| Franklin Howard Scobey "Courteous and Loyal in his Friendship" May 20, 1837 - July 22, 1888 |
| Born: May 27, 1837 A.B., Miami University: 1858 A.M., Miami University: 1861 Private, Fifth Ohio Cavalry, U.S. Army: 1861 Editor, Telegraph (Hamilton, Ohio): 1867-79 stock-raiser, Kansas: 1879-82 farmer, Woods Station, Ohio: 1882-88 Died: July 22, 1888 Buried: Greenwood Cemetery, Hamilton, Ohio. |
| For a long time the really important part that Franklin Howard Scobey played among the other Founders was not appreciated. This is not surprising, because Scobey himself would have been the very last one to point out any of his accomplishments even if he had been around at various meetings of the Fraternity. Curiously enough, after he left Oxford in 1858 he almost completely lost touch with the Fraternity and, as will be seen later, it was several months after his death in 1888 that word of his passing reached Fraternity officers.
Of the Seven Founders, Scobey was born nearest to Oxford. This event took place on may 20, 1837, at the little settlement of Millville, Ohio, about 10 miles southeast of Oxford. His father was Dr. Thomas H. Scobey, long a prominent and busy physician at Hamilton, Ohio. Scobey was the first of the six Founders who became members of Delta Kappa Epsilon to join that Fraternity. It was very largely due to his influence that Bell, Caldwell, Cooper, Jordan, and Runkle became Dekes. Lockwood did not enter Miami until after the original difficulties in Delta Kappa Epsilon which led to the establishment of Sigma Chi. It was Scobey who found the talented new student from New York City and it was entirely due to his friendship (Scobey's) that Lockwood became the Seventh Founder. The records show that in the division which arose in Kappa Chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon, Scobey and Runkle were regarded as the leaders in the "rebellion" against the dectates of the older members of that chapter. General Runkle said of Scobey's influence: "Without Frank Scobey I do not believe that Sigma Chi would have succeeded and expanded and endured. We had our disappointments, our months of gloom and times when it seemed that we had no chance of success. Everyone was against us. But Frank Scobey was never discouraged. Always looking on the more hopeful side, his very smile and cheerful words of encouragement gave us new heart. Scobey did well whatever he undertook to do. He stood high with the professors and was popular even with our enemies, who were legion and whose inimical activities were unceasing. He was never physically strong and his life ended early." From the standpoint of faithful, conscientious interest as chapter-workers, Scobey and Runkle must be ranked second only to Lockwood in the scope of their many activities as early builders of Sigma Chi. his patient and humble courtesy endures through the years for its impact on brothers of Sigma Chi, past, present, and future. He was a firm believer and the prime exponent in the Fraternity of what has come to be known and interpreted as the "Spirit of Sigma Chi"-members of different temperaments, talents, and convictions sharing a common belief in an ideal. Upon graduating from Miami in 1858, Scobey began to study law at Hamilton. After about 18 months he was ready to take the bar examination. He chose Greensburg, Decatur County, Indiana, for his residence, and he was admitted to the bar on January 2, 1860. A year later Scobey returned to Hamilton. His old associates recalled that this was on account of his increasing deafness and his desire to go into newspaper work in Hamilton. This is confirmed by the extensive contributions he made to the editorial columns of the Hamilton papers during the first years of the War Between the States and afterwards. The last six years of his life were spent on the farm of his brother-in-law, Judge Pierson Conklin. This farm was only a few miles from Oxford and the scene of this college days. He seldom visited his old haunts there and was seen very infrequently by is old associates. Scobey's final illness came suddenly in the summer of 1888. He had become greatly interested in horticulture and worked constantly with plants and vines. While engaged in this work his face became poisoned. The condition spread rapidly and in a few days he was taken to his father's home in Hamilton, almost completely blind and suffering great agony. It was pronounced erysipeals and although everything possible was done to save him, he died on July 22, 1888, the second of the Founders to enter the Chapter Eternal, but the first victim of a "Silent Spring". He was buried in the family plot at Greenwood Cemetery, Hamilton. A Founders' Memorial Monument was erected there and the dedication ceremonies were a part of the Diamond Jubilee Celebration in 1930. Marked by important and influential activities during the Fraternity's first three years, he dropped completely out of sight although, as has been shown, much of his time was spent within a few miles of Oxford. So far adrift was he that the news of his death did not reach Fraternity officials four months after it occured. The 17th Grand Chapter was held in Chicago on August 29-31, 1888, more than a month after he did. There was no inkling at the time that such an event had happended. |
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