DRau,
For what it's worth, I lifted this from the History of Delta Tau Delta on
www.delts.org.
It would seem to confirm the Kappa Alpha/Union College information above.
Hope it helps.
1776 Phi Beta Kappa, the first Greek letter society, is formed at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in response to strict faculty members' attempts to rule all phases of students' lives. Nine men chronologically and geographically at the heart of impending revolution in the asyetunformed United States create for themselves an opportunity to secure freedom and the chance to govern their own affairs outside the classroom. Those nine students meet in the Raleigh Tavern on December 5 where they adopt a secret oath, a badge, a handshake, and mottoes in Greek and Latin. They devise an initiation ceremony and adopt a Greek letter name. The stage is now set for other Greek letter societies to follow suit.
You should recognize some of the same qualities in the story of Phi Beta Kappa's founding as those we at Delta Tau Delta embrace. The nine men who pledged their loyalty to each other in 1776 were also committed to excellence; they found strength in brotherhood, saw the importance of courage in the face of what they considered injustice. So you see, the quest for excellence extends deep into our roots, beyond even our own founding as a Fraternity, to the very beginning of the Greek system itself.
1825 Kappa Alpha Society is founded at Union College in New York. Two years later, Sigma Phi and Delta Phi are founded at Union; later, Psi Upsilon, Chi Psi, and Theta Delta Chi are also founded at Union, giving it the title "Mother of Fraternities."
Perhaps the main reason Union College was the birthplace of so many fraternities is that Eliphalet Nott, President of Union, was forwardthinking enough to actually encourage such organizations. He understood the value of fraternities to enhance young men's academic performances, provide them with a common goal, and support them with a system of values to achieve that goal. Nott's contribution to the Fraternity System is yet another example of excellence, foreshadowing the benefits of the values we embrace today.
1858 Delta Tau Delta is founded at Bethany College. Eight undergraduates, angered by a fixed vote for a prize in oratory to be given at the Neotrophian Literary Society the only real forum for students to practice and demonstrate skills in poetry, public speaking, and writing essays respond by forming a secret society. The purpose of the new society, known only by the Greek letters Delta Tau Delta, is to see that the Neotrophian is returned to popular control, and delivered from the hands of the group of students who seized it.
Hybrid Mode
