He was of medium height and build, had clear-cut features and a rather long, straight nose. On an autumn night in 1872, the man who almost single-handedly transformed a struggling local fraternity into a strong national brotherhood was first offered the right hand of fellowship by Goodwin Williams, who later wrote of him: But his sponsor was so disappointed that the others, one by one, consented. When Stephen Alonzo Jackson’s name was first proposed, the little brotherhood came very close to turning him down. The addition of five new initiates strengthened the Fraternity, but it was the addition of one more man that provided the seed that grew into one of the leading international fraternities. Only three of these men enrolled at Virginia in the fall of 1872. Four others were added and with the return of John Semmes, Zeta’s membership was raised to a healthy s even by the end of the school year. Williams, his first initiate, frankly that he was the sole survivor of the chapter of the previous session. Upon his return to the University that September, Bowen was enthusiastic about keeping the Order alive and told Goodwin D. Bowen, and only Bowen returned to the University in the fall of 1871 to continue the Fraternity. The work of that Saturday night was the initiation of William C. The meeting of March 18, 1871, was historic, for by then only Boyd, Rogers, North, Thomas, Toadvin, and Whitford were still in attendance at the University. Whitford was welcomed to the brotherhood. Thomas, and of December 2, where Edward S. The earliest records of Zeta Chapter are the minutes of a meeting held on November 7, 1870, at 46 East Lawn, which recorded the initiation of George L. The historic association of the Five Friends and Brothers came to a close with the end of the 1869-1870 school year at the University of Virginia, for the next fall only Founders Arnold, Boyd, and Rogers and initiate North returned to continue the Fraternity. North occurred that spring, but there is no record of the dates. Little is known of the events of the year 1870. In 1911, the Supreme Executive Committee of Kappa Sigma formally established December 10 as Founders’ Day. Some forty years later, the recollections of surviving Founders were that the Order was founded in the late fall, before the Christmas holidays. While December 10, 1869, is the traditional founding date, there are no early records which identify any particular day. They established Zeta Chapter of Kappa Sigma, probably using the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet to acknowledge the five European branches of the ancient Order. Thus, not only did the Founders of Kappa Sigma formalize their friendship, but they also created a fraternity steeped in the traditions of the past and dedicated to the Pursuit of Learning. Arnold had learned of this society while traveling in France a few years earlier and had been authorized and encouraged to introduce it in America. The Order spread to four other universities in Europe, but finally became almost extinct. For many weeks the bonds of friendship had drawn these five together now the need became clear for a formal structure to contain their feelings.Īrnold told the others about an ancient European order of students, who had banded together around the year 1400 at the University of Bologna under the leadership of Manual Chrysoloras, for mutual protection from the oppressive governor of the city, Baldassare Cossa. There, he was joined by George Miles Arnold, John Covert Boyd, Edmund Law Rogers, and Frank Courtney Nicodemus. William Grigsby McCormick’s room at 46 East Lawn and planted the seed of brotherhood. One chilly evening in the late fall of 1869, five students attending the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, gathered in
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