From our website, this is what I can tell you about the birth of my one true love, The Sigma Chi International Fraternity…….
In the fall of 1854 a disagreement arose within the Kappa chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. This chapter consisted of 12 men. Six of them, led by Whitelaw Reid, supported one of the members for Poet in the Erodelphian Literary Society. Four of the other six members, James Parks Caldwell, Isaac M. Jordan, Benjamin Piatt Runkle and Franklin Howard Scobey, refused to vote for the brother because they knew him to lack poetic abilities. The man they did favor for that office was not a Deke. Thomas Cowan Bell and Daniel William Cooper were not members of Erodelphian, but their relation to the disagreement was unqualified endorsement of the four. Thus, they became six.
The chapter of 12 was evenly divided in a difference of opinion that ordinarily would have been decided one way or the other and immediately forgotten. But both sides considered it a matter of principle, and could not reach a compromise. During the ensuing months, the groups disagreed so much that their friendship grew distant.
Chapter meetings, or attempted chapter meetings, occurred for months with the breach constantly widening. In February 1855, at an Oxford restaurant, a dramatic dinner meeting between the dissenting groups set the stage for Sigma Chi's founding. Bell, Caldwell, Cooper, Jordan, Runkle and Scobey hosted the event, hoping to mend ways with the other six. They were on hand early, awaiting developments with anticipation. Of the meeting, Brother Founder Benjamin Piatt Runkle said, “With the kindest of intentions, we determined to give a dinner in their honor. I remember that the feast was prepared at the village restaurant, the guests invited, and on the appointed night we gathered and waited for the guests. They did not come for a long time, and then only Mr. Reid and with a stranger. He took into his confidence Minor Millikin (an alumnus of the fraternity from nearby Hamilton, Ohio) and the two decided on strenuous proceedings.”
Millikin lost no time. “My name is Minor Millikin,” he said. “I live in Hamilton. I am a man of few words.” He then passed judgment on all of the matters in dispute. Since he had heard only one side of the story, his verdict was against Runkle, Scobey and the others who had originally opposed election of the DKE as the Poet in the literary society. Millikin found them guilty.
Next, Millikin unfolded a plan he and Reid had concocted by which “justice” could be satisfied with the formal expulsion of the leaders in the rebellion (undoubtedly Runkle and Scobey), after which the others, having been properly chastised, could remain in the chapter.
At this dramatic moment Runkle stepped forward, pulled off his DKE pin, tossed it upon the table and said to Millikin, “I didn't join this Fraternity to be anyone's tool. And that, sir, is my answer!” Runkle stalked out of the room, and his five colleagues followed.
The final meeting of the 12 active members of Delta Kappa Epsilon was held in Reid's room in the “Old Southeast” building several days later. After a strenuous effort, led by Reid, for the expulsion of the six, with six against six on all vital issues, the meeting broke up in considerable disorder.
A rather prolonged correspondence ensued with the Delta Kappa Epsilon parent chapter at Yale, resulting in the April 1855 expulsion of Bell, Caldwell, Cooper, Jordan, Runkle and Scobey. It was at this time they began making plans to found their own fraternity.
One of the best moves the first six Founders ever made was to associate themselves with William Lewis Lockwood. He had entered Miami early in 1855 but had not joined a fraternity. He was the “businessman” of the group and possessed a remarkable organizing ability. More than any other Founder, he was responsible for setting up the general plan of the Fraternity, much of which endures to this day.
During the latter months of the 1854-55 academic year, Runkle and Caldwell lived in a second-floor room of a building near Oxford's public square on High Street-now known as the birthplace of Sigma Chi. The Founders held many of the earlier organizational meetings of Sigma Chi in this room, and it was there that Runkle and Lockwood designed the badge.
The Founders' unfortunate experience in Delta Kappa Epsilon, which they saw as a group focused on conformity for political gain, stirred their hearts and their spirit. They found it a necessity to allow and accept differences in points of views and opinions, realizing that doing so brought opportunities and pleasures. This “spirit” became documented as The Spirit of Sigma Chi…….: The Spirit of Sigma Chi, as conceived by the Founders more than 152 years ago yet visible and alive today, is based on the theory that friendship among members, sharing a common belief in an ideal, and possessing different temperaments, talents, and convictions is superior to friendship among members having the same temperaments, talents, and convictions; and that genuine friendship can be maintained without surrendering the principle of individuality or sacrificing one’s personal judgment.
Though The Spirit calls for men who are inherently “different,” it is expected that the members, in their differences, remain responsible, honorable, gentlemanly, friendly-indeed all those characteristics that are also listed in
The Jordan Standard.......
Six of the Founders were familiar with the general outline of fraternity constitution . They were considerably influenced by Lockwood, who had known little of DKE or its differences. With all of their plans formally completed, the
Seven Founders of the new Fraternity announced its establishment by
showing themselves and wearing their badges for the first time in public on Commencement Day at Miami University, June 28, 1855.
#1SPO 06
Friendship, Justice, and Learning since
1855.
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