On August 1, 2011, the Fraternity announced its annual award winners. If you're not familiar with the awards, take a look here. The biggest news was also the biggest surprise: Chi Eta Chapter at Western Kentucky, which chartered in 2010, won the Cheney Cup for best all around chapter, the Zerman Trophy for campus involvement, the Coon Plaque for best chapter publication, and the Durrance Award for best Purple Legionnaire (chapter advisor). They also placed in other awards.

Chi Eta is now the youngest chapter to win the Cheney Cup:

  - WKU, 1 year (chartered 5/1/2010, won 2011)
  - UVA, 3 (rechartered 2004, won 2007)
  - Akron, 4 (chartered 1986, won 1990)
  - UGA, 5 (rechartered 1968, won 1973)
  - Oregon, 6 (chartered 1911, won 1917)

This achievement reflects on one hand the excellence of this chapter. On the other hand, it reflects the good work of the staff in growing the Fraternity at a record pace. For further evidence, note the other young chapters in the rankings: Nebraska-Kearney, Missouri State, Michigan State, and Chapman.

For a full listing of the 2011 awards results, click here.

Perge!
 

On a Saturday evening, six Jefferson College students met in a boarding house, and determined to found a fraternity.  Their names, ages, and hometowns:

John Templeton McCarty, 18, Brookville, Indiana.
James Elliott Jr., 23, Lawrenceburg, Pennsylvania. 
Samuel Beatty Wilson, 24, Mercer Co., Pennsylvania. 
Ellis Bailey Gregg, 20, Green Co., Pennsylvania. 
Daniel Webster Crofts, 19, Columbiana Co., Ohio.
Naaman Fletcher, 24, Sidney, Ohio.

All were in the class of 1848 except Fletcher, from the class of 1849.

The minutes of the first meeting are as follows.

Saturday Night, April 22, 1848.

Messrs Jno. T. McCarty, Jas. Elliott, D. W. Crofts, S. B. Wilson, E. B, Gregg and N. Fletcher, students of Jefferson College at Canonsburgh, Pa., at a social meeting and while conversing on the subject of association came to the conclusion that a Society founded upon the principle of secrecy, into which none but men of distinguished talents and acquirements, endued with a high sense of Honor and possessed of a laudable ambition and who were members of some college (at the time of their admission) should be admitted, would be of incalculable benefit to those thus uniting, thereupon determined to organize and establish such an association whereupon Mr. S. B. Wilson was called to the chair and N. Fletcher appointed Secretary.  After many suggestions on the part of those present a committee of two was appointed to draft a constitution and report at the next meeting.  Committee, Messrs S. B. Wilson and Jas. Elliott.

On motion the meeting adjourned to meet on Monday evening May 1st, at 9 o'clock precisely.

S. B. Wilson, Chair.
N. Fletcher, Sec.

They would next meet on May 1st to ratify the constitution of Phi Gamma Delta.

At the start of each ekklesia, the Curator of Archives presents two symbols of leadership to the chairman: the badge of Calvin Coolidge (Amherst 1894) and a crude wooden gavel.  The gavel has been in use since the landmark 1898 Ekklesia. 

Legend says the wood came from Fort Armstrong, founding site of the Fraternity.  A careful examination reveals what looks like trim detail on one angle of the gavel head, as if the wood were from a door surround or base molding. 

This detail from the 1899 Ekklesia group picture shows James Oliver Wilson (Illinois Wesleyan 1876), ekklesia chairman, holding the gavel.  Wilson was elected Archon President at the 1900 ekklesia.  His name, and that of other ekklesia chairmen, are scratched into the gavel.

The 1898 Ekklesia marked the 50th anniversary of Phi Gamma Delta.  It was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with the opening ceremony at Washington and Jefferson College, the successor to Jefferson College where the Fraternity was founded.  It was more than just an anniversary.

This convention redesigned the executive from a self-perpetuating "Grand Chapter" based in New York to a board of trustees called the Archons and elected by the convention, to be called an ekklesia.  Many other traditions and laws originated here, including the current design of the Fraternity flag.  A plaque at the former Hotel Schenely commemorates the event.

Look for the presentation this Friday morning, July 30, 2010.
 

Generations of brothers have known that the Founders of Phi Gamma Delta were all lawyers, and all Masons.  They read it in The Purple Pilgrim, and in The History of Phi Gamma Delta, Tomos Alpha.

Fletcher: Not a Mason?

But it isn't true.

Dr. Glenn R. Barr (Allegheny 1919), a professor at Miami University, researched the Masonic backgrounds of the Founders. The following was published in The Phi Gamma Delta magazine, January, 1949, pp. 315-316.  Because Tomos Alpha was never reedited to incorporate this information, errors were perpetuated.

It may come as a shock to many of our brothers who have believed that all of the Immortal Six were “bound by Masonic ties” to learn that such was not the case . . . .

I have written to the secretaries of Masonic lodges in practically every town where Tomos Alpha states that the Founders lived and to the Grand Secretaries of the Grand Lodges of several states. Here is the history of the Masonic affiliations of the six founders as I have been able to discover:

Samuel Beatty Wilson: Rochester Lodge No. 229, F.&A.M., Rochester, Pa.  Entered apprentice, March 14, 1851; fellow craft, April 14, 1851; master Mason, May 9, 1851.  He was one of the founders and first Worshipful Master of Beaver Lodger of St. James No. 457, Beaver Falls, Pa.

Ellis Bailey Gregg: Temple Lodge No. 46, Peoria, Ill.  E.a., April 7, 1852; f.c, May 15, 1852; m.M., May 29, 1852.  He was not one of the organizers of Temple Lodge, as stated at page 109 of Tomos Alpha, because that lodge was founded in 1846 and received its charter in October, 1847 . . . .

James Elliott: Steubenville Lodge No. 45, Steubenville, O.  E.a., April 2, 1857; f.c., April 16, 1857; m.M., Mary 12, 1857.  He was elected Worshipful Master November 3, 1859, serving until 1868 . . . .

Daniel Webster Crofts: He never did become a Mason, according to the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of the State of Ohio, despite this statement on page 215 of Tomos Alpha: “Just about the time [1851] Crofts was admitted to the bar, he was raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason in New Libson [Ohio] Lodge, F. & A.M.  He was the last of the founders to take Masonic degrees, having been too young when in Jefferson College.”  It would have been impossible for him to have been a member of New Libson Lodge at the time stated, for the charter was surrendered in 1841 and not renewed until 1859.

Naaman Fletcher: As far as I have been able to find out he never became a Mason.  Letters from the Grand Lodge of the State of Ohio and from lodges in several towns where he lived before and after graduation have all been negative.  His obituary – pages 246-247 of Tomos Alpha – does not mention any Masonic affiliation.

So Barr concluded that two founders were never Masons, and that none were Masons at the time of the founding.  Ah, but what of John T. McCarty?  His is an interesting Masonic story . . . one we'll leave for another time.
 

So many interesting things in Phi Gam history occurred on February 20th, from a Founder’s birthday, to the installation of three chapters, to the installation of one of our first two initiates as a representative in the Congress of the Confederate States of America.

Here’s another fascinating story from February 20th.

Founder John T. McCarty (Jefferson 1848) died in Marysville, California on February 4, 1860.  As described in The History of Phi Gamma Delta, Tomos Alpha, he was buried in the local city cemetery.

But you won’t find him there now.

By the 20th century, the old Marysville city cemetery was not in good shape.  The Feather River flooded seasonally over the cemetery “to a depth of three or four feet” according to a contemporary account.  A new cemetery, Sierra View Cemetery, was opened in 1928 by the Carnes family.

The 1931 Ekklesia appropriated funds to cover the removal of McCarty’s remains to Sierra View.  The Oakland Graduate Chapter, members of which had suggested the move, appointed Rolland Kennedy (Oregon 1912) to attend the exhumation.

Kennedy wrote the following for The Phi Gamma Delta magazine of May, 1932.

On Saturday afternoon, February 20, I arrived in Marysville. Great care had been taken to open the grave and leave the original casket intact so that I might see all that was done.  The silver plate on top of the coffin was handed to me . . . . When the casket was opened we made careful search for any insignia – either of Phi Gamma Delta or of the Knights Templar.  No jewelry of any kind was found. The man in the grave very carefully lifted the broadcloth Prince Albert coat which McCarty wore, but no emblem was in sight.  No rings were found nor was there a stickpin in the flowing tie that was popular at that time.

At graveside, McCarty’s bones were transferred from the original rosewood casket to a new metal one.  It was taken to Sierra View and placed in a metal vault.  The tombstone placed by the Fraternity (pictured right) in 1907 was also relocated.

The silver casket plate (pictured left) is now in the Fraternity’s museum at our Headquarters.  Some eerie photographs of the exhumation rest in the Archives.  Although none of McCarty’s bones are pictured, one image shows the rosewood casket by the open grave, its lid to the side.  Another picture shows a solid gold “top plate” . . . apparently dentures.

The move eventually caused some confusion.  The Archives has a very serious letter from a brother who made the trek to Marysville in the early 1990s, using Tomos Alpha as his guide.  Since Tomos Alpha predated the exhumation, it directed him to the old city cemetery.  The brother regretted to report to Headquarters that McCarty’s gravestone had apparently been stolen!

For more about what happened today, see our This Day in Phi Gam History database.
See other personal effects of the Founders in our Museum.

The NIC posted a tweet the other day, asking "Curious about how many olympic medals your fraternity has won?" linking to a list of Olympic medalists on their site (http://www.nicindy.org/press/olympic_medalists).

The curious thing is why the page lacks a count of how many medals the members each fraternity has won.  Never fear; after comparing our list of Phi Gam Olympians we came up with the following count of medalists.

Sigma Chi	40
Beta Theta Pi	36
Delta Kappa Epsilon	36
Phi Gamma Delta	33
Sigma Alpha Epsilon	27
Delta Tau Delta	26
Phi Kappa Psi	24

Right: Statue of Percy Williams (British Columbia 1932), 1928 Olympic gold medalist in 100 and 200 meters. This is outside BC Place, the site of the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Games. See more of our Monuments and Historic Sites.

However, the picture changes when you consider the number of medals won:

Beta Theta Pi	49
Phi Kappa Psi	47
Sigma Chi	45
Delta Kappa Epsilon	44
Phi Gamma Delta	44
Sigma Alpha Epsilon	38
Delta Tau Delta	38

Right: Bob Mathias (Stanford 1953), gold medalist in decathlon, 1948 and 1952.

There are a lot of multiple medal winners out there! Note how Phi Kappa Psi shot up in the list; that's largely thanks to legendary swimmer Mark Spitz, winner of eleven Olympic medals. 

We restricted this list to the top seven because starting with #8 the medalist and medal counts drop dramatically (Alpha Delta Phi with 17 each).

Of course, this kind of list is just for fun and without much point. Despite Jay Langhammer's excellent research, the list is incomplete, so who knows how many medals are won by any particular fraternity's members.  Kappa Sigma is entirely absent from the list; seems that's one fraternity historian that needs to get cracking.

Kudos to Jay for trying.  He did find two Olympians that we had omitted from our list of Phi Gams in the Olympics!

Recently, I asked on our Facebook page about what new articles brothers wanted to read:
   A. Antebellum chapters
   B. Historic sites/monuments
   C. Brothers in war 
   D. Famous Fijis 
   E. Just my chapter, thanks

The results surprised me: almost everyone chose "B". Now, I'm a big fan of historic sites. Over the past fifteen years I've catalogued and visited dozens (or is it hundreds?) for this web site.  Yet I always assumed few people visit the Archives page for historic sites.  I never get questions about them, and the site traffic reports suggested relatively small numbers of page visits.

Then I looked again. Some of our historic site pages do pretty well and are as popular as any other Archives page, particularly considering that many are of chiefly local interest.  So by popular vote here are some updates and additions:

• Two statues of famous athletes: the fastest man in the world circa 1930 (in Vancouver, BC), and the greatest baseball pitcher of all time (in Factoryville, PA):
  Random Historic Sites and Monuments
• New details and picture of the site of the 1888 and 1894 conventions (Columbus, OH).  It appears on two listings:
  Conventions and Ekklesiai and Ohio.

If you know of other monuments to famous brothers, please send me an email.

Archives Weekend approaches quickly: March 6 and 7th at IHQ!  This is effectively a service project for the Archives, with brothers from many chapters assisting with organizing, cataloging, transcribing, scanning, and more.

Currently we have brothers registered from North Alabama, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Central Florida, Case Western Reserve, and Wittenberg.  Join us!  Register here: http://www.phigam.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1360.  Questions?  Contact me.

Besides preparing for Archives weekend, my recent projects have included:

• Addressing issues left over from converting the old web site for The Archives.
• Ordering a second flat file cabinet for charters, architectural plans, and other oversize documents.
• OCR scanning/transcriving Grand Chapter minutes from 1848 to 1870. Eventually I hope to redact, annotate, and make available on the web site.

The following comes from Dave Todd (California, USC 1967), who tells the following story to pledge classes at Irvine and Chapman as part of his "Not For College Days Alone" talk.

In the mid-1930s the University of Idaho Fijis had an unusual recruit - a kid from the rural Pacific Northwest named Charlie Collins.  What was unusual about Charlie is that he had suffered infantile glaucoma when he was four years old and was totally blind.  He had a friend from his hometown - Holden Bowler (Idaho '34) - who assured the Mu Iota brothers that Charlie would be a great Fiji.  So, after some serious rushing and intense discussions, they bid him, and he immediately pledged.

 

It was a great experience for everyone.  Charlie was a music major, an extremely talented piano player and was the most popular campus radio announcer.  He was incredibly adept at finding his way around without even a cane, could remember people by their voices and was well known by almost everyone at the then small U of Idaho campus.  He went on in later life to have a good career in radio, and yes, by all accounts, he was a great Fiji.  At one point he commented that Phi Gamma Delta was the perfect fraternity for him, since they did so much stuff by dim candlelight that most of the other brothers couldn't see much better than he could.

 

In Charlie's second year, one of the Idaho Fijis who was an outstanding mechanical engineering student came up with a great idea.  He configured a four-door Model A Ford with a complete second set of driving controls on the passenger side of the car, minus the steering wheel.  When they put Charlie behind the wheel, they had him steer by talking to him and tapping a code system on his legs.  Then the Idaho Fijis would get a group into the car, some hanging on the running boards, and "guide" Charlie through the motions of driving around campus, honking the horn and yelling "look out."  They carefully had him drive up onto sidewalks, onto lawns, and they thoroughly enjoyed watching all the students who knew Charlie (and knew he was blind) run for cover when he came driving down the street.  History is silent about what the U of Idaho administration did about this, but it became a tradition which was repeated from time to time as new freshman classes arrived - the blind Fiji driving the Model A - watch out !

 

Charlie is listed in the Fraternity's records as graduating in 1937, and he went on to become a syndicated radio show host in the Western states and sometime emcee and piano musician.

 

Why do I know this story ?

 

One night in about 1972 I got a late afternoon call from some friends to join them at a well-known LA music club to watch/listen to a couple of new folk/rock music acts.  In those days, this club was a rite of passage for aspiring musicians (Eagles, Joni Mitchell, Elton John etc. opened there).  The person who introduced one of the acts that night, although she herself did not perform, was Judy Collins ("Both Sides Now,"  "Send in the Clowns") who had lots of goldens and two platinums in the 70's.  She must have seen the letters, because at an intermission she came over to me and asked me if I was a Fiji like in "Phi Gam."  When I said yes, she told me the foregoing Charlie Collins story (turns out Charlie was her father).  At that point I told her, Judy, please, if you ever write anything autobiographical, make sure to include this story, because Fijis all over the world will be warmed by it.

Indeed, Judy wrote brief versions of this in The Judy Collins Songbook and her autobiography Trust Your Heart. That reminded me of other biographies that feature Phi Gam stories, such as those on Frank Norris and Ross Lockeridge Jr. I went to my bookshelf intending to write about them. I was set back, however, by the wide biases of some authors. One Norris biographer waxed on about fraternities being "anachronistic" and went on to paint Norris's fraternal involvement with the blackest of brushes, while two others were far more even handed although not without error.  That's a whole 'nother post.

Dave Todd raised another issue, that of diversity. I had long known about brothers initiated in the 1880s and 1890s from Korea and Japan.  Recently I've head of other unexpected early members.  Here in Charlie Collins we have a brother with a sight disability. At Western Reserve in 1902-1906 we reportedly have an African American member, presumably our first. And while researching the North Carolina chapter of the 1880s with Penn Clarke (UNC 2009), I was surprised to find a couple of Jewish brothers. In contrast, the chapter at California almost didn't initiate Frank Norris in the 1890s because some members thought he was Jewish. Thankfully we're in a different era! My point is that the history of diversity in our Fraternity needs more attention.

Recently read (and reviewed for The Phi Gamma Delta), American Miler: The Life and Times of Glenn Cunningham, by Paul Kiell. Cunningham (Kansas 1936) was a champion runner and Olympian in the 1930s.

I am currently reading North Carolinians in the Era of the Civil War and Reconstruction, edited by Paul Escott, a collection of essays by some of today's best historians. Wartime Governor Zebulon Vance (UNC 1852) is featured in several. So far I have the highest recommendation for this book.

I have noticed that historians are usually unaware of the fraternal relationships of their subjects. One example is in the aforementioned collection. John Inscoe's To Do Justice to North Carolina unveils the correspondence between Zeb Vance and Cornelia Phillips Spencer as she wrote The Last Ninety Days of the War in North Carolina. Inscoe says "During Vance's one year as a student, 1851-52 . . . . the Phillips family befriended Vance, and he seemed to have formed a particularly close relationship with Cornelia, who was five years his senior."

Is it worth knowing that Vance was a fraternity brother of her future husband, James Munroe Spencer, whom she also met in 1851? I am not suggesting that including this factoid would improve Inscoe's excellent analysis, or change his conclusions. I do think that such biographical details can solidify or confirm our understanding of social circles and influences, and sometimes add color and context. Consider that in the 1870s, Governor Vance appointed one James Wilson to the presidency of the Western North Carolina Railroad. Does it give us any insight to know that Vance and Wilson were contemporaries at Chapel Hill, and indeed, fraternity brothers?

Another example is found in Longstreet's Aide: The Civil War Letters of Major Thomas J. Goree, edited by Thomas Cutrer. Writing to his mother from a Virginia military camp in 1861, Goree (Baylor 1856) mentions seeing "Billy Denson."  Later he writes how much he misses Denson. No footnote clarifies the relationship, although obviously Denson is a friend from home. The detail is worthwhile: William Baldwin Denson attended Baylor with Goree, and as our article on Kappa Chapter reveals, was a fellow founding member of the chapter in 1856.

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I've had this picture on my desk for some time. If memory serves, Robert Williams (Florida 1990) emailed me about its appearance on eBay.

Recently I came across this letter in The Phi Gamma Delta magazine of February, 1932, pp. 337-338. Its subject is the brother in this photograph, Wood Finley (Hanover 1886):

     The writer entered Hanover College in September, 1884, and became a member of Tau Chapter in October of the same year. That was a time when fraternity pins were conspicuously displayed — worn on coat lapels, etc. Elaborately jeweled badges were the rule. Every Greek seemed to go his financial limit when he bought his badge.
     Woodward Edmund Finley — then a junior — was an outstanding member of Tau Chapter, a high grade student, an attractive man, full of pep, somewhat younger in years than the average. He was known as "Wood," "Huck" and "Huckleberry Finn." I soon noticed that Wood had two badges — one of the elaborate jeweled sort and the other very plain — just a thin, flat black-enameled diamond shape, surrounded by a plain gold border. Attached to the badge by a gold chain was a pin with a small gold head which was used just as the chapter letters were used in connection with the then modern badges. I also noticed that Wood usually wore the small, plain badge rather than the jeweled one.
     The explanation: Woodward Edmund Finley of London, Ohio, entered Hanover College in the fall of 1882 as a member of the class of 1886. That year Hanover College was inaugurating the dormitory system and the new building for that purpose was not ready for occupancy. Because of this Finley temporarily had a room in President Fisher's home. President Fisher's two sons were Sigma Chis. Walter L. Fisher was a senior and a go-getter. He soon became editor of Sigma Chi and later was a member of President Taft's cabinet.
     Finley was spiked by Sigma Chi and Phi Gamma Delta, and, as matters progressed, all conditions seemed to imply that he would accept Sigma Chi, being so surrounded by that influence. Rather unexpectedly to Phi Gamma Delta, Finley pledged to them and was initiated. When he went home for the Christmas vacation and displayed his badge, his mother said: "Why, Wood, your father had a badge much like that!" Getting it from the father's effects, the badge turned out to be that of Phi Gamma Delta.
     The catalogue carries the name of the father, Caleb W. Finley (Jefferson 1850), died April 13, 1877, at London, Ohio.
     This accounts for Wood's regard for the old-time, plain badge. He apparently knew nothing of his father's fraternity connection. Why he chose to attend Hanover College or what influenced him to make Phi Gamma Delta his fraternity — if ever explained — has gone from memory, but I do recall that the higher classmen seemed to have the feeling that some "providential leading" caused Wood to go Phi Gam.

Herbert B. Hill
(Hanover 1889)
Knightstown, Indiana.

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Just posted: a history of Beta Chapter at the University of Pennsylvania.  It is reprinted from The Phi Gamma Delta magazine of January, 1956.  Thanks to Troy Sukhu (Pennsylvania 2009), a colony brother, for asking about his chapter's history, and to Director of Expansion Justin Burns (Ohio State 2007) for forwarding the request.

You might wonder why we post articles from so long ago, rather than more recent copies of the magaine.  Until the very early 1960s, the magazine was more of a journal and featured long format articles.  A major chapter anniversary such as 50 or 75 years resulted in a significant article detailing the chapter's history.  Since that time articles have been more brief.  Their focus is usually on the anniversary celebration rather than any extenstive history.

Would I publish new histories on this site?  Sure, if someone will submit a good one.  But besides Doc Crowder in the 1980s, Bill Parrish's books The History of Phi Gamma Delta in two volumes, and my own articles, there hasn't been a lot of history writing.  Calling all chapter historians!

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When I say welcome back to the Archives, I don't just mean you.  I also mean the site itself.  For some months Chris Crumrine (Kentucky 2008) has labored to transfer the web site from its former host and format to the new self-hosted Fraternity site.  This seemingly simple task proved very daunting given our new web-based hosting software.  Many thanks to Chris for his good work.

While the content of the site has been transferred, much remains to accomplish to get the Archives as a site back to what it should be.  Of course we also have new material to add!

Please feel free to contact me, Towner Blackstock, if you have any questions about history, research, preservation, or the site.

Perge!