William Henry Letterman (August 12, 1832–May 23, 1881) was born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. He was the co-founder of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity in 1852 at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. Education Letterman graduated from Jefferson College (now Washington and Jefferson College) and then went on to receive his M.D. from Jefferson Medical College in 1856, where he was president of his graduating class. Family His father was the physician to the town of Canonsburg and died early in William's life. He is the younger brother of Jonathan K. Letterman who is known as the "father of battlefield medicine". His system enabled thousands of wounded men to be recovered and treated during the American Civil War. Phi Kappa Psi Letterman and his mother were living just a few houses away from Jefferson College. In the winter of 1850–1851, a typhoid fever epidemic broke out in the area and William and his friend, Charles Page Thomas Moore, spent long nights caring for a sick friend. Letterman and Moore grew to appreciate their service, and decided to form an organization that would ensconce these ideals. On the night of February 19, 1852, the brotherhood of Phi Kappa Psi was born. Freemason On January 17, 1868, Letterman received his Freemasons (Masons) apprentice degree from Concordia Lodge #13 in Baltimore, Maryland. He also helped to organize the Masonic Lodge, in Duffau, Texas. Life and death In the late fall of 1875, Letterman went to Prairie Home, Missouri, because of continued poor health and remained there for about three years. Then he decided the climate in Texas would be advantageous, so in the spring of 1878 he made a two-month tour to that state. In November, 1878, with his wife and baby daughter, Laura, he left Missouri for Dallas, Texas, and then went to Stephenville, Texas by stage coach. He stopped at the Texas Hotel and the following day he hired a carriage and arrived at Duffau, Erath County, that afternoon. At Duffau there were some mineral wells, and he had been told that the railroad would be built through Duffau, westward. However, the railroad was constructed through Hico and Stephenville. When he went to Texas, he carried letters of introduction signed by many prominent men of the East. He helped organize a county medical association and also a district medical association in Stephenville, and he was elected the first president. He was a member