| The
loyal Nu Phi's agreed to hold a meeting on December 10, 1904, at Simon's
home at 90 Broad Street to found a real fraternity. Seven loyal Nu Phi's
were at the meeting: Kroeg, Fogarty, Mixson, A. Pelzer Wagener, Thomas
F. Mosimann, Theodore Barnwell Kelley and James Fogarty, Simon's younger
brother. All were friends and students at the College who had grown up
together in Charleston. Wagener was a superior scholar of Greek and Latin,
much like John Heath, the founder of Phi Beta Kappa at William and Mary.
Wagener would go on to teach Greek and Latin at William and Mary, and appropriately
enough, it was he who recommended the letters, Pi Kappa Phi, and their
secret meaning as the official new name of the group.
At
that ever-important meeting on December 10, 1904, Harry Mixson wrote out
the first minutes of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity in dark green ink.
Simon
made a proposal for the Fraternity's pin. In his words: "...a plain, diamond-shaped
block of black enamel, bearing across its short diagonal an arched raised
band of gold with scrolled edges projecting beyond the body of the pin.
On this band were engraved, in black enamel, the Greek letters of Pi Kappa
Phi. Engraved in gold on the body of the pin, above and below the band
respectively, were the figures of a star and student's lamp." Simon also
designed the secret grip of Pi Kappa Phi which you will learn when you
are initiated. Kroeg naturally became the new chapter's first "archon,"
a term taken from the name of a chief magistrate in ancient Greece. He
set to work on a constitution.
On
December 10, 1905, Harry's mother cooked the men a special supper in her
home to celebrate a successful first year as a fraternity. Today, chapters
of Pi Kappa Phi celebrate "Founders Day" with a dinner or some appropriate
ceremony marking the achievements of the founding fathers.
Harry
and Pelzer authored the Fraternity's ritual in 1906. The two had grown
up together in historic St. John's Lutheran Church. Simon added a Roman
Catholic influence, and the ritual included the "ideals of Christian manhood."
Henry Patrick Wagener, Pelzer's younger brother, was the first Pi Kappa
Phi member initiated under the Fraternity's ritual on March 24, 1906.
That
year, the group rejected a charter offered from another national fraternity.
Although that might have been the easiest way to achieve permanence, the
men chose instead to expand and create more Pi Kappa Phi chapters. On March
9, 1907, the men of Alpha Chapter at Charleston granted a charter for Beta
Chapter at Presbyterian.
By
this time, Teddy Kelley had moved to the other side of the country to attend
the University of California, and he cultivated a group interested in Pi
Kappa Phi. The men of Charleston granted a long-distance charter for Gamma
Chapter. The Gamma Chapter truly established Pi Kappa Phi as a National
Fraternity, perhaps making it the most significant charter ever granted.
The
interest in Pi Kappa Phi within South Carolina was growing despite laws
and policies banning fraternities. In 1909, Delta Chapter at Furman University
formed and operated "sub rosa" (in secret) until state laws changed, allowing
fraternal organizations. |
