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Founding Fathers
On November 1st, 1901, Sigma Phi
Epsilon was founded by 12 men who were balanced in their ways and went on to
live happy and successful lives. It was because of their vision and
dedication that over 100 years later, Sigma Phi Epsilon is the nation's largest
fraternity.
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Carter Ashton Jenkens
was born in Oxford, North
Carolina, on April 9, 1882, and received his early education in New Jersey. He
graduated from Richmond College in June, 1902, and then taught for two years at Chase
City, Virginia, Military Academy and Richmond Preparatory. He received a
baccalaureate degree in the ministry at Crozer Seminary, Chester, Pennsylvania, and served
for more than 20 years as pastor in churches in Hampton, Norfolk, and Richmond, finally to
become an evangelist and conduct revivals throughout the United States. His gift for
inspiring oratory was so outstanding that the famed evangelist Bill Sunday is reported on
one occasion to have exclaimed, "If only the Almighty had blest me with the voice of
Carter Jenkens!" His twilight years were spent in Louisville, Kentucky, where
he died on July 23, 1952. |
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Benjamin Donald Gaw
came to Richmond College,
where he worked his way through school, acting as pastor of the East End Baptist Church of
Richmond, to graduate in 1906. He had come from Stuart's Draft, Virginia, where he
was born on August 20, 1970. He married and later received the bachelor of divinity
degree at Colgate. For six years thereafter, he was pastor at the West Washington
Baptist Church, Washington, D.C., and in 1917 was called to the First Baptist Church in
Durham, North Carolina. He died in Washington D.C., on January 10, 1919, from
pneumonia. He is buried in Montgomery, Maryland. |
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William High Carter
was born near Danville in
Pittsylvania County, Virginia, February 2, 1878. The family moved to Salem, where he
attended public schools. For one year, he taught in a public school in Roanoke
County, Virginia, and in September, 1897, entered Richmond College to prepare for the
Baptist ministry. After being out of college for one year, he received the B.A.
degree from Richmond College, June, 1902.
Founder Carter's campus activities include debate, YMCA, and varsity basketball.
He became a teacher at Southside Academy, Chase City,
Virginia, in 1902-1903 and was principal of the Chase City Grade School for the next two
years. During this three-year period, he served as the editor of the Chase City
Progress. In September, 1905, he entered Crozer Theological Seminary, where
Jenkens had gone, and received the bachelor of divinity degree in May, 1908. He then
became pastor of the First Baptist Church, Winchester, Virginia, for six-and-a-half years.
Subsequent pastorates were at Hertford, North Carolina, three-and-a-half years;
Crewe, Virginia, ten-and-a-half years; and Marion, Virginia, 18 years.
Retiring from active pastorates, he served as field worker for
the Sunday School Department of the Varina Baptist Board of Missions and Education.
Brother Carter died in Salem, Virginia, on January 5, 1971, at the age of 92. |
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William Andrew Wallace,
the second of the
roommates at Ryland Hall, was invited to join that group by Gaw, his roommate. He
came from Gaw's home town, Stuart's Draft, where he was born on May 7, 1882. He did
not graduate but transferred to the Medical College of Virginia for his M.D., on which
campus he launched the Beta Chapter (now Virginia Commonwealth University), becoming its
first member. By this act, Sigma Phi Epsilon's expansion began.
He left the Medical College for an internship in the Boston
Floating Hospital, which he left for another internship in a hospital in Richmond.
Later, in 1908, he located in Spartanburg, South Carolina, continuing in practice to
become one of the best-known medical practitioners in the state, and a devoted SigEp until
his death in 1929. |
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Thomas Temple Wright
was born at Locust Grove,
Caroline County, Virginia, May 21, 1883. he was tutored at home, entered Richmond
College in 1900, received the B.A in 1904, and was graduated from the Engineering College,
Cornell University, in 1907.
Wright roomed with Jenkens at the "Cottage." His
intimate friends knew him as "Those, " after the abbreviated form of his name.
The fifth member of the Fraternity, he was one of the two founders who returned to
college in September, 1902, and as treasurer of the group signed the corporate charter
secured from the Commonwealth of Virginia on October 22, 1902.
Wright started his professional career as a United States
surveyor with the Mississippi River Commission in Vicksburg, Mississippi. he later
became a railroad civil engineer, first with the Canadian Northern Railroad on
construction in Ontario, and finally with the Baltimore and Ohio. In 1917,
"Those," on leave from the B & O, was construction engineer for the United
States Army Camp Taylor at Louisville, Kentucky. The following year, he became head
of the Warsaw and Fredericksburg offices of the Henrico Lumber Company, making his home in
Warsaw, Virginia. In Henrico Lumber Company, making his home in Warsaw, Virginia.
In 1933, he and his brothers formed Wright Brothers, Inc., with offices in
Richmond, West Point, Tappahannock, and Philadelphia. He continued to be active with
this firm for many years. He died on February 15, 1958. |
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William Lazell Phillips devoted virtually all the
mature years of his life to Sigma Phi Epsilon. A study of the leadership pattern of
the founding group reveals that he is the one titan after Jenkens. The latter said
to his brothers, "This is how we must build our Fraternity." Phillips
built it. Born on Normal, Illinois, in 1873, William L. Phillips came to Richmond
College in September, 1901, to study law and the Bible. He attended one year,
dropped out for a year, and then returned, but his pursuit of legal studies gave way to
his devotion to Sigma Phi Epsilon and he never graduated.
The first Conclave at Richmond College in December, 1903,
authorized the establishment of the Journal and appointed Uncle Billy as its first editor.
The first issue, March 1904, "Published by the Grand Council in the interest
of the Fraternity," reveals that Uncle Billy determined to make the Journal
carry news from all chapters and thus add dignity and strength to his young Fraternity.
In addition to his work as the first editor, he played
some baseball and football (not on the college team), attended the Philogian Literary
Society and classes in law. He was the first secretary of Virginia Alpha in
1901-1902.
A complete record of his professional career tells the
story of his work for Sigma Phi Epsilon: Editor of the Journal, 1904-1912,
1919-1921; business manager of the Journal, 1904-1911, 1919-1942; member, Ritual
Committee, 1907l editor of membership directories, 1915 and 1921; trustee of the Endowment
Fund, 1925-1939, 1944-1949; trustee of the national Endowment Fund, 1925-1939, 1944-1949;
trustee of the national headquarters, 1927-1942; Grand Secretary Emeritus, 1942-1956;
Grand Vice President, 1943; Grand President, 1944; National Interfraternity Conference
founder, 1909; Vice Chairman, 1929-1930; member, War Committee, 1942; a founder and
Chairman of College Fraternity Secretaries Association 1939-1940.
Uncle Billy passed away at his home on June 20, 1956, and
left his personal estate to the Fraternity, which founded the Phillips Fund within the
Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation. That fund provides scholarships for
members of the University of Richmond chapter.
He loved his Fraternity intensely and had attended every
one of the 24 Conclaves from the first at Richmond College, 1903, to Cincinnati, 1955.
William L. Phillips must be numbered among the first handful of truly great
builders of the American college fraternity system. No one has achieved a greater
record. |
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Lucian Baum Cox
was born November 13, 1879, in
Princess Anne County, Virginia. He attended a one-room public, and worked at his
father's farm and sawmill. In September, 1898, he entered Richmond College, first as
an academic student and later as a law student, where he received a bachelor of law degree
in June, 1902.
As an undergraduate, he taught Bible class in Calvary
Baptist Church on Sunday mornings and to a group of inmates at the Virginia Penitentiary
in the afternoons. In July, 102, he began the practice of law in Norfolk, Virginia.
Founder Cox wrote the application for the corporate
charter for Sigma Phi Epsilon. In 1939, he published the first edition of Title
to Land in Virginia, and a second edition was published in 1947. This book was
followed in 1951 by his work on Principles and Procedure in Equity. Brother
Cox died in Norfolk, Virginia, on June 10, 1971, at the age of 91. |
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Richard Spurgeon Owens was a minister's son, and
was born on October 28, 1880, in Hempstead, King George County, Virginia. When he
graduated from Richmond in 1904, he spent four years at Colgate Theological Seminary, to
become a minister, graduating in 1907. His career in the ministry called him to
Baptist churches in Washington, D.C., Roanoke, Virginia, and for four years, 1917-1921, as
instructor in Fishburn Military Academy in Waynesboro, Virginia. Before his death on
July 6, 1950, he was a trustee of the University of Richmond, Bluefield College, and also
of the Baptist Orphanage n Salem, Virginia. |
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Edgar Lee Allen
was born on January 6, 1880, in
Virginia. He attended private schools in King and Queen County. After three
liberal arts years at Richmond, he completed graduate work in law in 1902. He moved
to Birmingham, Alabama, in October, 1902. After taking up residence in Birmingham,
Founder Allen practiced law in that city steadily, serving as a judge in various courts
until his death on March 21, 1945. |
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Robert Alfred McFarland
was born on a farm near
Oxford, North Carolina, on January 21, 1876. He attended Granville County public
schools; three years at Bethel Hill Institute, North Carolina; four years at Richmond
College - received a B.S. in 1902; received a bachelors of theology degree from the
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville in 1908 and an honorary doctor of
divinity degree from the University of Richmond in 1921.
McFarland made the motion to found Sigma Phi Epsilon; and
he was chairman of the Committee on the Constitution.
McFarland held important pastorates in three states.
In North Carolina, he was a member of the Baptist State Board, a trustee of the
Baptist Orphanage and Wake Forest College, and was vice president of the Baptist State
Convention. In Virginia, he served as a member of the Baptist State Board, a trustee
of the Baptist Hospital, the Fork Union Military Academy, and the Southern Baptist State
Convention.
McFarland was once written up in a London journal as a
"representative" minister of the United States. He died on March 14, 1960. |
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Frank Webb Kerfoot,
who died in an accident o
August 29, 1918, was another Baptist preacher. A native Virginian, he was born
October 2, 1876, in Buckland, Prince William County, and at Richmond was a member of the
Class of 1902. At the time of hid death, he was a chaplain in the Army. He had
been pastor of parishes in Buckingham and Middlesex Counties, and Chatham, Virginia;
Nowata, Oklahoma, and Fort Smith, Arkansas. |
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Thomas Vaden McCaul
was born in Charles City
County, Virginia, on November 25, 1878. He attended Richmond public schools,
graduated from Richmond High School, and entered Richmond College as a pre-law student in
February, 1898. In September of that year, Uncle Tom returned to Richmond College as
a ministerial student, being convinced of a call to preach. he received his B.A.
from Richmond College in June, 1902; the masters of theology from the Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary in 1905, and the M.A. from the University of Virginia in 1908.
The honorary degree doctor of divinity was conferred upon him by the University of
Richmond and Stetson University.
While at Richmond College, Uncle Tom was active in debates and
oratorical contests. He won the writer's medal offered by his literary society his
senior year. He wont he orator's medal at the University of Virginia in 1907.
Uncle Tom served as the first president of Virginia Alpha in 1901-1902 and wrote the
Fraternity's first song, "Our Fraternity," in 1902. In the fall of 1902,
he visited Bethany College, West Virginia; Washington and Jefferson College, Pennsylvania
and West Virginia University and formed nucleus chapter in all three. He helped
establish Virginia Eta at Virginia in 1907 and Florida Alpha at Florida in 1925. He
was appointed National Chaplain in 1947 and served until 1959.
Uncle Tom served as pastor of Baptist churches in
Kentucky, Virginia, South Carolina, and Florida. After more than 26 years as pastor
of the First Baptist Church of Gainesville, frequently looking on his young Florida Alpha
brothers. He continued to attend Conclaves, his last being the 32nd Grand Chapter in
Atlanta in 1971. On November 18, 1972, he died peacefully in Gainesville at the age
of 93. He was the Fraternity's last remaining founder. |
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