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Not many people in the fraternity world consider 1824 as the founding date of Chi Phi, as Chi Phi itself listed 1854 as its founding date until a few years ago. There was a Chi Phi Society founded at Princeton in 1824 which lasted less than a year. Thirty years later some students discovered a few records of the original Chi Phi and decided to start a new fraternity by the same name, using part of the ritual from the earlier organization. Another group founded a fraternity by the same name in 1858 at University of North Carolina; and a third group did likewise at Hobart College in 1860 (none of the groups aware of the other three!) All having expanded to other campuses, the three groups eventually merged into one as they learned of each other and confusion occurred. That is also why the Greek letter names of early Chi Phi chapters is so confusing and out of sequence. The more accurate date for Chi Phi would be winter or early spring of 1854 (exact date never determined).
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