Chapter VII the Founding of Sigma Chi T
Chapter VII The Founding of Sigma Chi T HE SJGMA CHI Fraternity was founded at Miami Univer- sity, Oxford, Ohio, on June 28, 1855, by Thomas Cowan Bell, James Parks Caldwell, Daniel William Cooper, Isaac M. Jordan, William Lewis Lockwood, Benjamin Piatt Runkle, and Franklin Howard Scobey.1 The university was at that time at the height of its period of greatest influence prior to the twelve years' suspensionof its activi- ties following the year 1873. Holding the educationalleadership of the state of Ohio, and the deservedfavor of a much wider ar~a, some two hundred students annually thronged its halls. The college- fraternity system had originated as Phi Beta. Kappa at th~ College of William and Mary. As organized in its general, modern form at Union College in 1825 and later at Hamilton, it had found its first western field in Miami University. To the latter, in 1835, came Alpha Delta Phi, the fourth college fraternity in point of age, and the first to extend into the early West. At Miami; the system was destined to attain a noteworthy development. In this new and fertile soil, Beta Theta Pi had its origin in 1839. Phi Delta Theta was established in 1848. Indirectly an outgrowth of the Phi Delta Theta organization, the Kappa chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon was chartered on,March 8, 1852. This group, of Delta Kappa Epsilon, commands our attention. Its origin was emphasized as due to the spirit of individuality, of independence, and of self-assertion. "It was the spirit," said a subsequent leader of the chapter, and loyal alumnus,2 "which prompted Joseph G.
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