The founding of Phi Kappa Psi was in distinct contrast to the beginning of most other fraternities which grew, for the most part, from local clubs, formed without any idea of expansion. Phi Kappa Psi was founded as a national fraternity which should assemble within its folds outstanding students of kindred spirits at well-established colleges throughout the country.
Over 140 years ago two college students, William H. Letterman and Charles P.T. Moore, in the little college town of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, in the hills of Western Pennsylvania were nursing and watching their stricken friends during an epidemic of typhoid fever at the college. Through the long night vigils, an appreciation of the great joy of serving others came into their lives. Calling a number of others to join them, a Brotherhood was founded on February 19, 1852. It grew, survived and gradually spread among the college men of the country. Idealists all, these founders of Phi Kappa Psi taught a new fraternity - a fraternity which should supplement the work of the university by cultivating those humanities without which the educated man fails of his greatest usefulness.
At the time of Phi Psi's founding, Jefferson College was considered part of "The Big Three" in what was known as the "Jeffersonian Cradle." The other two institutions comprising this group, Harvard and Princeton, were of very nearly equal size and equal high esteem, graduating predominantly ministers, then lawyers, then physicians, in descending numbers. Jefferson College merged with nearby Washington College in 1865, as did our Penn Alpha and Penn Delta Chapters merge coincident with their host institutions that same year.
Recognizing the need and value of eduacation, Phi Kappa Psi urges upon her members the securing of the best and broadest education possible. But unless actuated by a proper love for and service to mankind, the educated man is too apt to shrink from the human race, to waste his talents. It is to counteract this tendency that Phi Kappa Psi was founded.
Phi Kappa Psi believes that talents should be cultivated to be used for the benefit of our fellowmen, and she seeks to develop among her members a purpose so to use theirs. But life is dreary, indeed, for him who, from a sense of duty alone, pursues and unloved task. He who would serve his fellowman must love his work and exalt those whom he would serve.
It is this heart-filling desire to serve, and this high enthusiasm for an idealized task, that is Phi Psi's mission to supply. It is when a man realizes that he is doing his part of the world's work that he can approach his task with the exaltation of soul that compels success. When to education and the ablility to do this is added the desire to render loving service, and that enthusiasm which is born of high ideals, the result is the development of manhood for which Phi Kappa Psi exists.
The events leading to the founding of the Fraternity have already been mentioned. The outstanding points in connections with its growth are as follows.
Pennsylvania Alpha was no sooner established than Charles P.T. Moore left his college in search of other schools in which to spread the principles of Phi Kappa Psi. He first went to Union College, New York, then famous place where fraternities flourished. Finding the field already croweded, he abandoned the idea of establishing a Chapter. From Union he went to the University of Virginia, where conditions where more to his liking, and there established the second Chapter of the Fraternity in 1853. Pennsylvania Alpha, being the original Chapter, claimed to have the final decision in all matters pertaining to the Fraternity although the presence of Charles Moore at Virginia gave that Chapter considerable confidence in maintaining a position equal to the parent Chapter.
Thomas Chochran Campbell
The most active man in the Fraternity at this time was Tom Campbell, an enthusiast born in India, of missionary parents and full of the mysticism of the East. To him, more than to its founders, the Fraternity owes its peculiar character and strong foundation.
In 1855, the first Grand Arch council was held in Charlottesville, Virginia. Although little seems to have been accomplished, it is evident that the delegates from Virginia Alpha exerted a strong influence and were the dominant figures. The second Grand Arch Council was held the following year in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, and at this meeting Virginia Alpha was formally elected to be the executive head of the Fraternity, succeeding Pennsylvania Alpha. Virginia Alpha continued as Grand Chapter until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, when it, together with the other southern Chapters, suspended operations.
Civil War
At the outbreak of the War between the States, Phi Kappa Psi claimed a membership of approximately 600, 452 of whom enlisted, and by the end of the war, with a membership meantime of nearly 800, 552 had been in service, 254 in the Union and 298 in the Confederate Army. Of this total, 292 became commissioned officers, including three Major Generals, seven Brigadier Generals, ten Colonels and sixteen Lieutenant Colonels. More than 100 of these brave lads joined the eternal bivouac of the dead in this terrible conflict. The late C.F. "Dab" Williams donated to the Fraternity an unidentified, antique, hand-made Phi Kappa Psi badge found on the Hagerstown pike near Gettysburg, Pa., the day after the decisive Civil War battle ended at that place.
A Change in Fraternity Government
Throughout the Fraternity's third decade of existence there had been a growing demand for a change from the Grand Chapter method of government. In 1885, at the Grand Arch Council, sufficient strength was mustered to carry out a change. At this Council a special committee was appointed to draft an entirely new system, providing for a strong, centralized Executive Council, the officers of which should be graduates, with undergraduates elected to serve as the heads of each District of the Fraternity. A special Grand Arch Council was called, to meet at Indianapolis in April, 1886, to pass upon the report of the committee. The report was adopted and the system of Fraternity government was completely revolutionized. The plan is in force today, with only such amendments as the growth and development of the Fraternity have made advisable.
William Clayton Wilson, Drafter of a New Constitution
Brother William Clayton Wilson, who died in 1925, chief claim attorney of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company, planned the new form of government and drafted the new constitution. As a result of this farseeing development the Fraternity owes a debt of gratitude to Brother Wilson, second only to that which she owes to her illustrious founders and Thomas Campbell.
The Centennial - 1952
The one-hundredth anniversary of the founding of Phi Kappa Psi was celebrated with a simple but impressive ceremony at the old home of the Widow Letterman in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, on February 19, 1952. Over one hundred members of the Fraternity gathered together for this occasion including three of the grandsons of the Founders. Then a Bronze Tablet was affixed to the wall of the home of the Widow's home. Regretably, the Letterman home was destroyed by fire in 1963, and the bronze tablet commemorating the centennial was removed to the Pennsylvania Alpha Chapter house.
Climaxing one hundred years of glorious achievement, the Fraternity held its Centennial Grand Arch Council June 24-28, 1952, at the Hotel William Penn, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, which is about twenty-five miles from Canonsburg. In the one hundred years from the founding, the Fraternity had grown at that time to fifty-six Chapters, forty Alumni Associations and 40,000 initiates. Today, the Fraternity claims almost 90 Chapters, more than 75,000 initiates, and more than 70 Alumni Associations and Clubs
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