1930–31 Volume 55 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

Missouri Beta CelebratesFifty Years at WestminsterIN 1853 PRESBYTERIAN PIONEERS inMissouri, feeling the need of an institutionof higher learning, under theircontrol, founded Westminster Collegeat Fulton, Missouri; the new collegesucceeding Fulton College, already inexistence in that town. Counting thehistory of Westminster from thefounding of the older institution in1849, there is only one other standardcollege in Missouri, the State University,that is older. When we rememberthat Missouri was only admittedto the union in 1821 it is seen thatWestminster is very old, comparatively.In 1860 the B © n proposedto enter the college with a chapter butthe war between the states discouragedthe attempt, the Betas delaying theirformal chartering of a chapter until1867, the chapter of B 0 II then establishedenjoying a successful andcontinuous existence from that day tothis and is the oldest living chapter ofany fraternity west of the MississippiRiver.The war between the states dissipatedthe resources of Westminsterand finally the college was unable tomeet its debts, particularly a mortgageof about $15,000 on its campus andplant. The Reverend Robert Morrison,founder of * A 0 and author ofthe Bond, was called to the positionof financial agent and was given thetask of raising the money to pay themortgage indebtedness and thus tosave the college to the church.Morrison had long been away fromMiami and was then living in Fulton,and his devotion to education and tothe training of young men, made itBy W. B. WHITLOWWestminster, 'IScertain that he would become as devotedto Westminster as he was toMiami, in fact he came to regard theyounger Missouri college as his secondalma mater. He entered on his difficulttask with enthusiasm and pursuedhis work with unremitting courage.He drove a sorrel horse, hitched to abuggy, up and down the state of Missouriand slowly collected the wholesum needed, his gifts sometimes beingas small as "two bits" and once, amemorable day, fifty dollars. But hepersisted and after months of unremittingeffort secured the money andinsured the future of the college.About a year after this work wasfinished and while Morrison was yetfinancial agent of Westminster College,$ A 0 met in its annual conventionin the city of Indianapolis. Morrisonwas very anxious that a chapterof $ A 0 be chartered in the collegewhich he had saved, whose future hehad insured and which he had begunto regard as his own. Some monthsbefore certain Phis from the MissouriAlpha chapter at the University ofMissouri had visited Westminster andhad interested W. B. C. Brown in thematter of a chapter and Brown hadgathered a group of seven, includinghimself, who made the formal applicationfor the charter. The Indianapolisconvention, after some prolongeddebate, finally granted the charter onOctober 30, 1880. It is worth whileto remember that it was through thepersonal insistence of Robert Morrisonthat this charter was issued. The faiththat Morrison had in the future of thischapter has been justified by its high[261 "