History
History of the Founding of Our Chapter
Our chapter was founded on June 15, 1878, as the first fraternity at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama despite a school-imposed ban on fraternities. The group of young men who dared to defy administrative mandate and to form a fraternal brotherhood would permanently impact the campus of what is now Auburn University. The circumstances surrounding the founding of this first fraternity at Auburn remain largely unknown due to poor record-keeping by the parties involved. Nevertheless, despite strong anti-fraternity sentiment among the faculty, the bold young men who founded Alabama Alpha-Mu of Sigma Alpha Epsilon overcame considerable obstacles to establish a student organization unlike any other at Auburn—one that, though tested, would ultimately stand as a cornerstone of the Greek-letter system at the university.
William W. Lambdin, John J. Huguley, and John Edgar Dawson Shipp had been friends while attending the Gordon Institute in Barnesville, Georgia. After completing their studies there, Lambdin and Huguley enrolled at the University of Georgia, where they pledged and were initiated into the Georgia Beta Chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Shipp, meanwhile, began his collegiate studies at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama, where fraternities were prohibited by faculty policy.
Shipp’s former prep-school friends soon encouraged him to establish a chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon at his college. He declined at first, fully aware of the ban on fraternities and the risks such an undertaking would entail. Eventually, however, Lambdin and Huguley persuaded him to proceed. Shipp devoted himself fully to founding a chapter, knowing that all efforts would have to remain secret.
Shipp recruited the following brothers as chartered members of the chapter: Mark S. Andrews (Auburn, Alabama); Daniel F. Davenport (Americus, Georgia); Henry G. Perry (Auburn, Alabama); David Clopton (Montgomery, Alabama); Thomas M. Oliver (Auburn, Alabama); Wilson M. Blackwelder (Dudleyville, Alabama); Marion S. Estes (Columbus, Georgia); Joshua S. Dowdell (Opelika, Alabama); Silas C. Dowdell (Auburn, Alabama); Robert Y. Street (Bluff Springs, Alabama); Jabez C. Street (Bluff Springs, Alabama); Joseph B. Duke (Montgomery, Alabama); and Charles B. McCoy (Opelika, Alabama).
When the time came for initiation, Lambdin and Huguley were unable to travel from Athens, Georgia, to Auburn. As a result, two brothers from Georgia Psi Chapter at Mercer University—Frank H. Greaves and William H. Felton—were enlisted to perform the initiation. Upon arriving in Auburn, they discreetly gathered the neophytes in a cornfield behind the building known as Old Main, where Samford Hall stands today. Since being chartered, the SAE’s have always been regarded as one of the premier fraternities on campus. Alabama Alpha Mu chapter continues to mold young men into leaders who live by “The True Gentleman.”