On the evening of March 23, 1840, George Underwood and James Wickes Taylor, Brothers of the Hamilton Chapter, organized the Geneva Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi, initiating two from the Senior Class, two from the Junior Class, and one from the Sophomore Class, together with Morse Stewart, a medical student from Penn Yan, and formerly of a member of Hamilton College.

It seems to have been the custom at that time for secret societies to obtain charters, wherever established, from the college authorities. In this case, the faculty had made objection that the specific objects of the society were unknown to any of their body. In May, Rev. Benjamin Hale, President of the College, was invited to become a member. This invitation was accepted, and on August 4 President Hale was duly initiated, and ever remained deeply interested in the Chapter and the Fraternity.

Until the closing of the Chapter in May 1876, the history of the Geneva Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi is, with unimportant exceptions, a record of continued and gratifying success.

The early rule of the Fraternity, that no elections or initiations could be made until the third term of the sophomore year, was soon felt by this Chapter to be counterproductive. In 1842, the Chapter earnestly sought the repeal of the rule and the adoption of one that would leave each Chapter to judge for itself the time of election and initiation.

To the members of the Chapter, the Chapter was known as “Our Lady of the Lake”, and, by a pleasant fiction, it was in honor of “Our Lady” that Commencement reunions were held.

From 1864 to 1873 the Chapter indulged in a navy; and on the waters of the silver Seneca was waged many a contest with “hostile friends” and others. It was a period of great interests in the history of the Chapter. The Alpha Delta Phi navy survived its rivals, and dies at last from want of a foreman. The champion flag is today among the archives of the Chapter.

With sister Chapters, the Geneva Chapter ever cultivated the most cordial relations; but it felt itself especially bound to Hamilton as its parent and to Cornell as its child.

The Chapter was closed in May 1876. Resulting from unhappy dissensions in the College’s Board of Trustees, a sudden and great reduction in the number of students attending the school took place that year; and, after consultation, it was deemed best to withdraw the Chapter.

In 1993, the Fraternity made a concerted effort to renew the Geneva Chapter at Hobart College. A small group of the top students were initiated into the Alpha Delta Phi with hopes that with good recruitment the affiliate could grow and flourish as it had in the 1800’s. Unfortunately, two years after the first initiation the College’s administration once again took an anti-fraternity stance, and the young affiliate was forced to cease operations in 1996.