Northern Order Celebration
Austin, Texas
February 21-23, 2025
Join us on this special weekend as we celebrate the union of the Princeton and Hobart Orders.
Friday, February 21
Kick off the weekend with a Brotherhood event. Details and logistics for this event will be available soon.
Saturday, February 22
We are hosting a cocktail reception at the Austin Club that will include heavy hors d’oeuvres. There will be a history presentation, archival display, commemorative program, and remarks by the Grand Alpha and Educational Trust Chairman. Each guest will receive a special gift as well as a limited edition Bicentennial lapel pin.
For those traveling to Austin for this historic event, a hotel room block will be available at the AC Hotel Austin-University for the weekend. The room block rate is $229 a night plus tax/fees. All reservations will need to be made by January 31, 2025. Click HERE to book your hotel room.
Northern Order – 1867-1874
Secret Order of Chi Phi
In 1865, a member of the Hobart Chapter passing through Lancaster met two of the members of the chapter at Franklin and Marshall College and learned of the existence of a Chi Phi at Lancaster. A committee of Lawson, Tuttle, and Sutphen were appointed by the Convention of 1865 to investigate. In a letter from Charles Hendryx of Upsilon dated May 5, 1867, a proposition for union was made. The proposal was accepted and a Resolution of Union was signed at the Astor House in New York City on May 29, 1867. A formal petition was presented to the Hobart Chapter and Sutphen, Hendryx and Park came to Lancaster and initiated the members of the Lancaster and Gettysburg Chi Phi into the “Holy Order of Chi Phi” in June 1867. At the same time a general chapter was authorized in NYC to be known as the Alpha, composed of resident alumni from primarily Delta and Upsilon and having power to initiate undergraduates at any college, though it is believed they never exercised their right to do so. In 1870 a second general chapter, Phi, was established in Philadelphia with the same powers as the Alpha in New York but only lasted until 1872. There is no record of this chapter exercising its right to initiate either.
At the Convention of 1868, the name of the organization after the union of the Princeton and Hobart Orders became the Secret Order of Chi Phi and continued as such until the union with the Southern Order. The initiatory services and constitution from the Hobart Order were far more defined and organized than those of the Princeton Order, so these were maintained for the new Order.
The union stimulated renewed activity and new chapters were established in the following order: Beta, Muhlenberg (1868); Xi, Cornell (1868); Omega, Dickinson (1869); Sigma, Wofford (1871); Nu, Washington and Lee (1872); Psi, Lehigh (1872); Kappa, Brown (1872); Tau, MIT (1873); Phi, Amherst (1873); Chi, Ohio Wesleyan (1873); and Rho, Lafayette (1874).
On June 16, 1868, the Sigma Chapter at Princeton was struggling and its charter was withdrawn, as was the Theta Chapter at Gettysburg on June 19, 1876. At the convention in 1869, a grand seal consisting of a reproduction of the monogram of the badge in the center with the wording “The Secret Order of Chi Phi” around the perimeter was established. There were constitutional amendments to abolish the rights of the “Parent Chapter” and place all authority in the annual convention. In 1867, the use of the Greek letters for the names of the officers became official and in 1870 a new officer, the Grand Delta, was authorized and the development of a financial system for the Fraternity began, and in 1868, the first publication of the Chi Phi Chakett appeared by the Zeta Chapter.