Each year at Yale University during the 1840's, certain members of the sophomore class were elected to two junior societies, Alpha Delta Phi and Psi Upsilon. In the spring of 1844, due to undergraduate politics and a division in the sophomore class, a number of men of high character and scholastic attainment did not receive bids from the two societies. So unfair, in fact, were the selections that some men who did receive bids promptly rejected them.

On Saturday, June 22, 1844, fifteen Yale sophomores, rejecting the status quo, met and formed a new junior society they called Delta Kappa Epsilon. Very quickly DKE became more than just another junior society. Its predecessors' criterion of academic distinction, while still highly respected, was expanded to include the qualities of good fellowship and compatible tastes and interests and thus attracted a wider range of prospective members. More fraternal than its rival societies, DKE proceeded to recruit men who combine "in equal proportions the gentleman, the scholar, and the jolly good fellow" -- criteria that have remained unchanged to this day.

We are proud of our fraternity and the more than 70,000 men who have become our brothers since DKE was founded in 1844. Dekes come from every walk of life. Many have gone on to distinguish themselves in politics, the arts, sciences, sports, education, and the humanities. Five U.S. Presidents have been Dekes, more than any other any fraternity. The first man to reach the North Pole was a Deke, and a Deke has carried our flag to the moon. In every corner of the world you will meet fellow Dekes, but whatever their background or station in life, all are united by the shared experience of membership in DKE.

Founding at the University of Minnesota

Phi Epsilon Chapter was founded at the University of Minnesota in 1889. Previous to that time, during the Presidency of Dr. Folwell, two formal applications for DKE Charters were refused by the convention. The delegates in each case were worthy young men; but the Fraternity in its wise policy of conservatism was unwilling to place a chapter in any institution which was not on an established basis, and the University at that time seemed hardly up to the required standard. In 1884, Cyrus Northrop (F, 1857) succeeded to the Presidency and a period of growth and development set in. On three occasions, attempts were made by as many different groups of students to obtain a DKE Charter, and on such occasion the local DKE Alumni felt that the time was hardly ripe for such a movement to receive their approval. When, however, the year 1889 brought overwhelming evidence of the prosperity of the institution and of the increasing number of desirable young men who were becoming students, it was clear that at last the time had come for action. At that time, two DKE Alumni, strangers to each other, both newcomers to the city, and neither connected with the faculty of the University, simultaneously formed a plan to organize the chapter. A nucleus was set at once gathered of the students who were from DKE families, and several others who were under consideration.

At this juncture a new element appeared. The local chapter of the FDQ Fraternity, some fourteen in number, learned of the movement and asked to be included. Their statement was that they were not in sympathy with their fraternity and desired to leave it and to be permitted to petition for a DKE Charter. These men, who now applied, were known to be of suitable character. No suggestion or inducement that they should break with their old fraternity had ever been offered by any member of DKE. They were told very explicitly that they were by no means advised to leave their fraternity-that no promise could be made, that no negotiations could be had with them as a chapter or as fraternity men-that if they should become non-fraternity men, their applications would then be considered as individuals and they must assume all the risks. The chapter thereupon took such action, resigned from FDQ, surrendered their charter, and joined six other petitioners to the XLIII Convention, held at Boston, in asking for a charter from DKE. After due investigation of the circumstances, the Council made a favorable report on the application and the Convention granted the charter October 16, 1889.

On the evening of December 11, 1889, about forty DKE Alumni, representing fourteen chapters, gathered at the Holmes Hotel, Minneapolis, to assist at the birth of the new chapter of the Fraternity. The ceremonies of initiation and presentation were under the auspices of the Northwestern DKE Alumni Association of Minneapolis. Promptly at eight o’clock, the novitiates to the number of twenty were brought before the assembled alumni and a solemn and impressive initiation was begun. The following were the charter members:

Edward M. Spaulding, Herbert Gilman Richardson, William Bennett Bebb, Douglas Andrus Fiske, John Ernest Merrill, Ernest Arthur Nickerson, Ripley Bernard Brower, William Webb Harmon, Alden Joseph Blethen, Jr., Elon Obed Huntington, Everett Buell Kirk, Edwin James Krafft, George Thomas King, Walter S. Davis, Wallace H. Davis, Arthur Jay Farnsworth, George Plummer Merrill, Cyrus Northrop, Jr., Henry Thomas Lee, Jr., R.B. Farming.

At the conclusion of the ceremonies, Rev. D. J. Burrell, D.D., (F, 1867), president of the Association, presented the charter, which was received on behalf of the chapter by the senior members of the delegation. The influence or President Northrop as well as of President George E. McLean (E, 1871) of Iowa State University, and President Harry Pratt Judson (E, 1870) of the University of Chicago, had been earnestly exerted to procure the charter for the new chapter, and they were all present at the installation to welcome it and to extend their best wishes for its future.

The chapter has grown with the University and has maintained a prosperous existence ever since its installation, and remains on of our most loyal chapters.

Taken from Delta Kappa Epsilon Catalogue 1910, pages 1115-1116