Lee C. Bradley, Birmingham-Southern, was elected as Worthy Grand Scribe in 1892 (Reno 256).
“Ferdinand E. Smith, Birmingham-Southern, entered Rose Polytechnic Institute, Terre Haute, Indiana, and by initiating seven, established Gamma Gamma, November 15, 1893” (Reno 135).
“Alpha Tau Omega has always been a singing society. The meetings of the Lexington chapters were invariably opened and closed with the devotional odes which were adopted by succeeding chapters and eventually became a part of the Secret Work. Newly initiated Brothers who had undergone the rather strenuous ceremony of that day were greeted by a noble song of welcome” (Reno 148).
The following images come from Claude J. Reno’s The ATΩ Story: The First Fifty Years.
Concerning the Fraternity song “Our Jewels”: “A lovely college romance produced the song which captured the Fraternity’s heart and through the years has remained for both actives and alumni the prime favorite, ‘the song of songs.’” Helen Choate Streeter wrote a poetic tribute to the badge of Alpha Tau Omega after being “pinned” by her boyfriend, Alpha Tau Linn Murdock Huntington at a chapter in Nebraska in 1900. “It was first published in the February, 1903, PALM under the title ‘The Azure and Gold.’ Harry A. Lyon, Cornell, a skilled musician and a noted bandmaster, set Helen’s charming verses to sparkling music, and the melodious and thrillingly beautiful song endeared itself to an appreciative Fraternity’s everlasting love. Its noble refrain is truly ‘a good song ringing clear’:
Oh Alpha Tau Omega,
Our hearts are ever thine!
We set them as the jewels
In The Maltese Cross to shine.
To thee we pledge allegiance,
Our service true and bold,
And ever we’ll be loyal
To the azure and the gold” (Reno 148-49).
“Alpha Taus fought in the ranks of Roosevelt’s Rough Riders at San Juan Hill; with the Marines they landed at Guantanamo Bay; and at the destruction of Cervervas’ Spanish fleet…To Alpha Tau Omega the patriotic service of Founder Glazebrook, Confederate veteran, the cadet who had manned the artillery at New Market, whose rhapsodic vision of a united nation had inspired him to found the Fraternity, was most impressive and exemplary. He was a captain and the chaplain of the Third New Jersey Infantry. In an illustrated history of the war an equestrian portrait of him was printed under the caption ‘The Finest Horseman in the Service,’ (PALM, XIX, 12) a picture the Fraternity has valued as a precious keepsake” (Reno 150-51).
“Division of the Fraternity into Provinces for better administration was a topic of debate [at the 1886 Atlanta Congress], but the Province system did not materialize until the turn of the century” (Reno 117).
“Provinces consist of one or more states. [A footnote clarifies: ‘At the present time, some Provinces contain only parts of one or more states, divisions being made on the basis of nearness of chapters rather than state boundaries.]…From 1898 to 1901 Province I was composed of chapters in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina and during that period Arthur W. McCord, Birmingham-Southern, was Chief of the Province” (Reno 259).
The following images come from Claude J. Reno’s The ATΩ Story: The First Fifty Years.
“In the beginning there were six provinces; now there are 26. The first Chiefs and the states included in their provinces follow: I. Arthur W. McCord, Birmingham-Southern: Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina…It would be difficult to compile a roster of more notable Alpha Taus. McCord, engaged in business, residing in Alabama when appointed, moved to Tennessee and later to California; wherever he lived he was a dynamic force in promoting the Fraternity’s welfare and served several terms as High Councillor” (Reno 154).
“‘Provincial Chiefs’ Arthur W. McCord, Birmingham-Southern, Thomas Ruffin, North Carolina, and George W. Mitchell, Austin, were on hand [at the 1900 Boston Congress] to present their reports on Provinces I, III, and VI. Thus for the first time a Congress received reports from Province Chiefs, even though E.P. Lyon, II; Robert W. Bingham, IV; and Thaddeus M. Jones, V, were unable to give theirs in person. Instead of bombastic, highly optimistic chapter reports the Congress secured impartial and expert surveys of the actual conditions of all the chapters, revealing their strengths and weaknesses, and counseling needed improvements. The Province system had been tried and its extraordinary usefulness proved; the Congress unanimously voted a Constitutional amendment which, ratified by the chapters, made the system a permanent feature of the Fraternity’s government” (Reno 160-61).
“Arthur W. McCord, Birmingham-Southern, was a Province Chief and as often a High Councillor. A champion of extension whose business took him to all sections of the Northwest, he casually called on the President of the University of Washington, seeking information concerning the fraternity situation on that campus…McCord enlisted the assistance of Chester S. Van Brundt, Illinois, then residing in North Yakima, Washington, another expansionist who had installed the Colorado chapter. Their joint efforts procured a charter with which they established Washington Gamma Pi, January 20, 1906.” (Reno 172).
“[At the 1904 New York Congress] An application for the revival of the Arkansas Chapter was rejected because, as Lamar [the current Worthy Grand Chief] explained, a statute of that state prohibited fraternities at the University. ‘It was out of harmony with the principles of ATO to violate or countenance the violation of any law, state or Federal,’ he said—a declaration that became the Fraternity’s settled policy” (Reno 168).
Beta-Beta: The History 