Founding of the Order

History of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity

On a cold snowy night, December 10, 1869, our five friends and brothers, gathered at 46 East Lawn at the University of Virginia to bring to the fraternity world, Kappa Sigma Fraternity.

The order grew slowly until one fateful night, when a youngster by the name of Stephen Alonzo Jackson was initiated into the secrets of Kappa Sigma Fraternity.

Stephen Alonzo Jackson immediately began working as soon as he was initiated into Kappa Sigma. He threw himself into the task of expanding and refining the Ritual of Kappa Sigma. He would labor on the Ritual until its unveiling at the Grand Conclave in 1889. The Ritual still stands today, as one of Kappa Sigma Fraternity's finest icons. Brother Jackson also expanded the reaches of Kappa Sigma to other university campuses and worked ceaselessly on revising the structure of the Order. When Brother Jackson died in 1892, he left an huge legacy to the Fraternity. It was said of him, at his death,

"He needs no other mounment than the Fraternity."

The Fraternity grew rapidly over the years, installing chapter after chapter at the universities all over the nation. Kappa Sigma arrived at Gallaudet University exactly 114 years after Kappa Sigma's founding on December 10, 1983, when the Mu-Iota Chapter of Kappa Sigma was installed, and its founding members initiated into the secrets of Kappa Sigma Fraternity.

Now, over twenty years after our installation, the Mu-Iota Chapter has grown, to include over 350 initiated brothers who remain in close bonds with their chapter, and have appreciated the friendship and brotherly love spread between members of the Mu-Iota Chapter and brothers from all other Kappa Sigma chapters found over the world.

Kappa Sigma boasts over 250,000 initiated brothers, giving any Kappa Sigma unprecedented contacts wherever he may travel, in foreign countries, or even his own.

Kappa Sigma International Headquarters gives out over $100,000 annually in scholarships to its Brothers. Each Kappa Sigma chapter also gains the advice and support of volunteer alumni who donate their time to the growth of the Chapter. Those alumni who volunteered gain training and support from our International Headquarters.

The Five Friends and Brothers

George Miles Arnold

George Miles Arnold was born on August 27, 1851, in Troy, New York. He entered the University of Virginia in 1869, his chief studies are Latin, French, and mathematics. His facility for languages led his friends to call him "the little Spaniard."

In the summer of 1870, he began a course in medicine at the University and withdrew from Virginia in February 1871 to enter the Medical College of New York where he completed his medical education. His medical degree was not conferred upon him until a year after finishing, as he was too young at the time. Dr. Arnold had a busy, but short medical career. On January 25, 1890, he died from pneumonia.

Arnold's son, Robert Miles Arnold, became a Kappa Sigma Brother at Gamma-Zeta Chapter at New York University. Legacies such as Robert are a continuing tradition today, with many present Kappa Sigmas being brothers, sons, or grandsons of Kappa Sigmas before them.

George Miles Arnold was very active in the Fraternity during its infancy and through his life. One of the other Founders said of Arnold, "He gave nearly his whole time to the society."

John Covert Boyd

John Covert Boyd was born on December 24, 1850, near Bradford Springs, Sumter County, South Carolina. After preparing for college at private schools in Charleston, South Carolina, Boyd spent two years at the University of Virginia from 1869 to 1871.

Boyd began his medical course in his second year at University of Virginia, then entered the medical department of the University of the City of New York, where he received his M.D. in 1872. Boyd's father and grandfathers were also the physicians.

After one year as an intern, Boyd was appointed as an assistant surgeon in the Navy medical cops. In 1902, he was appointed a professor at the Naval Medical College. Throughout his career, he authored numerous reports on technical subjects. In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt designated Boyd to help incorporate the American National Red Cross. Venerated with McCormick in his final years, Boyd died on July 7, 1927.

William Grigsby McCormick

William Grigsby McCormick came to Virginia from a celebrated family. His grandfather Robert(1780-1846) was an inventor who began a family fortune. William's uncle, Cyrus, was a finacier and inventor of the McCormick reaper. Still another uncle Leander J., is remembered as the donor of the McCormick Observatory at the University of Virginia. On his mother's side, a cousin, Hugh Blair Grigsby, was a President of the College of William and Mary. William's older brother, Rober S., served as the ambassador to Austria, to Russia, and to France.

McCormick was born in Chicago on June 3, 1851. After a preparatory education at the old University of Chicago, he moved to Baltimore in 1865. He enrolled at the University of Virginia in October, 1868, returning again in the year of the founding, 1869.

Leaving the University of Virginia in May, 1870, McCormick and his brother Robert spent six months traveling abroad. Their itinerary included a memorable trip to Bologna. Returning to Baltimore that November, he associated himself with a banking house. McCormick spent the first ten years of his professional life in banking, business and real estate. In 1884, he became a member of the Chicago Board of Trade and was engaged with various stock brokerage companies.

McCormick had seven children. One of his three sons, Walter Brooks McCormick, was initiated into Kappa Sigma at the semi-centennial celebration of the Fraternity. This tradition continues today as many "model initiates" are initiated at special occasions such as Biennial Grand Conclaves and Leadership Conferences. At the 28th Biennial Grand Conclave in Los Angeles in 1929, McCormick, the only surviving founder at the time, was elected to the position of Most Worthy Grand Master- the only Kappa Sigma to hold such title. He died on November 29, 1941, and the era of the founders came to an end.

Frank Courtney Nicodemus

Frank Courtney Nicodemus, a lifelong resident of Baltimore, was born on January 8, 1853. Before entering the University of Virginia, he was a student at Kinner Academy and a friend of Rogers.

Nicodemus left the University of Virginia in the spring of 1870 to join his father's business in which he became a partner four years later. In 1875, Nicodemus and his father formed the investment brokerage firm of J.C. Nicodemus and Son. Four years later Nicodemus formed the firm of F.C. Nicodemus and Co., a manufacurer of boilers, engines, and machinery. In 1885, Nicodemus became the treasurer of the Baltimore post office, and in 1891, he accepted the general agency for Maryland of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company which he continued until his death on May 25, 1919.

Edmund Law Rogers

Edmund Law Rogers was born July 1, 1850, in Baltimore, Maryland. He prepared for college at the James Kinnier Academy in Baltilmore, where Founder Frank Courtney Nicodemus was one of his classmates. As with Arnold, Rogers entered the Universiry of Virginia as a freshman in 1869.

Rogers studied architecture and also developed an interest in acting. His graphic talent is apparent in the Badge of Kappa Sigma, which Rogers designed.

Eventually, his interest in acting turned into a career in the theater in 1880. He was a succesful actor, known under his stage name as Leslie Edmunds. Rogers was a popular lead and supporting character for productions of the time. He was quick of wit and possessed enormous charm. Rogers died on December 19, 1893.

Stephen Alonzo Jackson

Stephen Alonzo Jackson is regarded as possibly the most important man in Kappa Sigma's history. Through his efforts a struggling local fraternity became a strong national organization. He was the architect of our Ritual, writer of our Constitution, and was our first Worthy Grand Master. The following is an excerpt from the Bononia Docet, our pledge manual.

Stephen Alonzo Jackson was born September 22, 1851. He was left motherless in his infancy and was raised by his grandmother. A close associate and brother, Francis Nelson Barksdale, recalled him with these words:

"Gentle as a woman, firm as a rock - a perfect bundle of nervous energy. His love of the Fraternity knew no bounds, and his enthusiasm was so contagious that it influenced everybody who came within his reach. His one ambition was to make Kappa Sigma the leading college fraternity of the world, and to that end he thought and worked by day and night, until the end of his busy life."

During the Fraternity's second Grand Conclave in 1878 in Richmond, Virginia. Jackson was re-elected as Worthy Grand Master. In his speech, he expressed his ideal and goal of an enduring and expanding brotherhoood as he addressed the Order:

"Why not, my Brothers, since we of today live and cherish the principles of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity, throw such a halo around those principles that they may be handed down as a precious heirloom to ages yet unborn? Why not put our apples of gold in pictures of silver? May we not rest contentedly until the Star and Crescent is the pride of every college and unviersity in the land!"

Jackson died on March 4, 1892. His legacy to the Fraternity included its Ritual, a revised Constitution, precendent-setting Grand Conclave, the first southern Fraternity to extend a chapter to the north, and above all else, a spirit for expansion.