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

THE SCROLL. 31four years. During the seige of Yorktown the college was temporarilyclosed for the accommodation of the American troops and theirFrench allies. At the last meeting of the Society, held on January6, 1781, five members were present, and the minutes say:They, thinking it most advisable that the papers should not be removed,determined to deliver them sealed into the hands of the College Steward, toremain with him until the desirable event of the Society's resurrection. Andthis deposit they make in the sure and certain hope that the Fraternity willone day rise to life everlasting and glory immortal.* B K had then enrolled fifty members. Of the founders not onewas over twenty years of age when the Society was founded; andof the fifty members enrolled by 1781, probably not more than threewere over twenty-five when admitted. Many of these fifty membersserved in the Continental Army. Seventeen became members of theVirginia House of Burgesses or Senate or both, eight became membersof the convention that ratified the Federal constitution, five becameRepresentatives in Congress and two United States Senators. Themost noted were John Marshall, who became Chief Justice of theUnited States, and Bushrod Washington, who became a Justice ofthe United States, and who was a nephew of George Washington,and, after Mrs. Washington's death, inherited Mount Vernon.The minutes of * B K, 1776 to 1781, give a record of seventy-fourmeetings. The box containing them was not found until 1848. Itwas then sent to the Virginia Historical Society. The Society wasreorganized at William and Mary in 1849, and was given an apostolicbenediction by William Short, the second President, who aftera distinguished diplomatic career, was living in Philadelphia at theage of ninety. It is an interesting fact that he died on December 5,1849, just seventy-three years after $ B K was founded.The Society continued at William and Mary until 1861, when thecollege was closed on account of the Civil War. After the War,the college was in a very crippled condition, and, on account offinancial difficulties, it closed a third time in 1881. The State havingprovided appropriations for the college, it reopened a third time in1888. It now receives $40,000 annually from the State. The largestattendance at any time before the Civil War was one hundred andforty; now the number of students is more than double that figure.When the college celebrated its bi-centennial in 1893, $ B K wasrestored there. The original records, found in the archives of theVirginia Historical Society in 1890, were returned to the college,and "The Original Records of the Phi Beta Kappa Society," 1776-1781, were published in the William and Mary College QuarterlyHistorical Magazine for April, 1896. That issue of this periodicalalso contains an exterior view of the old Raleigh Tavern, and a woodcut of the obverse and reverse of the njedal of * B K. The cuts ofthe medal were made from one of the original medals, which is inthe possession of the Virginia Historical Society, and is the only one