Richmond College, where Sigma Phi Epsilon was founded in the early 20th century, was at the time attended by a mere 200 students, and perhaps between a third and a half of this number belonged to five fraternities. Kappa Alpha Order had come there in 1870, Phi Kappa Sigma in 1873, Phi Gamma Delta in 1890, Pi Kappa Alpha in 1891, and Kappa Sigma in 1898. Phi Delta Theta, Sigma Chi, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon also had established chapters there, which had expired. The little Baptist college was founded in 1830, and many of its graduates became Baptist ministers.
Most of the national fraternities, as their histories show, have been established simply because they were needed. The desire for brotherhood was in young men's souls. Sigma Phi Epsilon was founded because twelve young collegians hungered for a campus fellowship based on Judeo/Christian ideals that neither the college community nor the fraternity system at the time could offer. Sigma Phi Epsilon was needed.
Sigma Phi Epsilon Founded
Carter Ashton Jenkens, the 18-year-old son of a minister, had been a student at Rutgers University, New Jersey, where he had joined Chi Phi Fraternity. When he transferred to Richmond College in the fall of 1900, he sought companions to take the place of the Chi Phi brothers he had left behind at Rutgers. During the course of the term, he found five men who had already been drawn into a bond of informal fellowship, and he urged them to join him in applying for a charter of Chi Phi at Richmond College. They agreed, and the request for a charter was forwarded to Chi Phi only to meet with refusal because Chi Phi felt that Richmond College, as any college with less than 300 students was too small for the establishment of a Chi Phi chapter.
Wanting to maintain their fellowship, the six men, Jenkens, Benjamin Gaw, William Carter, William Wallace, Thomas Wright, and William Phillips, decided to form their own local fraternity.
The First Meeting
While in the formative stages, the six original members found six others who were also searching for a campus fellowship that neither the college campus nor the existing fraternity system could offer. The six new members were Lucian Cox, Richard Owens, Edgar Allen, Robert McFarland, Franklin Kerfoot, and Thomas McCaul.
The twelve met one day in October 1901, in Gaw and Wallace's room on the third floor of Ryland Hall to discuss organization of the fraternity they would call "Sigma Phi". The exact date of this meeting is not known, and if any minutes were kept, they have been lost. However, the meeting was probably held before the middle of the month, because the twelve founders are named as members on November 1, 1901, in the first printed roster of the Fraternity. Jenkens is listed as the first member.
Fraternity Recognized
A committee of Jenkens, Gaw, and Phillips was appointed to discuss plans for recognition with the administration of the college. These men met with a faculty committee, where they were requested to present their case. The faculty committee requested that the new group explain:
The need for a new fraternity since chapters of five national fraternities were on the campus and the enrollment at Richmond College was less than 300.
The wisdom of this attempt to organize a new fraternity, with twelve members, of whom seven were seniors.
The right to name the new fraternity Sigma Phi, the name of an already established national fraternity.
Jenkens, Gaw, and Phillips answered along this line:
"This fraternity will be different, it will be based on the love of God and the principle of peace through brotherhood. The number of members will be increased from the undergraduate classes. We will change the name to Sigma Phi Epsilon."
Though the discussion lasted some time, the faculty committee was friendly, and permission was granted for the organization of the new fraternity to proceed, provided full responsibility for the consequences would rest on the group of twelve students.
Immediately at the close of the meeting with the faculty committee, the fraternity committee rushed to Jenkens' room to borrow Hugh Carter's Greek-English Lexicon, convinced themselves that Epsilon had a desirable meaning, and then telegraphed jeweler Eaton in Goldsboro, North Carolina, to add an E at the point of each of the twelve badges which were manufactured and ready for shipment. Before the job of adding an E on the badges was complete, eight other students were invited to join SigEp. The purchase order was then increased to twenty badges at $8 each, with the initials of each man engraved on the back of his badge.
These twenty original heart-shaped badges were of yellow gold, with alternating rubies and garnets around the edge of the heart, with the Greek characters S f and the skull and crossbones in gold and black enamel in the center and a black E in gold at the point. (William Hugh Carter's and Thomas V. "Uncle Tom" McCaul's original badges are on display at Zollinger House.)
Founder Lucian Cox reflected on the "Brotherhood that had inspired him and his brothers" when he wrote in the Sigma Phi Epsilon Journal, Vol. 1 No. 1, March 1904:
"As a member of an ideal fraternity, the resources of every member of that body are my resources, the product of their lives is my daily life. The fraternity is a common storehouse for experience, moral rectitude, and spirituality; the larger and purer the contribution of the individual, the greater the resources of each member."
Five men were invited to join before Christmas and became members in January, 1902. Three more of the first group of 21 joined February 1, 1902.
Find out more:
http://www.sigep.org/history_new/default.asp
Threaded Mode