Eclectic Society (Fraternity)

The Eclectic Society of Phi Nu Theta (ΦΝΘ) was originally a college fraternity at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and was one of the oldest fraternal college organizations in the United States. The society was formally founded by Herman Merrills Johnson, Jonathan Coe, Joshua Newhall, Clark Titus Hinman, and Chester Dormund Hubbard, who met on September 13, 1838, and elected and initiated themselves on that date. (Chandler Robbins was also elected that night but was initiated a week later.) The early Wesleyan societies adopted English names, and not Greek ones; but Eclectic quickly adopted a motto, the Greek initials of which are Phi Nu Theta, and the society operated under both names.

The society has always claimed an 1837 foundation for itself, for reasons understood to the members, although no advocate of the society has contravened the fact that the founding meeting was in late 1838. Eclectic was Wesleyan's second fraternity, after the Mystical 7.

In the 1850s a Beta Chapter existed for ten years at Ohio Wesleyan University and a Gamma Chapter enjoyed a month's existence at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, but both succumbed to the perturbations accompanying the Civil War or to anti-fraternity sentiment among faculty members. There were long discussions about a chapter at Genesee College which never were fruitful. Thereafter, the only chapter was the Alpha Chapter at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

The Eclectic Society, Phi Nu Theta, was founded in 1838, as is clear from the first meeting date of the society. However, Eclectic has always claimed an 1837 founding date, making it presumptively as old as its older competitor, the Mystical 7 society. (The Mystical 7 is known to have been in existence on July 17, 1837 when an acknowledgement on that date was received from the president of the university.)

None of the original Wesleyan societies, the Mystical 7, Eclectic, Tub Philosophers, or Thecanians, had a Greek-letter name. As other Greek-letter societies came to Wesleyan, Eclectic did quickly adopt a Greek motto, and has since been equally known as Phi Nu Theta as Eclectic (with one or the other dominating different eras).

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