Rochester Chapter
Alpha Delta Phi
History
Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity | Rochester Chapter | Samuel Eells
Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity
Alpha Delta Phi was founded in 1832 at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York by Samuel Eells (1810-1842). Founded as a literary society, it evolved into one of the most distinguished of the original American college fraternities. It has retained its focus on its literary roots, by attracting only the best students at only the best colleges and universities in Canada and the United States. Our chapters are leaders on their respective campuses, where some of our chapter houses have been designated architectural or historic landmarks. The Alpha Delta Phi experience has helped a disproportionate number of its 50,000 lifelong members to become top leaders in industry, government, education, and religion.
Samuel Eells, the provident founder of The Alpha Delta Phi, most eloquently expressed the principle purpose of the fraternity. It was his intent that “this new association, with a true philosophical spirit, looking to the entire man, develop his whole being—moral, social and intellectual.” Since its beginning at Hamilton College in 1832, The Alpha Delta Phi has sought to provide a comprehensive growth experience for young men at leading universities and colleges in Canada and the United States.
As lifelong members of a fraternal brotherhood, Brothers unite to participate in an atmosphere of energetic and concerted interaction where the moral, social and intellectual aspects of each man’s character may grow and flourish. Special importance is attached to five areas: enhancing personal self esteem; promoting constructive respect and caring for others with diverse backgrounds and personalities; developing leadership qualities and self discipline; improving scholastic and literary skills; and serving the school and community.
Fraternity involvement is characterized by undertaking responsibilities within a group of peers while at the same time having contact with interested alumni. This process enhances individual self-respect as well as fostering responsible concern for others within the chapter. The Fraternity’s tradition is to seek members from a broad spectrum of backgrounds, interests and skills. In this climate, each Brother develops an appreciation of those different from himself and comes to understand how the viewpoints of others can enrich his own life.
The formulation and pursuit of group goals requires the active and disciplined participation of all Brothers. Responsible involvement in managing the chapter programs and physical plant extends the leadership and team skills of the Brothers.
In addition to chapter-oriented activities, Brothers are encouraged to undertake projects that benefit both school and community. Along with the additional growth in group skills, each Brother comes to appreciate the personal and societal rewards associated with contributing to a larger community.
Standards of behavior and achievement are not rigidly imposed; however, excellence is strongly encouraged. Moreover, there is a strong emphasis on brotherhood and blending one’s personal interests with those of the chapter. The Alpha Delta Phi has many programs and activities directed toward helping chapters and individual Brothers set objectives and realize their goals.
Many special benefits accrue to members of The Alpha Delta Phi. The most obvious and immediate is the unique opportunity for a practical leadership experience while learning to work harmoniously within a group. Over a longer horizon, there is the joy of lifelong friendships with men who hold similar aims and ideals. Many of these friendships span age differences. Undergraduate Brothers often receive their first introduction to a profession or a business career through successful alumni who have had similar experiences. And later on, interested alumni may also foster leadership qualities in the next generation through their participation in chapter advisory boards and in regional activities.
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Rochester Chapter
The annals of the Rochester Chapter start with a sleigh ride. On the afternoon of February 18th, 1850, eight students of Madison University (now Colgate) crowded into a sleigh and drove twenty miles over the snow to Clinton. At the Clinton house, which appears to have been a hotel in the village, they were initiated into the mysteries of the Alpha Delta Phi by the Hamilton Chapter.
The minutes of the meeting are still in the archives at Hamilton and state these eight men “had the intention of a removal to Rochester and the establishment there of a new charter.” There is no record of any charter having been granted to this group at Madison, and if meetings were held the minutes have not survived.
When the University of Rochester started almost a year later, in November, 1851, over half of both the faculty and the student body at Madison seceded from Rochester. Two of the Alpha Deltas had graduated from Madison the previous June and seven more had been initiated making the number thirteen. There were the charter members of the Rochester Chapter-a group which had the unique distinction of being older than the college in which it had functioned.
It was by no means all smooth sailing at the start. The faculty was strongly opposed to the starting of any secret societies in the newly launched college and had in fact passes a resolution condemning them. But Professor Kendrick came to the rescue. While not an Alpha Delt himself he had been a classmate and close friend of Samuel Eells at Hamilton. This was enough. He knew that any brotherhood conceived and established by Brother Eells must be good. Being a man of strong personality and acting president, he made his point. This early opposition and its ultimate defeat with the aid of Professor Kendrick may explain why the first recorded meeting at Rochester was not held in November, 1850, as we might expect, but in September, 1851.
The complete series of minute books recording the Chapter’s meeting has been preserved and the first entry in Volume I is dated September 16, 1851. It reports that “the society met in the basement of the one and only college building, in the janitor’s parlor, as no regular place of meeting had been procured.” The secretary was instructed to write Hamilton Chapter with regard to procuring a charter.
On May 31, 1852, came a letter from Brother Day, President of the Fraternity, containing the welcome news that charter had been granted. The Charter was first called the Empire Chapter, and the name was retained until about 1860, when it was changed to the present name of the Rochester Chapter.
During the first years of its existence, the College being poor and there being comparatively few students, the Chapter suffered many hardships, being reduced at one time of an active membership of men. As the college became richer and more prosperous the Chapter become stronger in proportion, and now occupies a secure and honorable position among the institutions of the University of Rochester.
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Samuel Eells
There is a large body of educated men in this country, many of them among the most prominent in the departments of literature and science, and in the ranks of professional and political life, who will feel special interest in these reminiscences, as the name of Samuel Eells has become familiar to them from its repetition in scenes which they remember with pleasure. These are the members of The Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity, an organization which has been of so much value to those who have been connected with it that it is cherished with peculiar affection and respect, even after college days have long been passed. It was with feelings of deepest interest that Mr. Eells watched the growing prosperity of this Fraternity, although it was hardly beyond its infancy at the time of his death. He believed it would be greatly useful, and nothing accomplished by him afforded him such satisfaction as the promise of the several chapters which were bearing the spirit of Alpha Delta Phi into the leading colleges of the land.
He has given a short account of the circumstances which led to the formation of the Fraternity; and as it will be read with interest by those thus related, for whom, indeed, for the most part, this memorial is prepared, it has been thought there can be no impropriety in its insertion here. As it was written, however, amidst the pressure of other engagements and in haste, and as some parts of it are necessarily omitted, it will be seen that it is quite incomplete.
“When I entered Hamilton College in the year 1827, there were two Literary Societies in the institution, viz: the Phoenix and the Philopeuthian, afterwards called the Phi Gamma Alpha, and finally, from its junction with the Irving Society, the Union. Between these a strong and active rivalry had been maintained; and such, at the time I allude to, was their mutual jealousy and activity, that I almost determined to join neither. But importunity and persecution were only to be escaped by becoming attached to one or the other. I finally gave my name to the Philopeuthian; but the affairs of both had been so desperate during the unhappy condition of the college for some time previous to this year, that they prepared now for a mighty struggle for the vantage ground, as the whole institution seemed to breathe a new life. It is not necessary to detail the history of this struggle, which continued for three years, with abundant bitterness on both sides. So far was the competition carried that it took possession of the best academics in the State. Scarcely a student of any pretensions to scholarship presented himself for admission to college who had not been solicited by both Societies. The means of persuasion were often of the most unscrupulous kind. Neither side hesitated to make use of dissimulation and deceit, and degrading compliances, until college life exhibited a scene of jealousy and strife, in which he who could plan and successfully execute a low manoeuvre, or put upon a fabrication the guise of plausibility, became equally formidable to the opposite party and a favorite with his own. The effect of this state of things on the character of the students was deplorable, and among a few of us was a subject of common and frequent regret. It seemed to chill all the noble and generous affections of the youthful spirit, and destroyed or corrupted the very elements of honorable and manly character. Besides drawing off attention from study, it alienated bosom friends, divided classes, and embittered not only public exercises, but all associations for mutual improvement, whether moral, literary or religious. It was a contemplation of these and similar evils, that first suggested to me the idea of establishing a Society of a higher nature, and more comprehensive and better principles; one that should combine all the advantages of a union for intellectual and literary purposes, and at the same time maintain the integrity of youthful character, and cultivate those finer feelings which it was the effect of college societies in general to extinguish or enfeeble. The undertaking was an arduous one. The obstacles to be encountered were formidable enough from the very nature of the enterprise, and were rendered much more so by the general distrust with which I was aware the plan would be received by those on whom I mainly relied.
“In the first place, the new association must differ from others, in all points necessary to the exclusion of that jealousy and angry competition which I had always felt to be the bane of college life. In the second place, it must be built on a more comprehensive scale than other societies, in regard to its intellectual proportions; providing for every variety of taste and talent, and embracing every department of literature and science. In the third place, it must be national and universal in its adaptations, so as not merely to cultivate a taste for literature or furnish the mind with knowledge; but with a true philosophical spirit looking to the entire man, so as to develop his whole being—moral, social and intellectual. In the fourth place, it must be made a living, growing, self-perpetuating institution, which can be done only by stamping its whole character and arrangements with a great and manifest superiority to other societies, and by attaching its members to it, by an indissoluble bond of union and binding them to real and personal interest in its welfare. Finally, its actual, visible organization must be deferred till the general plan can be thoroughly matured, every preliminary settled, every influence secured, that may enable the enterprise to command assurance of success.”