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→The Early Years (From The History of Kappa Kappa Gamma 1870–1976)
==The Early Years (From The History of Kappa Kappa Gamma 1870–1976)==
The beginnings of Gamma Gamma chapter go back to about 1910 when the groups group was a local sorority known as Beta Sigma. The group was urged by four local Kappa Alpha Theta alumnae to petition that fraternity for membership. At that time, between 1910 and 1918, Whitman was a small college and most of its students came from the inland Northwest, east of the Cascade Mountains. Perhaps Whitman students were considered by some people on the more heavily populated western part of the state as unsophisticated, or perhaps they were thought of as country cousins, totally unsuitable for membership in a national sorority. For whatever reason, the Theta charter was opposed by the nearest chapter on the western side of the state, and the petition for membership in Kappa Alpha Theta was denied. Beta Sigma then decided to petition Kappa Kappa Gamma, and with better results. The charter was granted in the spring of 1918.
Whitman College began as a monument to Marcus Whitman, who had served as a missionary to the Indians of the Columbia Valley for 12 years. In 1847, he was massacred by Cayuse Indians at his mission Waiilatpu, only five miles from Walla Walla. Cushing Eels, one of Whitman’s associates, secured a charter from the Oregon Territory for Whitman Seminary.
