The Organized Student

14 The Organized Student Literary Societies OVER A FORTY-YEARSPAN, literary societies were the prin- cipal extracurricular activity. The two men's societies that were established while the university was still on the College Avenue campus were the Mathe- sian (1855) and Python ian (1856). These two remained the preeminent ones at Irvington. Philokurian (1869), another transplant from College Av- enue, catered to preministerial men. Philokurian alone remained in existence after the third removal, to Fairview. It disappeared in 1930 but was revived in 1937-only briefly-then survived from 1940 to 1950 before this last remnant of the nineteenth century vanished. Literary societies were perceived by faculty and administration as allies oHormal class work that expanded undergraduate literary appreciation and facilitated reasoning, speaking, and writing ability. Moreover, the societies were centers tor social life on campus: "Our wildest dissipation was to be invited to the society meetings," recalled Minnie Olcott (Williams) '81. Meetings were laced with undergraduate wit and good-natured horseplay. Men's societies met Friday evenings in their respective "halls," rooms provided by the college on the third floor of the main building at the Irving- ton campus. Women's societies were the Athenian, founded at the College Avenue site in 1867, and the Dernia Butler Society, established June 18, 1881, at Irvington. The latter, a spin-off from the Athenian, came about because of The Organized Student 261 differences between sorority and anrisororiry members. III feeling lasted only a year or so, "since the heart of youth is generous," commented the Student in its Commencement issue of 1882. The women's societies met Friday afternoons, using various classrooms. As Minnie Olcott noted, girls also eagerly accepted invitations-issued formally in writing-to the young men's evening meetings. Informal association between faculty and students at meetings was prized. Invited faculty members took part in proceedings, speaking or offer- ing critiques of student oratorical and literary efforts. City students often could not participate fully in afternoon and evening afbirs on the distant suburban campus, but for literary society meetings most were willing to make the effort to return to campus. President Har- vey W Everest noted that only 46 of some 125 students enrolled were not members of literary societies. After one long evening of debates, discus- sions, and performances, some men missed the last train to the city and had to trek the four to six miles back to their homes on foot. In later years alumni from the first decade or so at Irvington expressed regret that these societies had passed from the scene. No single aspect of the college evoked more nostalgia than memories of challenging debates, florid oratory, and literary pieces carefully wrought and read. Not over- looked were pleasures of sociability, including, as Python ian Hilton U. Brown '80 reminds us, "matchmaking." Members furnished their meeting rooms and established libraries. Their collections supplemented the skimpy college holdings, providing, as the catalogs put it, "social and literary culture." Society volumes were a wel- come augmentation to the dull theological tracts in the college collection. As the college library grew, society libraries saw less use. Some of the city students relied on the public library in any case. The administration provided the society halls with heat and light. Sup- port by the directors to the societies extended to prompt attention to fi-e- quem complaints about inadequacies of the gas lighting. Thar was a prob- lem throughout the college, solved only when Irvington supplied gas through public lines to replace the college's antiquated system and then when elec- tricity arrived at last. Electric power, however, came roo late to enlighten the societies, then (in the mid-1890s) dissolving. Before the turn of the century, the literary societies had begun to dis- band as students developed a wider range of interests and a more cosmo- politan taste. Courses in literature and public speaking entered the college 262 Becoming a University curriculum, decreasing the need for extracurricular activity in those areas. Frarernirics, sororities, and other clubs competed for undergraduate time, as did the rising popularity of organized athletics. Evidence indicates that high purpose in the societies was increasingly re- placed by high jinks. The board of directors found it necessary to ask the faculty to control the public exhibitions put on by the societies during Com- mencement week. Directors feared performances out of harmony with the university's spirit and purpose. In 1890 the Mathesians donated their library to the college, and some of the books were found "undesirable." That society disbanded in the fall of 1891. Pythonians gave their books to the college library in 1893 as they went out of existence. The Philokurians remained in existence, struggling to maintain their identity until 1951, but they too gave up maintaining a library. Women's societies remained only a short while after the men's. Sigour- nean, the first women's literary society, was the first to go, hardly lasting into the Irvington period. Founded in the spring of 1859 by Lydia Short, Demia Butler, and their friends, it seems to have been superseded by the Athenian and Dernia Buder Societies. Athenians disbanded in the spring of 1895. Their library was given to the college with the stipulation that the collection be kept intact for five years, to be returned if the society were reestablished. The Demia Buder Society closed, donating its books to the college at Commencement time in 1897. Literary societies were not, however, entirely gone from the scene. Two distinguished organizations in the city that continue to flourish are the In- dianapolis Woman's Club, founded in 1875, and, for men, the Indianapolis Literary Club, 1877. Their rosters include many former Buder students, faculty, and administrators. In addition, a direct heir to campus literary societies, the Alumnae Literary Club, was founded in 1909. Its first president was Lucille Carr Marshall '08. Fraternities and Sororities At first fraternities and sororities were small, select groups. At Irving- ton, they came into their own. As literary societies lost ground, the Greek societies took over as leaders in campus activities and social life. The two fraternities first established at North Western Christian University on the The Organized Student 263 College Avenue Campus, Phi Delta Theta (1859) and Sigma Chi (I865), became the most active on the Irvington campus. Both have been contin- uous fixtures at Butler for nearly a century and a half. The third member of the "Miami Triad" (national fraternities established at Ohio's Miami Uni- versity) is Beta Theta Pi. It established a chapter at Butler, but lost it for lack of members in the late 1870s or early 1880s. The place of Phi Delta Theta as the oldest Greek society seems secure. Suspended during the Civil War, it never lost its charter. Sigma Chi sustained a close call in 1911. A new college regulation ruled that fraternities could initiate new students only after they had cOlllpleted a full term at Butler. When only one Sig returned to college, the chapter might have had to close if that young man dropped out. The Sig, Murray Mathews, lacked funds to stay in school. Graduate brother William G. Ir- win '89 came to the rescue, paying the tuition fcc. Howard Caldwell '15 and four other pledges joined to restore the ranks of the brotherhood. In the meantime, as Caldwell reports, T C. Howe, upon seeing Matthews walking alone and rapt in thought, quipped "Don't disturb him; he is hold- ing a fraternity meeting." Bragging rights on priority of establishment are more complicated for sororities. The first women's national organization to establish a chapter was Kappa Alpha Theta. Delta chapter was chartered at North Western Chris- tian University in February 1874. The sorority had been founded at Indi- ana Asbury (now DePauw University) in January 1870. After moving to Irvington, the Delta chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta came to an end in 1886. Reasons given for its demise are conflicting; after twelve years of existence, perhaps low enrollments at the college left it unable to recruit pledges. Accordingly, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Mu chapter, chartered at Butler Jan- uary 2, 1878, is the longest continuously operating sorority at the university. Kappa Alpha Theta was reestablished with a new charter as Gamma chapter on November 3, 1906, after a lapse of about twenty years. By the turn of the century, three strong men's organizations, Phi Delta Theta, Sigma Chi, and Delta 'ElLI Delta, with two sororities, Kappa Kappa Gamma and Pi Beta Phi, made up the Greek scene. Delta Tau Delta (Beta Zeta chapter) had come to Butler on February 11, 1878. The women's group Pi Beta Phi (Gamma chapter) was added August 27, 1897. Kappa Sigma fraternity, established at Butler on February 16, 1897, had soon vanished. Before the move to Fairview, Lambda Chi Alpha (Alpha Alpha Zeta chapter), December 17, 1915, and Sigma Nu (Epsilon Nu chapter), May 6, 264 Becoming a University 1926, augmented the fraternity list. Sororities Delta Delta ~~lta (Delta Lambda chapter), May 14, 1914, Alpha Chi Omega (Alpha ChI chapter), February 2S, 1925, and Delta Gamma (Alpha Tau chapter), October 3, 1925, joined the earlier sororities. All of these, plus the restored Thetas (1906), continue to flourish at Butler University.

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