dorms or in local boarding houses. But by 1889 nine chapters had rented whole homes, and Gamma Phi at Pennsylvania State had broken ground for the first house owned by Phi Gamma Delta (Picture on left).18 After that the pressure to build increased, with the second house built at Pennsylvania College, now Gettysburg, in 1891.
The Grand Chapter actively encouraged the formation of graduate groups like the Delta Club in New York City.19 This reflected a noticeable maturing of the Fraternity. While graduates had long provided convention leadership, after 1887 the magazine editor was a graduate, and graduates in the Grand Chapter were increasingly older. More and more Phi Gamma Delta was becoming "not for college days alone."
A mild dissent against the Grand Chapter emerged in the 1880s. Some brothers felt the "GC" was unrepresentative. The convention did not elect the Grand Chapter, or the officers of the Fraternity! One or two dozen brothers in New York elected new members to the GC at a general meeting each fall. While this worked well in 1870, the nation had become smaller with locomotives, steamships and telegraphs. Why not allow a more national and democratic government? Agitation for change started in the late 1880s and continued at every convention afterwards. One of the most vocal dissidents was Edwin Mattern (Allegheny 1890, NYU 1894), later the first Ritualist.
Despite this dissent the Fraternity made many advancements. It established a flag, printed a songbook, and became debt-free for the first time. An enduring nickname that started at New York University— "Fiji"— was adopted by the 1886 convention and confirmed in 1894. Graduate activity practically exploded; by 1898 there were thirty-nine graduate chapters and over twenty-three graduate associations. Furthermore, the Fraternity founded thirteen chapters and revived two from 1890 to 1898, while losing only five.20
But aggravation with the Grand Chapter increased as the unfinished catalogue was delayed again and again. By then "each recurring convention was a scene of struggle for control of the organization committees and on the floor of the convention. And the magazine . . . was freely used for the forwarding of these revolutionary proposals . . ." to modify or even abolish the "GC."21
By 1896 several vocal proponents of abolishing the Grand Chapter, including Edwin Mattern, had managed to win seats in the "GC" itself. This created a tense situation, especially when the abolitionists won the majority and elected one of their number as Grand Chapter president. The old guard was reeling. They decried the political machinations of the abolitionists. The final blows came in early 1898 when a special issue of Yale’s "Nu Deuteron Bulletin" was mailed to the entire Fraternity. It featured chapter presidents and prominent graduates all expressing support for a unified proposal to change Fraternity government. T. Alfred Vernon (Yale 1875) had personally financed the "Bulletin" along with the monumental 1,440 page catalogue, Chapter Rolls and Directory.
At the 1898 Convention in Pittsburgh the agitation came to a head. After fifty years the Fraternity voted to abandon the Grand Chapter system and adopt the proposed national board, with General Lew Wallace (DePauw Initiate) as the first president.22 This board they called an "Archonate," and the convention became an "ekklesia.
An enhanced ritual was also proposed to meet the long-time call for greater embellishment and standardization, although just a few chapters accepted it.
Phi Gamma Delta began the new century with forty-nine chapters and over 7,000 members. The expansion boom extended from the Ekklesia in 1898 through 1902, with thirteen new or re-established chapters.23 The next thirty years saw a marked slowdown in the establishment of new chapters. Anti-expansion sentiment emerged, favoring cautious growth or even no growth at all!
Therefore, expansion was largely restricted to reestablishing closed chapters and opening new ones in the western and southern states, since the Midwest and Northeast had a disproportionate number of chapters. Only seven new chapters were founded from 1903 to World War One, while Hampden-Sydney, Roanoke, Bethel, and Stanford closed.24 One chapter was revived: Stanford in 1903. The anti-expansionist sentiment is evidenced by the University of Pittsburgh experience. They petitioned every ekklesia from 1907 until 1916 before receiving a charter.
The housing passion now sought to put every chapter in a house. Larger chapters— some now over thirty members— wanted nicer buildings with more living space. The sentiment even infected the graduates in New York City, who built a four-story clubhouse for Phi Gamma Delta in 1909. These structures stood as symbols of the Fraternity’s pride and prestige.
By this time hazing before and during initiations had become rampant at many, though not all chapters. To control such "horseplay" the Fraternity adopted a pre-initiation rite called "King Bohunkus." While well-intentioned the concept degraded over time. Subsequent Ekklesiai would repeatedly discuss how to resolve the problem of hazing, including paddling. The real Ritual ceremonies were expanded and refined in 1915; that year Edwin Mattern (Allegheny 1890, NYU 1894) was appointed as the first Ritualist. He served until his death in 1936.
After the fall of the Grand Chapter, the archon secretary received funds to maintain an administrative office, usually in a corner or room of his own workplace. The office moved with the election of each new secretary. Likewise, the magazine moved whenever a new editor was chosen. Both the secretary and editor were just subsidized volunteers. The first brother employed full-time was Cal Chambers (Wisconsin 1912), who served as a traveling field secretary from 1913 until 1915.25
Prominence in National Politics
The Fraternity bragged of two national figures in Charles W. Fairbanks (Ohio Wesleyan 1872), U.S. vice-president from 1905 to 1909, and Thomas R. Marshall (Wabash 1873), who followed him during President Woodrow Wilson’s administration from 1913 to 1921. Marshall was joined by the first Phi Gam cabinet member, Albert S. Burleson (Texas 1886), Wilson’s postmaster general. Then in 1916 Wilson appointed Newton D. Baker (Johns Hopkins 1892, Washington and Lee 1894) as secretary of war. Both Fairbanks and Baker had served as Fraternity President.
During World War One chapter houses were kept open by the first "purple legionnaires," recruited to watch over them. Not as many undergraduates entered the military as did in 1941. However, a few chapters— NYU and Columbia for instance— closed for the war when every member volunteered.
After the war, continued slow expansion brought chapters at the University of the South, also known as Sewanee, in 1919 and the University of Idaho in 1920. That year the Delta Mu Graduate Chapter opened the Detroit Club in a residential mansion. Like its counterpart in New York, it provided accommodations, dining, and social functions for local and visiting brothers.
The Fraternity created its second full-time professional position in 1920. James Farrell (CCNY 1907), a former field secretary, served as "Executive Secretary" for a year until retiring at the Birmingham Ekklesia in December 1921. Later that year, the editor of The Phi Gamma Delta, Cecil J. "Scoop" Wilkinson (Ohio Wesleyan 1917,pictured right), was brought in as "office manager" for the Archon Secretary’s office, now in Washington D.C. Merging this position and the Editor worked superbly. "Scoop" officially received the Executive Secretary title in 1926; in all he led the Headquarters through four decades.
In 1921 Phi Gamma Delta swelled with pride as Calvin Coolidge (Amherst 1895) followed Thomas Marshall to become the third brother to serve as vice-president. Then, just a month before the 1923 Ekklesia, President Warren Harding passed away. Coolidge became the first Phi Gam to enter the White House. His political ascendancy highlighted a "golden age" for the Fraternity, as one brother called it.
The Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Ekklesia
The 1923 Ekklesia in Pittsburgh proved a watershed event. William Chamberlin had just authored The History of Phi Gamma Delta two years before, heightening the sense of nostalgia felt during the diamond anniversary. The Ekklesia eliminated the jeweled badges of previous decades by voting to revert to the original badge as worn by the Founders. Important revisions of the Ritual and Constitution were made, with care taken to preserve the brilliance of the originals. The brothers also made a pilgrimage to old Jefferson College, the main hall of which was then still standing.
But in its arguably most significant act the 1923 Ekklesia made Phi Gamma Delta an international fraternity by granting a charter to the University of Toronto in Canada. It also chartered local groups at Davidson College and Oregon State, continuing the push to the west and south that characterized expansion since 1900. The Fraternity amounted to sixty-six active chapters and almost twenty thousand living brothers.
That seventy-fifth year found Phi Gamma Delta at the top of the world. Between the achievement of graduates and a growing number of Fraternity accomplishments, brothers had every reason to feel exuberant. Perhaps it was a "golden age."
Yet seeds of difficulty had been planted. A "liquor problem" arose at some chapters, hazing had spread with the rise of delayed initiation, and membership laws would soon restrict the color and religion of new members. Bill Parrish (Westminster Faculty) in The History of Phi Gamma Delta, Tomos Gamma ably shows how the Fraternity grappled with such issues over future decades. But one may attribute much of Phi Gamma Delta’s perseverance and success in the face of such challenges to the tradition of leadership built in the Fraternity’s first seventy-five years.
How far the Fraternity had come! How many luminaries grace its early rolls! The bright examples of these sons of McCarty inspired thousands to live and grow "Deltaism" from a small Midwestern beginning to a place of prominence. You, the brothers of today and tomorrow, have inherited that tradition. Let that heritage serve as a reminder to always live the Fraternity’s sacred values, to fill the mantle of leadership passed to you, and to, in a word:
PERGE!
Endnotes for Phi Gamma Delta, The First Seventy-Five Years
1. Edwin L. Mattern, Pi Chapter of Phi Gamma Delta: Seventy Years of Friendships, 1860-1930(Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Torch Press, 1930), p. 25.
2. According to the American Almanac for 1847 and studies by James T. Herron, Jr. of the Jefferson College Historical Society, Jefferson College had the nation’s seventh largest enrollment of college-level students with a total of 170. By comparison Miami had 137 the same year.
3. Alpha Delta Phi spread to Miami in 1835 and Beta Theta Pi was founded at Miami in 1839. Beta chartered at Jefferson in 1842.
4. This boarding house, called "Fort" Armstrong, was razed in 1918. McCarty’s room was located on the northwest corner upstairs, overlooking the two College buildings across the street at the other end of the block.
5. Contrary to popular belief, none of the Founders entered Freemasonry before graduating from Jefferson, according to research by Glenn Barr (Allegheny ’19). He also found no evidence to show that Fletcher or Crofts ever became Masons. In fact, the Grand Lodge of Ohio has expressly denied that Crofts was ever initiated into Freemasonry.
6. The University of Nashville was the precursor to Peabody College, a noted teachers school and since 1979 a part of Vanderbilt University.
7. Since at least 1856 the roll has read "Washington College, Maryville, Tenn." However, recent research shows the chapter was actually at Maryville. This error probably developed from the southern chapters’ practice of naming themselves, like "Tryon Chapter" at Baylor. At Maryville the name "Washington" may have been mistaken by later officials of the Grand Chapter as the name of the institution.
8. Asbury became DePauw University in the 1880s. Howard became Samford University in 1965.
9. Pennsylvania College changed its name to Gettysburg College in 1921.
10. Kentucky University (formerly Bacon College) merged in 1865 with Transylvania College and the state Agricultural and Mechanical College and moved to Lexington. Secret societies were banned at the new campus until 1896. The A&M College (later named the University of Kentucky) detached in 1880. Kentucky University changed its name to Transylvania University in 1908.
11. Western University of Pennsylvania became the University of Pittsburgh in 1908.
12. Maryland Agricultural College merged with the University of Maryland in 1920.
13. Most of the faculty of Baylor University in Independence, Texas transferred to Waco University in 1861. In 1866, Waco professor OH Leland (Baylor 1856) requested a charter to create a new chapter there. After the charter was sent the Grand Chapter did not hear back from him. They reported to the 1870 convention that after much correspondence, they had finally contacted Leland, who left the faculty shortly after requesting a charter. The faculty had banned fraternities and thus, Chi Chapter at Waco was never installed.
14. 1866: Wabash (Indiana), Columbia (New York), Illinois Wesleyan, Roanoke (Virginia); 1867: Knox (Illinois), Northwestern (Illinois), Muhlenberg (Pennsylvania); 1868: Mississippi, Washington (now Washington & Lee, Virginia). 1869: Cumberland, Monmouth, Ohio Wesleyan. Washington [and Lee] was reportedly founded by transfers initiated at Soule University.
15. a name="15">These short-lived chapters included Thiel in Pennsylvania and the universities of Georgia, Iowa, Alabama, and Maryland. Also short lived was Western Reserve in Hudson, Ohio. In 1882 it moved to Cleveland and is now Case Western Reserve University.
16. Besides the chapters above, Phi at Northwestern, Knox, Monmouth, Western, Cumberland, Bethel, Columbia, Mississippi, and Washington & Lee fell inactive during the 1870s.
17. Western Reserve, Racine, Baylor, Texas, Virginia, Columbia, California (Berkeley), and Washington & Jefferson fell inactive. The latter four opened again by 1890. Bethel, Knox, and Georgia were also revived.
18. The brothers at Maine would point out that the Q.T.V. Society built a house in 1876, and accepted a Phi Gamma Delta charter in 1899.
19. Strangely, the 1886 Convention again abolished graduate chapters, but this was overturned the following year.
20. Georgia, Muhlenberg, Michigan, and Marietta closed. Tennessee closed for one year and was reestablished.
21. Recollections of Fred Howe (Allegheny 1889, Johns Hopkins 1892) from The Phi Gamma Delta, Vol. 54, No. 4, p. 308.
22. Wallace, the celebrated Union general, served as US ambassador to Turkey and wrote the popular Ben Hur.
23. These chapters included Alabama, Western Reserve, Nebraska, Maine, Missouri, Michigan, Texas, University of Washington, Dartmouth, Syracuse, Brown, Chicago, and Purdue.
24. The new chapters were Iowa State 1907, Colorado College 1908, Oregon 1911, Colorado 1912, Pittsburgh and Oklahoma 1916, and Rutgers 1917.
- Despite rumors to the contrary, Phi Gamma Delta was not the first to employ a traveling officer. Chi Psi hired one in 1905.
Canonsburg, Pennsylvania
Canonsburg, Pennsylvania
Site of Jefferson College and the founding of Phi Gamma Delta, Canonsburg holds a special place in the heart of the Fraternity. Although the College buildings no longer exist, the log cabin in which the College had its roots is on display, along with historical markers and a museum. Note that three of the Founders' graves are within forty miles of Canonsburg: Samuel B. Wilson, James Elliot, Jr., and Ellis B. Gregg.
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The Log Cabin Forerunner of Jefferson College
In 1795 John McMillan founded a classical school in this tiny log cabin. In 1805 he sent his students to the newly chartered Jefferson College in nearby Canonsburg. McMillan's old "log college" was frequently visited by townsfolk and students, including the men who founded Phi Gamma Delta.
The log cabin was moved In 1895 from the old McMillan farm (see Chartiers Church, below) to the College grounds, then the site of Jefferson Academy preparatory school, and placed in the perpetual care of the Fraternity. The cabin was moved a final time in 1931 to the front of the school and placed on a permanent foundation, where it remains.
In 1908 the Fraternity marked the cabin with a memorial plaque to the Founders. In 1952, they extended an invitation to Phi Kappa Psi to share in the custody of the building, and added a second plaque in commemoration. Phi Kappa Psi was founded at Jefferson College in 1852.
Revered as a symbol of the town and the College, the cabin is found on the Canonsburg city seal. It is also used to back up Washington and Jefferson College's disputed claim to "first institution of higher learning west of the Allegheny Mountains."
For more information:
"Old Log Cabin will be Moved", The Phi Gamma Delta magazine, 1930.
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Jefferson College, Location of Phi Gamma Delta's Founding Chapter
Jefferson College merged with Washington College in 1865; in 1869 the Jefferson campus was closed and the buildings became a preparatory school.
The building on the left, West College, was built in 1813 and razed in 1912. To the right, Providence Hall was built in 1833 and razed in the 1950s; it contained the literary society halls on the upper floor. The site is now occupied by the Canonsburg Middle School.
Founded after the closing of Jefferson College to preserve its memory, the Jefferson College Historical Society today remains "a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to advancing knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of local history." The Society maintains a museum underneath the middle school auditorium, behind the main buildings. The museum is a faithful reconstruction of the Franklin Literary Society's meeting room, containing much of the original furnishings, paintings, and extensive library. Phi Gamma Delta's Founders and most early brothers at Jefferson were members of Franklin. The museum is open by appointment only.
Annual and lifetime memberships in the J.C.H.S. are available. For information, please contact P.O. Box 638, Canonsburg, PA 15317.
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Fort Armstrong Founding Site of Phi Gamma Delta
The Founders first met in John T. McCarty's upstairs corner room in the boarding house known as "Fort Armstrong." The building was torn down in 1916 despite efforts by the Fraternity to purchase it. The Fraternity was able, however, to buy the foundation stones, and gave two to each chapter.
The History of Phi Gamma Delta, Tomos Alpha describes the visit by William F. Chamberlin (Denison 1894). He managed to salvage a few relics prior to the building's demolition. Before you visit, be sure to read this section of Tomos Alpha.
Currently a garage occupies this lot. The site is marked by a plaque placed by the Fraternity in 1948.
On E. College Street at corner with Greenside, opposite the Log Cabin and middle school.
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Chartiers Church and John McMillan Grave
The Reverend John McMillan is hailed as "The Apostle of the West" because of his efforts to bring Presbyterianism to the western frontier before and after the Revolutionary War. He founded a classical school, forerunner of Jefferson College, near Canonsburg in 1785. McMillan's school is the Log Cabin preserved by the Fraternity in Canonsburg.
McMillan also founded several congregations in Washington County, Pennsylvania, including Chartiers Church. McMillan died in 1833 at eighty-two years of age, having preached here for over fifty years. Find his grave by the back corner of the church next to his wife.
The current church building was built in 1841 and remodeled in 1908 with additions in 1912.
The site of his homestead, the original location of the Log Cabin, is about three miles away. Inside the church you will find a door from the homestead, a portrait of McMillan, and a photograph of his former house.
Chartiers Hill United Presbyterian Church |
The Mistaken Name: Washington College or Maryville College?
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.
Biographies of known initiates of the Maryville Chapter
Many thanks to Debbie Long of Maryville College's Lamar Memorial Library
Chapter Numbers
Chapter Numbers
Misconceptions and Corrections in Phi Gam History
Misconceptions and Corrections in Phi Gam History
"My chapter is the oldest in Phi Gamma Delta," or "My chapter is the oldest continuously operating chapter." Maybe.
"My chapter is the 100th chapter in Phi Gamma Delta." Is your 'chapter number' correct? That depends on how you look at it.
The Library of Congress has copies of fraternity rituals? No!
The Founders of Phi Gamma Delta were Freemasons? Contrary to popular belief, none of the Founders entered Freemasonry before graduating from Jefferson, according to research by Glenn Barr (Allegheny 1919). He also found no evidence to show that Fletcher or Crofts ever became Masons. In fact, the Grand Lodge of Ohio has expressly denied that Crofts was ever initiated into Freemasonry.
Founder Naaman Fletcher (Jefferson 1849) played the violin? This is a misreading of The History of Phi Gamma Delta, Tomos Alpha. It quotes 1849 classmate Rev. Robert F. Sample, published in the Washington and Jefferson College annual of 1889: "He was fond of music. My earliest recollections of college life are associated with the weird notes of a violin that came from the open window of his room near the old college building." Rev. Sample was writing about Fletcher's roommate, James W. Logan (Jefferson 1849). [Phi Gamma Delta magazine, April, 1908, p. 495]
At the time of Phi Gamma Delta's founding, Jefferson College was third among American colleges in enrollment, with only Harvard and Princeton having more students? Not true! The History of Phi Gamma Delta, Tomos Alpha, does state this. However, according to the American Almanac for 1847 and studies by James T. Herron, Jr. of the Jefferson College Historical Society, Jefferson College had the nation's seventh largest enrollment of college-level students with a total of 170. Larger schools included Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. Also, other institutions may have been larger if counting the enrollment of preparatory students.
Our original Chi Chapter at Waco University, Texas was installed in 1866? No: it never existed. During his research in the early 1900s, William F. Chamberlin added Waco (a predecessor of Baylor University) to the chapter roll. He read an 1866 correspondence noting the granting of a charter to Waco by the Grand Chapter. However, the GC did not hear back from the chapter or installing legate, and declared the chapter deceased in 1869. The next year, they finally found the legate, who revealed the chapter had never been installed. See more about the story on our Texas historic sites page.
Founder Naaman Fletcher (Jefferson 1849) caught a cold returning from an anti-secession meeting at which he had been key speaker, and died of pneumonia? This is how The History of Phi Gamma Delta, Tomos Alpha tells the tale. However, contemporary accounts - including newspaper obituaries - indicate he was ill for over a month with typhoid fever before his death on December 20, 1864. The pneumonia story, given some fifty years after Fletcher's death, was apparently in error.
The original Zeta Chapter was at Washington College, Maryville, Tennessee? Right town, wrong school. The chapter was really at Maryville College. Find out about the mistake here.
Only conventions or the Grand Chapter granted charters to form new chapters? True, except for the 1850s, when the Grand Chapter issued charter-granting powers in the South to Delta Chapter at Union University. Delta granted charters to Alabama, Mississippi, Baylor, Soule University, and perhaps others.
The 1872 Convention never happened? It did! Since William F. Chamberlin published his doubts of its existence in The History of Phi Gamma Delta, Tomos Beta, we have new information about this meeting.
Billy Zane, an actor who starred in Titanic, is not a member of Phi Gamma Delta, despite the fact many "fan" sites claim that he is.
Who shot Gamma the owl, the Fraternity mascot? Or, who is the Grand Old Man of Phi Gamma Delta? These are silly questions, and have no real answer or apparent point. Sounds like a wild goose chase to me.
The Lost 1872 Convention
The Lost 1872 Convention
By Towner Blackstock (Davidson 1994)
In The History of Phi Gamma Delta, Tomos Beta, William Chamberlin (Denison 1893) wrote that he doubted the 1872 convention was ever held. He could find scant documentation about the meeting. The minutes did not exist anywhere.
However, he admitted that no less a brother than Charles Fairbanks (Ohio Wesleyan 1872) recalled the event, where he met Thomas R. Marshall (Wabash 1872). Fairbanks later served as Archon President; both men became United States Vice Presidents.
Indeed, a convention convened in Indianapolis on May 1, 1872. What happened at that meeting, and why do we lack a copy of the minutes?
MISSING RECORDS
The Fraternity Archives has a dearth of records from the 1860s and 1870s, and for many reasons. Those decades saw radical change in America: the Civil War, Reconstruction, economic upheaval, political scandal. Many chapters (and colleges!) came and went, leaving scant records for today's researcher.
The Fraternity's leadership weakened. The ruling body of the Fraternity was the Grand Chapter, consisting of the undergraduates of Alpha Chapter at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania. In 1865, Jefferson College and Washington College merged, with the two separate campuses maintained for the lower and upper classes. Surely it was impractical to maintain a membership between both campuses. Brothers, if thus drawn from only one campus, would be active in the chapter for a shorter time. This eroded the institutional memory and practical effectiveness of the Grand Chapter.
Then Washington and Jefferson gave a death-blow to fraternities: every new student had to give an oath that he would not join a secret fraternity. Unable to recruit, Alpha Chapter dwindled. In 1868, they asked the chapters to vote by mail for the location of a new Grand Chapter. It seemed to take months - during which the Fraternity had no leadership of which to speak.
Finally, in June 1869, Upsilon Chapter at the College of the City of New York (CCNY) became Grand Chapter. Then the 1870 convention provided that members of the Grand Chapter would come from all the chapters of New York City, and also area graduates. Those first members remained young: undergraduates or those freshly graduated. The relative inexperience of these leaders would result in the loss of some records, as we shall see later.
TAU CHAPTER RECORDS REVEALING
In 2001, the Archives admitted the records of Tau Chapter at Hanover College, a valuable trove of correspondence and other documents from the period in question. These records allow us to identify the date, location, and some topics of the convention.
The convention's proposed topics of discussion - and the associated attitudes - seem bizarre today. R. Drake Haislip at Washington and Lee wrote to Tau Chapter on February 4, 1872, ". . . the matters to be discussed there, so far as I have been able to learn are: increase of maximum [chapter size] -- resolutions concerning expulsion -- non-admittance of negroes -- non-admittance of women."
As to the first, it is plainly seen that the way the matter stands now there is great inconsistency, and that it ought to be changed. It seems very proper too that there should be one provision with reference to expulsions. As to the two last, I think they are foolish and useless discussions; for I am of the opinion that nearly every man would quit the fraternity if either a negro or a woman were admitted to membership.
These matters, then, seem to me to be of little moment and not likely to elicit much discussion at the convention.
Brother Haislip proposed to discuss expansion instead, suggesting a colonization method by which "we send some man to a college to establish a chapter . . . ." This is the method adopted many years later. We do not know if any of these topics were addressed.
Later in February, J. E. Cooper at Roanoke College wrote that his chapter was "hoping that while the woman-admission question will be voted down, yet the right of individual fraters to have *little* chapters of their own will not be infringed upon." Of course, Cooper refers tounge-in-cheek to marriage.
NEWBERRY COLLEGE PETITIONS
It seems that at least one petition came to the convention. Cooper wrote again on April 20, just a couple of weeks before the convention:
Some leading students of Walhalla, S.C. wrote to a barbarian here as to the merits of the different fraternities. He unhesitatingly (as we have since learned) recommended P.G.D. They thereupon began a correspondence asking for information necessary to obtaining a charter. The petition will be laid before the Convention of May prox; and I have no doubt will be granted. If so, Prof. & Frater Dreher, of our last graduating class will duly initiate them in June. We know these applicants to be the 'cream' of the institution."
Newberry College was located in Walhalla from 1868 to 1877, when it returned to its earlier location of Newberry, South Carolina where it remains today. We do not know if the petition did reach the convention. If it did, the brothers probably took no favorable action, given that we have no record of ever having established a chapter at Newberry.
MISSING MINUTES
Whatever happened to the minutes of the meeting? Here, the inexperience (or perhaps the lack of time) the Grand Chapter shows. "GC" member Fred L. Underhill wrote Tau Chapter in September:
In regards to the minutes of Convention I would say that it was directed by that body, in order to save the time and trouble of making a separate copy of its minutes for each individual chapter, that only a limited number should be made and these to be circulated amongst the chapters. That is as soon after the receipt and reading of the minutes by a chapter as practicable it should forward them to the chapter next in point of proximity to itself and so on. Of course numerous delays may arise owing to the tardiness of the GAs [corresponding secretaries] in forwarding and this may explain why T has not yet received a copy.
Apparently Tau never did get its copy of the minutes. On November 25, over six months after the convention, future US Vice President Thomas R. Marshall (Wabash 1872) wrote: "We were the first to receive the minutes of the Grand Convention held in Indianapolis. There were to be sent around and if they have not reached you the negligence is not on our part as we forwarded them to Lambda at Greencastle."
Marshall describes the action of the convention, but without mentioning any results:
There were no amendments to the Constitution but everything was introduced in the form of Resolutions in order to keep the Constitution from those attachments to its tail . . . . I was present and can say with candor that the poem and oration were very fine.
The last sentence lends credence to Charles W. Fairbanks's recollection of his first meeting Marshall at the 1872 Convention.
NEWSPAPERS FILL GAPS
Both city newspapers, the Journal and the Sentinel, gave considerable space to the convention. The business sessions convened in the State Senate chamber. The convention elected as officers for the meeting Captain Eli Ritter (DePauw 1863) president, William H. Clark (CCNY 1869, Columbia 1871) vice president, and Ira H. Lafetra (Ohio Wesleyan 1872) secretary. Unlike the Archons of today, these officers supervised the meeting only and had no further responsibility. Clark, though, was Grand Chapter president in 1872 and 1873. Ritter would also preside over the 1883 convention in Indianapolis.
Public exercises - a tradition since the first 1852 convention - occurred on the final day at the Masonic hall. The city band played, and the noted author, lecturer, and one-time Indiana Asbury (later DePauw University) professor Dr. Edward Eggleston (DePauw 1867) spoke. Said the Journal,
The doctor announced his subject to be 'A Talk About Talk,' and he read on in the hurried manner peculiar to the author of The Hoosier Schoolmaster. The oration abounded generously with scintillations of wit and unexpected overflows of rich and sparkling sayings, original and refreshing . . . . The oration which occupied three quarters of an hour was listened to throughout with the closest attention evidencing the relish with which it was received.
In addition to a keynote speaker, these occasions always had a poet, in this case Dr. John Clark Ridpath (DePauw 1863), historian, author, and professor at Indiana Asbury. The poem was "The New Pantheon". Ridpath had also been poet at Pittsburgh in 1864.
The public meeting adjourned to the closing banquet at the Bates House hotel. Said the Sentinel,
About seventy of the brotherhood and a number of distinguished guests and members sat down to a well-spread board and did ample justice to a tempting array of eatables. The bill of fare was choice, varied and sufficient for all. After eating until the appetite failed and even the sweets cloyed, then came the great American evil, responses to regular and voluntary toasts which were first read by the president of the meeting.
James Ruddell (DePauw 1863) presided; he was a Civil War veteran, lawyer, and at one point an Indiana legislator. Speakers included Captain Ritter, Dr. Eggleston, W. D. Frazier (Wabash 1873), Reverend Dr. Reuben Andrus (DePauw initiate) [DePauw University's fifth president], Colonel James Black (Washington 1848) [past president of University of Iowa, and president of Pittsburgh Female College], and Bob Smith (Mississippi 1874).
So indeed, the "lost" convention of 1872 did occur. Will we ever know more details? As we unearth more records from the Archives and from chapter house basements, perhaps so!
