The book is entirely handwritten and contains two versions of the constitution. The first is the earliest known constitution to date. It was copied from the original constitution of Virginia Kappa at William and Mary, which was open from 1858- 1861. The document was by Hiram Cassey Jr. (Southern Mississippi 1868). It was later transcribed for Tennessee Lambda by Sidney Dell (Cumberland 1867), who was one of the founding members of the chapter. When transcribing the constitution, Dell kept the original reference to the College of William and Mary instead of substituting Cumberland University for the name of the school. The book also contains a list of chapter members, their hometowns, graduation years and majors, along with each man’s topos on one of seven pre-designated topics that each member selected to research with the aim of a presentation to the general chapter. Written on the last few pages of the book are a set of by-laws that were adopted by the chapter on May 3, 1867. The second constitution was transcribed from, as the book states, an “original specimen copy transcribed by R. H. Goetchius, Columbus, GA August 1871 and transcribed for KEΦ Ψ [Georgia Psi] by W. [William] I. Smith, Macon GA September 1871.”

Instead of providing answers, the book was deepening the mystery. How did Tennessee Lambda’s constitution and by-laws come to be in the hands of Georgia Psi? Convention minutes and other records in the archives provide some clues. Tennessee Lambda was first founded in 1860, lay virtually dormant during the Civil War and was resurrected in 1865 after the war’s end. The chapter surrendered its charter in 1871 due to low enrollment at the university. When Tennessee Lambda returned its charter, it is likely that it also sent the book to Georgia Beta, which was then the Grand Chapter. The Grand Chapter was elected at each convention to run the Fraternity before the establishment of the Supreme Council and national headquarters.
If the book was given to Georgia Beta, how did it pass to Georgia Psi? It is rather curious that this book, with such an outdated copy of the constitution, would go to live with Georgia Psi. The chapter had been around since the fall of 1870, well before Tennessee Lambda closed and Smith added his portion to the book. Significant changes had been made to the constitution at the 1869 and 1870 Conventions, and such an old copy would be rather useless in governing chapter affairs. Perhaps a member of Georgia Psi took a liking to the book and asked Georgia Beta if he could have it. Maybe Georgia Psi wanted to get a better understanding of Fraternity history. After all, a movement was afoot to recapture Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s early history, one that was already starting to slip away. Unfortunately, we may never know for sure, as no correspondence of this transaction appears to exist.

Once Georgia Psi got the book, the brothers made it their own. The cover and inside leaf have glued-on cut-outs from the 1872 member catalogue. On the page following the table of contents, penned by Dell, is a brief table of contents for the Georgia Psi addition. A full table of contents begins on page 101, the page after Tennessee Lambda’s membership list. Smith then listed Georgia Psi’s members and copied in the current constitution. Unfortunately for us, pages 102-107 which contained part of the table of contents and the membership list, were cut out and are no longer with the book. This was obviously a well-used book as shown by its condition, pencil corrections and revisions to the text. In addition, an inserted section was sewn onto one of the pages of the 1871 constitution.

The corrections and revisions seem to end after the 1875 Convention. The book may have attended the 1877 Convention as the convention delegate, Methuen T. Freeman, added his autograph and noted that he was a “Delegate to Richmond Convention.” The convention made many changes to the constitution. It voted that all prior copies of the constitution were void and directed the Grand Chapter with making copies of the convention minutes and revised constitution for all of the chapters. While previous conventions had passed similar resolutions, the changes approved during this convention apparently were too great to warrant an update to the book.

The book appears to have remained with Georgia Psi for at least another year, as the dated autographs go up to 1878. Just when and how the book fell out of circulation and made its way through several generations to the Vanscoy family is still a complete mystery. We will continue to work with Vanscoy to identify the common link, both to appease our curiosity and help to fill out her family tree.

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