The History of Sigma Phi Epsilon

This fraternity will be different; it will be based on the love of God and the principle of peace through brotherhood.” ~SigEp Founders Jenkens, Gaw, and Phillips

Sigma Phi Epsilon was founded on November 1, 1901 at Richmond College in Richmond, Virginia. At the time, Richmond College was only 200 men large, and almost half belonged to five pre-existing fraternities. Most of the national fraternities, as their histories show, have been established simply because they were needed. The hunger for brotherhood was at the bottom of an unrest in young men's souls. Sigma Phi Epsilon was founded because twelve young collegians hungered for a campus fellowship based on Judeo/Christian ideals that neither the college community nor the fraternity system at the time could offer. Sigma Phi Epsilon was needed. It was founded, moreover, because the leadership which is required for such a project asserted itself in fortunate ways.

Carter Ashton Jenkens, the 18-year-old son of a minister, had been a student at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he had joined Chi Phi Fraternity. When he transferred to Richmond College in the fall of 1900, his new companions took the place of the Chi Phi Brothers he had left behind at Rutgers. During the course of the term, he found five men who had already been drawn into a bond of an informal fellowship, and he urged them to join him in applying for a Charter of Chi Phi at Richmond College. They agreed, and the request for a Charter was forwarded to Chi Phi only to meet with refusal because Chi Phi felt that Richmond College, as any college with less then 300 students, was too small for the establishment of a Chi Phi Chapter. Wanting to maintain their fellowship, the six men - Carter Ashton Jenkens, Benjamin Donald Gaw, William Hugh Carter, William Andrew Wallace, Thomas Temple Wright, and William Lazell Phillips - decided to form their own local fraternity.

After assembling six additional men - Lucian Baum Cox, Richard Spurgeon Owens, Edgar Lee Allen, Robert Alfred McFarland, Frank Webb Kerfoot, and Thomas Vaden McCaul - the group had their first meeting sometime in October, 1901 in Ryland Hall to discuss the organization of the new Fraternity they would eventually call "Sigma Phi Epsilon." The first official roster was made on November 1, with Jenkens listed as the first member.

If you would like to know more about the history of Virginia Alpha, click here.

Written by Martin Hewett