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Originally Posted by UNLDelt
Beta poster
I agree with my fellow Delt that sometimes as orgs grow the tall tales do as well. Here are a few items to consider:
Beta Theta Pi's Psi chapter was founded at Bethany in 1860. Delta Tau Delta was founded in 1858, two years earlier in response to the Phi Kappa Psi's Bethany Chapter being founded the same year and taking control of the Neotrophian Literary Society.
The story that appears on the Beta's Psi chapter website was written in 1927 (a clue to its accuracy) and contains many conflicting bits of information with what Delta Tau Delta has in very early documentation (earlier than 1927) and actual accounts by the founders documented at Karneas. The Psi chapter claims that in 1959 the Adelphian Literary Society divided into two groups one being a new fraternity in Delt, the other being a group of students that went to W & J to become Betas. But as you will see this claim is unsubstantiated.
As I mentioned above, Delta Tau Delta was formed when a corruption of the Neotrophian Society by Phi Kappa Psi occurred on campus in 1858 and the society's top honors were being awarded to only Phi Psi's and not based on merit. The secret society of Delta Tau Delta formed when our eight founders (we know eight to be true not 15, from early founding documents say who was present and even what assignment they had- badge, motto, ritual, constitution) met to discuss how to bring the Neotrophian Society back to a merit based and general student control. This first meeting took place in the spring of 1858 again, before Beta was even present on campus. This is when the Fraternity was roughly put together as it existed with only one primary goal in mind and there was no need for a grand system at that point. Once the first Delts successfully completed their initial task and ousted the Phi Kappa Psi chapter by beating them in competition the drive to continue the organization spread at which it was more formally organized in 1859. But due to the privilege of having founders who attended our early Karneas (general conventions), as well as early documents and rituals, we know the year it all began was 1858 and that's why we officially claim it as our founding year.
The Beta's Psi chapter document also claims that the motto of Delta Tau Delta was "Damn Those Delts" (somehow claiming it as referring to the Adelphian Society, or even the Phi Psi's somehow?) to which I laugh as does this not only doesn't make sense b/c it was the Neotrophian Society, not the Adelphian, but I can also assure you that this was not and is not the motto of our fraternity.
So I'm going to go a head and have to say that based on the conflict of information from the supposed Beta document (again, written in 1927, long after accurate accounts by multiple Delt founders themselves at Karneas long before 1927) that lays claim on being a part of Delt's founding I would have to disagree with Beta's claim of their involvment in the founding of Delta Tau Delta.
Just to add to the general topic. Monroe Marsh Sweetland, a member of Delta Tau Delta, was a founder of Delta Chi, originally a law fraternity founded at Cornell, he is actuall listed by them as a founder.
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Hehe, good ol' Bethany (my bro and grandfather are Phi Tau chapter brothers there...neighbors to the Delts!). The founding stories are something that everyone who remotely knows a Bethany Greek gets to hear!
Incidentally, Beta Theta Pi re-colonized their Psi chapter at Bethany this year.
http://www.psibeta.net/default.asp. Seems to be going pretty well for them
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