"Whereas, Experience has proved that the encouragement of a taste for refined literature, the promotion of a pure and lasting friendship and the cultivation of genial wit and humor are essential to the good of society and the best interest of man, and that these objects are greatly advanced by clubs, fraternities and like associations, founded under proper auspices, and controlled by men of energy, Therefore, be it Resolved..."
So reads the preamble to the constitution and by-laws of Southern Chi Phi, the second Order in our Fraternity. Their emphasis on culture, particularly literary exercises, was so deep-rooted that many Southern chapters carried on the tradition well after the union with the Northern Order, according to F. Phinizy Calhoun, University of Georgia 1900, in Chi Phi’s Yearbook of 1901.
The Southern Order originated at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, already a prestigious institution in the middle of the 19th century and thus a magnet for fraternities. By 1858, 10 leading fraternities were located there. Despite their presence, a number of students led by Thomas Capehart, University of North Carolina 1861, elected to organize a new fraternity or "club" as they called it. In keeping with the chapel tradition in their region, the club adopted the name "The Chi Phi."
The organization was consummated on August 21, 1858, with the following listed as charter members: Capehart and Augustus Moore Flythe, class of 1859; John Calhoun Tucker, class of 1861; and James J. Cherry, Fletcher Terry Seymour and William Harrison Green, class of 1862. All served in the Civil War and Cherry died in action at Chancellorsville.
The Southern Chi Phi badge was a jeweled monogram (rubies and pearls) with the symbols, crossed swords, clasped hands and two stars cut into the gold with the initial letters Sigma, Kappa, Phi and Delta of the motto. A guard pin consisting of a plain shield was adopted. One motto was Xoros Philoi, "Band of Friends." Another was eleutherias kai philoi doxas – "lovers of freedom and honor" – e voking the chivalrous nature of the Southern Chi Phi.
The presiding officer was called the "Grand Seignior" (meaning elder or master). The officer who sat in the shadow of the Grand Seignior was called "Curator Umbrae," or guardian of the shade. The "Curator Noctis" was the guardian of the night. The function of historian was performed by an agent of correspondence.
Unlike the Princeton Order, Alpha (University of North Carolina) Chapter of the Southern Order anticipated expansion from the outset. Only months after its formalization, chapter minutes indicate that plans were already underway to institute a chapter at Davidson College. The word "fraternity" first appeared in the University of North Carolina minutes dated July 16, 1859.
The Order flourished. Beta was established at Centenary College in Georgia in November 1858, and Gamma at Davidson College in March 1859. In May 1859, Delta Chapter at the University of Virginia was organized by a brother of a member of Alpha Chapter. Epsilon was established at the Nashville Military College in October 1860, and Zeta at Cumberland University in Tennessee in March 1861. Like the Confederacy itself, the organization was loose and autonomous with no real central authority.
The shots fired on Fort Sumter all but signaled the end of the Southern Order as virtually every chapter closed while men went off to battle. Typifying the times, Louis McMurty, Cumberland University (Tennessee) 1860, wrote: "With the beginning of the war, our chapter...broke up. I was left in possession of the records. I kept them with me for some time and at last was forced to destroy them with other papers while I was in southern Kentucky. As to the members, I know nothing of them whatever."
The Southern Order’s lone survivor was Alpha Chapter at the University of North Carolina, although their records barely survived the advances of the Union Army. Not long after the end of hostilities, three members returned to the University of North Carolina chapter in the 1865-66 school year determined to revive the chapter. They soon initiated 14 men. Other chapters followed suit and the Order quickly regained its strength.
Delta at the University of Virginia was reorganized in October 1866, and a new chapter was planted at the University of Georgia in April 1867, through the friendship of King Willy of Delta Chapter and Peter Meldrim of Georgia. Also during 1867, Gamma Chapter was reorganized at Davidson and Epsilon Chapter at Hampden-Sydney College. Theta Chapter was established at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland by Southerners who had ties with the University of North Carolina.
It was during this period of re-building and restoration that one of Chi Phi’s fortuitous meetings took place. In the winter of 1865-66, a member of the University of North Carolina chapter, John Robert Donnel Shepard, was in New York and happened upon a young lawyer wearing a Chi Phi pin of the Hobart Order. They struck up a conversation and were each surprised to discover the existence of a separate order. It was agreed that information should be exchanged and correspondence ensued for a few years. However, Southern emotions ran too high during Reconstruction to bear fruit, as indicated by this letter to William Sutphen, Hobart College, dated November 23, 1868, from George Maverick, University of Virginia: "Dear Sir, I was appointed to answer your letter and was authorized to say to you that our Fraternity respectfully declines the proposed union. As I had anticipated, the proposition came too soon. You of the North can’t realize our condition...you would have to be one of us and suffer with us before you could realize the mortification of spirit caused by all this...Amongst less reasonable men this proposition of yours might have been taken as an insult, but with us it was different for we saw the kind motive which actuated you, and we very respectfully decline, not with any feeling against you, I assure you, but because we thought the union would be unsuitable and impracticable. Although we have nothing at all to do with politics as an organization, yet our condition must and will cause sectional feeling....I would be glad to hear from you again if you will do me the honor and I take this opportunity for asking you to send me your photograph. Give me an account of your fraternity, and oblige...."
By 1868, Delta Chapter had assumed the role of Grand (or Parent) Chapter, after Alpha Chapter succumbed for a period following the Civil War. Despite the loss at the University of North Carolina, the Southern Order continued its resurgence. Through the efforts of Peter Meldrim, called the "father of Chi Phi in Georgia," Iota Chapter at Mercer University and Kappa Chapter at Emory University were established in 1869. Emory brothers helped launch Lambda Chapter at Oglethorpe University and Mu Chapter at Trinity College (later Duke University) in 1871.
Nu Chapter was established at the Kentucky Military Institute in 1872 and Omicron Chapter at St. John’s College in Arkansas in 1873. Of the chapters established after the Civil War, three ceased to exist and the others joined with the Northern Order in 1874. At the time, there were an estimated 505 brothers in the Southern Order.
Brief History, The Princeton Order, The Hobart Order, The Southern Order, The Union Of The Hobart And Princeton Orders, The Union Of The Northern And Southern Orders, Post Union,