Читать книгу A History of The Eclectic Society of Phi Nu Theta, 1837–1970 - William B.B. Moody - Страница 8

Much of the discussion of the founding of Eclectic in the previous chapter revolved around individuals who joined the Society and influenced its development. The same is true concerning the history of the following decade. Many Eclectics of these early years became legendary figures for succeeding generations. One of these was Judge George Greenwood Reynolds (1821–1913) of the class of 1841. Almost to this day, students who frequented the Eclectic House at 200 High Street knew his face. His portrait occupied the place of honor over the fireplace in the library, for it was he who was the largest single donor of funds which made possible the building of the House in 1907.¹ Paul North Rice (1910), the author of the manuscript on which so much of this account of the early years of the Fraternity depends, knew him personally and recounts remarks the judge made on the occasion of the celebration of his ninetieth birthday in 1911:

I was one of the first members after the Society started, but not the first initiate. The class of 1841 were the first initiates. Three of us entered sophomore year: [George] Landon, [George W.] Allen, and myself. Landon and Allen went in [i.e., joined] the first term, but I hung along until just before the end of the year. Then C. D. Hubbard and Loranus Crowell told me [of my election]. My exultation can be imagined.

Judge Reynolds also incarnates another trend that characterized Eclectic well into the twentieth century: the recurrence of names from generation to generation. His son Frank Reynolds (1868), grandson George Greenwood Reynolds II (1905), and great-grandson Blake Greenwood Reynolds (1936) all joined the fraternity in their undergraduate years.

The judge’s comments on his initiation were cited by Paul North Rice as follows:

On the night when I was to be admitted to the distinguished privilege of such a literary and scholarly association, I was introduced into a room in North College, Middle Section, third story front—I think it was the rooms occupied by Marcy and Crowell. Being born out of time, I was the only newcomer. Receiving a cordial handshake and a welcome from the brethren, I took a modest seat and witnessed literary exercises, I presume very much like those in operation now. They were at that time in the habit of having essays, criticisms, and written—and I think sometimes oral—debates.

The room I have mentioned was our regular meeting place. We were tenants at sufferance, without furniture and without stationery. We had a President and a Secretary—and perhaps a Treasurer, but his position must have been a sinecure, and at all events, they all flourished under English names. The world never saw a finer example of “plain living and high thinking.”

Two things particularly to note in Judge Reynolds’s recollection are the venue for the meeting and its format. In these early days of the Society, meetings were held in student rooms. It was not until much later that Eclectic, like the other fraternities, acquired a clubhouse—and then only after a period of renting a room or rooms on Main Street. The literary exercises conducted at meetings were from the beginning a part of Eclectic tradition and their format, while varying in detail over the years, retained their basic outline unchanged until the 1960s.

Commencement in 1839 meant the graduation of seven of the thirteen members (G. W. Allen having already left college). During the year 1839–40, the remaining members initiated two seniors, four juniors, and two sophomores. One of the seniors was Joseph Cummings (1840), the first Wesleyan graduate to serve as president of the university. In fact, as of this writing, four of the five presidents of the university who have been Wesleyan graduates were Eclectics—Joseph Cummings (1840), Cyrus D. Foss (1854), John W. Beach (1845) and Edwin D. Etherington (1948). Doug Bennet ’59 somehow managed to be elected president without being an Eclectic (he was an Alpha Chi Rho/EQV).

The academic achievements of the early Eclectics were truly outstanding. With few exceptions, the number one (valedictorian) and number two (salutatorian) positions in the graduating classes in the 1840s were Eclectics, and Eclectics contributed many of the members elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In fact, there was discussion for a while of the Fraternity’s applying to Phi Beta Kappa for affiliation. An application was actually drafted in 1843 or 1844, but nothing came of it and the discussion was definitely dropped when the Connecticut Gamma Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa was founded at Wesleyan in July 1845 as an honorary fraternity. Many Eclectics held dual membership from the very beginning of Phi Beta Kappa at Wesleyan. The only serious regular fraternity rival in the realm of scholarship for many years was the Xi Chapter of Psi Upsilon, founded originally as Kappa Delta Phi in 1840, then changing its name to Kappa Sigma Theta in 1841, and finally being accepted as the Wesleyan chapter of Psi Upsilon in 1843. Paul North Rice sums up the relationship between to first two regular fraternities at Wesleyan as follows: “During the first fifty years of its existence, Psi Upsilon was the only formidable scholastic rival of Eclectic. Considering the closeness of the competition, the two fraternities were friendly indeed.”

The focus of this effort is the history of Eclectic, but the Society was very closely identified with the university and could not avoid being involved in the milieu and history of the larger institution. For extensive treatment of Wesleyan’s early history, David B. Potts’s Wesleyan University 1831–1910, published in 1992, is an invaluable tool (Dave is an Eclectic, class of 1960), but Carl F. Price’s earlier Wesleyan’s First Century, published for the Centennial in 1931, should not be overlooked, especially its chapter on the fraternities. Methodism was a pervasive influence in both University and Fraternity in the early days. Many Eclectics went on to careers in the Methodist Episcopal Church. The turmoil of 1842 surrounding a student call for the resignation of President Nathan Bangs involved a number of Eclectics. One of these was John Wesley Beach (1845), who refused (at least initially) to sign an apology composed by the faculty. Those who refused to sign were to be suspended until the commencement of the next term—and then, if they had not signed with a confession of “contumacy,” would be dismissed in disgrace. Beach was not dismissed. The resignation of Bangs in August 1842 evidently made the earlier faculty decision moot. Stephen Olin was elected president again (he had been unable to assume his duties because of ill health) and this time assumed those duties for a term that lasted nine years. Beach himself became Wesleyan’s seventh president in 1880.

Initiates in the 1840s included such recurring names in Eclectic history as Beach (John Wesley and his brother Samuel F.), Haven (Gilbert), Ingraham (William M.), Newhall, (Fales H.), and Hyde (Ammi B.), all of the class of 1846. These early Eclectics had distinguished careers in church and academia, but they did not lack humor. I well remember one of Paul North Rice’s talks to an initiation banquet in the mid-1950s. He recounted a story concerning the aforementioned Professor Ammi B. Hyde (1824–1921), long a professor of Greek at Allegheny College and later at the University of Denver. During World War I, when Professor Hyde was long since retired, some acquaintance complained to the ninety-year-old expert in Greek that the people of that country seemed to be taking a “pusillanimous and cowardly part” on the side of the Allies. He replied, “Alas, yes, the Greeks don’t fight like Hell-as of old.”

A number of initiatives in the 1840s reverberated through the subsequent history of the fraternity. The motto represented by the Greek letters “Phi Nu Theta” was adopted sometime between 1840 and early 1844. The badge of the fraternity, a gold watch key in the form of a scroll with both the Greek letters and the word “Eκλ∈κOS,” was adopted afterward, but still before the summer of 1844, when a letter from Gilbert Haven (1846), corresponding secretary, indicates that the difficulty of engraving on a curved gold scroll had been overcome. The badge of membership had previously been a yellow ribbon worn on the lapel.

From June 11, 1846, the minutes of fraternity meetings were preserved. Those of May 1,1847, describe another initiative which was continued in succeeding generations of Eclectics—that of cultivation.” The corresponding secretary, Daniel Steele (1848), “was instructed to write to several teachers of academies belonging to our society and ask of them information as to the students to be sent by them to our college next Commencement.” Pre-frosh cultivation had early roots.

In 1848 two resignations shook Eclectic. Both members, Nathaniel J. Burton and William S. Studley of the class of 1850, joined the Mystical Seven, then functioning as a regular fraternity. Burton was asked to give his reasons for leaving. His response was that he found the “largeness” of the organization detracted from its efficiency as a literary and social institution. Eclectics of a later era may smile at the assertion. There were eighteen members before the resignations.

The decade ended on a positive note. George F. Mellen (1849), who replaced the departed William S. Studley as corresponding secretary, could write in the minutes of the annual meeting at commencement on July 30, 1849, “We can speak of no trials endured during the past year, for we have had none. We can recount no great victories achieved, for no rival has been seen…. The conclave that is nearest the Eclectic is the Phi Beta [Kappa], yet this must ever fall below us while marks distinguish men.”