A second account of the founding, based on interviews with contemporaries, relates that Cole and others did belong to a loose group known as the Tombs or Cosmopolitan Club, but this was not related to the founding of Lambda Chi Alpha. Cole shared an apartment with James C. McDonald and Charles W. Proctor, who later joined Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Cole established his own fraternity with Ralph S. Miles, Harold W. Bridge, Percival C. Morse on November 23, 1911. The group issued a charter for itself back-dated to November 15.