NATIONAL SIG EP HISTORY

The Place of Our Origin

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. It was founded, moreover, because the leadership which is required for such a project asserted itself in fortunate ways.

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 an 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.

Of the six, Jenkens was the only one who really knew what a fraternity was, so the task of drawing the plans for the new fraternity fell to him.

Early records described young Jenkens' thorough search for a philosophy upon which a new college fraternity could be built. He discovered in the Bible what he called "The greatest truth the world has ever known."

The Jenkens Lesson

As he so often told the story of the founding, the following passage became known as "The Jenkens Lesson." Brother Jenkens was sitting at his desk one evening, studying a passage of Greek for the next day, and he fell asleep and dreamed.

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:

1. The need for a new fraternity since chapters of fig c national fraternities were on the campus and the enrollment at Richmond College was less than 300. 2. The wisdom of this attempt to organize a new fraternity with twelve members, of whom seven were seniors. 3. The right to name the new fraternity Sigma Phi, the name of an already established national fraternity.

Jenkins, 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 Goldshoro, North Carolina, to add an E at the point of each of the twelve badges which Deere manufactured and ready for shipment. Before the job of adding an E on the badges was complete, eight other students were invited to join Sig Ep. 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, pith alternating rubies and garnets around the edge of the heart, with the Greek characters Sigma, Phi 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 twenty one joined February 1, 1902, and another in March.

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, Sig Eps 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 Sig Ep dormitory rooms until March, 1902.

Founder Carter Remembers

Before his death in 1971, in an interview with the Sigma Phi Epsilon Headquarters staff, Founder William Hugh Carter remembered these months.

"...It was in the tower of the middle section of the main building. Yes, and Billy Phillips papered it himself. He had some experience in paper hanging. We didn't have any money; there wasn't a man in the crowd that had any money. We paid twenty-five cents a month for dues, and I think we paid a $2 membership fee, a dollar the first month and a dollar later. We bought paper and material for the benches we made. Billy hung the paper-a purple background with red flowers in it-then we made the benches and padded the tops of them with excelsior and covered them with cretonne.

"We had big ideas-even discussed buying a home there on Grace Street as our fraternity home. We were going to take out an insurance policy on one man's life, the Fraternity would pay for the premium, and borrow money on that policy to buy the house. Oh, we had big ideas."

Our First Grand Secretary

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 Francis 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 secre tary 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.

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