A look into the history of FarmHouse Fraternity at Iowa State University. The chapter was chartered on January 22, 1927, and became the fifth chapter of FarmHouse Fraternity.

1. Faith
Ambition
Reverence
Morality
Honesty
Obedience
Unity
Service
Excellence
Iowa State Chapter of
FarmHouse Fraternity
Chapter History

2. The Beginning
On January 22, 1927, the fifth chapter of FarmHouse Fraternity was founded
at Iowa State University.
The first step, however, occurred in 1920 when the FarmHouse National
Secretary traveled to Ames to investigate the prospects of establishing a
chapter on the campus, then known as Iowa State College. It appeared that
it would not be feasible to annex one of the local fraternities. But, Dr.
Buchanan, Dean of Students, felt that there was room for another good
agricultural fraternity at Iowa State.
At the International Livestock Exposition in Chicago in the fall of 1922,
FarmHouse National President R.E. Holland (NE '15) talked with J.C.
Holbert and others from Iowa State who were interested in an organization
with high ideals. The men returned to Ames with hopes of establishing a
fraternity among agricultural students whose members would excel in
scholarship and would be outstanding in personality, character, and
activities.

3. The Beginning
Professor H.W. Richey, a Nebraska
alumnus on the Iowa State Horticulture
staff, gave the men much
encouragement. The early group of six
or eight men met frequently in
Professor Richey’s office to discuss the
possibilities of forming an official
organization. Dr. Buchanan also
continued his encouragement.
Soon they were meeting in a larger
room in what was then known as the
Cranford Apartments on the south side
of Lincoln Way just a few doors east of
the Welch Avenue entrance to campus.
By the next spring, enough men had
been recruited to start a chapter.
Pictured: Cranford Apartments 1920s (Lower-Left) and J.C.
Holbert (Upper-Right)

4. Lanthus Fraternity
Following approval by the Intercollegiate Council, ten men established
Lanthus Fraternity on April 16, 1923. It was formed as a temporary
organization until the chapter could become FarmHouse. The name
Lanthus was chosen, according to J.C. Holbert, because the men were
“trying to think of a name that would soon be forgotten, because we
wanted it to be FarmHouse right away. So we found a young Hereford bull
in Ken Clark’s herd with the name of ‘Lanthus.’ We looked up the bull’s
pedigree, figured he wouldn’t live too long, so we adopted that name.”

5. Lanthus Fraternity
The FarmHouse influence was evident
with Lanthus choosing “F.H.” as the
official password, green and white as
the official colors, and a design for a
Lanthus pin with an ear of corn and
crescent on the pin. Assistance from FH
alumni was tremendous, including
Kenneth Clark of the Nebraska
Chapter.
The petitioning to become FarmHouse
began early and continued for months.
In November, 1926, the Iowa State
Faculty approved the petition. The
following months, the National Council
of FarmHouse also granted its approval.
An installation week committee
immediately began plans for
chartering.
Pictured: The Lanthus pin and Lanthus Fraternity (1926)

6. The Iowa State
Chapter of
FarmHouse Fraternity
The fifth chapter of FarmHouse
Fraternity was chartered at Iowa State
University on January 22, 1927.
Pictured: Program for the installation of
the Iowa Chapter
Lanthus Fraternity
became the Iowa State
Chapter of FarmHouse
Fraternity when the
Charter was granted
on January 22, 1927. An
installation banquet
was held that evening
at the Sheldon Munn
Hotel in Ames. Over
seventy men were
present, including the
Iowa State College
President, Deans of the
Agriculture and
Graduate Colleges,
members of
Interfraternity Council,
FarmHouse National
Officers and alumni.
Active member Bill
Grove spoke on “Our
Ideas and Ideals.”

7. FarmHouse Fraternity – 1927
TOP ROW, left to right: Cash, King, Aultfather, Peterson, Grove, Bucholtz, Holbert.
THIRD ROW: Anderson, Wilcke, Shepard, Carlson, Cropley, Turner, Kohlmeyer, Wright.
SECOND ROW: Harbaugh, Watkins, Mighell, Williams, DeLong, Klinetop, Held, Breazeale, Goeser.
FIRST ROW: Zimmerman, Griffin, Girton, Farmer, Nannen, Fabricius, Briggs.
+
Our Founders
J.C. Holbert
Erwin E. Dubbert
Herbert C. Palmer
Elmer I. Rosenberger
Roy L. Watkins
Harold K. Wilson
Warren 0. Duncan
Carl C. Malone
F.J. Paul
Bernard Scholten
Paul G. Williams
John H. Tur

8. The House
Although FarmHouse is much more than
brick and mortar, the Chapter houses in
Ames signify the fraternity’s growth and
strong bond.
In the spring of 1923, the Chapter
meetings were held in Agriculture Hall
(now called Catt Hall). Several men,
including some graduating seniors, each
gave $100 to a starting fund, which
allowed the Chapter to rent a house at
238 North Hyland Avenue for that fall. A
Des Moines furniture firm, feeling it
could share the risks, provided a set of
plain but sturdy furniture. A dozen men,
along with I.S.C. graduate students C.W.
Crickman and Al Mighell of the Illinois
Chapter, showed up one hot September
day and energetically scrubbed the
woodwork and floors so that Lanthus
could have its first home.
Pictured:
Catt Hall (Top), 238 North
Hyland Ave in 1925 (Middle)
and the signature page of the
1923 Bylaws of Lanthus
Fraternity (Right)

9. The House
What was missing in the usual fraternity
comforts was made up in energy,
enthusiasm, and common purpose. Many
of the members were working their way
through college, but the fraternity was
able to get off to a good financial start with
good management and the practice of
economy. By 1927, the membership had
grown and increased social life created
the need for more space than was
available in the thirty-five man capacity
house on Hyland Avenue. The men moved
around the corner to 2717 West Street
where the house had a capacity for sixty
men. Building Fund contributions were
made by the seniors following graduation
until 1931 when the men began making
quarterly payments while in school. The
Chapter began to pay its rent to the Iowa
Alumni Association in 1935.
Pictured: 2717 West Street (Spring 1937)

10. +
311 Ash Avenue
The vision of a permanent home for the Iowa Chapter was realized in
the summer of 1937 when the Sigma Pi house at 311 Ash Avenue was
purchased. The simple but impressive home, built in the 1920’s,
accommodated forty men. The final mortgage was burned in 1942.

11. Pictured: Durwood Lyon (top)
and Barton MacIntosh and
Bob Rasmussen with Mother
Schrafel (bottom).
World War II
FARMHOUSE FRATERNITY, 1944. TOP ROW: McCone, Feuerbach, Magnusson, Opperman, Lawson,
Wilson, Bailey. SECOND ROW: Zmolek, Fox, Rasmussen, Utter, Henderson, Boehnke. FIRST ROW: Fruit,
Held, Ormiston, Hunter, Flater, Moellers.
The Iowa Chapter stood the depression of the 1930’s well. In the spring of
1943, the men began looking for another fraternity to move in with them
at 311 Ash Avenue for the duration of World War II. By fall, though, most
FarmHousers had entered the Armed Forces. This necessitated the
chapter moving out of the house for the 1943-1944 school year. That year,
Iowa State freshmen women, whose dormitories were occupied by
military men in training, used the chapter house. Six or seven FarmHouse
men were still on campus and lived together on Lynn Avenue. In the fall of
1944, there were enough men in school to again occupy the house at 311
Ash Avenue. Soon the FarmHouse war Veterans began returning to Iowa
State which enabled the house to gradually attain its status again as an
active organization on campus.

12. The House
The house was completely redecorated in 1959 with new paint,
drapes, dishes, and cook stove and refinished floors. According to
Mom Hansen, FarmHouse had an elegant look which was to last
only a short time.

13. Fire in 1960
Shortly after breakfast on February 4, 1960,
smoke was discovered in a closet in the
basement. In what seemed to be minutes,
the whole house was filled with smoke.
Firemen arrived within a few minutes after
the fire was discovered, but it was two long
hours before they extinguished the blaze.
The fire traveled through the walls and into
Mother Hansen’s room on the first floor.
Fortunately, everyone escaped without
injury. The fire was most intense on the west
side of the house, and the fire rose through a
closet in one of the study rooms. The three
roommates, Merrill Oster, Malcolm Bishop,
and Dean Bowden, lost all of their clothes
and many of their books and class notes.
The fire was extinguished only after it
continued rising to burn the entire fourth
floor dormitory.

14. Fire in 1960
The Fire Chief
suspected
spontaneous
combustion of rags
as the cause of the
fire. Some rags
were stuffed under
screens and storm
windows in a
basement storage
room. A sad
historical note is
that the Business
Manager had
investigated
purchasing a metal
cabinet in 1957 to
hold combustibles.
Pictured: Rod Brannan (Left) and Gary
Askew holding the table (Upper-Right)

15. Fire in 1960
Fraternities and residences on
campus were quick to offer more
than enough sleeping and
studying quarters for the men.
The Chapter’s first move was to
eat together in the Memorial
Union, where they met daily to
work on future plans. Almost
immediately, the Iowa alumni
organized an emergency
committee and arranged for
spring quarter housing in the
Fisher Home Management House
on campus and for eating at
Linden Hall. Chapter
headquarters were set up at the
FH owned apartment adjacent to
the old building.
Pictured: The old house (above).

16. Renovations
At Founders Day in April 1960, the Association decided to completely
renovate the old house with a new wing added to the south side.
During the following months, plans were drawn, revised, and redrawn.
Finally, a satisfactory plan was achieved in December. Increased and
new building fund contributions had been solicited for months. One
lending agency disapproved the loan application for the remaining
funds needed, but finally a loan was received and construction began
in the spring of 1961 on the $175,000 house.

17. Pictured: Ground-Breaking on
March 18, 1961 (left)
+
A new home
The men moved into the new 51-man capacity house at 311 Ash
Avenue in the fall of 1961 with finishing work still being done
until the dedication at Homecoming in October.

18. Expansion in ‘94
As the years take their toll, the Chapter house at 311 Ash had begun to
show the daily use of 54 men. In the mid 1980s, FH began to take a
long-range look at the future of the Chapter and the facility it
occupies. In 1987, a space study was conducted and different options
of additions or reconstruction were presented. The Association Board
was authorized to hire an architect in 1988 to begin drawing up plans
for the different options.
At the Homecoming Meeting of 1989, the Alumni Association voted to
proceed with the idea of saving the 1960 one-story addition and to
construct a new house to the south of the existing one. The Board was
authorized to act as it felt needed and to proceed with the fund-drive.
In 1990, the plans were nearly finalized and ready to present to the
alumni. The proposed cost was $1.2 million dollars. At the time, the
Board decided not to go ahead with construction, and continue fundraising until enough funds were available.

19. Expansion in ‘94
The moment that actives and alumni had
been waiting for finally came in the
middle of the 1992-93 school year, as
ground breaking for the new house was
on Founders’ Day in 1993. Construction
continued and the projected finish date
was no later than March 1, 1994.

20. +
Expansion in ‘94
The chapter moved into the new living quarters on March 10, 1994. The
old part finally came down about two weeks later as members watched in
agony. A few artifacts still float around, reminding us of the old place.
Rumor has it that the men of Sigma Phi Pi wept and joined in song as their
pad fell into dust.

21. Written by Dan W. Barrett
Edited by Mark D. Barrett, Reid W.
Crawford, and Bruce H. Thompson
(October 1979)
Revised and updated by Brent A.
Pringnitz, Daniel L. Rohrberg, David B.
Edwards, and Kurt E. Beyer
(Revised 1992, 1995, 1997, and 2004)
Adapted by Matt Skarshaug (2014)