The Founding
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Seal and Serpent Society was founded at Cornell University on April 2, 1905, through the association of two groups of close friends, who called themselves the Crooks Club and the Senators. These two core groups came together through drill practice in Company D of the Cornell Army ROTC Unit. While they did not at first set out to organize a fraternity, they “soon found they had the nucleus for one and a definite place for it among organizations as they then stood on the Hill.” This ‘definite place’ reflected our founders’ love of Cornell and the fact that, while they shared common interests and camaraderie, they were all distinctly individuals who valued that individuality.
In the fall of 1905, the association began to take on a more organized form, elected officers and made plans to find shared housing for the following year. That spring, the eleven founding members took a boat trip on Cayuga Lake up to Taughannock Falls where they had a barbecue, ballgame, and celebrated the founding of the new organization. This became an annual event during the early years of the Society, and it has been commemorated in recent years with occasional canoe trips to Taughannock Park during Slope Day weekend. In 1907, the first seniors of Seal and Serpent graduated from Cornell, and with their graduation, they created another valuable precedent: upon graduating, the ten seniors each signed notes promising $100, payable over ten years, to form the basis of a building fund. This commitment began a long tradition of alumni support for the Society and the continuation of brotherhood beyond graduation. It also provided the seed for owning our own home. In 1908, the Society purchased and remodeled an existing house on West Avenue, but quickly determined that a home built specifically for use as a chapter house would far better suit our needs. And so the land on which our current Lodge stands, at 305 Thurston Avenue was purchased in 1913. Unfortunately, the demands of the First World War put off the construction of our new home. |
The Great War |
When America entered the First World War in 1917, Seal and Serpent did her part in supplying men to the fighting forces of the nation. Prior to the declaration of war by the United States, Edward I. Tinkham, ’17 had gone to France as an ambulance driver. He returned to Ithaca after about a year and organized a corps of recruits for the American Field Service. These men sailed for France and enlisted as ambulance drivers, but on their arrival changed to a unit engaged in the transportation of munitions to the front. As a result, the unit commanded by brother Edward I. Tinkham was the first to carry the American Flag into the First World War. The event was described in an official communication from the Grand Headquarters of the French Army, dated May 24, 1917:
The first American combatant corps went to the front today under Captain Edward I. Tinkham, of Cornell University. It was a proud moment when the first detachment of the American Field Service, consisting mainly of Cornell undergraduates, departed for the Aisne battlefield. They were armed with carbines, attired in khaki uniforms, and drove American five-ton motor cars. As they left the Stars and Stripes floating over the cantonment in an historic French forest spread out in the breeze, and other contingents cheered them on their way. Captain Tinkham later transferred to the Naval Air Service as an Ensign and went to Ravenna, Italy as a pilot, where he contracted pneumonia and died on March 30, 1919. He was decorated by Italy with the Crore al Merito de Guerra and by the United States with the Navy Cross. On Spring Day, May 23, 1931 at the dedication of the Cornell War Memorial, President Herbert Hoover referred to Tinkham in an address radioed from Washington, and the following tribute was paid by a representative of the Italian government:
“Interpreting the sentiments of Italy, I reverently offer this humble tribute to the memory of Captain E.I. Tinkham, who first in the Great War carried into action the glorious American flag, and whose remains now rest in Italian soil in deal old Ravenna, where the ashes of Dante are enshrined.” In addition to Captain Tinkham, two other Seal and Serpent brothers gave their lives in service during World War I. Joseph John Mason, ’13, a First Lieutenant of Air Service, died at Issondon on July 19, 1918, and Frank Wyckoff McCullough, ’20, a private in the headquarters Battery, 60th Regiment Coast Artillery Corps, was killed in action on October 3, 1918. All together, 65 members of Seal and Serpent served in the military forces of the United States during the World War. While the members of Seal and Serpent were responding to the call to arms, affairs in Ithaca were not in a very prosperous condition. Most of the undergraduates were in service, and in the fall of 1918, when the college opened under the Student Army Training Corps, the house was turned over to the government along with most other fraternity houses to be used as barracks. But although times were lean, through persistence and determination the Society survived and returned to rebuild in the years following the war. |
Vision
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Since our inception in 1905, Seal and Serpent has endeavored to maintain the vision both sought and represented by its founders, who, according to an early historian, possessed a “certain individuality of ideas which led rather unconsciously to the formation of a fraternity quite distinctive among those at the University.” From the beginning, we were established as a uniquely Cornell institution, independent of national ties and free to determine our own place and direction in the context of Cornell’s own values and ideals.
As a result, we share a vision of what our alma mater refers to as “egalitarian excellence.” Cornell was at the forefront of universities in extending its educational opportunities across divides of gender, sex, race, religion, nationality and background. Similarly over the years, Seal and Serpent took the lead in welcoming brothers of differing faith or ethnicity. And as Cornell flourishes through its diversity of students and areas of study, Seal and Serpent thrives in its environment of inclusion and collective individualism. To our founding principles we would add one more goal that was reflected in the very founding itself: “to provide a home and environment in which members can form bonds of brotherhood that will last throughout a lifetime, and make the time spent as a student at Cornell not only educational but enjoyable as well.” As we proceed to build our second century at Cornell, we continue to pursue this mission, to become a preeminent and uniquely Cornell society, welcoming and encouraging the individuality of our brothers, fostering strength of character among our members, and building a home that is a source of fun and learning both for undergraduates and for life after Cornell. |
The Lodge
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The new house means more to the Chapter than the increased comfort in living conditions that it makes possible; it bears a message of the Loyalty of our alumni to Seal and Serpent; it is a monument expressing their devotion to its ideals. Today, every living brother of Seal and Serpent Society has the shared history of a home at 305 Thurston Avenue.
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Scholarship Fund
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The Seal and Serpent Scholarship Fund was generously endowed by brother Andrew T. Hospodor ’60 in 1995. Over time, with gifts from other brothers, the Scholarship Fund has grown to over $200,000. Brothers apply for the scholarship at the end of the Spring Semester and the award is made at Homecoming each year. Recipients must have financial aid need as defined by Cornell University.
In 2003, the Society began to award a separate scholarship thoughtfully provided by brother Robert L. Strickler ’59. The same application process applies. |