In 1837, the Methodist Church established Indiana Asbury (now DePauw University) in Greencastle, Indiana. Indiana Asbury officially opened its doors to women in 1867, but not without great uproar from the male students.

The first women students at Indiana Asbury were looking for ways to make friends and find support and encouragement for their academic pursuits. They were reviled by their teachers, taunted by their classmates, and ignored by their girlhood friends who did the "right" thing and attended conservatories for girls. It took these brave pioneers three years to found Kappa Alpha Theta, the first Greek-letter Fraternity for women.

To be sure, there were societies for women before 1867, and some of these had secret rituals with badges, passwords, mottos, and other symbols. But in 1870, Theta became the first women's Greek-letter fraternity because its primary founder, Bettie Locke, wanted full membership in a male fraternity. When the men asked her to wear their fraternity badge as a "mascot," she responded, "If you won't initiate me into your fraternity, I'll start my own." Thus, Kappa Alpha Theta was established on January 27, 1870.

Bettie was impressed with the fraternity ideal and searched for its women's counterpart from which to form a chapter at Asbury. She told her friend, Alice Allen, of the idea and together they wrote the constitution and by-laws, planned the ceremonies, designed a badge, and sought other women on the campus worthy of belonging to the new Kappa Alpha Theta. With Bettie Tipton and Hannah Fitch, the four initated themselves on January 27, 1870 and proudly announced the new organization by wearing their black and gold badges to Asbury's chapel service on March 14. Soon, Alpha Chapter grew to 22 sisters and began establishing chapters at other colleges.  In 1995, Kappa Alpha Theta celebrated its 125th anniversary.