1856
John Hannah Gray
Many chapters existed sub rosa for long periods of time, when acknowledgment of membership in Beta Theta Pi would be grounds for automatic expulsion from the college. For example, Hanover existed in this fashion for some time. Then, in 1856, Brother John Hanna Gray, Hanover ’56, died while an undergraduate and was buried on the [southeastern Indiana] college campus. The Betas raised a monument to him by subscription but the monument bore a facsimile of the chapter seal now contained on our membership shingle. This so angered some of the other students that they attempted to desecrate and destroy the monument. The Betas, in detachment, guarded the monument around the clock for some weeks until the feeling Beta Brotherhood | page 31
died down. It was this episode which disclosed the existence of Beta Theta Pi at Hanover. Gray’s father, Daniel L. Gray, a Presbyterian clergyman, was unable to get to Hanover until the following spring. He was greatly touched when he learned how the Betas had done everything possible for his son. He expressed his belief in a fraternity which had shown itself in such a sincere way. He wished that he also belonged to Beta Theta Pi. As a result he was taken in by the brothers of his son; and while John Hanna Gray’s roll number is 13, his father Daniel L. Gray is number 21 on the Hanover roll. — Beta Lore, pg. 518