Changes
→The Early Years (Excerpted from The History of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity: 1870 to 1976)
It is not possible to accurately recount all the facts of the beginning of Rho Chapter. The accepted date of the actual establishment has long been November 25, 1880. Yet there is evidence that the chapter considered itself organized earlier than that. In the minutes of Epsilon, then Grand Chapter, it is noted that on April 23, 1880, the chapter voted to give permission "to the establishing of chapters at Oakland, California, and the Ohio Wesleyan." Also, the acceptance of an invitation to honorary membership in Rho Chapter from Lucy Webb Hayes, wife of United States President Rutherford B. Hayes, is dated December 1, 1880. Mary Lawrence Haviland's account of the story states: "When I went to Delaware they had a local chapter at Monnett Hall. Not being invited to join Delta Chi Alpha, I with the assistance of some others wrote to a chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma for information and we finally received a charter. We did not have anyone come to install the chapter, but received papers and charter - I have forgotten what chapter we wrote to. At that time my father was Comptroller of the Treasury at Washington, and I conceived the idea of asking Mrs. Hayes to become an honorary member. So we wrote, and her secretary sent us her acceptance. Anything to get ahead of the other fraternity, and we certainly created some excitement."
A page from The History of Kappa Alpha Thea Theta also dates the advent of Kappa Kappa Gamma on the Ohio Wesleyan campus to at least fall of 1880. It reads, "All went well until the fall of 1880, when the opening of college brought an unusual number of exceptional girls. Delta Chi Alpha, having no rival, calmly deliberated before bids were given, so it was a rude awakening when one winter day the exciting news was announced that Kappa Kappa Gamma had established a chapter at Ohio Wesleyan. Forthwith the Kappa key appeared on the stylish basques of 15 of the most promising girls."
Delta Chi Alpha petitioned and became a chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta, but the two nationals were short-lived on campus for they monopolized the social life. This caused other students to threaten not to return to Wesleyan if the women's fraternities continued to exist. So the school faculty decided that no woman could belong to a secret society and both Kappa and Theta were forced to surrender their charters.
