Above the official entry for the sorority in the 1909 edition of Ida Shaw Martin's
The Sorority Handbook.
Further research reveals that Theta Chi started at
Converse College (Spartanburg, SC) in 1893. From the History of Marshall County, Iowa, author Gerard Schultz writes, "The original Charter was issued to a National Non-collegiate group at Converse College... in 1893." The Converse chapter lasted until 1900; Chevy Chase's until 1910 (Martin, p. 102).
The sorority appears to have continued as a community-based organization. In January 1931, the sorority organized their Omega chapter in Marshalltown, Iowa (Schultz, p. 173). In 1967, the sorority is mentioned, and it can be inferred that it was active at the time of writing, by Joseph Christopher Lavoie in the book The High School Sorority and Its Relation to Certain Youth Culture Variables.
Information on Theta Chi sorority is hard to come by, as internet searches are clouded by results for
Theta Chi fraternity and
Delta Theta Chi sorority. I found several obituaries from Marshalltown residents mentioning their involvement in Theta Chi sorority, which leads me to conclude that the Omega chapter was a success.
Several websites list Theta Chi as a non-profit organization in Iowa. Again, Marshalltown's Omega chapter was probably the nucleus of the organization at some point.
The mystery remains- was Theta Chi intentionally started as a non-collegiate organization, as Schultz reported, and this non-collegiate organization just happened to start at a college? Or, did it start as a collegiate sorority and decide to plant chapters at secondary schools?
References
Lavoie, Joseph Christopher (1967). The High School Sorority and Its Relation to Certain Youth Culture Variables. University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Martin, Ida Shaw (1909, 1911). The Sorority Handbook. George Banta Publishing Co., Menasha, WI. (1907, incl. image, retrieved from www.hathitrust.org ; 1911 retrieved from www.archive.org)
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