Founding Date

Sep 17th, 1881

In the early 19th century, missionaries went to Hanover as part of the Second Great Awakening. Crowe served as pastor of the Hanover Presbyterian Church. He opened the Hanover Academy January 1, 1827, in a small log cabin near his home. Two years later, the state of Indiana granted a charter to the Academy. On November 9, 1829, the Academy’s Board of Trustees accepted a proposal by the Presbyterian Synod of Indiana to adopt the school, provided a theological department was established. A two-story brick building was constructed to house both the Academy and the new Indiana Seminary. The state of Indiana issued a new charter to the Academy, creating Hanover College effective January 1, 1833. Under this charter, the college's Board of Trustees is independent of ecclesiastical control, but it has formally adopted the standards for Presbyterian colleges for Hanover. The association continues to this day. In 1843 both the college's president and its trustees accepted a proposal from Madison city leaders to move Hanover College. The trustees dissolved the Hanover charter and established Madison University. However, Crowe purchased the college property and established the Hanover Classical and Mathematical School. Four months after Madison University was founded, its president had resigned and its students began to return to Crowe’s school. By May 1844, all of Madison’s students and faculty had made the trip five miles to the west. Hanover College was officially restored when Indiana's legislature granted a new charter to the college on Christmas Day. In 1847, Hanover began to admit women through its coordinate college, Long College for Women. Until the 1960s, all women who graduated from Hanover had their degree officially conferred by Long instead of Hanover. Long College operated until the two colleges fully merged in 1880, making Hanover officially co-ed. A petition was signed by eight women on March 23, 1881 for a charter to be granted by Delta Gamma Fraternity. Delta chapter of Delta Gamma was founded at Hanover in the fall of 1881, by Miss Lillian Thompson, later Mrs. M. A. Morrison of Phi chapter at Franklin College. The Phi Delta Theta men encouraged her coming and assisted her in the way of introducing her to eligible women, and after the chapter was formed, they still aided and encouraged the women in many ways. Delta Gamma was Hanover’s first sorority, with charter members: Calla Harrison, Nannie Ralston, Sadie Blythe and Emma Ryker. Calla Harrison was the first female to graduate from Hanover College. Sadie Blythe was the daughter of the University President. Meetings were held during the first two years in the Phi Delta Theta Hall in the yard of the former McKee residence. Soon two women that graduated from Madison High School in Madison, Indiana were added to the roster as affiliated members: Emma Trevert and Cora Hennessey. Kappa Alpha Theta was also founded in 1881, and the two organizations had a friendly rivalry over the years. Neither sorority had during their existence at the college more than five or six members at a time. In the January 1910 ANCHORA, Emma Ryker (Macdonnell) said that some of the women that Delta Gamma was expecting to join the chapter had been approached my members of Kappa Alpha Theta. She also described how there was only once that anything happened unpleasantly between them, and it was after she graduated. In 1883, most women had either graduated or transferred to other institutions, so Emma Ryker was solely in charge of the charter until five incoming freshmen were initiated at once, at the end of the college entrance exams. They were: Lucia Wooley, Sallie Cain, Mattie Swan, Jessie Wiggain, and Jessie Archer. In 1884, the women moved into their own chapter house: a little “den” in the yard of the Wooley residence, but unfortunately burned down in the 1890s. During the year 1887, the charter was recalled. The Kappa Alpha Theta chapter also lost their charter at the same time. The Grand chapter then was at Buchtel College (Akron).