Читать книгу A History of The Eclectic Society of Phi Nu Theta, 1837–1970 - William B.B. Moody - Страница 7

October 1837 was traditionally celebrated by Eclectics as the time of founding of the Eclectic Society of Phi Nu Theta, the first fraternity at Wesleyan University to maintain continuous existence as a four-year fraternity. Like many other historical events important to succeeding generations, the exact details of the founding are shrouded in uncertainty. Indeed, the official recognition of its existence by the faculty and its adoption of the name “Eclectic”¹ probably did not take place until 1838, although the society seems certainly to have been in existence as a less formal organization during the previous year.

It is unfortunate that the formal records of the Society do not run back quite to its actual founding and that the early history was not carefully written up while its founders were still alive. There are, however, a half dozen sources that can serve as a basis for informed conjecture. Professor Morris B. Crawford (1874) probably knew more about the fraternity than another person living when Eric North (1909) and Paul North Rice (1910) compiled their manuscript history of the early years in preparation for the 1937 Centennial. Professor William North Rice (1865) edited the first directory and expressed at various times his convictions as to the founding of the fraternity. Judge George G. Reynolds (1841), at the request of Professor Crawford, put in writing in June 1903 certain recollections of his about the early history of Eclectic. A month earlier, in May 1903, the Reverend Willard M. Rice (1837), one of the founders, had made certain statements for the record concerning the origins of the Society, which were written down in the presence of Cyrus D. Foss (1854), president of the university 1875–80. A letter from H. M. Johnson (1839) dated December 24, 1840, also bears on the question, as do letters from Jonathan Coe (1839) and Charles Collins (1837).

The dictated statement of Dr. Willard Rice is of significance, as it came from one of the founders. In part he said:

The Eclectic Society had its origin in an informal meeting of four members of the Class of 1837—Aaron H. Hurd, Charles Collins, Daniel Curry and Willard M. Rice…. Each of the persons mentioned above matriculated at Wesleyan in 1835…. During the fall and winter of 1835–36, we were in the habit of meeting together in each other’s rooms—first, for the purpose of assisting each other in matters connected with our regular college studies and, secondly, for other literary work. There were also social features connected with these meetings, which ordinarily were held on Saturday evenings.

There were other students in the classes of 1835, 1836, 1837, and 1838 who were accustomed to meet occasionally with us…. The meetings which I have mentioned continued to be held during my senior year.

In March, 1837, Mr. Collins and myself were examined by the Faculty and by a “Committee for Graduation” — the Class graduating in August, 1837—in order that Mr. Collins, who had been elected Principal of the Augusta High School, Augusta, Maine, and myself, who had been elected Teacher of Latin and Greek in the same institution, might at once enter upon the duties of these respective positions.

We left Middletown about the end of March 1837 and took up the work in Augusta. In August we returned to Middletown for the commencement exercises…. During our attendance upon these commencement exercises, Messrs. Collins, Curry and myself were frequently together. One of our number, Curry, I think, suggested that it might be a bond of union in the future between us, the undergraduates and the Institution, if our informal Association took on a more formal character. For the purpose of carrying out this suggestion, conferences were held with the undergraduates who had been in the habit of meeting with us. The result was that a formal organization was effected in October, 1837, I think, although it may have been a little later. I feel quite sure, however, that it was in October…

Soon after [commencement], I received a letter from Dr. Fisk, President of Wesleyan, informing me that I had been elected Tutor in that institution. I accepted the appointment and returned to Middletown in November. I found that, as already stated, the formal organization of the Association had taken place.

In those days there were two recognized literary societies—the Philorhetorian and the Peithologian. There had also been private associations, but these had been rather frowned upon by the Faculty, as they had tended, the Faculty thought, not altogether for the moral good of the Institution or the students. The members would meet in their rooms and would then, perhaps, go downtown and have a pretty high time; therefore, the Faculty discouraged all such secret societies.

There was no formal recognition of Eclectic by the Faculty until late in the year 1837; then it was authorized. Very soon thereafter the Mystics were formed, perhaps the same year—“The Mystic Seven” they styled themselves. The Mystics are reputed to have been founded in 1837, but some of the most careful historians [say] they cannot trace it back farther than 1838.

The Greek letter name was adopted when the Society was formally recognized by the Faculty. Both the Greek letter name and the name “Eclectic” were used in 1840, before I left Middletown.

The above would seem conclusive proof of the date of the organization of the Fraternity, were it not that Dr. Rice made his statement almost seventy years after the events he was discussing, while in the following letter, written December 24, 1840, from St. Charles College in Missouri, Hermann M. Johnson (1839) definitely states that it was in the fall of 1838 that the plan of the Eclectic Fraternity was approved by the faculty:

Greetings to the Fraternity — kind, thankful greetings. Your welcome letter came like the kind voice of brothers at home, to one who is far away. To hear of your prosperity was good, and that your lookings-forth are cheery, even better.

There seems to have been much opposition raised to our unpretending little band. This I am sorry to hear: not that I fear you will be subdued or that you will not maintain a respectable, if not the first, stand among rival claimants for the honor of being—in the true sense of the word—“Eclectic,” but because, to have so many clubs in an institution, is not advantageous, and secondly, the original object of our association is, in some measure, defeated.

The object, not only of those who first of the students, consulted in regard to the matter, but, of the faculty, was to establish a new organization from materials so selected, and with the avenues so guarded, that it should not only be so deemed, but in fact, be, a privilege to gain admission—in short to create a literary distinction by founding a society, to bear the badge of which, should be a literary honor. When we first laid before Professor Smith our half-formed plan, we had not aimed so high, or at least had not had the boldness to express, even to one another, our forthgoing thoughts as reaching so far. Professor S. very kindly [received] our proposal; helped somewhat to give direction to our maturing purposes; and encouraged us to set our standards high. He said he long wished a distinctive and acknowledged society of the character then contemplated. Indeed, the Faculty had, once at least, I think more times, discussed the propriety and settled that question, and had agreed on the desirability and had come nearly to the acting resolution of causing to be established just such a society; and now that the students had started, he was glad to aid them. He conferred with Dr. Fisk—this was during the fall term of 1838,—our plan met his approval; it was presented to the Faculty in board, and was agreed to them by them.

There was then a question, whether to establish an original and independent society, or to seek a union with some one of standing fame. But little preference was felt by any; but as Dr. Fisk and Professor Smith and I, too, were already members of Phi Beta Kappa, it was decided to apply for a branch of that. The result of that application I have never heard, but suppose it unsuccessful.

Now you see that among the contentions of so many and petty clubs, the high objective contemplated is, if not overlooked, at least rendered almost impracticable; and hence the second cause of my regret. Our chief cause was to render our own loved Wesleyan, as much as possible the center of literary attractions and operations for our community, and to encourage emulation by setting up a high mark to aim at.

In his manuscript history of Eclectic’s early days, Paul North Rice speculated on the mismatch between these two accounts: Dr. Rice can hardly have been mistaken in his recollections of the informal meetings of students that took place from 1835 to the summer of 1837. In view of the conference held by himself, Collins and Curry with undergraduates at commencement time in 1837 as to forming an organization for the perpetuation of the meetings that had been held under their leadership prior to their graduation, it is hardly conceivable that, when he returned to Middletown as tutor in November 1837, he should not have informed himself as to whether such an organization had been started. It is quite possible, however, that his memory failed him when he stated that formal recognition of Eclectic by the faculty took place late in the fall of 1837. The Johnson letter, being written so near the date, would seem to be rather conclusive evidence that formal recognition by the faculty did not take place until 1838.

The minutes of the Wesleyan faculty from July 9, 1836, until well into the 1840s were examined by Paul North Rice, but no formal faculty recognition of the Eclectic Fraternity, nor of the Mystical Seven, nor of any similar organization appeared. To be sure, the minutes are very short, often giving little beyond faculty attendance and such statements as “Reported the Delinquencies.” On October 25, 1837, about the time that the faculty might well have commented on the organization of a fraternity that was to play so large a part in the development of Wesleyan, their minds seem to have been entirely occupied with the matter of discipline. An unusually long minute of that date states in part:

The case of Benjm. W. Britt, one of the students, was considered, who on the night of Friday last twentieth inst. shaved off the mane and tail of the President’s horse and then tied him up in the Chapel, affixing to his (i.e., the horse’s) back a wicked & blasphemous notice, and being convicted of said acts, he was expelled.

There was considerable discussion among older alumni as late as the 1950s as to whether Eclectic or the senior honor society know as “The Mystical Seven” was founded first. Paul North Rice addresses this point in his manuscript, but without going into the details, it appears clear that both organizations were founded at about the same time, although Eclectic retained its name, purpose, and basic structure until at least 1968, while Mystical Seven went through a number of permutations before finally settling on its original name, but as a senior honor society, in 1881.

If there is some doubt as to the actual date when the Eclectic Society was founded, there is less doubt as to who the actual founders were. According to the statement of Dr. Willard Rice, the suggestion of a formal organization came from the members of the class of 1837 shortly after their graduation. The real initiators, then, appear to be Charles Collins, Daniel Curry, and Willard Martin Rice. While the suggestion for a society came from them, the actual founders of an undergraduate society could only be undergraduates. It is interesting to note that each of these three initiators was later elected to honorary membership in the fraternity: Rice in 1847, Collins in 1852, and Curry not until 1865. This, of course, indicates that they were not considered to be members prior to their election as honorary members.

David Patten (1834) and Moses Scudder (1837) were initiated as graduates. The same is true of the two Eclectics of the class of 1838, J. L. Alverson and Edward Cooke, who did not join until 1857 and 1854, respectively. Paul North Rice observes that the fact that no members of the class of 1838 were initiated as undergraduates is another reason to believe that no formal organization of Eclectic took place before the fall of 1838. It is highly unlikely that the Society, formed at the suggestion of three members of the class of 1837 shortly after their graduation, would have included no member of the senior class.

Brother Rice concludes that the actual founders of the formal organization were members of the classes of 1839 and 1840. No minutes of the Eclectic prior to 1846 have been discovered. The main source of extant information on early membership is the Catalogue of the Eclectic Fraternity published in 1865 by William North Rice (1865), Stephen Henry Olin (1866), and Henry D. Harrower (1867). A copy of the Catalogue preserved initially in the safe in the fraternity house and then transferred to the archives of the university bears an inscription by William North Rice:

We found no records of the Society earlier than the year 1838–39, and we give credit in the numbers in the body of the work and in the Greek letters in the index to no one as entering the Society earlier than that year. The older members are very positive that the Society did start in 1837. I suspect that there was a period in which the Society was rather loosely organized and that, later, a more definite organization was effected.

The inscription then goes on to explain the coding of the numbers mentioned above (indicative of the course year in which the member joined the fraternity and any academic distinction he achieved) and the significance of the Greek letters (the year of the Society in which the member joined—1836–37 counting as the first year). Marked with the Greek letter “gamma” are seven members of the class of 1839 and three of the class of 1840:

Lester Mumford Clark (1839)

Jonathan Coe (1839)*

Clark Titus Hinman (1839)*

Hermann Merrills Johnson (1839)*

Ichabod Marcy (1839)

Joshua Newhall (1839)*

Humphrey Pickard (1839)

Loranus Crowell (1840)

John Harrison Goodale (1840)

Chester Dorman Hubbard (1840)*

Paul North Rice concludes that these ten men may fairly be considered the founders of Eclectic, and his logic is hard to fault. All, he notes, were leaders while in college and afterward. Seven were elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and all enjoyed long and successful careers, particularly in church and education. A list purporting to be of members joining prior to June 11, 1847, states that five of the members listed above (starred) joined the Fraternity on September 13, 1838. If the list is genuine, and Brother Rice opines that it is, this is the earliest reference to a formal induction of members—and could be construed as the formal date of the founding of the Fraternity. It accords with other statements of first members with references to an informal period of meetings as early as 1836 and a more formal organization in the fall of 1838.

The flag of the Fraternity, which used to fly on festive occasions, bore the distinctive scroll/key emblem of the Society and the date “1837.” It seems a reasonable compromise between 1835 (the first references to the meetings which led to the founding) and the date of September 13, 1838, discussed above. At one time there was acrimonious debate about the exact year and date, especially between Eclectics and members of the Mystical Seven Fraternity. Now that so very much has changed and the continued existence of fraternities in any form at Wesleyan is in question, it would seem mere quibbling to argue further. Vivat 1837!