History
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.
Meeting in the Tower Room
In November or December, 1901, an unheated, unfurnished single room, about ten by twelve feet, in the tower of Ryland Hall, was assigned to the new fraternity by the college. Before January 1, 1902, SigEps had lined all open wall space with wide board benches. The wall was papered—purple and red. A rostrum, shaped like a horseshoe, was built in a corner. The small oil stove would not heat the room, so secret meetings continued to be held in SigEp dormitory rooms until March, 1902.
Virginia Alpha's Second Year
By March 4, 1902, the number of SigEps stood at 21 out of the total of 209 students enrolled. Seven of these 21 SigEps were graduated in June, 1902, and six others did not return to college the following September. Of the remaining eight who did return to Richmond College the next session, only two were founders—Gaw and Wright. College records show that of the eight who returned, four were sophomores, three juniors, and one senior.
After recruiting many students, only one new man joined in the fall, and one more in the spring. The small college enrollment of 223 students in the session of 1902-1903, no hope for a large increase of enrollment in the next few years, and increasing competition for new members from the chapters of five national fraternities on the campus made the members of Sigma Phi Epsilon realize the crucial position of their local fraternity.
After discussing the situation at several meetings, a momentous decision was reached. Sigma Phi Epsilon must either convert the local fraternity into a national fraternity immediately or watch the local fraternity die. The secretary was instructed to request Founder Lucian B. Cox, an attorney in Norfolk, Virginia, to write an application for a state charter for Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity and return it to him at the earliest possible moment.
This charter was signed by all eight SigEps enrolled at Richmond College on October 18, filed in the Circuit Court of Richmond City on October 20, and recorded by the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia on October 22, 1902. (The original charter is on display at Sigma Phi Epsilon Headquarters.) Under that state charter, Virginia Alpha established chapters at five other colleges that session; one of these, at West Virginia University (West Virginia Beta), is active today.
Sigma Phi Epsilon's Growth
Sigma Phi Epsilon ended its fifth year of operation with 14 chapters in nine states. Nineteen chapters had been chartered, despite the little money that the group had to work with. But the will of the fraternity's first brothers to expand and develop their fraternity prevailed, and chapters spread west to Colorado, north to Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and New York, and south to North and South Carolina.
The next five years brought forth 17 new chapters and representation in a total of eighteen states. In addition to those mentioned, Sigma Phi Epsilon was chartered in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. This momentum continued with the appointment of the first Grand Secretary of Sigma Phi Epsilon.
Our First Grand Secretary
"Uncle Billy" The fifth Grand Chapter Conclave, held in 1908, is particularly significant because it was at this Conclave that the Laws were changed to provide for a central office and the employment of a full-time chief executive officer to bear the title of Grand Secretary. Founder William L. Phillips ("Uncle Billy") was employed as Grand Secretary and, according to the minutes, was to receive a salary of $900 in the first year.
An article by Frank W. Shepardson, first published in the 1927 edition of Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities, refers to the "latest development in fraternity administration… the establishment of a central office (headquarters) with a full-time secretary in charge." It is apparent from this that the Grand Chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon, in taking this step, was showing remarkable forethought as a pioneer in fraternity administration, as it was to be later, in being one of the first two fraternities to own a headquarters building.
In slightly less than ten years, Sigma Phi Epsilon had grown from a single chapter to a fraternity with chapters in 21 states and the District of Columbia.
War, Depression, and Recovery
World War I took its toll on college attendance, and had an adverse effect on fraternities, both in membership and expansion.
The Journal editor reported:
"Already men are leaving in large numbers, while a great many institutions… devote their athletic fields to drilling…"
Congress passed a draft bill with age limits from twenty-one to thirty years. The editor advised all chapters that, "while fulfilling every duty to our country, let us also strive to maintain every chapter."