Other GLOs mentioned in your founding?

[badgeguy]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Sinfonia, perhaps? I have never heard of any connection, formal or informal, with any other collegiate fraternity, beyond general knowledge of the existence of other, general fraternities. There were, so far as I recall, no other fraternities at the New England Conservatory at the time of our founding. I've never seen any reference to Father Mills belonging to any other fraternity, and the nature of the Conservatory at that time would suggest that most if not all of the faculty were probably educated somewhere other than a liberal arts college or university, which is where general fraternities would have been found. Many would have been educated or trained in Europe.

The Zeta Chapter of Alpha Chi Omega was chartered at NEC almost 3 years before Sinfonia's founding, but I can't recall ever seeing any reference to that in any Sinfonia history, nor have I ever seen anything to suggest that Father Mills or anyone else was trying to provide an Alpha Chi Omega-like experience for men at NEC. What history I have read would seem to suggest a different impetus for founding the Sinfonia Club, which soon became the Sinfonia Fraternity.

That said, there are historical snippets to suggest some influence of European student groups -- the (unverifiable) story that NEC president George Chadwick suggested the name "Sinfonia" after an organization to which he had belonged while a student in Leipzig (the "Symphonia Club") comes to mind. And I do know that when the Fraternity was still young (10+ years), people involved in the Greek movement, like George Banta and Emily Butterfield, were influential, but that would have been after founding.

But otherwise, I don't see anything in our history suggesting a connection with any other GLO.

I guess what I was more referring to, and didnt say this adequately was that any "fraternity or sorority" be it a local or what have you, may have come up with an idea of starting a new club or group, of which the reasons for doing so may be unique, like Sinfonia, but the organization of such groups by its members were almost always influenced by some other knowledge or direct connection to another group.

The history of Sinfonia is like any other group in that students got together for fraternal reasons, or for extra curricular reasons, or for religious reasons and after some time be it short or long, they come up with an idea of creating a new "fraternity" (or sorority) and as they sit down in their first meetings to develop how the new organization will operate, be it open or secret, someone within the group certainly has knowledge or a connection to how to write rituals, constitutions, and whatnot.

I was just trying to be all inclusive in the "general idea" of fraternal group at all schools because each groups story is basically the same.

In looking into Father Mills history, he may have had knowledge with fraternities as he lived in Delaware, Ohio home of Ohio Wesleyan University where he met his wife Clara. OWU had LOTS of fraaternities and literary societies.

He saw a need to get the music students to do something other than studying music all the time and prayer meeting was his answer. I would love to know if there are any records left behind from those early meetings, maybe one or two of the students at the time knew any AXO's at the school and saw how that group operated and there may be a connection to them.......

Anyway, good point though about Symphony club in Europe being an connection, because there are several national groups that make reference to being connected to the European fraternities and student groups.

And theoretically yes, locals may not have a direct connection to other fraternities per se, but even locals when being formed will often use the knowledge of the greek letter systems from other schools, or even their own school as a model.

BG