The Founding of Eleusis

One rainy day in the Spring of 1910 Moulton B. Goff stopped me on the stairway of our rooming house at 319 Linden Ave. and says, “Lets us get a group of congenial fellows, form a club, rent a house next year where we can room together and enjoy each other.”

No doubt this had been in the back of his mind for some time and this seemed to be the appropriate time to bring it forward. It was an excellent idea and we started it at once with Hawley B. Rogers to help us. By the end of the school year we had 19 men who agreed to go together and form a club. The following is a list of the first group: (1) M.B. Fogg, (2) H.B.Rogers,(3) L.A. Rodenhiser, (4) Al White (5) Stan White, (6) Stan Lovell, (7) F. R. Guldin, (8) Geo. Chase, (9) Tip Tyler, (10) Buck Tyson, (11) D. O'Loughlin, (12) W. M. Sullivan, (13) Bunny Winslow, (14) Gibber Brooks, (15) Harry Embleton, (16) F. J. Burgdorff, (17) Geo. Butler, (18) Tommie Cheesebrough, (19) R. W. Symonds.

The house at 214 Dryden Rd. was rented and that fall every one showed up. We finally selected the name “Adjcas” for the club and yours truly was custodian of the building, funds etc. It was a wonderful year with every body being very agreeable and harmonious. I was the only one to graduate in 1911, and as I was coming back for another degree, there was no a break in the ranks.

So before the close of the year we rented a larger house and one more suited to our needs at #7 Bryant Ave. Another very successful year followed and as there were several boys to get degrees in 1912, there was a keen desire to make a permanent organization in which all would have a part, and which would perpetuate itself.

So after mid-years we started to work. Eleusis was organized, our constitution and by laws were written, the ritual and initiation ceremonies were adopted. And as we had no money we sold $3,000 worth of bonds one-half of which was used as down payment on a house at 313 Wait Ave. and the other half was used to buy furniture and fixtures for the house. It was surprising how far that money went toward getting us established. But this little history does not tell of the many, many hours spent by all of us in working out the problems of organization financing, rushing and other which had to be discussed and many decisions made.

But in the fall of 1912 we moved in and had two more glorious years. We now had a cook and a house man and none of the living will ever forget the evenings we spent around the fire place after the study period singing songs and talking. We had lots of fun and we do have many pleasant memories,and one bitter one when Gil Parker put quinine in the salt shaker and most of us got it on our mashed potatoes before we discovered it. Well, June 1914 came along and a lot of us stepped out into the big world, which today seems awfully small. I hope that some one can carry from 1914 and continue the history until the acceptance into Lambda Chi Alpha.

L. A. Rodenhiser