Sigma Alpha Epsilon
Levere Memorial Temple
Evanston, IL
Sigma Alpha Epsilon's
Founding Fathers
Nathan Elams Cockrell |
Thomas Chappell Cook |
Samuel Marion Dennis |
Noble Leslie DeVotie |
|
|
|
|
Wade Harding Foster |
John Webb Kerr |
Abner Edwin Patton |
John Barratt Rudulph |
|
|
|
|
The History of Sigma Alpha Epsilon:
Sigma Alpha Epsilon was founded March 9, 1856
at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. Its eight founders included
five seniors. Noble Leslie DeVotie, John Barratt Rudulph, Nathan Elams
Cockrell, John Webb Kerr, and Wade Foster, and three juniors, Samuel Marion
Dennis, Abner Edwin Patton and Thomas Chappell Cook. Their leader was
DeVotie who had written the ritual, devised the grip and chosen the name.
The badge was designed by Rudulph. Of all existing fraternities today,
Sigma Alpha Epsilon is the only one founded in the ante-bellum South.
Founded in a time of growing and intense sectional feeling, Sigma Alpha
Epsilon, although it determined at the outset to extend to other colleges,
confined its growth to the southern states. Extension was vigorous, however,
and by the end of 1857 the Fraternity counted seven chapters. Its first
national convention met in the summer of 1858 at Murfreesboro, Tennessee,
with four of its eight chapters in attendance. By the time of the outbreak
of the Civil War in 1861, fifteen chapters had been established.
The Fraternity had fewer than four hundred members when the Civil War
began. Of those, 369 went to war for the Confederacy and seven fought
with the Union forces. Every member of the chapters at Hampden-Sydney,
Georgia Military Institute, Kentucky Military Institute an d Oglethorpe
University fought for the gray. Members from the Columbian College, William
and Mary and Bethel (KY) were in both armies. Seventy members of the Fraternity
lost their lives in the War, including Noble Leslie DeVotie, who is officially
recorded in the annals of the War as the first man on either side to give
his live.
The miracle in the history of Sigma Alpha Epsilon is that it survived
that great sectional conflict. when the smoke of the battle had cleared,
only one chapter, at tiny Columbian College in Washington, D.C., survived,
and it died soon thereafter.
When a few of the young veterans returned to the Georgia Military Institute
and found their little college burned to the ground, they decided to go
to Athens, Georgia, to enter the state university there. It vas the founding
of the University of Georgia chapter at the end of 1865 that led to the
Fraternity's revival. Soon other chapters came back to life, and in 1867
the first post-war convention was held at Nashville, Tennessee, where
a half dozen revived chapters planned the Fraternity's future growth.
The Reconstruction years were cruel to the South, and southern colleges
and their fraternities shared in the general malaise of the region. In
the 1870s and early 1880s more than a score of new chapters were formed,
some of them in exceedingly frail institutions. Older chapters died as
fast as new ones were established. By 1886 the Fraternity had charted
49 chapters, but scarcely a dozen could be called active. Two of the 49
were in the North. After much discussion and not a little dissent, the
first northern chapter had been established at Pennsylvania College, now
Gettysburg College, in 1883, and a second was placed at Mt. Union College
in Ohio two years later.
It was in 1886 that things took a turn for the better. That autumn a 16-year-old
youngster by the name of Harry Bunting entered Southwestern Presbyterian
University in Clarksville, Tennessee, and was initiated by the young Tennessee
Zeta chapter there that had previously initiated two of his brothers.
When Sigma Alpha Epsilon took in Harry Bunting, it caught a comet by the
tail.
In just eight years, under the enthusiastic guidance of Harry Bunting
and his younger brother, George, Sigma Alpha Epsilon experienced a renaissance.
Together they prodded Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapters to enlarge their membership;
they wrote encouraging articles in the Fraternity's quarterly journal,
The Record, promoting better chapter standards; and above all they undertook
an almost incredible program of expansion of the Fraternity, resurrecting
old chapters in the South (including the mother chapter at Alabama) and
founding new ones in the North and West. In an explosion of growth, the
Buntings single-handedly were responsible for nearly fifty chapters of
Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
When Harry Bunting founded the Northwestern University chapter in 1894,
he initiated as a charter member William Collin Levere, a remarkable young
man whose enthusiasm for the Fraternity matched Bunting's. To Levere Bunting
passed the torch of leadership, and for the next three decades it was
the spirit of "Billy" Levere that dominated Sigma Alpha Epsilon
and brought the Fraternity to maturity.
"Billy" did everything. He was twice elected national president,
served as the Fraternity's first full-time executive secretary and chapter
visitation officer (1912-27), edited its quarterly magazine and several
editions of the catalog and directory of membership and published a monumental
three volume history of the Fraternity in 1911. It is small wonder than
when Levere died February 22, 1927, the Fraternity's Supreme Council decided
to name their new national headquarters building the Levere Memorial Temple.
Construction of the Temple, an immense Gothic structure located a stone's
throw from Lake Michigan and across from the Northwestern University campus,
was started in 1929, and the building was dedicated at Christmastime 1930.
When the Supreme Council met regularly in the early 1930s at the Temple,
educator John O. Moseley, the Fraternity's national president, lamented
that "we have in the Temple a magnificent school-house. Why can we
not have a school?" Accordingly, the economic depression notwithstanding,
in the summer of 1935 the Fraternity's first leadership school was held
under the direction of Dr. Moseley. The first such workshop in the Fraternity
world, it was immensely successful, and today nearly every Fraternity
holds such a school. The leadership is unquestionably the best service
Sigma Alpha Epsilon provides to its undergraduates who come to Evanston
in regimental numbers each year.
It was probably John Moseley more than any other whose leadership carried
Sigma Alpha Epsilon forward during the next twenty years until his untimely
death in 1955. The last years of his life he served the Fraternity as
its executive secretary, capping a distinguished academic career that
had included two college presidencies.
Since the Second World War the Fraternity has grown much larger, and it
has changed in a number of ways, some quite obvious and others quite subtle
Its growth in chapters and membership has been quite spectacular, and
its total number of initiates continues to be the higher in the Fraternity
world. More than a hundred chapter charters have been granted in 45 years.
A few chapters have died or have been suspended, but a number of older
ones have been revived, including two pre-Civil War chapters (Baylor and
Oglethorpe) The number of undergraduate members in each chapter has remained
remarkably steady, averaging approximately seventy men each.
Qualitative changes in recent decades have been profound. Alongside their
colleges chapters have democratized. Membership today is for more heterogeneous
than it was a generation ago as chapters have welcomed increasing numbers
of men from religious, ethnic and racial minorities, enriching chapters
with an unprecedented cultural diversity. One has but to peruse the roster
of the 600 or so delegates at the annual Leadership School to confirm
the dimensions of change.
The Fraternity enjoyed the "happy days" of the 1950s, endured
to survive the campus revolt of the 1960s and early 1970s, and it tried
to steer an even coarse in the turbulence that marked the late 1970s and
the 198Os. Together with its fellow collegiate Greek-letter societies
it wrestles today with problems attendant upon risk management, the war
against hazing, alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct rife on our campuses.
Never before have the challenges been so great or the opportunities so
rich. Accordingly the Fraternity has undertaken a thorough program of
reform and rejuvenation, seeking to assist its undergraduate members to
make a reaffirmation of faith in their best, most wholesome traditions
while seeking to adapt creatively to a new and invigorating college climate.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon looks to a future full of promise.
Government
In its early days the government of the Fraternity was vested in one chapter,
designated the Grand Chapter, which was responsible only to the general
convention. In 1886 this plan was replaced by government by a Supreme
Council of six members, later reduced to five, and the creation of regional
units called provinces, each presided over by an Archon. After 1920 a
Board of Trustees was created to manage the Fraternity's endowment funds.
For many years national conventions were held annually, but since 1894
they have met biennially In alternate years province conventions meet,
and at the present time there are twenty-nine provinces in the United
States and Canada. Employment of a full-time executive secretary was authorized
by the Nashville national convention in 1912.
Housing
Sigma Alpha Epsilon's chapters are on the whole well housed. One hundred
sixteen of the undergraduate chapters own their own homes, and a number
of others are housed in college-owned buildings.
The first chapter of the Fraternity to have a house of its own was at
the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. In order to get the
funds to start this project the members contracted to carry the university
mail all through one winter. The money earned helped build their house.
In 1904 the Fraternity erected a building at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, as a
memorial to Noble Leslie DeVotie and the other seven founders. Later a
chapter house was attached to it, and the entire structure served for
many years as a home for the original chapter This was replaced in 1953
by a larger structure on a new site and was dedicated at the Fraternity's
centennial celebration on March 9, 1956.
The Fraternity's International headquarters is maintained at the Levere
Memorial Temple in Evanston Illinois. Honoring all the members of the
Fraternity who have served their countries on land or sea or in the air
since 1856, it was dedicated on December 28, 1930. The Temple also contains
what is considered the most complete library pertaining to Greek-letter
fraternities and sororities. The museum on the first floor is devoted
to a collection of interesting historical photographs, pictures and collections
from private sources. The walls of the building are hung with oil portraits
of distinguished members. The basement contains the Panhellenic Room,
on the ceiling of which are the coats-of-arms of forty college fraternities
and seventeen sororities, while the niches on the north side contain large
murals showing the founding of Phi Beta Kappa in 1776 and that of Sigma
Alpha Epsilon in 1856, together with other murals depicting episodes in
the history of the Fraternity. The most outstanding mural in the Panhellenic
Room is the reproduction of Raphael's "School of Athens," painted
by Johannes Waller in the 1930s.
The building continues to be used for ceremonies and receptions by the
various fraternities and sororities and honor societies at Northwestern
University. National fraternities frequently meet there in convention
or conclave. The impressive chapel of the Temple, with its soaring vaulted
ceiling and stained glass windows by Tiffany, is used regularly for religious
services and is the scene of many weddings of Evanstonians and members
of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. In fact, the entire building is open to the public
for patriotic, religious and educational purposes, while the library is
also free to scholars seeking material pertaining to the history of any
or all college fraternities and college organizations
Insignia
The badge of the Fraternity is diamond-shaped, a little less than an inch
long and bears on a background of nazarene blue enamel the device of Minerva,
with a lion crouching at her feet, above which are the letters Sigma Alpha
Epsilon in gold. Below are the letters Phi Alpha on a white ground in
a wreath The colors are royal purple and old gold. The flower is the violet.
The colors of the pledge pin are nazarene blue, white and gold with Phi
Alpha in letters surrounded by a wreath.
The flag is royal purple with a corner of old gold, the size and shape
of the corner being the same as the blue field in the flag of the United
States. Upon the gold field appear the letters Phi Alpha in royal purple
In the center of the purple field which constitutes the rest of the flag
are the letters Sigma Alpha Epsilon in gold. Immediately beneath the gold
corner are the eight golden stars in a circle, one for each founder.
Publications
The catalogue of the Fraternity has been published twelve times: in 1859,
compiled by the North Carolina chapter and printed in Washington; in 1870,
1872, 1877, with a supplement in 1880, 1886, 1893, 1904, 1918, 1929, 1981,
1986 and 1991. In 1906 was begun the publication annually of letters from
the chapters accompanied by chapter lists forming a catalogue. A manual
of the Fraternity, edited by Dr. George H. Kress was published at Los
Angeles in 1904. A songbook, originally published in 1891, has passed
through nine editions, the latest issued in 1991. In 1911 a detailed history
of the Fraternity was published in three large octavo volumes with many
illustrations. This was the work of William C. Levere; it sold out in
less than a month. Research for a centennial history of the Fraternity,
carrying Levere's history forward from 1910 to 1956, was undertaken in
1956 by archivist Lauren Foreman. In 1972, the Fraternity's historian,
Joseph W. Walt., completed and saw to the publication of The Era of Levere,
a history of Sigma Alpha Epsilon from 1910 to 1930, covering the two decades
when fraternities were at their zenith. A second volume by Walt is in
preparation, covering the years from 1930 to 1956.
In 1912, William C. Levere brought out Who's Who in Sigma Alpha Epsilon,
a series of biographical sketches of living men prominent in the Fraternity.
Among other books are A Paragraph History of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, which
passed through eleven editions between 1912 and 1946, The Original Minutes
of Alabama Mu, The Memory Book of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, William C. Levere's
lengthy account of the First World War, Sigma Alpha Epsilon in the World
War, The Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pledge Manual, edited by 0. K. Quivey, and
The Phoenix, the Fraternity's present pledge manual, the most recent edition
of which was published in 1995, edited by Joseph W. Walt.
The Fraternity's magazine, The Record, was founded in 1880 by Major Robert
H. Wildberger of Kentucky Military Institute chapter. It is published
quarterly, and at least one issue per year is sent to all living initiates
of the Fraternity. Its circulation of more than 389,000 is thought to
be the largest among Fraternity publications.
In 1891 Harry and George Bunting started a publication they called The
Hustler, a secret, or at least private, magazine. In 1894 its name was
changed to Phi Alpha, and it is a regularly issued secondary magazine
of the Fraternity. Today The Hustler is a publication of the annual Leadership
School. Every chapter in the Fraternity publishes a regular newspaper
for its alumni and friends.
Headquarters (at the Levere Memorial Temple)
1856 Sheridan Road, P.O. Box 1856, Evanston, Illinois 60204-1856.
Phone: (847) 475-1856.
Email: headquarters@sae.net
- The True Gentleman -
THE TRUE GENTLEMAN is the man whose conduct proceeds from
good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal
to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty,
the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity;
who is himself humbled if necessitycompels him to humble another; who
does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions
or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and
sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings
of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a
man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe.
-John Walter Wayland
