At nine o'clock on the evening of the eighth day of the eighth month of the year 1839, eight earnest young men, all students at Miami University, held the first meeting of Beta Theta Pi in the Hall of the Union Literary Society, an upper room in the old college building known as 'Old Main.'
The eight founders in the order in which their names appear in the minutes were:
John Reily Knox, 1839
Samuel Taylor Marshall, 1840
David Linton, 1839
James George Smith, 1840
Charles Henry Hardin, 1841
John Holt Duncan, 1840
Michael Clarkson Ryan, 1839
Thomas Boston Gordon, 1840
of ever honored memory."
The Beta Chapter
On Aug 9th, 1841 a new fraternity began at Western Reserve University. It was only the third chapter of a fledgling organization that began with eight earnest young men at Miami University in 1839. It was one of two fraternities founded at the school that year, the other being Alpha Delta Phi. Although chronologically the third (Gamma) chapter of Beta Theta Pi, the closure of the Cincinnati chapter in 1844 led to the chapter being known as the Beta chapter.
At the time university officials frowned upon fraternities, so the public acknowledgement of Beta at WRU was not made for many years. However as time progressed and fraternities grew, Beta gained acceptance on campus. University President Pierce was a Beta, as well as Pres. Leutner, and Finnegan.
The Civil War proved to be Beta's darkest hour, membership dropped drastically and in 1868 the chapter was closed. The few remaining brothers from that chapter formed the Delta Kappa Epsilon chapter at WRU. Beta returned to WRU in 1880.
In 1882, WRU moved from Hudson, Ohio to the University Circle area in Cleveland. The Beta's took up residence in a house on Bellflower Rd. Unfortunately, that house, where the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences now stands, burned down.
The Lambda Kappa Chapter
In 1894 a local fraternity called Lyme Kill Club was formed at the Case School of Applied Sciences. It had the expressed purpose of eventually becoming a chapter in a nationally recognized fraternity. The Lyme Kill Club petitioned to join Beta, and at the Beta Theta Pi national convention, the petition was accepted.
On February 22nd, 1905, Beta Theta Pi opened its doors at Case. The members of the Lyme Kill Club were the first initiates at Case Insitute of Technology. They did, however, keep the letters LK as a reminder of the chapter's origins--thus the Lyme Kill Club became the Lambda Kappa chapter of Beta Theta Pi.
For the first few decades, they moved from available house to house, but settled in house located on Abington Rd. The chapter remained there until the mid sixties when they moved to a house on Murray Hill Rd.
The Merger
In 1967, CIT and WRU merged into CWRU. Up until Nov. 11th, 1979, there had been two chapters of Beta Theta Pi at the same school. On this date, they merged, becoming the Lambda Kappa-Beta chapter of Beta Theta Pi. During the mid seventies the original Beta house on Bellflower burned down and the members moved to the Lambda Kappa house on Murray Hill Rd. Following the loss of that house in a fire as well, the chapter moved down the street, to a house in the Greek village at the bottom of Murray Hill.
The Rebirth
Unfortunately, the chapter fell on hard times. Member apathy, a culture of alcohol and hazing, and lack of recruitment led to only five men left in the chapter at the beginning of the Fall 2005 semester. These five men- Paul Serrin, Caleb Krouse, David Svilar, David Bartholomew, and Will Freed-Pastor, made it their goal to ensure the survival of their chapter. Reversing years of negative culture overnight, the five seniors recruited enough men to keep the chapter alive. In 2006, after the graduation of the seniors, the chapter officially declared its commitment to a positive chapter culture by formally partnering with Beta's "Men of Principle" Initiative.
Living the Dream
The dream of these five men was not lost. The Lambda Kappa - Beta chapter has come a long way and is now arguably the strongest it has ever been. Praised by both Case Western and Beta National, this chapter is proving that a fraternity is most successful when supporting their brothers, instead of supporting alcoholism and hazing.
