A brief history of the Order...

Kappa Alpha Order (KA) is a secret collegiate Order of christian Knights.  It is not to be confused with the Kappa Alpha Society.

    Kappa Alpha Order was originally founded as Phi Kappa Chi on December 21, 1865 at Washington College in Lexington, Virginia.  The four founding fathers included James Ward Wood, William Archibald Walsh, and brothers William Nelson Scott and Stanhope McClelland Scott.  Soon after the founding, the local chapter of Phi Kappa Psi protested the name "Phi Kappa Chi," due to the similarity of the names, leading Wood to change the name of the fraternity to K.A. by April 1866.  The popular old Kuklos Adelphon society had gone defunct during the Civil War, and it is suspected that Wood selected the letters K.A. to attract those who were familiar with the old society.  Within one year the fraternity's ritual would be expanded upon and given a new vision by the "practical founder," Samuel Zenas Ammen.  In the years that followed, the Order spread throughout the Southern United States, a distinguishing factor that separates it from the smaller, northern-based Kappa Alpha Society.  KA is also one-third of the Lexington Triad, along with Alpha Tau Omega and Sigma Nu.  Robert E. Lee, whose ideals of chivalry and gentlemanly conduct inspired the founders, was designated the Spiritual Founder of the Order by John Temple Graves at the 1923 Convention.

2005, The Varlet (2005 Ed.), Kappa Alpha Order