Page:BairdsmanualofAmericancollegefrate8.pdf/119



HE Chi Phi fraternity is a union of three independent organizations existing in different sections of the United States, and all bearing the name Chi Phi. The final union, of which the present fraternity is the growth, was consummated in 1874, by the consolidation of the Northern and Southern orders, as they then existed, and, while the organization has many members whose membership preceded the birth of the fraternity, as it exists today, that union constituted the birth of the present organization.

The oldest of the constituent societies of the union originated late in 1853, or early in 1854, at what was then the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University; the youngest order was founded at Hobart College in 1860. These organizations, learning of each other's existence, united on May 29, 1867, and formed what is known in the fraternity as "The Northern Order." "The Southern Order" was organized at the University of North Carolina on August 21, 1858, and "The Northern Order" formally united with it at Washington, D.C., on March 27, 1874, under the name of "The Chi Phi Fraternity."