In the fall of 1903, two friends, William J. Marshall and Charles A. Sink, met in the University of Michigan library. They had been members of the Masonic Club, which had been founded in 1894; it was no longer a viable organization. The two were lamenting the club’s demise.
Marshall and Sink along with 12 other men, all Master Masons who had belonged to the defunct Masonic Club, decided to organize it along fraternity lines. On May 12, 1904, they founded Acacia Fraternity. The organization’s first official meeting was held two days later.
Twenty-five years after the founding, Acacia presented to the University of Michigan a limestone bench with a bronze plaque on it. The bench is located west of Hatcher Library on the Central Campus.
Initially, Acacia membership was restricted to those who were already members of the Masons. In 1931, sons of Masons were added to those who could join Acacia. Two years after that, brothers of Masons and any person recommended by two Masons were eligible for members. In 1960, all Masonic requirements were removed.
The Acacia Bench given to the University of Michigan to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Fraternity’s founding. (Photo courtesy of UM)
One of Acacia’s noteworthy members is someone whose name, Clifton Keith Hillegass, is virtually unknown outside of Nebraska. However, the product he created, CliffsNotes, brings back memories of high school English class to those who came of age in pre-google days.
An avid reader and lover of literature, Hillegass was the manager of a book company’s wholesale department. In 1958, with a $4,000 loan, he began CliffsNotes in his basement.
In 1988, Hillegass was a recipient of Acacia’s Award of Merit. The award is given members who have “given of their time and substance unstintingly for the promotion and furtherance of Acacia, both nationally and locally, and brothers who have rendered outstanding service in their chosen fields, and have attained high position therein, thus exemplifying the motto of Acacia, human service, and the teachings of the fraternity, which constantly admonish our members to prepare themselves as educated men to take a more active part in their communities.”
By 1989, the company founded by Hillegas was making $11 million a year, according to Forbes magazine, and there were more than 200 titles in the CliffsNotes catalog. In 1998, he sold the company. Hillegass died in 2001.
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