Theta Chi was founded on April 10, 1856 at Norwich University, in Norwich, Vermont. In 1819, Norwich University was the first private military college founded as literary, scientific and military academy.
Frederick Norton Freeman and Arthur Chase, military cadets, met in Freeman’s room in Norwich’s Old South Barracks. After taking an oath, they declared each other “true and accepted members” of the Society. Chase became President and Freeman became Secretary. The next evening two more cadets – Edward Bancroft Williston and Lorenzo Potter – joined the order. Theta Chi was incorporated in 1888, and despite a few unsuccessful forays to other colleges in the early years, decades went by without any attempts at expansion.
It wasn’t until more than 45 years later, on December 13, 1902, that Theta Chi’s Beta chapter at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was installed. That chapter came to be solely because of one man, Park Valentine Perkins, a Theta Chi who had transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Valentine,” as he preferred to be called, wanted to share his Theta Chi bond with some of the students there.
Perkins was one of nine men in his class when he entered Norwich Military Academy at the age of 16. Five of them became Theta Chis. For most of his time at Norwich, Perkins ate a diet of only peanuts, following a plan put forth by the teachings of Bernarr MacFadden, a physical culturist.
When Perkins left Norwich after a year and enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, there were more than a dozen fraternities at MIT. Perkins found a group of men he thought would make good fraternity brothers and sought a charter from Theta Chi. He had the support and assistance of Theta Chi alumni living in the Boston area, E. Wesson Clark and J. Albert Holmes, both of whom later served as Theta Chi National Presidents, and George Prentice Lowell.
The group’s first petition was rejected. A second petition was filed, and it, too, was rejected. Several of the men traveled from Boston to Norwich to make personal appeals. There they presented a third petition, and they were finally successful. Theta Chi was on its way to becoming a full-fledged national fraternity. Would Theta Chi be here today had Perkins had been less persistent?
The Alpha Chapter was in existence until 1960 when Norwich disbanded all its fraternities.
For Theta Chi’s 75th Anniversary, a stone monument was dedicated at Norwich, Vermont.
