A Rare Piece of Early UA History Coming Back to Campus

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — On Thursday, March 9 at 11 a.m. Dr. Tom Goodale, executive director of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and Barbara Pawlikowski, SAE archivist, will present The University of Alabama W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library a ledger book of reports to the UA board of trustees dating from 1838-1864.

This large, handwritten document will be among the earliest records of the University.

Dr. Louis A. Pitschmann, UA dean of libraries, and Clark E. Center Jr., curator of special collections, along with other members of the UA community will be on hand in a brief ceremony to accept the ledger and answer questions.

This event is open to the public and to all media. SAE alums and their families are welcome to attend. The Hoole Library is located on the second floor of Mary Harmon Bryant Hall.

Pawlikowski says that that no one knows how they came into possession of this historic item, but that it has been in the fraternity’s possession for some time. There is a possibility that the book was in someone’s possession at the time UA was burned by Federal troops at the end of the Civil War and may have been taken elsewhere for safekeeping and ended up being given to SAE..

“This is an important document in the University’s history. I expect it to shed light on a number of points that have hitherto been unclear,” Center said.

The Hoole Library has significant holdings dating back to 1831 when the campus first opened. They illuminate some of the earliest activities of the University.

The ledger book comes to the Hoole Library just in time for UA’s 175th celebration, which officially begins on Wednesday, April 12, some 175 years from when Alva Woods, UA’s first president, received the “keys” to UA in a ceremony held at Christ Episcopal Church in downtown Tuscaloosa.

Goodale and Pawlikowski will be here in conjunction with SAE’s 150th celebration March 9-11, a reunion and homecoming that will bring SAE alums from all over the U.S. to the UA campus where their fraternity was founded 150 years ago on March 9. Some 800-1,000 SAE alums and guests are expected to attend the anniversary. At a number of the scheduled events there will be an exhibit of rare items from the SAE fraternity archives and museum usually housed in their facility in Evanston, Ill. For more information on SAE’s history and the celebration go to www.sae.net.

SAE was founded by eight students from Alabama: Noble Leslie DeVotie, Nathan E. Cockrell, Samuel M. Dennis, Wade H. Foster, John W. Kerr, Abner E. Patton, John B. Rudulph and Thomas C. Cook. DeVotie is considered the main fraternity founder. According to reports, he was the first Alabama casualty of the Civil War (some say the first Civil War casualty), drowning on Feb. 12, 1861 while boarding his troop ship that was bound for Mobile from Fort Morgan. DeVotie was a chaplain who had joined the Independent Blues and the Governor’s Guard of Selma at Fort Morgan some six weeks before his death.