History

During the summer of 1911, Messrs. Clark and Squires — Canton land owners — obtained the names of prospective students for the School of Agriculture at St. Lawrence University and sent them literature on a boarding house called Harrison Lodge at 49 Judson St., where board and room could be had at $4.50 per week. When school opened, only 10 boys had responded.

Harrison Lodge up until that time had enjoyed a varied career and a very bad reputation, because it had no governing body. One night, Charles J. Dumas, Mark Duntz Jr., John F. Banker, and Frederick H. Hanker were seated in Hanker's room when Dumas delivered a little lecture. He said people were talking about the lodge and that they ought to form a fraternity and turn over a new leaf.

After Christmas vacation, Dumas called the rest of the fellows together — including William O'Niel, Ira F. Wicks, Roy D. Bonney, William O'Donnell, Paul Haaren, Roswell B. Conger, Martin T. Bunk, and Webster Harris — to form an organization. They called it Delta Delta, meaning "Dirty Dozen," with a safety pin for an emblem.

They selected nine from the class of 1913 and began building a fraternity known as Theta Gamma. When Dean Cook learned of the fraternity, he demanded they disband. But the brothers asked for a hearing, where Dumas and Duntz ably presented the advantages. Dr. James Milford Payson and Professor Bennich believed the boys should be given a chance — convincing the others likewise. Theta Gamma owes its existence to those two men.