Delta Kappa Epsilon - University of Alabama

6 Delta Kappa Epsilon Most of us in the Psi Chapter are aware that our Chapter, the first fraternity at the University of Alabama, was founded in 1847. Many of us also know that Psi was involuntarily inactive from 1856-1885, due to a ban on all fraternities imposed by the University administration in 1856. Why was this ban enacted? At that time, the University had become increasingly wary of fraternities, but not for the same reasons generally espoused today by the PC crowd which sees fraternities as the embodiment of evil. Rather, the University became alarmed by the fact that most national fraternities were generally of Northern origin. Recall that DKE was itself founded at Yale, in Connecticut, in 1844. The Alabama faculty became increasingly concerned that the impressionable minds of young Southern men were liable to be "poisoned" by radical alien ideas filtering down from these fraternities' Northern chapters. What sort of "poisonous" ideas might they have had in mind in 1856? The faculty did not specifically say, but the abolition of slavery certainly comes to mind. In 1856, slavery was becoming a contentious national issue, and the movement for its abolition was gaining strength in the North. This issue of course became even more prominent four years later with the election of President Abraham Lincoln, with the Civil War breaking out shortly thereafter. So, with the ban on fraternities at Alabama taking effect in 1856, and lasting until 1885, the presence of DKE at the University was eliminated during that 29-year period, right? Well, yes and no. First of all, although not completely clear, the ban on fraternities may not have applied to the existing members of the fraternities, but rather only precluded the initiation of new members. At least eight Psi Brothers remained enrolled as students at the University from 1856-1859, and may have been allowed to informally continue to operate as DKE. 1 Their numbers gradually dwindled, however, and the last member of the old Psi Chapter to leave the student body was Brother James Edward Webb, who graduated as Valedictorian of the Class of 1859. Thereafter, the active Psi Chapter ceased to exist until being re-activated in 1885, a period that we refer to herein as the Psi "Interregnum." 2 However, a number of Psi Brothers remained at the University in various other capacities after 1859, and there are also legends, mysteries, half-truths and outright falsehoods that have circulated about DKE's presence on campus during the Interregnum. Arsonists Several DKE alumni taught at the University during the Interregnum, and one served as University President. Perhaps foremost among these in some ways was Brother William Stokes Wyman 1851. He began teaching at Alabama a couple of years after graduating, was a Professor at the start of the Interregnum in 1856, and served throughout the Civil War until the University closed after being burned by Federal troops on April 4, 1865, after which Wyman's role at the University really got interesting. However, a visit to the University at that time by another Deke bears mentioning. The University campus was burned very late in the war as part of an invasion of Alabama by Union forces who sought to hasten the war's end by destroying previously unaffected regions of the state like Tuscaloosa. General and DKE alumnus John T. Croxton, Phi Yale 1857, with 1500 men under his command, split off from the main Federal force and descended on Tuscaloosa to burn the University and destroy war- related industries in the city. This was one campus visit by a Deke that we all could have done without. A Set of Keys Back to Brother Wyman: the main University campus was then located on what is now the Quad, and after Croxton's arsonists burned it, there were only a few buildings left standing, one of which was the Observatory, which still stands, right behind the DKE house. Abortive efforts to re-open the University began soon after, with Brother Wyman returning to resume his position as Professor. However, in 1868, the Reconstruction Alabama state government appointed a Yankee carpetbagger named Arad Lakin as University President, and he was sent to assume control over the University from Brother Wyman. When Lakin arrived in Tuscaloosa, however, Wyman refused to hand over the keys to the University to him, declining to recognize the legality of Lakin's appointment. When an angry mob appeared at Wyman's residence, apparently intent on doing violence to Lakin, Wyman protected Lakin by hiding him under a bed. 3 Lakin fled Tuscaloosa that night, never to return. After eventually leaving the University over what he and others saw as the Reconstruction authorities' misguided efforts to re-open Alabama as "a school which commanded neither respect nor patronage," Wyman returned when the University finally re-opened in 1870, and served as a Professor throughout the remainder of the Interregnum. He also served as Acting President of the University from 1879-1880, and again from 1885-1886, having declined the offer of the Presidency three times. Wyman's son, William S. Wyman, Jr. 1887, was a Charter Member of the reactivated Psi Chapter in 1885. Other prominent Psi Dekes of the Interregnum were Brothers Burwell Boykin Lewis 1857, John Archibald Jones 1855, William James Vaughan 1858, David L. Foster 1853, John D. Weeden 1858, and Hilary A. Herbert 1856. Lewis served as President of the University and as a Professor from 1880 until his death in 1885. In his final days as President before his death, Lewis supported the lifting the ban on fraternities, no doubt at least partially motivated by fond memories of his days with the old Psi Chapter. Lewis is buried in the cemetery located just south of Bryant-Denny Stadium, at the opposite end of the stadium from the DKE house. 4 Jones and Vaughan served on the faculty with Brother Wyman until the burning of the campus in 1865, and both resumed their positions upon the re-opening of the University in 1870. Vaughan, with short intervals of absence, remained until 1882. Foster served as University "Surgeon" (i.e., physician), Weeden as Professor and University Trustee, and Herbert as University Trustee at various times. DKE alumnus John C. Calhoun, Eta Alpha Washington and Lee 1868, an Alabama native, became a Professor at the University in 1877. He was one of several DKE alumni instrumental in reviving Psi in 1885. It is said that thereafter "through many years [he] was Psi's best friend and counselor." He kept his own handwritten records of members of each DKE Chapter from the 1850's-1890's, one volume of which is in the Psi Archives. 5 A Tree Stump There is a DKE legend set during the Interregnum that seems to be reflected in the Psi Chapter crest (see photo). In 1883, not long before the re-activation of Psi, individual DKE chapters began to design their own chapter crests, based on the familiar DKE crest. The Psi crest which was created upon re-activation has as its central feature an image of a tree stump in the middle of the crest. The tree stump and the story of The Psi Interregnum: DKE at the University of Alabama, 1856-1885 Arsonists, A Set of Keys, A Tree Stump and a Duel FROM THE HISTORIAN

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