The first of these fraternities was the _Phi Beta Kappa_, founded at the College of William and Mary at Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1776. It was a little social club of five students: John Heath, Richard Booker, Thomas Smith, Armistead Smith and John Jones. Its badge was a square silver medal displaying the Greek letters of its name and a few symbols. In 1779 it authorized Elisha Parmelee, one of its members, to establish "meetings" or chapters at Yale and Harvard, these chapters being authorized to establish subordinate branches in their respective states. In 1781 the College of William and Mary was closed, its buildings being occupied in turn by the British, French and American troops, and the society ceased to exist. The two branches, however, were established--that at Yale in 1780 and that at Harvard in 1781. Chapters were established at Dartmouth in 1787, at Union in 1817, at Bowdoin in 1824 and at Brown in 1830. This society changed its character in 1826 and became non-secret and purely honorary in character, admitting to membership a certain proportion of the scholars of highest standing in each class (only in classical courses, usually and with few exceptions only in graduating classes). More recent honorary societies of similar character among schools of science and engineering are _Sigma Xi_ and _Tau Beta Pi_. In 1825, at Union College, _Kappa Alpha_ was organized, copying in style of badge, membership restrictions and the like, its predecessor. In 1827 two other similar societies, _Sigma Phi_ and _Delta Phi_, were founded at the same place. In 1831 _Sigma Phi_ placed a branch at Hamilton College and in 1832 _Alpha Delta Phi_ originated there. In 1833 _Psi Upsilon_, a fourth society, was organized at Union. In 1835 _Alpha Delta Phi_ placed a chapter at Miami University, and in 1839 _Beta Theta Pi_ originated there, and so the system spread. These fraternities, it will be observed, were all undergraduate societies among the male students. In 1910 the total number of men's general fraternities was 32, with 1068 living chapters, and owning property worth many millions of dollars. In 1864 _Theta Xi_, the first professional fraternity restricting its membership to students intending to engage in the same profession, was organized. There were in 1910 about 50 of these organizations with some 400 chapters. In addition there are about 100 local societies or chapters acting as independent units. Some of the older of these, such as _Kappa Kappa Kappa_ at Dartmouth, _IKA_ at Trinity, _Phi Nu Theta_ at Wesleyan and _Delta Psi_ at Vermont, are permanent in character, but the majority of them are purely temporary, designed to maintain an organization until the society becomes a chapter of one of the general fraternities. In 1870 the first women's society or "sorority," the _Kappa Alpha Theta_, was organized at De Pauw University. There were in 1910, 17 general sororities with some 300 active chapters.