Euphradian Society
The Euphradian Society, also known as ΦΑΕ (Phi Alpha Epsilon), is a literary society founded in 1806 at the University of South Carolina, then known as South Carolina College, as a result of the splitting in two of the Philomathic Society, which had been formed within weeks of the opening of the college in 1805 and included virtually all enrolled students. At what was called the Synapian Convention held in February, 1806, the members of Philomathic decided to split into separate societies, one of which became known as Euphradian, while the other became known as Clariosophic.[1] Two blood brothers picked the members for the new groups in a manner similar to choosing up sides for an impromptu baseball game.[1] William Harper became the first president of the Euphradian Society.[2] The society traditionally convenes in its historic hall (now called the L. Marion Gressette Euphradian Society Hall) in Harper College on the university's historic horseshoe. The Society has trained countless soldiers, statesmen, jurists, and three Rhodes Scholars.[3]
Euphradian Society | |
---|---|
ФAE | |
Founded | February 1806 University of South Carolina, (Columbia, South Carolina) |
Type | Literary Society |
Chapters | 1 |
Website | euphradian |
Notable 19th-century members
Notable members of the 19th Century include:[4]
- Edward Porter Alexander C.S.A General, Professor at South Carolina College (Honorary Member)
- Robert W. Barnwell, President of South Carolina College, US Senator from SC & Confederate Senator from SC
- John Bratton, Confederate General
- Preston Brooks, U.S. Congressman from South Carolina
- John Campbell (1795–1845), US Congressman from South Carolina
- James Cantey, Confederate General
- Robert B. Campbell, U.S. Congressman from South Carolina
- John W. Carter, U.S. Congressman from SC
- John C. Calhoun, U.S. Senator and 7th Vice-President of the United States (Honorary Member)
- Thomas Cooper, President of South Carolina College (Honorary Member)
- James Wood Davidson, South Carolina author
- Jefferson Davis, U.S. Senator, President of the Confederate States of America (Honorary Member, 1857)
- Jonathan R. Davis, captain in the Mexican–American War and famous gold rush prospector
- R. Means Davis, professor of history at the University of South Carolina
- Warren R. Davis, U.S. Congressman from South Carolina
- John B. Floyd, U.S. Secretary of War, Governor of Virginia, and Confederate General
- Laurence M. Keitt, U.S. Congressman from South Carolina
- Edwin de Leon, Confederate Diplomat
- Robert E. Lee, Confederate General (Honorary Member, 1861)[5]
- William Harper, U.S. Senator from South Carolina
- James Henry Hammond, Governor of South Carolina and U.S. Senator
- Henry Washington Hilliard, U.S. Congressman from Alabama
- Marquis De Lafayette, French Aristocrat, Hero of the American Revolution (Honorary Member, 1825)
- Francis Lieber, Political Scientist (Honorary Member)
- John Lawrence Manning, Governor of South Carolina, builder of Millford Plantation
- Fitz William McMaster, Col. CSA & CO of 17th SC Infantry at Antietam; reactivated Euphradian Society in 1882; Mayor of Columbia
- Dandridge McRae, Brig. General in Confederate Army
- Stephen Decatur Miller, U.S. Congressman from South Carolina, Governor of South Carolina and U.S. Senator
- Madison Starke Perry, Governor of Florida
- William C. Preston, U.S. Senator from South Carolina
- John Peter Richardson II, Governor of South Carolina
- J. Marion Sims, physician and pioneer in the field of surgery, known as the "father of modern gynecology"
- James Henley Thornwell, President of South Carolina College and leader of Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America; Thornwell's son was also a president of the Society
- John A. Wharton, Confederate General
- William Henry Wallace, Confederate Brigadier General and State Legislator
- Louis Wigfall, Confederate Brigadier General and Senator from Texas [6]
- Fountain Winston, Governor of Mississippi
Notable 20th-century members
- Solomon Blatt, Sr., South Carolina legislator
- Solomon Blatt, Jr., South Carolina jurist
- James McBride Dabbs, writer and civil rights advocate cited by Martin Luther King Jr.
- Michael R. Daniel, former Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina
- L. Marion Gressette, state senator and namesake of the Society's restored Hall
- Julius B. Ness, former Associate Justice and Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court
- Robert W. Hemphill, federal judge and US Congressman (D-SC)
- Ashton Hilliard Williams, United States federal judge
- C. Bruce Littlejohn, former Associate Justice and Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court
- Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, US Senator (Honorary Member)[7]
- James Clinkscales Hill, United States federal judge
- Edward C. Mann, US Congressman (D-SC)
- James Robert Mann, US Congressman (D-SC)
- Robert Evander McNair, SC Governor[8]
- Kenneth Lamar Holland, US Congressman (D-SC)
- Steve A. Matthews, American jurist
- Ramon Schwartz, Jr., jurist, South Carolina legislator, and Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives
- Frank Epps, South Carolina state representative and circuit court judge
References
- La Borde, Maximilian (1859). History of South Carolina College. Columbia, SC: R.L. Bryan. p. 427.
- Hollis, Daniel Walker, University of South Carolina, Vol. I: South Carolina College, Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1951, pp.230-231.,
- The Clariosophic and Euphradian Societies of the University of South Carolina, 125th Anniversary Celebrations, November 6-7, 1931 (1931) at pgs. 53-54.
- Archived 2010-07-12 at the Wayback Machine South Carolina College: Euphradian Society, Catalogue of Members in 1842, Lanham Digital Library of Hill Country History at Logan Library at Schreiner University
- Lee, Robert E. Robert E. Lee Papers, 1845. Archival material.
- http://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/wigfall-louis-trezevant/
- "Hollings to Become Euphradian Society Honorary Member" (PDF). The Gamecock (Vol. XLVIII, No. 21). March 25, 1955. Retrieved 6 July 2014.
- Grose, Philip (2006). South Carolina at the Brink: Robert McNair and the Politics of Civil Rights. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press. p. 50.