Alpha Chi Omega and Zeta Tau Alpha celebrate Founders’ Day on October 15. How amazing is it that the first organization and the last organization on the alphabetical listing of National Panhellenic Conference members share the same Founders’ Day?
On Thursday, October 15 1885, Alpha Chi Omega was founded at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. Thirteen years later, on Saturday, October 15, 1898, Zeta Tau Alpha was founded at the State Female Normal School (now Longwood University) in Farmville, Virginia.
Alpha Chi Omega’s seven founders are Anna Allen, Olive Burnett, Bertha Deniston, Amy DuBois, Nellie Gamble, Bessie Grooms and Estelle Leonard. They were students in the DePauw School of Music and at the beginning insisted its members possess some musical culture. With guidance and support from James Hamilton Howe, Dean of the School of Music, they created an organization. James Campbell, a member of Beta Theta Pi, offered advice in the creation of a constitution and by-laws.
Alpha Chi Omega’s first appearance was in Meharry Hall of East College. The seven women wore scarlet and olive ribbon streamers attached to their dresses to display the organization’s colors.
Zeta Tau Alpha‘s founders are Alice Maud Jones Horner, Frances Yancey Smith, Alice Bland Coleman, Ethel Coleman Van Name, Ruby Bland Leigh Orgain, Mary Campbell Jones Batte, Helen May Crafford, Della Lewis Hundley, and Alice Grey Welsh. For a short time, the group was known on the Farmville campus as ???. An invitation sent to the two groups then on the campus read “The ??? will be delighted to receive the Kappa Delta and Sigma Sigma Sigma fraternities in the end room in Nursey Hall at 8:30 P.M.”
Both organizations installed chapters at Purdue University within a few years of one another. Mary L. Matthews, who spent most of her career at Purdue University where she served as Dean of the School of Home Economics. There were 40 females enrolled at Purdue when Matthews was hired in 1912. Nineteen men’s fraternities established chapters before the first National Panhellenic Conference organization, Kappa Alpha Theta, was chartered in 1915.
Alpha Beta of Alpha Chi Omega, 1920
Alpha Chi Omega’s Alpha Beta Chapter was installed on April 26, 1918 at Purdue University. It had been the Alpha Beta Club and it began in 1916 with four women. The women rented a home at 115 Andrew Place. Three of Alpha Chi Omega’s founders, Olive Burnett, Estelle Leonard and Annie Allen Smith, attended the installation banquet at the Fowler Hotel. They told of the early days of Alpha Chi.
Zeta Tau Alpha’s Alpha Theta Chapter at Purdue was installed on September 10, 1921. It had been the Phi Zeta local organization. Twenty women were initiated as members of Zeta Tau Alpha, nine of whom were alumnae and ex-students.
The charter member of the Zeta Tau Alpha chapter at Purdue University
