Phi Kappa Psi was founded in at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania by William Henry Letterman and Charles Page Thomas Moore. These two men founded the fraternity after many students left the college due to a typhoid fever epidemic in 1850. The fraternity was founded on “the great joy of serving others” which was experienced by Letterman and Moore during the epidemic. Phi Kappa Psi was officially founded on February 19, 1852.