History

The Beginning of Greatness

The Ohio State University agriculture campus was located entirely on the East Side of the Olentangy River in 1904. At this time there was only one agricultural fraternity on the campus, the Alpha Zeta fraternity. The men of Alpha Zeta were very active in the agricultural activities, holding the chairmanships and major offices in the agricultural college. There was a certain group of young men who were opposed to the Alpha Zeta’s domination and decided to do something about it. These men first met in an old wooden-framed house, on property near the present day University Hospital, at the intersection of Eleventh Avenue. The men who numbered seven were: Francis Lorne Allen, Rudo Lorenzo Fromme, William Americus Martin, Glenn T. Snyder, Burton Louis West, Emerson Scott Poston, and Robert C. Wallace. Martin, Allen, and Wallace were acquainted through participation in The Ohio State University Livestock Judging Team. Fromme and Poston were both connected with musical organization and knew each other very well. Snyder and West were roommates and West was on The Ohio State University Baseball Team. With the aid of Hooler Slate and the agricultural independents, the founders managed to acquire a majority of the chairmanships and presidencies in the agricultural activities. It was then decided that the AZ’s could be successfully opposed. Realizing that an organization was needed in order to work effectively, the founders met in a building on South High for such a purpose. At this organizational meeting Fromme was installed as President. Fromme gave Alpha Gamma Rho the name to the organization at this time. The idea behind this was that the Greek letters form the abbreviation for the word agriculture.

The first house was rented at 1630 Neil Avenue. There is some conflict as to where the house was actually located. The Pledge Manual states 1534 Neil Avenue; however, all other reputable sources, including the founders, state 1630 Neil Avenue as the correct address.

In this same year William Martin, Francis Allen and Robert Wallace were on the Ohio State University Judging Team which went to the Chicago Livestock International show. While there, they met informally with the men from Delta Rho Sigma fraternity at the University of Illinois. Later the Alpha Gamma Rho’s will merge with this group to become a nationally united group.

The first two pledges were initiated into the fraternity in 1905. They were Erasimus J. Kitchen and J. Oscar Williams. It was coincidental that Kitchen and Williams were taken to the location of the present house at 1979 Iuka Avenue for the first initiation ceremony. At that time the house was under construction and was selected because it was in a lonely wooded area. In fact it was a few years later known as the “Mansion in the Wilderness.”

Mom Beal

“To thee O God we bow our hearts.in deep humility to thank thee for the bread and meat we receive abundantly. Bless brothers all we humbly pray and loved ones near and far. Keep us true to high ideals and loyal to AGR.”

This national prayer of Alpha Gamma Rho is but one of Mom’s many contributions to our fraternity. The First Lady of Beta has inspired and waned the hearts of many people, especially those men who lived with her as a part of the Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity.

Mom’s life had its beginning near agriculture. She was born in a log cabin in Rocky Mountain, Virginia, on December 20, 1889. Her parents, Ida May Jenkins (from Whales), and William Armstead Beheler (from Ireland), had two other children, Barnest and Harold. Mom has lived in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. As a child, she developed one of her main interests, the piano. She began playing piano and dancing lessons when she was eight years old. old. Little did she know that her future husband was in her dancing class.

After graduating from Delaware High School, Delaware, Ohio, in 1909, she moved, in 1910, to Paris, Kentucky, and entered the Business College at Lexington. Although she had no secretarial courses in high school, she completed Business College and proceeded to teach at the same college from which she had just graduated.

Marriage came the following year to Lieutenant Colonel Burtch Beall, on December 26.

They were blessed with two children. Mom pleaded with her husband to buy her a piano, but finances prohibited it. Finally, in 1913, she was granted her wish. She began teaching to pay for the piano. She taught for 47 years until 1968. She still has the same piano, which can usually be heard being played after dinner or anytime the fellows gather around and sing.

After his army career, Burtch worked in the Lazarus department store. They then lived on Lane Avenue. Mom continued to teach piano after Burtch’s death in 1943. In 1949, something happened to Mom that would affect her, and many yet unborn. It seems Alpha Gamma Rho had a housemother that didn’t have the moral qualities expected of a housemother. They fired her and began looking for a replacement. Mr. Ralph Bazler, the faculty advisor of Alpha Gamma Rho, lived next door to Mrs. Beal. Along with Dick Fitten, Noble Ruler of Alpha Gamma Rho, Mr. Bazler suggested that she look into becoming a housemother. She gladly accepted the responsibility. At the time the house didn’t have any quarters for a housemother. She came over to the house on Wednesday night, Friday, or Saturday depending on when the house party was. She always came over on Sunday afternoon.

Eight years later she moved into the house. This was in 1957 when the new west wing of the house was built. During her years at Alpha Gamma Rho, she has seen many changes and many men go through the house. Mom is one of the chief reasons many men keep coming back to the house. Mom’s spare time is spent teaching bridge, playing the piano, or just talking to the men. Mom’s favorite function of the year is the Christmas Party, and she always looks forward to receiving cards from the alumni. Mom participated in the pledge parties that used to take place on Sunday afternoons, with different sororities. Mom also had fun watching actives get “pooled” by the pledges when they get pinned or have a birthday. Mom has learned to tolerate the cigar passing, during dinner, of newly pinned or engaged men. Mom has had the thrill of sitting next to former President Bevis at a Greek Week Banquet, and just recently sitting next to President Fawcett of the Alpha Gamma Rho house.

Sunday morning usually finds the men escorting Mom to church. She is a very religious person, as one can see by the fraternity prayer. The men of Alpha Gamma Rho will never be able to measure the value that Mom Beall has given to them. Next to our own blood brothers, no one can ever give more encouragement or advice than that of the Grand Lady of Beta Chapter of Alpha Gamma Rho.

– Prepared by the initiation Class of Winder 1969

The infant Alpha Gamma Rho was scarcely one year old when Beta Chapter initiated a young man who was fired with a lifelong ambition to work with older young men; a young man in whom were deeply ingrained high ideals and noble objectives. Alpha Gamma Rho owes an eternal debt of gratitude to Professor Sleeter Bull, who as a brother~ for over half a century, has given unstintingly of time and effort to further the affairs of his beloved fraternity. Rarely does any organization enlist the services of an individual so sincere of purpose, so clear of vision, so diligent of effort as is our Sleeter Bull.

Brother Bull was born December 23, 1887, near Sidney, Ohio. He was elected to membership in the Beta Chapter of Alpha Gamma Rho in 1909. He served as Grand Registrar and Editor of the Sickle and Sheaf in 1909 and 1910; he was elected Grand Secretary of the fraternity, a position he has discharged with incomparable efficiency since then. Brother Bull has enjoyed a longer period of service than any other national officer of a social fraternity.

Brother Bull designed the original coat of arms of our fraternity. The fraternity seal, which remains unaltered from the original, is another of his contributions. His hand penned the charge of the fraternity, which is so effectively read to newly initiated brothers as one of the most impressive features of fraternal rituals. From his youthful imagination came the idea and from his fluent pen came the copy of the first Sickle and Sheaf in 1910.

Brother Bull is Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois, having served as Professor of Meats in the Animal Science department for 45 years. He is the author of “Principles of Feeding Farm Animals” and “Meat for the Table” as well as numerous agriculture experiment station bulletins and circulars. He is a member of Sigma Xi and Rotary. Brother Bull was for 49 years happily married to Mrs. Lucille Bull, who took an intense interest in Alpha Gamma Rho’s accomplishments and served as an advisor for her sorority, Delta Gamma.

The hobby of Brother Bull is our fraternity. Since his first contact with Alpha Gamma Rho in 1909, he has been the motivating force behind much of its growth and development. Those who know him and love him have fondly named him “The Grand Old Man of Alpha Gamma Rho”