Hamilton College - Hamiltonian Yearbook (Clinton, NY)

Page 19 text:

EDWARD W. ' DAUTEL, GEORGE W. HINMAN, WILLIADI R.. PAGE, p WA,GER BRADFORD, ARTHUR M. COLLIEE, THE HAMILTONIAN. ' .Ffciive Members. A '83, EDW1N B. Room '84. JAMES N. TAYLOR, SAMUEL H. WILSON ,85. GEORGE H. LEE. '86, JOHN S. NILES, STEPHEN SIGARD, JR..

Page 18 text:

iii 18 THE HAMILTONIAN. SIGMH PHI- J I QKEKHE Sigma Phi Society originated at Union College in the same period and from ' E , Q the same iniluences which gave rise to the Kappa Alpha Fraternity. The organ- ,Q M ization of the Sigma Phi was completed in March, 1827. The Kappa Alpha had F? matured existence about a year earlier. These two were thefrrst of College Secret Societies. ' Union College was then in the front rank, vieing with Yale and Harvard in the size of its classes. The founders of the Sigma Phi were of marked ability, as most of them-as the Bowies of Maryland, Governor Beall of Wisconsin, the Rev. Dr. Chap- man of North Carolina, the Honorables Charles T- Cromwell and John T. Hudson -of New York-afterwards proved by their Life work. The society was brought from Union to Hamilton in 1831, by the Hon. John Cochran, who, having become a Sigma Phi at Union, returning to Hamilton to graduate, organized the society here. The original members of the Hamilton Chapter, known as the Beta of N. Y., included the late Hon. Thomas T. Davis, of Syracuseg the Rev. Prof. A. C. Kendrick, D. D. LL. D., of Rochester g Thomas W. Seward, of Utica g the Hon. E. C. Litchfield, founder of our observatory 9 the Rev. Drs. Brayton and Hague. The Sigma Phi has been very reluctant to found new Chapters, and but eight colleges have received its charters. Of these the New York University Chapter failed, owing to the peculiar arrangements of la city college, and that at Princeton from the opposi- tion of the college authorities. Six Chapters now exist-Union, Hamilton and Hobart in New York, Williams in Massachusetts, Vermont University and Michigan University. V The Sigma Phi has usually but few active members g rarely exceeding fifteen at any of its Chapters. Union, Hamilton, Williams and Michigan own Halls or Chapter Houses, and move- ments are making at the other Chapters towards this end. i P4 Q X 5 -i 'Q 111- i

Page 20 text:

X 20 THE HAMILTONIAN. HLPHFI mmm ry-ii. -' 7 LPHA DELTA PHI is the oldest of the large and widely extended. Greek-Letter .5 Societies. The entire membership approximates six thousand. The number of Chapters is seventeen, being confined mostly to the Eastern Colleges and a feng 'EFA of the best Western institutions. Most of the Chapters, including the Mother- Chapter, already own buildings of their own, and others have halls in process of con- struction. Conventions are held yearly, the latest being the Semi-Centennial in New York City. The public literary exercises were held in the Academy of Music, John Jay presiding. Song hooks and catalogues are published at intervals. The last catalogue, issued in 1882, is the most elaborate and complete of all the fraternity catalogues that have been published up to date. The Star and Crescent is the regular journal and ap- pears as a quarterly from the office of the Star and Crescent Publishing Company in'N ew York City. The original badge was an oblong slab, displaying a crescent bearing .the letters A . LI, FII, on a field of black enamel. Above the crescent a green starg below, H1832 in gold. The new badge is a, skeleton star and crescent, with the latter dis- playing the three letters. The colors of the fraternity are green and white. I The fraternity iS-illCOl'13Ol'8.llGd and the governzneiit is vested in the' Executive Coun- cil, whose headquarters are in New York City. The following history of the foundingi of the Mother Chapter is taken from a volume entitled American College Fraterni- ties, by Wm. R, Ben-fi, B, 0. fl. p 'A - . 'E ln 1830 propositions were made to several of the leading students at Hamilton to 'L form a lf. A . Lodge. Samuel Eells was one of those approached. He wase close .i student himself, und declining the proposals of K, fl., he conceived the idea of ' founding a fraternity whose aim should be to supplement the college curricuhun by literary ,work outside of and beyond that prescribed by the college course g and also to develop the social nature and affections of kindred spirits by the cultivation of a fraternal bond of friendship. In 1832 he associatecl with himself four other students and founded the Hamilton Chapter of A. Ll. CD. The fraternity was rapidlfalnd judiciously extended until it was the pioneer in alarge number of collegesg and so wise was the foresight of its founders that to-day the best fraternities are those it which practice the principles Eells sought to proniulge.te.'i r ' ' an