James George Smith

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James George Smith (1819-1849) was one of eight founders of Beta Theta Pi, a prominent college fraternity founded at Miami University in 1839. He was never in good health and after graduating from Miami University in 1840, he became a farmer in Powhatan County, Virginia and died on September 16, 1849 from what might have been smallpox. He is the only founder of Beta Theta Pi for which a photo does not exist (or yet to be found). Beta Theta Pi founder Samuel Taylor Marshall described Smith as a "...pale, studious, quiet fellow in delicate health."

Other founders of Beta Theta Pi:

• John Reily Knox 1839
• Samuel Taylor Marshall 1840
• David Linton 1839
• Charles Henry Hardin 1841
• John Holt Duncan 1840
• Michael Clarkson Ryan 1839
• Thomas Boston Gordon 1840

[edit] Source

• Brown, James T., ed., Catalogue of Beta Theta Pi, New York: 1917.