Iota Chapter, Kappa Sigma Fraternity

Kappa Sigma tells two founding stories. Tradition places its roots in a student society at the University of Bologna around 1395 to 1400, formed to protect students from the men of the city's corrupt governor, Baldassare Cossa. The documented founding came on December 10, 1869, when five students met in room 46 East Lawn at the University of Virginia and became known as the Five Friends and Brothers. Wikipedia's chapter list shows Tau at the University of Texas in September 1884, two years before Southwestern's Iota on October 15, 1886.

What the plaque says

Iota Chapter, Kappa Sigma Fraternity The Iota Chapter of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity was chartered at Southwestern University on October 12, 1886. Iota became an official chapter on October 15, 1886, following the initiations of Iverson B. Lane, Jesse C. Baker, Jasper B. Gibbs, and John S. Moss. Beginning as an unauthorized group on campus, the chapter did not receive university recognition until June 20, 1887. It was the 27th chapter chartered in the United States and the second organized in Texas. In Iota's first century over 975 members have worn the star and crescent, the symbol of Kappa Sigma. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Williamson County Courthouse — 0.6 mi
  The fifth Williamson County courthouse, a Beaux Arts building by C. H. Page, rises over a Georgetown square of more than 50 Victorian-era buildings.
• Inner Space Cavern — 2.3 mi
  A Georgetown cave found in 1963 when highway engineers drilled test holes, holding Pleistocene fossils and 72-degree rooms that visitors reach by an artificial tunnel.
• The Round Rock — 8.6 mi
  A table-shaped stone in Brushy Creek gave Round Rock its name in 1854; the Chisholm Trail crossed the creek near it, and Old Town stayed behind when the railroad pulled the town east.
• Mount Bonnell — 23 mi
  Austin's old lookout over the Colorado, named by an 1838 traveler, picnicked on by George and Libbie Custer, and reached by a 1939 flight of about 100 limestone steps.

More markers nearby

• Xi Chapter, Kappa Alpha Order — steps away
• Southwestern University — 0.2 mi
• Evangelical Free Church — 0.3 mi
• Judge Harry N. Graves — 0.3 mi