A 579588
KALAY
Che Story of
The Psi Upsilon

General Library
PRESENTED BY
OF-
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN.
Willard Fisk
Jan...
AM 1896..
:
LJ
75
.P945
THE STORY OF
THE PSI UPSILON
A Sketch
READ AT THE JUBILEE OF
1883
NEW YORK
1895
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY COPIES PRINTED.
THE DE VINNE PRESS.
NOTE
THE following sketch was first read at the
Psi Upsilon Convention of 1876, which took
place at Utica, New York, under the auspices
of the Psi, the writer's own chapter. It was
re-read, with some revision, on the occasion of
the semi-centennial anniversary of the Frater-
nity at Albany, New York, in 1883, celebrated,
as was fitting, under the wing of the mother-
chapter. The author, at that date and after-
ward, designed to print it, with an appendix
of letters from the foundation-members of the
various chapters, and other apposite docu-
ments. It is hardly needful to recount the
causes which frustrated that intent. The brief
memoir is now issued, in a limited edition,
without further change or increment.
3
4
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
As a record it thus remains incomplete; for,
in the period which has elapsed since 1883, the
Psi Upsilon has added twelve years of un-
broken progress and prosperity to its annals.
Its boundaries have been broadened by the
establishment of the Eta chapter at Lehigh
University in 1884, and by the concurrent
foundation in 1891 of the Mu chapter at the
University of Pennsylvania and the Tau
chapter at the University of Minnesota - the
last-named the twenty-first on the capitular
roll. In these same years twelve more con-
ventions, each with its full representation of
chapters, have regularly assembled; a tenth
General Catalogue of the members, exceeding
in bulk and completeness, in perfection of ar-
rangement, and in typographical excellence,
even the noted one of 1870, has appeared; the
ever-pleasing Songs of the Fraternity have
been once more carefully reëdited and in-
creased by numerous newer lyrics; while other
additions to Psi Upsilon literature embrace
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 5
the admirable Psi Upsilon Epitome, by Albert
Poole Jacobs, and the recently established
Psi Upsilon Review. In divers spheres of ac-
tion and erudition members of the Brother-
hood, unnoted in this narrative, have risen,
through honorable deed and honest purpose,
into national eminence, including, foremost of
all, one attached son of the Theta, who attained
to the Republic's supreme honor, and worthily
filled the chair of its chief magistrate. During
this yet unchronicled period many of those
who donned, in the Fraternity's youngest days,
the symbol of the Diamond—not a few, in-
deed, of those veterans who listened to this
address at the Psi Upsilon jubilee - have
crossed into another world.
But it is pleasant to remember that some of
the venerable men who witnessed the birth
of the cherished Brotherhood still linger on
the hither shore, to take pride in the splen-
did maturity of the infant they nourished, and
to rejoice that neither riper years nor propi-
6 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
:
tious fortunes have enfeebled the bonds which
bind together the Psi Upsilon bands. To
those revered survivors of the Fraternity's
remotest epoch these pages are dedicated.
FLORENCE, ITALY, November 24, 1895.
38
}
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON

*A
T is not always easy to ascertain with
accuracy the causes of even recent his-
torical events, so slender and so entangled
are the threads which bind together human
motives and actions; but it may be safely
assumed that the existing Greek-letter so-
cieties of the American colleges have their
origin in two principal sources. The remoter
starting-point was the academic association
known as the Phi Beta Kappa, which, some-
thing more than a hundred years ago, sprang
into existence-this is not the occasion to
narrate how or wherefore at William and
Mary College in Virginia, and was thence
transplanted to many other American insti-
tutions of learning. At the end of the first
7
8
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
quarter of this century the Phi Beta Kappa
had begun to lose its hold upon the un-
dergraduate mind- possibly because it had
ceased to possess the attractive element of
mystery, possibly because the college faculties
had asserted jurisdiction over its transactions,
and had elected to make access to its privileges
dependent rather upon scholastic rank than
upon good-fellowship. Its decline brought
with it the establishment of other student-so-
cieties, which imitated the Phi Beta Kappa in
deriving their names from the Greek alphabet
- from the initial letters of the words of a re-
condite Greek motto. The other impulse which
had its share in giving birth to these sodalities
was the public excitement that prevailed
throughout the country, during the decade and
a half which stretched from 1820 to 1835, in
regard to the right or wrong of freemasonry.
The student-world usually reflects the opinions,
and is more or less affected by the actions, of
the greater world lying beyond the college
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 9
walls. The two are like the microcosm and
macrocosm of the German poet — a minia-
ture lesser life within the larger. The politics
of the time referred to turned upon the ques-
tion of secret societies; and the opponents of
freemasonry organized anti-secret societies
over all the land. In the midst of so much
public discussion it naturally occurred to col-
lege students that they, too, ought to have
their "secret" associations, and they accord-
ingly proceeded to establish them; and these
were ultimately followed by "anti-secret" so-
cieties as well.
But to whatever motive their origin be as-
cribed, it is certain that many of the older and
more respectable undergraduate Greek-letter
societies had their birth at Union College.
They could hardly have arisen from better
soil. In consequence of the high character
and wide reputation of its president, the emi-
nent Eliphalet Nott, Union College, fifty years
ago, was perhaps the foremost higher educa-
2
10 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
tional institution in America, outside of New
England, and it even preceded its venerable
New England rivals in adopting some of the
more meritorious modern educational methods.
It attracted to its halls, as the many famous
names in its triennial catalogue evince, a re-
markable body of young men, coming from all
quarters of the country. Among these youths
representing a geographical area so exten-
sive - had been formed, before 1830, three or
four Greek-letter societies; but it was not un-
til 1833 that the best and, in many respects,
the most successful of them all was
The Genesis. founded. At that date, and particu-
larly in the beginning of the academic
year 1833-34, the arbitrary action of the Greek-
letter societies already existent, especially in
reference to the literary associations or "halls,"
as they were styled, had aroused a great deal
of indignant sentiment in college circles, and
notably in the two lower classes. Seven inde-
pendent and spirited members of those classes
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 11
¡
1
1
resolved to counteract the tendencies of the old
secret societies by the formation of a new one,
which should be broader and more liberal in
its constitution and action. This resolution
grew directly out of a literary-society and class
contest, in which these seven had stood shoul-
der to shoulder until their efforts ended in vic-
tory. After this successful struggle they
jointly subscribed a formal agreement, pledg-
ing themselves to unite in an association which
should be conducted for the common weal.
This "Pledge," as it was subsequently termed,
was long preserved-a precious bit of tawny
paper-in the archives of the new organiza-
tion, and was wisely and reverently copied, by
the Hon. Alexander Hamilton Rice,
into the capitular records of the The Pledge.
Theta, where its text may still be
read. It bears the date of November 24, 1833,
the anniversary of which is now known in the
chapters as "Psi Upsilon Day." The Seven
gathered in various preliminary conclaves, at
12 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
which the details of organization were dili-
gently discussed, and finally, before the winter
wore away, the Psi Upsilon Fraternity became
an existent reality. The names of the Seven
Fathers memorable forever in the annals of
Psi Upsilon - were SAMUEL GOODALE, STER-
LING GOODALE HADLEY, EDWARD MARTINDALE,
and GEORGE WASHINGTON TUTTLE of the sopho-
more class; and ROBERT BARNARD, CHARLES
WASHINGTON HARVEY, and MERWIN HENRY
STEWART of the freshman class. Two of these
were from Massachusetts; the rest were resi-
dents of the state of New York. All but one
graduated with the classes of 1836 and 1837,
and that one afterward attained scholastic
honors. Five are still living. All accounts
concur in regard to their sterling character.
President Van Rensselaer says: "I became a
member in 1835, when most of the Founders
were seniors. I remember them as a capital
set of fellows, quite above the average. They
had shown a remarkable judgment in selecting
ļ
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
co
their sodales, and the consequence was that
the society took a high stand from the start.
The honor of the Fraternity was a The Seven
high point with them." These Seven
Fathers.
men have since filled many notable
positions, and have all lived blameless and ir-
reproachable lives. Goodale has given all the
years of manhood and old age to arduous mis-
sionary duties in the remote West as a devoted
Episcopal clergyman, is a canon of the ca-
thedral of his diocese, a doctor of divinity,
and has been professor and legislative chap-
lain; Hadley, for a considerable period a judge
in central New York, is universally honored
by the bench and the bar of the state; Martin-
dale is still a distinguished member of the
legal profession in New York city, where, un-
til lately, Tuttle was an equally respected mer-
chant; Barnard, at the close of a brief but
brilliant career as an advocate in this state,
died at Los Angeles, California; Harvey is a
physician of marked repute in Buffalo; and
14 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
Stewart, having occupied a post as teacher in
the South, died just as he was about to enter
the ministry.
It is hardly possible, at this remote day, to
distinguish the precise part which each played
in the opening scene of the Fraternity's exis-
tence. Martindale, Harvey, Hadley, and Stew-
art were especially active, while the others, as
Judge Hadley assures us, "were no drones."
Martindale and Stewart may jointly lay claim
to the first suggestion of the Fraternity's name;
Harvey had much to do with the design of the
badge, and was one of a committee which
visited Albany to consult with the late Mr.
Luke F. Newland, a noted jeweler, and the
maker of the earliest badges, in regard to the
model to be adopted; Stewart was the rst
secretary. The inceptive meetings were, eld
in West College, situated in the town of She-
nectady, and occupied at that period by the
two lower classes, the two upper ones dwell-
ing on the hill, where the present edifices of
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 15
Union University stand. Many of us have
seen, perhaps without knowing it, the vener-
able cradle of the Psi Upsilon. It is a stately
building of stone, still devoted to educational
purposes, though no longer belonging to the
university. It stands, surrounded by trees, in
the heart of Schenectady, close to the Central
Railroad, on its west side. It was not until the
early part of 1834 according to the Theta
records in the month of June-that the Dia-
mond Badge was first publicly worn; but in
the meantime the new-born organization, the
secret of its existence carefully guarded, was
10
hening its position in the literary so-
to which its members belonged, and
wise preparing for a fair start in life.
areer, during the first year or two, was
by o means smooth. Its rivals, the older
Grec -letter societies, strange to say, did not
welcome it with open arms, nor strew its path-
way with flowers. They formed a coalition to
exclude all Psi Upsilons from the Phi Beta
16 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
C%
Kappa. This act of persecution was so unjust
that President Nott at length informed the
active members of the Phi Beta Kappa that,
unless the coalition were dissolved, the faculty
would itself nominate the members of that
honorary association. This menace was soon
afterward carried into effect, and made the
Fraternity in every way the peer of its op-
ponents.
The social position of the "Psis," as they
were at first popularly denominated, was good
from the outset, partly from the fact that they
early gained the favor of the wife of Professor
(afterward Bishop) Alonzo Potter, the daugh-
ter of President Nott-to whose appreciative
influence, it is said, the membership of her
son, the late Hon. Clarkson Nott Potter, is to
be partly attributed. In regard to the internal
character and practices of the Brotherhood in
the days of its infancy not much is known;
but it so happens that we have one picture
of an initiation which took place in the au-
!
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 17
tumn of 1834.
American collegiate life, it
must be remembered, was at that time a
crude form of existence-a life of bare walls
and hard benches and scanty fare. No luxurious
chapter-halls yet existed; no sumptuous ban-
quets were eaten at the end of each term, or each
year; coal and steam and gas and electricity,
and many other sources of modern comfort,
had not yet penetrated, in a concrete form,
to the educational centers of America, how-
ever ably they might be treated as themes of
abstract study in the laboratory and lecture-
room; the polite arts were little understood,
and the softening influence of music was al-
most unknown in the undergraduate world.
"I had the honor," writes one of the earliest
members, "to be the first freshman elected
into the Fraternity after its organization. The
Hon. Joseph W. Gott, a sophomore, and myself
were initiated at the same time into the Theta.
Under cover of a moonless night, stealthily, and
in solemn silence, my guide led me rapidly across
3
18
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
the campus, skirting the borders of the dark
and gloomy Erie Canal, until we reached the
classic purlieus then known as 'Frog Alley.'
Here we stopped before an ancient edifice of
wood, over the hospitable entrance of which
hung a large red, three-cornered lantern, in
which a tallow candle feebly flickered, making
visible that pleasing word 'Oysters.' At the
door my guide gave the rap afterward so well
known, and we were ushered into an outer
room, where Gott and myself were held in
durance vile until such time as the 'hall of
mystery' should be prepared for the sacred
rites. Our feelings were harrowed beyond
measure by the awful suspense which we were
thus forced to endure. But the moment came.
We entered the room which had been arranged
for the ceremony. Our surroundings were, to
say the least, queer. We were short of chairs,
and a second triangular lantern served as a
seat for two of us. We speedily found our-
selves standing up to attest our faith in the
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 19
Brotherhood, and to vow fidelity to its pre-
cepts. I was altogether horrified at the ter-
rible oaths we were obliged to take. They re-
minded me of some of the forms of papal
malediction. In leaving the room, I told Gott
that I could never reconcile myself to the task
of aiding in imposing upon others such useless
requirements, or of repeating such an idle for-
mulary. From that night, we two had a com-
mon aim, and happily succeeded in revising
our ritual, and in stripping it of its disfiguring
excrescences. After the initiation we partook
of cakes and ale, but spirituous liquors, too,
of whatever kind, were soon banished from
our meetings."
The venerable man whose language is here
quoted is, of all personages, the one whose
name deserves to be as familiar as a household
word to every son of Psi Upsilon, and to be
handed down, as a kindly tradition, through the
unending future of the Fraternity. A descrip-
tion of him, by an intimate friend, as he was in
20
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
those days, when the young organization was
fighting its way into existence, is not without in-
terest:-"I reserve for special mention," writes
one of his classmates, "Bill' Taylor, now the
Hon. William Taylor, with whom devotion to
the Lozenge with the Clasped Hands
was a passion and a pride. Psi Up-
silon was his friend, his mistress, his
guide, and his comforter. He liked it better than
anything else except tobacco; he took the two
in equal doses, and his doses were very large.
'Bill' was sage in counsel, astute in policy, and
vigorous in action, a true and trusty friend to his
friends, while his enemies could likewise depend
upon him- 'over the left'-though there was
nothing malicious or vindictive about him. By
his enemies I mean the enemies of Psi Upsilon.
His motherly care over our beneficent institu-
tion did not permit him to distinguish between
her enemies and his. He treated them on the
principle of the officer who, on being asked
how he could let his men shoot down their
** Old Bill **
Taylor.
-THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 21
foes, said, 'Why, it was their own fault; they
had no business to be there.' Mr. Taylor's
devotion to his first love has continued all
through his life, and I believe that he is still
just as ready as ever to pack up his satchel
and travel off to any place where he may be
of service to the old cause." The life of Wil-
liam Taylor is, in fact, intertwined with the
history of the Fraternity. To him, as we have
seen, the Psi Upsilon, at its very outset, was
largely indebted for the simple beauty of its
ritual; he was connected with the foundation
of more than one chapter; his name constantly
occurs in the records of conventions, from the
first one, held two score of years ago, to the
one which occurred only a few years since
with the Lambda; and he yet retains, to repeat
his own words, "an unwavering affection for
the Fraternity, after a membership of more
than forty years.”
The new community grew apace. William
Henry Backus, after graduation a Methodist
22
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
divine, whose name in the arrange-
ment of the General Catalogue stands
at the head of the Psi Upsilon roll;
Samuel Raymond Beardsley, since mayor of
Oswego, a gallant leader of a gallant regi-
ment at the time of his death during the
Civil War; James Brown, now an esteemed
judge in Michigan; Elisha Taylor, likewise
a Michigan jurist; Louis Hasbrouck, who
contented himself with the quiet pleasures
of a country life until his death three years
ago; Cornelius Stage Conklin, whose life has
been devoted, in various prominent positions,
to the cause of education-were added to
the original Seven, at the very earliest re-
unions subsequent to the final organization.
In the class which came in at the begin-
ning of 1834-35-the class of 1838-the Psi
Upsilon succeeded in securing some men of
great strength, many of whom made their
mark in after-life- men like the Hon. Isaac
Dayton, a noted legislator and political leader;
Early
Initiates.
·
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 23
the Rev. John Newman, D. D., a respected
Methodist preacher and teacher; the Rev.
Maunsell Van Rensselaer, S. T. D., lately
president of Hobart College; John Henry
Ethelbert Beach, of a well-known Saratoga
family; James Steven Johnson, a warm-
hearted Southerner, in later life a judge, and,
during many years, an influential member of
the legislature in Mississippi; and, above all,
the Hon. William Taylor, truly inter pares pri-
mus. To these members of 1838 and their fel-
low-classmen the Fraternity owes a deep debt
of gratitude. An incident which occurred just
after the graduation of this class shows how
powerful the Union organization had already
become under its guidance. The non-society
men chanced to be in the majority in both of
the literary halls, and refused to elect any new
member who belonged to a Greek-letter con-
fraternity. All the Greek-letter associations
consequently met in convention, and appointed
a committee to represent to President Nott the
24 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
injustice of this conduct. Of this committee a
Psi Upsilon-Hooper Cumming Van Vorst,
now the widely-known metropolitan jurist, the
earliest contributor to the Fraternity's litera-
ture, and through all his life a firm and fer-
vent Psi Upsilon -was the chosen chairman,
and took the principal part in the negotiation.
It was a noteworthy interview. Dr. Nott de-
clared to the committee that he was in no wise.
opposed to the Greek-letter sodalities; gave it
as his opinion that the obnoxious misnomer,
"secret society," injured these associations;
and strenuously advised their representatives
to abandon the term "secret society," and as-
sume that of "club."
was
During the very year in which the first Psi
Upsilons graduated the second chap-
The Delta. ter- the Delta — was born. In 1835,
one of the members of the Theta,
afterwards the Rev. Jeremiah Skidmore Lord,
D. D., left Union, and entered the University
of the City of New York, then a recently estab-
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 25
lished rising academic institution. He wrote
to his old comrades for permission to found a
chapter in New York, and an active member
of the Theta was sent down to examine the
position of affairs. He returned and reported
adversely, another Greek-letter society having
just effected an organization in the young uni-
versity. But soon after, Isaac Dayton, who
had matriculated at the New York institution,
went to Union to complete his undergraduate
course, and there became a Psi Upsilon. He
also was anxious to see a chapter built up in
his old college, and enlisted William Taylor in
the project. These two, being in New York,
attended a meeting of the petitioners, agreed
to carry their request to the Theta, and were
soon able to send back a favorable response.
The new chapter was chartered. Its earliest
assemblages were held in the library-room at
the home of one its founders, John Taylor
Johnston, now the distinguished president of
the New Jersey Central Railroad and New
4
26 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
York's most munificent patron of art- the first
executive officer being the Hon. George Wash-
ington Schuyler, a gentleman who has since
ably filled many places of trust in the service of
the state. The leading early members of the
Delta, besides Johnston and Schuyler, were
the Rev. Henry Martyn Scudder, D. D., subse-
quently the renowned missionary in India; the
Rev. George Hendric Houghton, D. D., far bet-
ter known as the "Pastor of the little church
around the corner;" and the late metropolitan
judge, William Billings Meech. Some of the
brothers of the Delta paid a visit, the following
year, to the parent organization, and sug-
gested that a joint meeting should take place
with their chapter. This may possibly be con-
sidered as the first Convention of the Frater-
nity, taking place in the city of New York, and
consisting, of course, only of the mo-
Mother and ther and the first-born daughter.
Daughter.
What a contrast to those which now
annually assemble, in which delegates from
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 27
seventeen chapters, representing nine different
states, are present! But this primal meeting
of the chapters, nevertheless, had its peculiar
delights. Judge Van Vorst characterizes it as
LL
a memorable occasion," and another partici-
pant thus describes its closing scene:-"The
business affairs were transacted in the chapel
of the university, but at night we descended
into the crypt of the building, and a more
genial, impressive, social gathering I have
rarely attended. The culinary part was in the
hands of 'Janitor' Smith, a professional cook,
who provided half a dozen black female ser-
vants to wait upon the table. When the cloth
was removed, and the eloquent Scudder spoke
in stirring tones, which fairly rang through
the low, dark room-we occupying all the
chairs, the sable Smith gazing in astonishment
at the novel proceedings, while his swarthy as-
sistants sat crouching, upon the stone floor,
stone walls supported by bare stone pillars
surrounding us-it took but a feeble stretch
28
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
of the imagination to believe ourselves in the
catacombs of Rome or the pyramids of Egypt,
listening to the revelations of secrets not to be
heard by the profane vulgar, but to be dis-
cussed by the chosen few, and listened to with
humility and awe by dark-hued serfs."
The birth of the next daughter brings us
into contact with a name which ought to be
inscribed on the tablet of Psi Upsilon fame
beside that of William Taylor- the name of
William Erigena Robinson. In af-
ter-life Mr. Robinson wrote, under
the signature of "Richelieu,” a long
series of remarkable letters in the New York
Tribune, and became the prototype of that
important functionary of the metropolitan
press, the Washington correspondent; still
later "Richelieu" Robinson gazed up, as he
is still doing, at his old place in the reporters'
gallery from the floor of the House of Repre-
sentatives, in which he sits as the delegate of
a Brooklyn constituency. His ardent Celtic
"Richelieu"
Robinson.
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 29
temperament lent a glow of unusual warmth
to his love of Psi Upsilon, and his eager desire
to see its glories extended made him instru-
mental in adding some of the fairest pearls to
its chaplet. He himself writes: "Years ago
I took more interest perhaps in Psi Upsilon,
and devoted more time to it than did any
other member of the Fraternity." In 1839,
Mr. Robinson, then a sophomore in Yale Col-
lege, chanced to pay a visit to Union College
for the purpose of passing a day or two with
a friend, then a senior in that institution, but
subsequently the Rev. George Monilaws of
New York city. In that visit he learned, al-
most for the first time, of Psi Upsilon; he
found his friend a member of the Theta, and
was introduced to many others of the chapter's
active associates. The result of it all was
that he was initiated, Van Vorst presiding at
the ceremony, with the view of making an
effort to establish a chapter at New Haven.
With a copy of the Constitution, and the other
Ad
K
30 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
essential documents, Robinson started for his
college, passing through New York, where he
obtained the consent of the Delta, and con-
sulted with William Taylor, who predicted the
failure of the scheme. But Robinson, on
reaching Yale, took into his counsels perhaps
the most remarkable man in the class above
him, George Hooker Colton, and by his aid
succeeded in enlisting eleven others in the
project. The first consultations were held in
Robinson's room (then number 144, over the
old chapel), and there, after deciding that the
new chapter was to assume the character of a
junior-class society, he initiated the twelve
candidates, and then formally withdrew until
the following year, when he reën-
The Beta. tered the Beta as a junior. Judge
Van Vorst, cognizant of all the
events, writes:-"Robinson is truly the founder
of the Yale chapter. He associated with him-
self the best members of the classes, and they
laid the foundations of a chapter which has
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 31
always maintained a high rank. Too much
praise cannot be awarded Mr. Robinson in
this regard. His election at Union was a
master stroke of politics, as the result has
proved."
The Beta, thus established in October, 1839,
- found itself in the hands of an exceptional
band of men. One of them, the Rev. Henry
Martyn Dexter, D. D., afterwards editor of the
Congregationalist, and a man of note in the
republic of letters, writing after a lapse of
thirty-seven years, sketches the characters of
some of his associate-founders:-"We used
to have royal good times in the Psi Upsilon,”
he
says, "and its influence upon me was strong
and salutary, both in a literary and a general
point of view. All things considered, I look
back to it as the most helpful one thing which
I encountered at New Haven. Of
our twelve, Babcock was a noble
soul, a mature and even learned
man, and a sweet poet. He died early, and a
The early
Yalensians.
32 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
volume of 'Remains' of prose and poetry-
attests his rare ability. A little poem of his
on the clouds still floats in my memory as
unique on that theme. Booth was a hard
student and a clean-hearted, clear-headed,
strong man, without fear, without reproach,
and one of the most affectionate of friends.
He is now a judge and a professor in the Chi-
cago Law School. Colton was one of a family
of odd but real geniuses, was a magnificent
Greek scholar, was our salutatorian, and, as
the class thought, ought to have been valedic-
torian, and had rare qualities in rare minglings.
He was a poet, and wrote "Tecumseh," a work
of great popularity in its day, and started,
edited, and, before his too-early death, well
founded the American Whig Review, which,
running into Putnam's and through the two
series of that, now lives in Scribner's. Of
Colton, Robinson says:-"He was about the
best Psi Upsilon I ever knew," - a significant
eulogy from such a source. Another of the
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 33
twelve founders of the Beta is equally enthu-
siastic: "Colton," he affirms, "was a noble
fellow, a glorious good companion, and a
loving friend; my heart warms as I write of
him." The Rev. Dr. Dexter continues his brief
portraitures as follows:- "Hollister is a law-
yer with literary turns and tastes, was our
class poet, has written at least one novel,
'Mount Hope,' and a two-volume history of
Connecticut. James did a great work in the
world with his royal common sense, his
sunny temper, and his love of hard labor; he
served as chaplain of a Massachusetts regiment
during the Rebellion, and as superintendent of
freedmen in the South afterward; traveled
abroad, and died within a year a most linger-
ing death of consumption. Lawrence, after
considerable and various services as a Congre-
gational minister, still lives a useful and re-
spectable life. Noyes is a fine general scholar,
has been secretary of Home Missions, and is
now in full vigor and activity. Smith ('Big
5
34 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
Smith' yclept, to distinguish him from a little
fellow in the class bearing the same rare and
select family name) was a burly Yankee, of
general 'gumption,' and a vague suggestion
in his usual air of probably doing something
sometime which would move and astonish the
world, if he did not forget it; but he died a
few years ago at the South, where he went to
teach." Such were the fathers of the Beta, of
whom another of their number, the Rev.
Daniel P. Noyes, D. D., says: "Every one
of them had some gift, some sure charm. As
I recall the list, a sense of truth, of honor, of
brotherliness comes over me. There was a
great deal of affection and of magnanimity in
the company." The Beta occupied rooms in a
block on the corner of Chapel and State streets
until 1844, when it moved to a hall on the cor-
ner of Chapel and College streets, which it re-
tained down to 1870, at which time its present
convenient chapter-house was completed.
Robinson, the indefatigable, now turned his
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 35
eyes toward Brown University. Dexter, one
of Yale's twelve, had passed his freshman and
sophomore years at the Providence institution,
and was thus in a position to aid him. The
proper number of proper men having joined
in the movement, Robinson went to
Brown and installed the Sigma, the The Sigma.
ourth chapter, March 25, 1840. It
began its career with twenty-three men, many
of whom have since risen to eminence as di-
vines, scholars, and statesmen-men of the
stamp of Samuel Green Arnold, historian of
Rhode Island, lieutenant-governor and United
States senator; Albert Harkness, LL. D., the
celebrated Latinist; Merrick Lyon, LL. D.,
whose exalted services in the cause of educa-
tion are known to every Rhode Islander; and
the Rev. Professor Adoniram Judson Hunting-
ton, D. D. President Wayland, misled, like
some unwise college presidents nearer our own
time, by the term "secret society," looked with
eye askance upon the new Greek-letter organi-
36 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
zation, and never became fairly reconciled to its
existence. At a subsequent period he attempted
to suppress it, although at the outset he was
mollified by a sight of the chapter's by-laws.
In these there happened to be a clause provid-
ing that a certain committee was to act as
purveyors of the chapter. He at once objected
to the word "purveyors." "We," records one
of the Sigma founders, "we had innocently
meant by the word persons who were to pro-
vide speakers, writers, and places of meeting.
He suspected that it meant oyster-suppers,
lone fish-balls, and music in the air. As he
was not willing to yield to us, we concluded to
avoid an encounter with his prejudices and
changed the word." Another of its founders
writes of the Sigma: "I am not as familiar
with its later as with its earlier history; but I
think that I may say without presumption.
that it has always had an honorable record.”
The ever-loyal Robinson was not content
with having added two new estates to the Psi
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 37
Upsilon domain. The next year he heartily
supported the petition of certain undergradu-
ates at Amherst, one of whom, Elijah Hawley
Wright, was dispatched to Yale empowered
to coöperate with Robinson in measures pre-
liminary to the acquisition of
of a
charter. The project originated with The Gamma.
five students, but the charter was is-
sued to a group considerably larger, including,
among others, the legate Wright, now a physi-
cian in Florida; the Rev. Edward Duffield Neill,
whilom president of Macalester College, chan-
cellor of the Minnesota State University, and
an ingenious historical writer; the Rev. Henry
Webster Parker, D. D., pastor, professor, and
poet; Erastus Wolcott Ellsworth, likewise a
writer of distinction; Waldo Hutchins, the
notable New York politician and representa-
tive in Congress; the Hon. Galusha Aaron
Grow, Speaker of the national House of Rep-
resentatives; and Roswell Lombard Chapin, a
brilliant scholar, the orator of his class, who
38 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
died of a subtle disease, two years after gradu-
ation. "The chapter was organized," writes
President Neill, "without the consent of the
faculty, and was reluctantly tolerated by them,
but was soon, I think, recognized as an aid to
literary culture. I still remember that at mid-
night we gave, with great trembling and in
fear of the faculty, a supper at the Amherst
Hotel to the delegates from Yale and New
York." Dr. Wright speaks with greater de-
tail:-"We had one pretty hard rub with the
faculty. They were opposed to us, and had
decided, after much deliberation, to order our
dissolution, on the ground that we had dis-
obeyed a law of college in organizing a society
without asking their consent. We had a
friend in the faculty, who kept us well posted
as to the movements and designs of that body.
We had donned our badges. I suddenly
learned from Neill the determination of the
faculty to destroy us; and calling the members
together, we decided to take off our badges
t
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 39
and present a petition to the authorities, dis-
claiming any intention of infringing the regu-
lations of the institution, and asking respect-
fully their consent to our organization as a
society. This broke the lever by which they
were about to upset us. They were perplexed;
different professors called individually upon
our 'good' boys, and tried hard to induce
them to withdraw from us, but in vain. The
faculty finally appointed a committee to ex-
amine our constitution and by-laws. I had
charge of the books, and when Professors
Tyler and Fowler came to me, I was able to
make such a good showing that, after some
further deliberation, the faculty concluded it
to be for the interest of the institution to
recognize us. Then we unveiled our badges
again, and blazed out upon Amherst to the
grievous disappointment of our enemies."
The institution ceremonies were performed
by Robinson of the Beta and Edmund Trask
of the Delta in June, 1841. The former gives
40 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
B
a graphic account of the event: -"We took
with us a dozen or more badges made at
Albany. Trask's mother lived at Springfield,
and we drove to Amherst with two of her
spirited steeds, made with our equipage quite
a display in the quiet town, and the next
day enjoyed from the gallery the excitement
aroused in the chapel, at public exercises, by
the flashes of light which gleamed from our
boys' badges as they entered, which were re-
flected back by the rays from our own.
It
was a great day for the Gamma as well as for
ourselves." The chapter leaped at once into
popularity in consequence of the exclusive
sentiments and manners affected by its rivals.
"The fathers of the Gamma," Mr. Ellsworth
asserts, "were democratic in their ideas, and
selected their associates for literary merit and
scholarship, rather than for dress or address."
In 1841 another convention was held in the
city of New York, at which the five existing
chapters were numerously represented, and
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 41
some important constitutional changes were
discussed and adopted. It ought, perhaps, to
be here noted that the original fundamental
law of 1833 became inoperative in 1839, when
it was superseded, as will be seen later on, by
the second constitution, drawn up, in outline,
with sedulous thoughtfulness, by President
Van Rensselaer, then a senior in Union Col-
lege, and ratified, with very few changes, by
the chapters.
This was a period of rapid growth. In the
two years which followed, 1842 and 1843, the
number of chapters was doubled.
The Zeta was instituted on May 10, The Zeta.
1842, by Horace James, one of the
original Beta men. It encountered something
of the same opposition from the faculty of
Dartmouth college faculties had their little
weaknesses then as now as had been ex-
perienced at Brown and at Amherst. The
fathers of the Zeta found an especial friend
and protectress in the wife of Professor San-
JE
42 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
born, who, despite the faculty, offered them a
room for their gatherings in her house. The
high opinion which this lady entertained for
the Fraternity was an enduring one; for, years
later, it is recorded that one of the pleasantest
features of a convention held at Hanover was
a reception given by Professor and Mrs. San-
born. Their nephew, in after years the Hon.
John Sewall Sanborn, member of the Parlia-
ment of Canada, and, at the time of his death,
judge of the court of Queen's Bench at Mont-
real, was one of the founders of the chapter.
Thirty-four years later he still recalled, with
reminiscent delight, his days of active Psi-
Upsilonism, but related complainingly that, in
consequence of his residence in Canada, he
had had, in recent years, very little intercourse
with members of the Fraternity. "I did meet
while in the Canadian parliament," he once
wrote, "a party of Yale students on a tour
through the provinces. Observing that one
of them wore the cherished badge, I spoke to
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 43
him, giving him the old sign of greeting. He
seemed considerably taken aback by my en-
thusiasm, and I was unable to draw him into
conversation. I suppose he felt very much as
Sir John Franklin would have felt had he
been suddenly recognized by an Eskimo." Of
the other founders one is now the Hon. Lin-
coln Flagg Brigham, LL. D., Chief Justice of
Massachusetts; another, the Hon. Amos Tap-
pan Akerman, has risen to be Attorney-gen-
eral of the United States; a third, the Hon.
George Walker, is an honorably-known finan-
cier, and has been consul-general at Paris;
and others, like John Smith Woodman and
the Rev. Henry Elijah Parker, D. D., have
been among the most honored of Dartmouth's
professors; while still another, John Eugene
Tyler, held until his death a chair at Harvard.
The first executive officer of the chapter was
Lincoln Flagg Brigham. He says of Psi Up-
silon:-"We all recall its mysteries and good-
fellowship and gracious offices in college life
44
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
with pleasure. The Dartmouth chapter was
constituted of the best of fellows, earnest
scholars, genial and high-toned, and they have
all ripened well."
From New England the scene now shifts
back to New York, and the next-born chapter
was destined to find a home in this state's
most venerable institution of learning. Out-
side of Columbia College the chief actors in
the affair were the ever-faithful William Tay-
lor and the Rev. Cornelius Earle, then an
undergraduate of the Delta. Inside, the ori-
ginal applicants numbered ten men, five from
the senior and five from the junior class-
all of praiseworthy scholarship, the latter five
embracing the three first honor-men. One of
the most active was John Sym, a youth of
great promise, who died three years later,
and whose many virtues the Lambda
The Lambda. commemorated by a tablet in the
vestibule of the college. But the
rest of the ten were noteworthy, including, as
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON. 45
they did, the Rev. Charles Reynolds, S. T. D.,
now a noted divine in the far West; Thomas
Charles Taylor Buckley, who, at the time of
his death, occupied an enviable place at the
bar of New York city; William Seymour Ker-
nochan, M. D., for a long series of years a
conspicuous metropolitan practitioner; George
Payn Quackenbos, LL. D., who has made
himself famous in educational literature;
Wheelock Hendee Parmly, D. D., a Baptist
clergyman of repute; and William McCune.
Of the last-named Dr. Quackenbos remarks:-
"McCune was our bright particular star, full
of wit as an egg is of meat, always delighting
us with his oddities and puns. Those who
remember a once famous poem, entitled 'Sam
Patch,' which he published in the Knicker-
bocker in 1843, may form an idea of his in-
imitable humor. It was extremely Hood-y. If
I mistake not, this very poem was prepared for
and first read at one of our meetings. We
all had high anticipations that McCune would
Add
46 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
66
make his mark, but as far as I can learn, he
has buried his genius in a California ranch."
The Lambda was instituted in the rooms of
the Delta. It met with no opposition from
the faculty. For some years the meetings,
particularly the literary ones, were held jointly
with the Delta, and were regularly attended
by William Taylor, who considered the twin
metropolitan chapters as his favorite children.
"The exercises," Dr. Reynolds states, were
always of a most excellent character."
"Our
meetings," writes Dr. Quackenbos, "were al-
most purely literary, and I look upon them as
being extremely beneficial to us all. Some of
the papers read on those occasions were ex-
ceedingly creditable; not a few were published
in the Anglo-American, to which journal at
least two of our number at that time regu-
larly contributed." The chapter continued to
maintain a deserved academic reputation.
"For some years after my graduation," re-
cords one of the early members just quoted,
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 47
66
during which I kept up an acquaintance with
the Lambda, the meetings were of a high
order. Psi Upsilon generally had the pick of
the classes, and usually secured the honor-
men." The lists of the Lambda, during its
first decade, embrace the names of a dozen
divines of national reputation.
The star in the far East was the next chap-
ter. The attempt to establish the Psi Upsilon
at Bowdoin College was first made in 1842,
and the convention of that date granted the
necessary charter, which, however, in conse-
quence of some false stories put in circulation
by other organizations connected with the
college, was not issued until the following
year. The movement began systematically.
A number of students sent a member of the
class of 1844, now the Hon. William Dummer
Northend, to Harvard and Yale, with the view
of selecting an intercollegiate confraternity
with which to connect themselves. The am-
bassador on his return strongly recommended
48
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
the Psi Upsilon, and an application for a
charter was accordingly made. On the inter-
ruption, just alluded to, of the negotiations,
the disappointed petitioners formed themselves
into a local fellowship under the title of the
Omega Phi, but through the assistance of the
Hon. Mellen Chamberlain of the Zeta, the dif-
ficulty in regard to the charter was at length
removed. In August, 1843, at Northend's
room, twenty-two men were initiated
The Kappa. as the nucleus of the Kappa chap-
ter. This institution was officially
attended, in behalf of the Fraternity, by the
Hon. Lincoln Flagg Brigham of the Zeta, who,
alluding to his very interesting visit to Bruns-
wick, says: "The Bowdoin chapter, in the
beginning and since, as I have cause to be-
lieve, was made up of the best material the
college afforded." Of the founding-members,
the Kappa is perhaps most indebted to the
Hon. William Dummer Northend, who, through-
out its history, has continued to manifest a
J
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 49
lively interest in its welfare. Almost equally
active and ardent were the Rev. John March
Mitchell, D. D., long an influential Episcopal
divine in the South, and the Rev. Charles
Packard, who, after over thirty years of life
among the Philistines, still professes himself
"happy to exchange greetings with a brother
Psi Upsilon, and to do what I can to promote
the interests of the Fraternity."
This same year (1843) witnessed the forma-
tion of two other chapters. At Hamilton Col-
lege, the first endeavor to gain admission to
the Psi Upsilon fold was made in the year
1838. The second occurred in the winter of
1842-43. Letters were sent by the petitioners
to an undergraduate of Yale, who, they had been
informed, was a Psi Upsilon; but he unfortu-
nately turned out to be a member of another
Greek-letter society then having a chapter at
Hamilton. This error came near producing
some unpleasant complications, which, how-
ever, favoring fortune and the shrewdness of
7
50 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
the men concerned finally averted. The Theta
was at length instructed to send two delegates
to Hamilton, one of whom was His Excellency
the late Governor of Massachusetts, the other
the Hon. Daniel Barnard Hagar. Their report
was altogether favorable. Meanwhile, the pe-
titioners had organized a society known as the
"I. T.," which at once gained a creditable
position in college. All its offices were filled
by candidates for the Psi Upsilon, and under
this mask they were able to conduct their
operations without arousing suspicion. The
Fraternity having given its assent, four of the
petitioners, Benjamin Franklin Adams, John
Lansing Burton, Barnabas Ballou Eldridge,
and Chauncey Le Roy Hatch, proceeded to
Union College, and were initiated, July 26, by
the assembled convention of the Fraternity.
At the beginning of the first term of 1843–44,
these four initiated the other neophytes, and
the badges of the Psi Upsilon first made their
appearance in public, as the chapter-records,
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 51
with commendable exactness, inform us, on
Saturday, November 26, 1843, at half-past
eleven in the forenoon. The founders
of the Psi were all men of more than The Psi.
average culture. Those who have
met any of them in later life, and heard them
discourse on Fraternity affairs, can judge how
warm must have been their devotion to the
Brotherhood in their undergraduate days.
Among the giants of that early time were
Morris Rose Barteau, now of Wisconsin; the
Hon. Perry Hiram Smith of Chicago, to whom
his college owes the beautiful library building
which bears his name; the Hon. Xerxes Addi-
son Willard, later the principal American au-
thority on the dairy industry; and the already
mentioned Benjamin Franklin Adams-"Fa-
ther Adams," as he is still affectionately called
in the chapter-who, for some 'years after
graduation, periodically returned to Hamilton
to watch over the interests of Psi Upsilon.
Among the early initiated, it is proper to men-
52 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
tion the Hon. Joseph Roswell Hawley, lately
Governor of Connecticut and now a Senator
in Congress, whose Psi Upsilon ardor neither
political nor military honors have quenched;
and the Hon. Guy Humphrey McMaster, the
valedictorian of his class, whose resonant Re-
volutionary lyric, commencing
In their ragged regimentals
Stood the old Continentals,
Yielding not,
was everywhere read during our centenary
year, with a keener appreciation than ever.
At the convention with the Theta, in a ses-
sion of which the Hamilton four were initiated,
appeared a delegation from Wesleyan Univer-
sity commissioned to apply formally for a
charter; after some debate the application was
granted. The Psi and the Xi may thus be said
to have been born simultaneously-"the only
instance of twins," says William Taylor, "in
our common family." At Wesleyan the move-
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 53
ment sprang, as has so often been the case,
from a local organization. This body
was known as the Kappa Alpha Phi,
an unfortunate combination of let-
ters, since it enabled the adversaries of the
organization to confer upon its members the
nickname of "Kaphs." "This name," writes
one of the members of the Xi, "clung to them
for a while after they had joined the Psi Upsi-
lon Fraternity; but," he adds, with laudable
pride in the strength of his chapter, "the
'Kaph' has grown to be the bull among the
herd." The Xi was instituted by a member of
the Delta, afterward the Rev. Stephen Beek-
man Bangs, November 20, 1843. Of the six-
teen charter members the best known are per-
haps the Hon. Oran Faville, lieutenant-governor
of Iowa, of whom his wife writes that until his
death he kept alive his early interest in the
Fraternity; the Rev. Albert Schuyler Graves,
lately the learned principal of Cazenovia Semi-
nary; the Rev. Russell Zelotes Mason, LL. D.,
The Xi.
54 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
president of Lawrence University; James
Strong, D. D., the erudite ecclesiastical writer;
and the Rev. Richard Sutton Rust, LL. D., the
head of Wilberforce University.
Worthy of especial record is the convention
which met with the mother chapter July 26,
1843, and which closed the Fraternity's first
decade. A natural desire to celebrate so nota-
ble an anniversary, and to rejoice at the aston-
ishing growth of the young Brotherhood, drew
together a large assembly. It must have been
a gathering long to be remembered. One who
was present thus speaks of the occasion:
"We had a good time; nearly thirty-
seven years have passed since then,
and I am now literally a silver-gray,
but the recollections of that lively meeting of
Psi Upsilons at Schenectady are as fresh in
my memory as events of yesterday." The Psi
Upsilons might well rejoice. The number of
chapters was now ten - one for each year of
the society's age. In their several institutions
First Decade
Festival.
+
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 55
these chapters occupied positions at least as
eminent as those held by the older organiza-
tions. The constitution of the Fraternity had
turned out to be an instrument admirably
adapted to its purpose. The various members
of the federation were united to each other by
close ties; the domain they occupied was a
compact one, the easternmost limit being
Bowdoin and the westernmost Hamilton,-per-
mitting to the chapters easy and frequent in-
tercourse. The literary exercises of the meet-
ings were maintained with laudable energy and
strictness, and were of such a character that
the members of that period still recur to them
with pride. In the selection of candidates,
scholarship was regarded as well as good-fel-
lowship, while the attributes especially sought
for were manly frankness and sincerity of pur-
pose, without which there can be no true friend-
ship -no veritable brotherhood. The effects
of all this were everywhere felt and seen in the
rising strength and reputation of the Frater-
S
56 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
nity. The Psi Upsilon, in short, had not yet
lost the glow of youth, but had already begun
to feel the conscious flush of coming man-
hood.
The first catalogue had been published in
January, 1842, at New Haven, by the
untiring Robinson, then in the Yale
law school. It was an extremely
dainty publication for its day, with engraved
title-pages, from designs by Robinson, and a
Greek motto selected by President Woolsey.
It comprised five chapters, with two hundred
and forty-five names of initiates. It was, in-
deed, a Lilliputian production when contrasted
with the catalogue of 1870, with its broad
quarto pages, its fifteen chapters, and its roll
of three thousand seven hundred members.
Catalogue
of 1842.
The earliest constitution was, of course, that
of 1833, the original manuscript of which is yet
in the possession of the Theta. It was a brief,
simply-worded instrument. In it the chapter-
officials were styled, with unadorned plainness,
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 57
President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Committee
of Arrangement. With the establishment of a
second chapter came the felt neces-
sity of a more systematically precise
code. The second constitution-
that of 1838-was, as we have stated, largely
the work of President Van Rensselaer; it was
certainly a notable document, the evident re-
sult of much mature consideration. It is in-
teresting to see with what care it provided
for the Fraternity's future development, how
wisely it guarded against contingencies likely
to prove detrimental. It is really the ground-
work of all subsequent constitutional enact-
ments. The titles of the principal officials
were nearly all altered by its provisions; the
presiding officer was called the Initiating Mas-
ter, usually abbreviated in the records to
"I. M." The others were the Secretary, the
Correspondent, and the three Ushers. The last
term — that of usher - still lingers tradition-
ally in some of the chapters. By the revision
Second
Constitution.
T
8
58
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
of 1841 — at which time was held in the city of
New York the first formal deliberative assem-
bly of the chapters the title of the executive
officer was changed to the present designation ;
but it was not until the third constitution -
that adopted by the convention held with the
Gamma in 1844- that all the chapter-officials
received the appropriate and dignified appella-
tions which they still bear.
The next decade (1843-1853) was one of
almost uninterrupted prosperity. The only
cloud upon the sky was the effort made, in
1849-50, by President Wayland of Brown, to
suppress the Greek-letter societies of that uni-
versity. The Sigma was, for a while, in a
painful position, from which it seemed possible
to withdraw only by initiating the unfriendly
head of the institution. This the convention
refused to permit, but it authorized the Sigma
to submit the constitution, in strict confidence,
to his inspection. This frank procedure seems
to have led the president to change his opin-
M
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 59
ion of at least one of the obnoxious student-
guilds, and the threatening cloud passed away.
Petitions for chapter charters were numerous
at every successive convention, but were
steadily denied. In the winter of 1850–51
several graduate members of the Fraternity
residing at Cambridge initiated a movement
for the establishment of a chapter at Harvard·
Letters were written to every chapter, and, al-
though the responses were generally favorable,
the consent of all was not obtained. The Cam-
bridge Psi Upsilons, however, in their zeal,
proceeded to organize a chapter, which sent
its delegates to the convention of 1851 at the
Psi. A committee on the case was at once
appointed, and reported that the action of the
graduate members at Cambridge was illegal
and reprehensible, but recommended the ad-
mission of the delegates and a formal recog-
nition of the new sister. The reso-
lutions submitted were adopted, and The Alpha.
the Alpha, the eleventh chapter,
60 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
began its existence. Its charter was the
only one granted during these ten years.
Some of the earliest members of the Alpha
have since climbed to the loftiest heights in
the world of learning. William Watson Good-
win is the country's most famous Grecian;
Ephraim Whitman Gurney and James Mills
Peirce are among the best-known members
of Harvard's faculty; as is also Alexander
Emanuel Rudolph Agassiz, the worthy in-
heritor of an illustrious name. Equally ac-
tive in their undergraduate membership were
the Hon. George Bliss, jurist and politician;
Samuel Abbot Green, Mayor of Boston, his-
torian and scientist; and Augustus Thorndike
Perkins, author of many pleasant New Eng-
land sketches. It was during this period that
the conventions assumed their existing char-
acter, and that the traditions which have now
become fixed in these annual assemblies grew
up. The dates and acts of some of the earlier
conventions are still subjects standing in need
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 61
of research, but from 1847 the records of their
proceedings are generally full and complete.
The custom of public literary exercises in con-
nection with these yearly festivals now like-
wise became established, and did much to
elevate the repute of the Fraternity in the
eyes of the Philistine world. No one can read
without a feeling of interest the long catalogue
of eminent worthies who have officiated at the
various conventions as orators and poets. This
period witnessed, too, the publication of the
first edition (1849) of the Fraternity's songs,
and the composition of some of the best in
the collection. In respect to these Fraternity
lyrics, and their compilation in a shape for
general distribution, as in respect to so many
other things, the Beta chapter merited the
gratitude of its sisters. The second Second
decennium ended with the conven- Decennium
tion at the Alpha in 1853-a mem-
orable assemblage, presided over by the Hon.
Harvey Jewell, Speaker of the lower house of
Celebration.
62 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
Massachusetts, and enlivened by the wit and
wisdom of Whipple, the essayist, and Saxe,
the poet, both of whom have been among the
most devoted sons of Psi Upsilon. At the
customary supper, the second evening, much
merriment was occasioned by some passages
at arms between the orator and the poet of
the day, in the course of which the two bela-
bored each other with sharp missives in the
shape of impromptu epigrams. One of them,
a comic parody by Whipple, is still in part
remembered:
I do not like thee, Marshal Saxe;
The reason why you need not ax.
To this Saxe is said to have instantly re-
joined with some lines beginning:
See how laughter's tinkling ripple
Greets the jest of jocund Whipple.
The ten years lying between 1853 and 1863
were years of steady and stable growth; for,
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 63
although they are marked by the temporary
suspension of both the oldest and youngest
chapters, they saw two new members admitted
to the hallowed circle. The dissolution of the
Alpha was owing to events which took place
in the class of 1857-events which in no wise
reflected upon the character of the chapter or
of the Fraternity, but grew out of an acciden-
tally strong anti-society element in the class,
leading to the withdrawal from the institution
of most or all of the Greek-letter societies.
The last members of the chapter in this, its
first period, graduated in 1858. One of them
says:—“In my day we had a capital set of
fellows in the Psi Upsilon, and many good
times, and I remember the meetings with great
pleasure. It is pleasant to me now, too, to
have the memories of those good times awak-
ened." In 1858 the Fraternity established a
twelfth chapter -- the Upsilon of
Rochester University, which began The Upsilon.
its existence on February 15 of that
MA
64
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
year, with eight charter members, all of marked
character and scholarship. The Beta was the
instituting chapter, and was represented by
the Rev. Augustus Strong, D. D., president of
the Rochester Theological Seminary, and by the
Hon. Theodore Bacon of the famous Yale class
of 1853. The new chapter, in its incipient
stage, found the road to Psi-Upsilonism as hard
to travel as have most of the recently estab-
lished branches of the Fraternity. One chap-
ter, the Lambda, with rigid conservatism, held
out against the admission of the new candi-
date. Mr. Bacon, as a resident of Rochester,
felt a warm interest in the success of the
petitioners; he was then a recent graduate,
and personally besought the active members
of the Beta to do what lay in their power to
change the sentiments of the Lambda. Ac-
cordingly, a large party of Beta men suddenly
appeared one evening at a Lambda meeting,
and by dint of argument and persuasion in-
duced the chapter to look at the matter in a
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 65
more favorable light. One of the ambassadors
from Yale, the late Judge Samuel Dorr Faulk-
ner, declares that no cause in his legal experi-
ence, however difficult, and no jury, however
obstinate, ever so strained his reasoning and
persuasive powers as did the Lambda chapter
on this occasion. The Upsilon has, from the
start, justified the expectations of its advo-
cates, and has always been the strongest or-
ganization of its kind in the Rochester insti-
tution.
9
G
TRAN
Two years later the Fraternity overstepped
the boundaries of New York, and chartered a
chapter at Kenyon College in Ohio. The pe-
titioners especially active were Robert Mc-
Neilly, M. D., and the Rev. Erasmus Owen
Simpson; and they were greatly assisted in
their efforts by the willing help of the Rev.
John Cotton Smith, D. D., of the Kappa. "I
cannot tell you," one of the founders records,
"how many letters were written and how many
visits were made to Eastern colleges to influence
66
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
the chapters. Our task was difficult, yet we
regarded the prize as great; and although at
first we received but little encouragement, we
continued to press our suit until we secured
our chapter." It was three years after the first
petition was presented that the convention with
the Zeta in 1860 granted the long-
The Iota. sought charter. Dr. McNeilly visited
the Zeta, was there initiated, and on
November 24, himself instituted the Iota. The
numbers of this single Ohio chapter have not
always been great, but there is abundant testi-
mony that nowhere have the fires of Psi Upsi-
lon burned more brightly. In 1863 occurred
the temporary suspension of the mother chap-
ter. Union college, from a variety of causes,
had entered upon one of those periods of de-
pression to which all human institutions are
liable; it was found difficult to procure good
men, and the chapter finally succumbed to its
fate. Probably no incident in its annals ever
affected the Fraternity with such keen grief as
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 67
did this sinister event. The shadow which
thus obscured the natal home of Psi Up-
silon darkened every other Psi Upsilon house-
hold. At the two following conventions many
plans for the revival of the chapter were de-
bated, one of which was ultimately successful.
A noticeable change in the administration of
the Fraternity was brought about, at the con-
vention with the Gamma in 1857, by
the institution of an Executive Com-
mittee of three members resident in
New York city, the first committee consisting
of the Rev. Morgan Dix, D. D., of the Lambda,
Dr. Henry Reed Stiles of the Delta, and William
Henry Linus Barnes of the Beta. But this
newly-created executive body, in almost its
very first act, chanced to offend a portion of
the Fraternity- a fact which led ultimately to
its modification. In this decade occurred the
only conventions, two in number, which have
not been held in immediate connection with
one of the chapters. In 1858 the Zeta, with
Executive
Committee.
68 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
which the annual assemblage was to take place,
announced, a month before the usual date of
the sessions, that it could not possibly make
the necessary arrangements. It was too late
to take any other steps, and the Executive
Committee accordingly summoned a conven-
tion, to be held in New York under the joint
auspices of the Delta and Lambda. The Gamma
regarded the action of the Committee as un-
constitutional, and declined to send delegates.
Eight other chapters, however, were repre-
sented. In 1863 the convention was called, in
the same way, to meet at Albany, and the depu-
ties of eleven chapters were present,-
as well as an unusual number of
graduates desirous of commemorating
the completion of the first generation of Psi
Upsilon. Two noteworthy incidents marked
this convention. One was an application for
permission to establish a chapter at Elmira
Female College, which was summarily refused.
The other was a humorous speech by Mr. John
Third Decade
Convention.
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 69
Godfrey Saxe, who took an active part in all
the proceedings, in which he deplored the un-
happy fate of his son, John Theodore Saxe,
who, as a member of the University of Ver-
mont, was not in a position to be admitted to
the joys of Psi Upsilon. The convention ex-
pressed its sympathy by offering to the son of
this warm-hearted Psi Upsilon a unanimous
election to the Fraternity, and he was initiated
on the spot.
St
Almost at the opening of the next decade
(1863-1873) two happy occurrences took place.
In 1865 the Theta was reëstablished by order
of the convention, and with the active coöper-
ation of the Psi. Eight undergraduates of
Union were selected; the Psi performed the
initiatory services; and the flame once more
ascended from the ancient altar, destined, let
us hope, never to be extinguished. In the
same year Michigan's great and growing in-
stitution of learning - which had surprised the
world by suddenly rising to the highest educa-
70 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
tional rank, almost in the midst of the primeval
forest became the seat of a chapter of the
Psi Upsilon. Its formation was preceded, as
usual, by a long period of vain endeavor. The
applicants were members of the Lambda chap-
ter of the Beta Theta Pi society. The first pe-
tition was laid before the convention
The Phi. by the Zeta chapter in 1855, but no
result followed. The matter was
pushed with steady zeal by members of suc-
cessive classes, until at last the convention of
1864 at the Psi yielded to the oft-repeated en-
treaties of the distant petitioners, and the Phi
chapter was organized January 26, 1865, nearly
ten years after the primary steps were taken.
The Iota was deputed to install the new chap-
ter, and the rites were performed by Clifford
Beakes Rossell, then the Iota's chief officer.
Fourteen members of the classes at that time
in the university assumed the badge. The
strength of this Western branch of our national
Fraternity may be gauged by the fact that of
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 71
the existing faculty of Michigan University
nine are Psi Upsilons, of whom all but one
were originally connected with the Phi. The
chapter-roll, in spite of its comparative brevity,
contains some names of wide and deserved ce-
lebrity such as those of John Craig Watson,
the astronomer; Charles Kendall Adams, the
historical writer; and the Hon. Jonas Hartzel
McGowan, who has already served two terms
in the United States House of Representatives.
At the convention of 1868, held with the Phi,
the Delta was reported to be in the hands of
its resident-graduate members, who, to prevent
its affairs from falling, through improper elec-
tions, under unworthy control, came forward
and assumed the duties of active members.
This state of things continued but a few months
when a zealous body of undergraduates was
once more brought together. At the same con-
vention the Fraternity, moved by the repre-
sentations of the large body of graduate Psi
Upsilons resident in Chicago, favored the grant
72
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
↑
of a charter to the university situated in that
city, and in this way the Omega, the
The Omega. fifteenth on the catalogue of chapters,
commenced its career. Especially
active in promoting the purposes of the peti-
tioners was Cornelius Faling Brown of the
Theta. The new chapter- now the western-
most of Psi Upsilon hearths- was organized
by the Phi, April 17, 1869. In the same year,
at the convention with the Theta, the fourth
constitution was adopted. In the course of
time the old instrument of 1844 had been well-
nigh smothered with amendments, and the su-
preme law of the Brotherhood had lost much
of its simplicity and systematic arrangement.
For two or three years the question of its com-
plete and thorough revision had been carefully
discussed, and the whole subject was at last
submitted to a committee, which did its work
so well that its report was adopted with only a
few unimportant changes. The principal inno-
vation in the administration of the Fraternity
-
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 73
by the new instrument was the substitution of
an Executive Council of five for the
old Executive Committee of three,
which, of late years, had proved inef-
ficient. The first Executive Council was com-
posed of Daniel Greenleaf Thompson of the
Gamma, Robert Lenox Belknap of the Lambda,
both of whom had taken part in the task of
remodeling the fundamental law,-William
Conrad Rhodes of the Sigma, William Forbes
Morgan of the Delta, and Robert Weeks De
Forest of the Beta. This same convention
adopted the Convention-rules, which went into
effect the following year, and are still opera-
tive. In the winter of 1869-70, mainly through
the laudable efforts of the Sigma, the Alpha
chapter was revived, and continued to maintain
a flourishing existence until the month of No-
vember, 1872, when, in consequence of the pe-
culiar relation of the local open societies to the
student-world, the second dissolution took
place, greatly to the regret of the entire Fra-
PODOMANDA, JA
Executive
Council.
10
74 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
ternity. With the convention of 1872 began
the practice of printing the convention pro-
ceedings. These transactions were, in the ear-
lier years, reported to each chapter by its dele-
gates; but in 1851 the office of Recorder was
instituted, the duty of that official being to
furnish to every chapter an account of the la-
bors of the convention. The end of the fourth
decade was signalized by the convention held
with the Zeta in 1873, at which the principal
topic of discussion was the recent cessation of
the Alpha's existence, and the mode in which it
had been effected.
The earliest notable event of the fifth de-
cennium was the foundation, in the summer of
1875, of the sixteenth chapter-the
The Pi. Pi, at Syracuse University. This cen-
tral New York institution was the suc-
cessor of Genesee University, at which, in 1863,
had been formed a local society under the name
of Upsilon Kappa. In the following year this
organization sought, at the hands of the conven-
We
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 75
tion held with the Psi, permission to enter the
pale of the Fraternity. A like petition was pre-
sented to nearly every succeeding convention:
At the establishment of the Syracuse Univer-
sity, the Upsilon Kappa society was transferred
to the new institution, and another effort to
obtain the requisite charter was made through
the agency of Mr. George William Elliott, an
ardent member of the Xi, who had connected
himself with the newly-created seat of learn-
ing. The final attempt owes its success largely
to the intelligent, energetic, and persistent la-
bors of Mr. Chester Adgate Congdon, who, in
the prosecution of his purpose, personally vis-
ited every chapter, and felt himself abundantly
rewarded when he witnessed the institution
of the Pi by a properly designated delegation
from the Gamma, June 8, 1875. Twelve
months later, in the midst of the stirring in-
cidents of the nation's centennial jubilee, a
seventeenth chapter grew into existence at
Cornell University. The story of its origin
76 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
forms a historic parallel to that which narrates
the beginning of the Alpha chapter at Har-
vard. A few graduate members of the Frater-
nity, partly through an over-zealous activity,
partly through their ignorance of the required
constitutional forms, were led to attempt the
establishment of a branch of the Fraternity
without previously obtaining the unanimous
consent of the chapters. The convention of
1875 at the Kappa repudiated the pseudo-
chapter, and their action was succeeded by a
long period of correspondence and discussion,
of explanations and demands, of investigations
by the Executive Council, and of delegations
to the various chapters, ending at length in
a compromise not unlike that which was
adopted in the case of the Alpha. Delegates
from the Executive Council insti-
The Chi. tuted the Chi at Ithaca, June 7, 1876,
the literary exercises of the occasion
taking place under the presidency of the genial
"Old Bill" Taylor, whose fraternal ardor old
THE "STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 77
age and its accompanying ills serve only to
augment. The new chapter was fortunate in
being able to introduce to membership in the
Psi Upsilon, in the capacity of charter asso-
ciates, that ripe English scholar, distinguished
alike in the mother country of our race and
in its daughter land, Professor Goldwin Smith,
whose active interest in the American collegi-
ate Brotherhood yields to that of no Psi Up-
silon to the manner born; and that ingenious
writer, Professor Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen,
the poet of this semi-centennial anniversary.
The convention of 1879 was held, at its special
request, with the Beta, to celebrate the fortieth
year of the Yale chapter's existence. At its
sessions was presented a petition
from the Beta Beta society of Trin-
ity College for incorporation into the
Fraternity. The petitioners desired not only
the admission of the society's undergraduate
members to the bonds of Psi Upsilon, but of
its graduates as well. There were many con-
The
Beta Beta.
78 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
servative elders who looked askance at the
novel proposal, chiefly on account of the ap-
parent impossibility of initiating so large a
number of graduates, scattered over the whole
country, not a few of whom had left the halls
of their college more than a score of years
before. But the new chapter, instituted at
Hartford, February 4, 1880, has succeeded, by
a singular energy, in accomplishing the task
so courageously undertaken, and has actually
made the current of Psi Upsilon history flow
back over thirty years of Trinity College's ex-
istence. Though the latest born of the fair
daughters of Psi Upsilon, the Beta Beta has
already proved herself as comely, as sage, and
as sturdy as the best of her elder sisters.
The closing ten years of the half-century
have been of particular interest in
Psi Upsilon the annals of Psi Upsilon literature.
The book of Fraternity songs has
been carefully revised, and its lyrical treasures
greatly augmented; a journal devoted to Fra-
Bibliography.
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON* 79
ternity purposes, under the significant title of
The Diamond, was founded by the Chi in 1877,
and is still issued under the supervision of the
Theta; and in 1879 appeared that every way
remarkable volume, the ninth General Cata-
logue of Psi Upsilon, for the compilation of
which the Fraternity is indebted, as for so
many other valuable labors in its behalf, to the
marvelous industry and generous self-sacrifice
of Charles Wesley Smiley, the secretary of the
Executive Council. The condensation of the
records of the various conventions, with the
view of gathering into a single accessible vol-
ume the little-known incidents of our gradual
growth, the publication of many addresses,
poems, and essays of a Psi Upsilon character,
and the appearance of a Bibliographia Psi-
Upsilonica enumerating the various issues of
the Psi Upsilon press, are among the note-
worthy literary occurrences of these latest years.
In looking back over the fifty years which
have elapsed since the Seven Fathers affixed
80
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
their signatures to the Pledge, which was to give
rise to an organization so extended and in its
sphere so powerful, we are struck by the long
series of favoring events which have tended to
foster the growth of Psi Upsilon. The Foun-
ders undoubtedly builded better than they
knew. The time and the place were unexpect-
edly favorable to their undertaking; the class
of 1838 at Union chanced to comprise men of
extraordinary maturity and strength of char-
acter, destined to give the nascent society a
sudden and vigorous development; and the
earliest chapters fell, at their genesis, almost ac-
cidentally into the hands of persons peculiarly
fitted to lay their foundations deeply and firmly.
But the rise and extension of Psi-Upsilonism
were not wholly fortuitous. The just princi-
ples early recognized and adopted, the wise
regulations so speedily established, the warm
feeling of brotherhood so strenuously incul-
cated, the rigidity with which, at least in the
first years, the mandates of the constitution in
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 81
regard to literary exercises were enforced, the
independence of action allowed to the individ-
ual chapters, the caution generally exhibited
in extending the Fraternity's territory -all
these things have largely contributed to the
proper development of the Psi Upsilon, and
have shaped its character aright. The limita-
tion of the organization, for a long period, to
the oldest colleges of New England and New
York afforded time for a healthy consolidation
and a cohesive growth, after which a gradual
enlargement of the bounds could safely take
place. To this cause may be ascribed the fact
that the Psi Upsilon has but one inactive chap-
ter. A wholesome force, too, has been the ear-
nest and enduring devotion of a few men-the
chivalric knights of our order, and hereafter
the heroes of its legendary age of whom some
have been mentioned by name, who did not
permit the closing gates of college life to shut
out from their hearts the love and the memory
of Psi Upsilon, but who have continued to
11
hajde
82 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
haunt the old halls and to lay upon the old
altars the kindly and grateful offering of an
affection mellowed and ripened by life's varied
experience. It is impossible not to think that
another important factor of our prosperity has
been the Songs of the Fraternity. In their
spirit and tone, and in their general literary
excellence, they certainly compare most favor-
ably with any student-songs in the world, even
with those sung by the Corps and Burschen-
schaften of Germany, and by the Nations of
the Scandinavian universities. In this connec-
tion one name especially will at once recur to
the minds of all those whose mem-
Psi Upsilon bership lies within the last thirty
years the name of "Psi U. Finch,"
who now occupies so worthily a seat on New
York's highest judicial bench-the Hon. Fran-
cis Miles Finch of the Beta. He has written
more than one lyric which has enjoyed a singu-
lar popularity in the outer world; but his Psi
Upsilon songs are at least equally graceful,
Minstrelsy.
M
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 83
equally fervid, and equally well adapted to
their purpose. One of them, possibly the most
pleasing lay, in any literature, inspired by Vir-
ginia's care-soothing weed, has passed beyond
the confines of the Fraternity, and, by right of
universal use, has become the common prop-
erty of the students of America. Nor is Judge
Finch the sole minstrel of the Psi Upsilon.
The songs of Professor Calvin Sears Harring-
ton, of the Xi, are productions of exceptional
merit. It is difficult to conceive anything
more inspiring that his "Diamond Song," or
more happily imagined that his "Dear old
Shrine." The names of Saxe and DeMille and
Alger and Boyesen names which have won
popular recognition in the world of letters-
ought not to be omitted in the enumeration of
our song-writers, and a score of others might
fittingly find places in such a roll of honor.
It is evidently impossible, in a brief and
hastily written historical sketch, to make even
a passing mention of the many members of the
T
84
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
Psi Upsilons.
Psi Upsilon whose post-collegiate careers have
shed luster upon the Fraternity. In politics,
in literature, in theology, their names abun-
dantly occur. Without traversing
Illustrious the whole past, it may be noted, in an
illustrative way, that just before the
publication of the catalogue of 1879 the Gov-
ernors of three states were Psi Upsilons; that,
at a nominating convention of one of the po-
litical parties in Massachusetts, the two most
prominent candidates for the office of chief
magistrate of the commonwealth were both
Psi Upsilons; that in a gubernatorial contest
held, at the same date, in adjoining Connecti-
cut, one of the nominees was likewise a Psi
Upsilon; that in the Forty-third Congress
then in session seven Psi Upsilons occupied
seats either in the Senate or House of Repre-
sentatives, while another Psi Upsilon sat in the
Cabinet; that in the legal world, to cite only a
single state, upwards of half a dozen places on
the bench of New York's Supreme Court were
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 85
filled by Psi Upsilons, while three Psi Upsilons
served contemporaneously, in three adjoining
localities, as district attorney of New York, dis-
trict attorney of Brooklyn, and United States
district attorney for the metropolis. At that
time, too, the heads of three out of the five or
six principal universities of the country were
Psi Upsilons, and one of the New York col-
leges had just elected its third successive Psi
Upsilon president. Five of the most eminent
professors at Harvard were Psi Upsilons; a
score of Psi Upsilons were to be found in the
corps of instructors at Yale; and six of the
chairs at Amherst, ten of those at Michigan,
and nine of those at Cornell, were occupied by
Psi Upsilons. Similar statistics, if collected to-
day, would be even more striking. Men like
Marsh and the younger Agassiz, Watson and
Packard in science, like Saxe and Whipple and
Warner and Stedman and Tourgee in polite
letters, like Bishops Littlejohn and Perry and
Spaulding and Whittaker and Brown, like
86 THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON
James Strong and John Cotton Smith, Morgan
Dix and DeKoven and Newman in theology
are only types of the multitude of widely-known
scientists and authors and divines who, as un-
dergraduates, have worn the Diamond Badge.
To turn to another department of learning, it is
worthy of remark that old states like Rhode
Island and Connecticut, and new states like
California and Minnesota, have alike found
their ablest historians among members of the
Fraternity, while three writers could with diffi-
culty be named who have thrown more light
on obscure details of our national history than
George Henry Moore of New York, Henry
Martyn Dexter of Boston, and James Ham-
mond Trumbull of Hartford, the first-named a
member of the Delta, and the last two sons of
the Beta.
Such, brothers of Psi Upsilon, are the an-
nals, rudely recounted, of our cherished Bro-
therhood. They do not relate to the past
alone, for they augur to us a propitious fu-
THE STORY OF THE PSI UPSILON 87
ture a future more glorious than the past,
as a June noon is more glorious than a Jan-
uary twilight. Half a century of time now
lies behind us; we are celebrating our first
jubilee. As we round this outlying point in
the voyage of our fraternal existence, let us
more than ever remember that the best of
human institutions can be made better. Let
us remember that the universities of America
are rapidly rising in character, in learning, in
influence. Let us see to it that American
student-life keeps pace with this swift pro-
gress, and that, of all the features of Ameri-
can student-life, the Psi Upsilon shall continue
to be the brightest and the highest.

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