In fall of 1874, the California Alpha Chapter rented a university-owned cottage for the chapter’s usage. It was a one-story house with six rooms, and was the first Phi Delt chapter house ever and first west of the Mississippi amongst all fraternities and sororities.

The Grand Alpha chapter had issued a charter for California Alpha only a year prior, on June 16, 1873, after a Wisconsin Alpha alumnus had initiated three University of California students. The beginning of the 1873 fall term was when the chapter’s existence was publicly announced, already totaling twenty members.

The chapter continued to grow in size and popularity on campus after the chapter house was obtained.

In 1914, California Alpha built and moved into its second chapter house. While the chapter is in a different location today the 1914 property is registered on the National Register of Historic Places.

On May 16, 1874, George Banta, Franklin 1876, son of David Demaree Banta, Indiana 1855, became the first son of a Phi to be initiated. Later in his Phi Delt career, he became the first General Council President of the Fraternity. Elected at twenty-three, he served as president from 1880–82. George’s two sons, Mark, Wisconsin 1904, and George Jr., Wabash 1914, carried on the family tradition. Mark Banta is the first known third-generation Phi legacy. George Jr., also General Council President, shared the brotherhood with his son, George III, Wabash 1928.

Charles Banta, Indiana 1881, is also a son of David D. Banta.

In January 1874, the Ohio Delta Chapter at Wooster purchased a printing press. The printing press was set up in the room of Charley T. Jamieson. He worked with Preston W. Search to print official Fraternity documents. The records show that Search composed the second-ever song for the Fraternity, “Triumphs of Phi Delta Theta.” According to Palmer’s History of Phi Delta Theta, “Search was the greatest songwriter that Phi Delta Theta ever had. They printed songs on cardboard, pocket size, among them, ‘Working for Old Phi Delta Theta,’ by W. O. Bates, Indianapolis 1875 (all editions).”

On October 13, 1874, the chapter printed the first songbook for Phi Delta Theta, Songs of the Phi Delta Theta. This first edition was no more than a pamphlet with about sixteen songs, composed mainly by Search. Included in the song titles were “Our Song of Greeting,” “Our Cause Speeds on Its Way,” “Working for Old Phi Delta Theta,” “Evening Songs of the Phis,” “Work! Work! Work!” and “Home, Dear Phi Home.”

Brother Wilson was born and raised on a farm in Union County, Indiana. He was “compactly built.” He was known to be quiet, reclusive, and a bit of a bookworm. He was an authority on history of all kinds and a respected teacher. Wilson was a senior when the Fraternity was founded.

Brother Wilson attended Xenia Academy and entered Miami University in 1846 where he received his bachelor of arts and a master of arts. Upon graduation, he taught part time at the Western Female Seminary and attended the theological seminary in Oxford intermittently.

Living near the chapter after graduating, he kept a close eye on the society. He was known to the undergraduates as “Pop” Wilson and “Old Dad” and dressed the part in his plain, down-home, and unassuming way. In 1855, he became pastor of the church at Morning Sun, Ohio. During the Civil War, he was commissioned as a recruiting officer in both Ohio and Indiana. After the war, he went to Southern Illinois where he was engaged in various enterprises.

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Want to Read More About Wilson?

Read a biographical sketch of Wilson from the December 1886 The Scroll, written by the biological brother to Brother Wilson, Archibald Wilson.

The first mention of a publication devoted to Phi Delta Theta was in 1865 by R. A. D. Willbanks. He proposed a quarterly journal comprised of 150 pages of literary material. He also wanted to charge enough to cover their expenses, $1 per year. Unfortunately, because the Fraternity only had six chapters at that time, the resources weren’t available for such a monumental project.

Within a week, two brothers wrote to C. B. Gaskill, Oglethorpe 1872, in April 1875, proposing the need for a fraternity periodical. V. C. Stiers, Ohio 1872, suggested that the Fraternity should start a “monthly paper at headquarters, expressly for the good of the Fraternity, each issue to contain a report from every chapter.” C. T. Jamison, Hanover 1875, also wrote to Gaskill with the idea of a fraternity pamphlet. He said he wanted “our Fraternity to be the first to issue a magazine.”

In the twenty-fifth year of the Fraternity, at the 1873 Convention in Athens, Ohio, the delegates voted to form a publication committee to plan the editing and publication of a monthly journal, to be paid for with subscriptions, advertisements, and donations. Then, at the 1874 Convention in Crawfordsville, Indiana, the delegates voted in favor of a monthly magazine, and the work of the first issue fell to the editorial board. Comprised of three members, recent Butler graduates Allen B. Thrasher, Samuel J. Tomlinson, and William Oscar Bates. Even though the initial publication prospectus named the new magazine Quarterly, Thrasher and Bates didn’t care for the name, and Bates proposed The Scroll.

Each editor had their department: Bates, fraternity department; Tomlinson, literary department; and Thrasher, alumni. The magazine was run this way for the first year, then Thrasher and Tomlinson left it to Bates as the sole editor.

The first issue of The Scroll appeared in January 1875. Bates began with a greeting, “The Phi Delta Theta Scroll speaks its cheery ‘good morning’ to the members of the Fraternity and their friends.” Even though the initial issues were a resounding success, the magazine nearly died in its second year due to a lack of funding. Members and alumni subscription costs were based on the honor system, and many weren’t paying.

At the July 1876 Convention, the motion to make subscriptions compulsory passed, but they didn’t provide a means to collect the $1.25 assessment. Bates couldn’t publish the September edition because he ran out of funds, and he left the role of editor after that. The magazine went dormant until after the 1878 Convention, when they again passed legislation making the subscription price mandatory. Bates went on to a successful career as a playwright and reporter in New York. George Banta, Indiana 1876, and Marshall F. Parrish, Ohio 1876, brought out the magazine again in September 1878, and the publication has been continuously in production.

During the 1874 Convention in Crawfordsville, Indiana, Indiana Gamma delegate William T. Mason suggested appointing a committee to report at the next Convention upon the feasibility of holding Conventions biennially instead of annually. The motion carried, and the committee appointed Mason as chairman.

On May 20, during the morning session of the 1875 Convention in Danville, Kentucky, the Committee on Biennial Conventions offered the following report:

We, your committee, would respectfully submit the following report: 1st, It is the unanimous expression of the committee that the Fraternity shall hold its National Conventions on each alternate year; 2d, We do further recommend that an assessment of two dollars per capita be levied and collected, as heretofore, on the first day of April 1876, and the funds appropriated as follows: One-fourth to be applied to the permanent fund, three-fourths to remain in the treasury as the general fund, subject to the call of the expenses of the Fraternity, as authorized by this Convention.

An alumni chapter was organized at the Convention in Indianapolis, in the fall of 1871, and meetings were held during a part of the winter. The Convention, May, 1872, decided that alumni chapters were impracticable. The Convention of 1874, however, adopted a preamble and resolution declaring that such chapters would be beneficial to the Fraternity, and urging alumni in the larger cities to establish them. The first alumni chapter established after this was organized at the town of Franklin, Indiana, by George Banta, of Indiana Delta and Alpha.

The minutes of the National Grand (Wooster) Chapter for October 7, 1876, say: “Brother Taylor read a letter from Brother Banta, of Indiana Alpha, concerning the establishment of an alumni chapter at Franklin.” November 7, 1876: “On motion, a charter was granted to the petitioners for an alumni chapter at Franklin, Indiana” The charter members were: D. D. Banta, Indiana, ’55, and the following members of the Franklin chapter: C. H. Hall, ’72; J. W. Moncrief, ’73; S. L. Overstreet, ’75; George Banta, ’76; T. C. Donnell, ’76; L. U. Downey, ‘78; O. F. Lambertson, ’79; J. C. Smith, ’79.

The Constitution of Alumni Chapters, as ratified by the National Grand contained the following provisions: The alumni chapter at Franklin was made the Alumni National Grand, with power to grant a charter to the first alumni chapter in each State, which should be the Alumni State Grand. Each Alumni State Grand should have power to charter other alumni chapters in that State. An alumni chapter might be organized upon application of six or more members of Phi Delta Theta who had been graduated or had withdrawn from college, and resided in the same vicinity.

Alumni chapters were to be entitled in the same manner as college chapters, the word “Alumni” being added to the Greek letter in each case. Any member of Phi Delta Theta who had been graduated or had withdrawn from college, and who resided in a city where there was an alumni chapter, might be admitted to membership therein, but no alumni chapter should admit any person who was not already a member of the Fraternity. Each alumni chapter should have power to censure, suspend, or expel any of its members for violation of the Bond, the trial proceedings to be conducted as provided in the Constitution of Chapters. An appeal might be taken to the National Grand at Wooster. The officers of each alumni chapter should be a President, a Recorder, a Warden, and an Historian. The Historian was required to send reports to The Scroll. Meetings should be held at least once every four weeks. Each chapter should have such literary or other exercises as it might determine, and should have power to adopt by-laws, provided they did not conflict with the laws of the Fraternity. Each alumni chapter should send a delegate to each National Convention, and he should be allowed one vote. His expenses should be paid by a pro rata assessment on the members of the chapter. An outline of this Constitution appeared in The Scroll, February, 1879.

During the spring of 1877, Brother George Banta organized a chapter at Trinity College in Tehucana, Texas, probably the most prosperous institution in the Lone Star State. He got Brother McCogy, of Indiana Alpha in Dallas, Texas, to write to a professor at Trinity who was an old friend from Bloomington, Indiana. The professor replied, recommending S. E. Kennon, who was then written to. Kennon, along with five others, agreed to start the chapter, which was chartered as Texas Beta by the last convention. By the end of the term, it had enrolled two of ’78, six of ’79, and one of ’80. It has as rivals Beta Theta Pi and Alpha Gamma.

In the late 1880s and early 1890s, the general Fraternity changed course and began to maintain chapter designations regardless of if the chapter was open. Due to this, Texas Alpha Prime was established. Texas Alpha Prime was the original Texas Alpha established at Austin College in 1852.

Returning home from the 1878 Phi Delta Theta Convention in Wooster, Ohio, George Banta encountered a Phi from the University of Mississippi. It was from this Phi that he learned of the founding of Delta Gamma in 1873 at The Lewis School, which was located only a few blocks from the gates of the University of Mississippi.

Young Banta became interested in establishing a chapter of this new fraternity for women at Franklin College. When Banta reached out to the Delta Gamma women in Mississippi, he stated that the interactions with the chapter were the “pleasantest compliments [he had] ever received in [his life].” Through correspondence with representatives of the Mississippi Delta Gammas, he learned of their desire to expand north and paved the way to bring Delta Gamma to Franklin College.

A series of setbacks, including the yellow-fever epidemic of 1878, and the great distance separating Oxford, Mississippi, and Franklin, Indiana, delayed this expansion. In hopes drive the process, Banta decided to ask for the authority to develop a new chapter, so the women of Delta Gamma would not need to travel to Franklin College themselves.

The members of the mother chapter of Delta Gamma thought well of the proposal and, to the surprise of Brother Banta, elected him to membership on May 27, 1879. What followed is best described in Banta’s own words.

“Of course, correspondence followed, and I was speedily given authority to organize and initiate a chapter at Franklin College. The three girls I first interested were Miss Mary Vawter, her cousin Miss Lillian Vawter, and Miss Kitty Ellis, my own cousin. Their initiation was extremely simple, consisting as I recall it of my communicating the few secrets to one, who in turn communicated them to the others… As Miss Lillian Vawter was my fiancee, it is probably not difficult to conjecture who the first Delta Gamma north of the Ohio River was, after myself… I clearly remember that we were told we should select our own chapter letter and we promptly chose Phi, in honor of the familiar name applied to my Fraternity.”

The establishment of the Phi chapter of Delta Gamma at Franklin was not the end of the story. In 1882, Banta married Lillian Vawter, a charter member of the Phi chapter at Franklin. He and other members of Phi Delta Theta were also instrumental in the development of Delta Gamma chapters at several other universities, George Banta and, indeed, other members of Phi Delta Theta, were instrumental in the development of Delta Gamma chapters at Buchtel, now Akron (1879), Hanover (1881), and Wisconsin (1881). Banta, in later years, assisted with the rewriting of the Delta Gamma ritual and attended many of the Fraternity’s conventions, the last being in 1934, a year before his death.

“It is to him the Fraternity owes its very existence. His interest in Delta Gamma’s expansion in the north provided the first footing needed as the small women’s colleges in the south closed.”

His wife, Lillian, died in 1885, leaving a young son, Mark. After her death, Banta moved to Menasha, Wisconsin, where he later married Ellen Lee Plesants, where he had two more children, George Jr., and Eleanor Banta. Both sons became members of Phi Delta Theta. George Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps and served as president of the Phi Delta Theta Grand Council from 1932-1934. Eleanor became a member of Delta Gamma.

Banta supported the Greek system throughout his life, attending early meetings of the National Panhellenic Conference and the National Interfraternity Conference. He founded Banta’s Greek Exchange, a quarterly magazine devoted to articles on fraternity affairs.

Delta Gamma paid special tribute to Brother Banta when the Delta Gamma Foundation established the George Banta Memorial Fellowship for 1957-58. Brother Banta is a wonderful example of how friendship extends past your organization and into the broader Greek community.

In Greek mythology, a little owl traditionally accompanies Pallas Athena, the goddess of wisdom. Although Pallas Athena would not be the tutelary goddess of the Fraternity until 1891, an owl represents knowledge and wisdom, which coincided with Phi Delta Theta’s value of Sound Learning.

The Convention of 1880 is one of the most significant Phi Delta Theta Conventions due to its twenty-eight chapter delegates and 120 alumni members, the largest assembly yet held by any fraternity. It was at this convention the General Council approved The Constitution of 1880, which included a diagram of a chapter meeting hall, with a description that a part of the equipment should be a mounted owl and two banners, the first time an owl served as an emblem for Phi Delta Theta.