Part Two
1865 - 1894
OUT OF THE ASHES . . .
"Like the Phoenix of antiquity the fraternity rose out of the ashes of war's destruction in 1865." -The Phoenix
After the war, most southern
campuses found their buildings burned, their resources gone, and
their students fewer. It was difficult
for fraternities to
survive in this kind of atmosphere. Of the fifteen ante-bellum
chapters, only one survived the war.
Washington City Rho (in
Wash. DC) still lived, but was unknown to SAE's who returned to their
chapter only to find it destroyed.
Then two young men named John Bagby and Robert Atkinson took charge. They sent to obtain the constitution of the fraternity, so that they could re-organize the Virginia Omecron chapter. Slowly, chapters were established or revived one by one on college campuses. Georgia Pi was revived, and Mississippi Gamma, Louisiana Epsilon, and Tennessee Lambda were all established before the second national convention in 1867. At the convention they re-organized the fraternity, and discussed northern expansion. As a result, five more chapters were created or revived by 1870, including Kentuchky Chi. At the 1870 convention, the fraternity elected its first national officer, Issac T. Heard of Georga Beta(Pi), in the office of Grand Treasurer.
THE LEAN YEARS
Though the fraternity was revived, it was not flourishing. The 1870s proved to be difficult years for SAE. During the decade, only nine new chapters were established, and two were revived. Yet, some had died, and by the 1879 convention, the fraternity only counted nine active chapters. It was on the strength of two chapters, Georgia Beta and Kentucy Chi, that kept the fraternity in tact.
On February 18, 1877, the men of Kentucky Chi fired of an address that declared the fraternity in imminent danger of extinction, and subsequently called an emergency convention. Joesph W. Walt, SAE historian, has said "that this address was one of the most important papers ever issued by an SAE chapter." At the convention, Kentucky Chi was named the Grand Chapter, led by the energetic Robert Wildberger. They collected dues from chapters for the first time, and kept communication amongst chapters open. Two years later, Wildberger was selected as editor of a fraternity magazine, to be called The Record.
That convention also featured a decision by the chapters to avoid being absorbed by any other fraternity at all costs. Such a resolution was neccessary, as the fraternity had been pursued by Beta Theta Pi to unite the two. In 1880, Delta Tau Delta proposed union. "Union" is perhaps too leanient, as DTD had 23 chapters to SAE's nine. A letter sent by the Delts wrote that our chapters "are in good colleges and occupy high positions." Then in 1881, Wildberger heard from Alpha Tau Omega, a fraternity in a simalar situation as his own.
As a response to the persuit by other fraternities, Wildberger wrote in The Record
There are several fraternities waiting around to pick the bones of SAE; but we will go to some of their funerals yet! SAE is not dead, and not going to die; pleas don't forget that. We are not even sick. It's very compilentary always receiving offers of union with other similar bodies, but it's very destructive to a fraternity which means to live to site down and discuss such offers, or to listen to them. SAE henceforth will hear nothing of such offers. . . we simply want to be let alone.
There were no further proposals of union.
THE REVIVAL AND HARRY BUNTING
In 1883, the first chapter in the North was formed at Gettysburg, and expansion in southern states grew rapidly. It was looking like a revival might be possible. By 1885, the fraternity had recovered astonishingly well from its sorry state of only five years before. Counting 30 chapters, the fraternity started the Supreme Council system of government, the same system used today. Also at the landmark 1885 convention the system of regianal provinces was introduced. In 1886, Tennessee Omega became the first chapter to bouild a chapter house.
Little did the fraternity know,
but when it initated 16 year old Harry Stanhope Bunting on
September 18, 1886, it was about to become a national power.
Bunting is credited with fueling the emergence of SAE from obscurity
to national prominence in eight years. When Bunting entered SAE, he was
disturbed by the state of many of the chapters. He encouraged
chapters to increase their membership to 20, a shocking number
for the times. Buntings goal was to expand the 27 active chapters
into 100 chapters, in the finist universities of the North and
West. From 1887 to 1894 Bunting and his brothers had established
29 new chapters, 24 of which were in the North, and revived six
chapters that were dead in 1886.
To promote the extension cause and anything else he had im mind, Harry Bunting in 1892 startind printing a publication called The Hustler, "a secret quarterly bulletin for the conservation of energy, comparison of methods and propagation of new ideas." Since 1894 the journal has been called Phi Alpha. Bunting was also responsible for finding the original minutes of the Alabama Mu chapter, and even interviewed Newton Nash Clements, who still lived in Tuscaloosa. One of Buntings most important contributions was the introduction to some of SAE's future leaders, including Albert Austin. But by all odds the most important deed Bunting ever did for SAE happened when he singlehandedly founded a chapter at Northwestern University, and pledged an energetic young man who was known as being the strongest anti-fraternity man on campus. Impressed by his natural leadership, Bunting selected William C. Levere to be a member of the new chapter.