On the cold night of January 10, 1899, students of Illinois Wesleyan Univerity in the small midwestern town of Bloomington had just returned home from the Christmas hollidays when Joseph L. Settles went to the room occupied by Clarance A. Mayer and James C. McNutt at 504 East Locust Street to propose the organization of a new society on campus. Joined immediately by Owen I. Truitt and C. Roy Atkinson, these five men then drew up the first set of regulations for the Knights of Classic Lore, a society who's avowed purpose was "to aid college men in mental, moral, and social development".