1912–13 Volume 37 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

356 THE SCROLLEFFECT OF THE CIVIL WAR ON FRATERNITIESThe * K * Shield for October, 19,12, contains a very interestingarticle which shows the number of active chapters of fraternities in1861, the losses of chapters during the civil war, and the recuperationthat fraternities made in the first few years after the war. As far canbe determined from the 1912 edition of "Baird's Manual of AmericanCollege Fraternities", the number of active chapters of some of themore prominent fraternities just previous to the war and in 1865 and1869 was as shown in the following table:yRATERNITYDelta Kappa EpsilonBeta Theta PiAlpha Delta PhiPhi Kappa PsiPhi Gamma Delta . . .Psi UpsilonPhi Delta ThetaNumber of active chaptersi86i3022l8I?1412ID1865191816II101351869Before the war AKE was the great expansion fraternity, butB 0 n, A A * and * K * were also widely extended, and each ofthese four fraternities had a larger number of chapters than anyother fraternity., * A © then had a smaller number of active chaptersthan any other of the seven fraternities.shown in the table. Onaccount of the war, $ A ® lost five of its ten chapters, a greater proportionof loss than was suffered by any other of these fraternitiss.$ A ® moreover was slower in recovering from the effects of the war,and of these fraternities it still had, four years after the war, muchthe smallest number of active chapters. In 1869 $ A ® had scarcelybegun to have any "indications of its future sweeping and powerfulmethods," to use a phrase applied to it in the Shield article.* A O's extensive development did not really begin until 1871,but during the next two decades, it grew at a phenomenal rate, andit became firmly established in all sections of the United States.During these years it acquired the leadership in the number of chapters,and this lead was maintained until 1905, when it was passedby K S.The facts regarding the comparative effects of the war on thefraternities have so far as the writer knows, never before been presented.The facts show that until 1869 * A ® was one of the smallerfraternities. Until that time its membership, .as well as its numberof chapters, was small. Even as late as 1883, its membership wasrelatively small.The 1912 edition of Baird's Manual gives summaries of the membershipof fraternities as shown in the 1883 edition and later editionsof that book. In 1883, A K E had 8,316 members; A A *,2625172421149