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Chi
,→The Early Years (Excerpted from The History of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity: 1870 to 1976)
In 1869, the Collegiate Department was opened. Until 1890, when the preparatory school was phased out, both departments were served in the same building, by the same faculty. The necessity of preparing students for college while striving to establish a university directed the growth of both the university and Chi Chapter. For, when the Collegiate Department was opened, it could not deny entrance to the girls who had been preparatory students. It was common to find among Chi initiates young ladies not yet qualified for the university.
Chi Psi, the first Greek organization on campus, was established in 1874. Kappa was the second -- and the first female fraternity- in 1880. Between 1881 and 1904, six more women's and seventeen men's fraternities were chartered on campus - all of which remain active. Fewer than half of the 40 fraternities and sororities established since that time have survived.
During Chi's first decade, membership ranged each year from 5 to 20. The chapter met generally every week or so in the homes of members. Periodically, attempts were made to afford and locate a suitable chapter room, but this was not finally accomplished until the winter of 1889, when a room was rented near the school. It was furnished by the girls and alumnae with low benches upholstered in Kappa blue denim, a table, hanging bookshelves, a rug, and, of course, the ubiquitous owl in the corner. The girls thought it a snug and enticing retreat. Meetings were now held weekly, alternately in the afternoons and evenings. In the afternoon, lunches were brought for a "picnic" in the room before the business meeting; evening meetings were reserved for social and literary concerns. And what social concerns they had! Although the original bylaws specified that "literary exercises" be held at regular meetings, the record books disclaimed this. The tabularius of 1886 indicated that to be ostensibly a literary society was, in fact, very useful when it came to persuading one's parents to permit one to pledge Kappa! In that same year the "new practice" was instituted of having each member answer roll call with a literary quotation. Throughout the early years such authors as Shakespeare, Macaulay, Hawthorne, and Browning were read aloud at meetings. In later years this pursuit gave way to the sponsoring of public lectures. In 1889, the historian wrote that the literary work was "much the same as last year...reading of light essays and reviews,-pleasant,-not too profitable, perhaps- but as much as can be done." Other comments give an insight to contemporary attitudes: "...literary exercises postponed...adjourned into a 'social'." (1886) "...The Literary (?) (God Save Them) Exercises!" (1886) "Our literary work...has been, it must be confessed, a failure;...our time has been so filled." (1889). It was the social concerns that filled the pages of the early record books: receptions teas, musicales, rushing, initiations, and parties. In some years, when the chapter roll (or the treasury) was slim, little entertaining was undertaken. In other years, parties proliferated. Parties resulted in "a charming mixture of school boys and young gentlemen who are full fledged - and in society - about three of this sex to every Kappa!" Obviously, young ladies of those days did not extend personal invitations to young gentlemen; rather, the entire chapter invited a "list" which included any special beaux. The Yankees from Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, who came west to become financial, milling and lumber barons, built homes for their families on a scale that is scarcely known today. It was the daughters of these men - those who did not go "East" to school- who were members of Chi, and until that magnificent type of home and living went out of style after World War I (when entertainment in private clubs took precedence) Chis always had available ballrooms for dancing, dining halls for banquets, and parlors for musicales. There was little distinction between an alumna and an active. Chis who had either been graduated or left school continued as active participants in chapter functions. It was a close, intimate society which cannot be duplicated in today's world of widening opportunity and interests. And, aside from activities provided by the fraternities and sororities, college did not include the breadth of extracurricular and social opportunity that reached its peak between 1920 and 1950. Before the turn of the century, higher education for women was a rarity and a fully coeducational university was still the exception rather than the rule. Expenses today preclude the kinds of celebrations the girls of yesteryear held on Founders' Day. Before 1900, banquets were often held in private homes. Menus were elaborate. At Sadie Miller's in 1894, 50 to 60 were present at a catered banquet where the tables were arranged in the shape of a key. The cost was 25 cents each. The following year, 50 were seated in the Brewer's dining room. By this time, however, the chapter roll was becoming so large that it began to be necessary to feast in local hotels, and, later, in private clubs. Considering the difficulty of transportation, it is astonishing that early Chis traveled as much as they did. Most of the girls lived or boarded in the area near the university, but at least one hardy member in the 1880s traveled several miles by horseback each day to reach the school in time for the 8 a.m. chapel service. Strong bands of sisterhood were felt between Chi and other Kappa chapters; the girls always eagerly awaited the tales of those who had returned from conventions. With the advent of football as an intercollegiate sport and more efficient train travel in the mid-1890s, chapter members began to visit each other on game weekends. In the fall of 1901, 21 Kappas from Lincoln arrived for the Nebraska-Minnesota game. They came in a private Pullman car- adorned with a white canvas banner emblazoned "Sigma of KKG." That same year, Beta Zeta members came to Minnesota and several Chis visited Eta. Always, parties honoring the visiting sisters were de rigueur. It became customary for the chapter to entertain friends in their rooms after the football games. After the chapter house was built in 1916, these small gatherings developed into large open houses, with music, dancing and refreshment. This post-game practice was maintained generally - with the exception of the years of the two Great Wars - until the end of the 1950s.
==Highlights of 2011==