Tri-Sigma's eight founders, Margaret Batten, Louise Davis, Martha Trent Featherston, Isabella Merrick, Sallie Michie, Lelia Scott, Elizabeth Watkins, and Lucy Wright, formed a special friendship at Normal School. Lucy Wright and Lelia Scott led the first meeting of S.S.S. Club in 1897. They announced the founding of Sigma Sigma Sigma on April 20, 1898.

Sigma Sigma Sigma is a National Sisterhood. Eight Founders of Tri-Sigma never envisioned that their secret society born on April 20, 1898, would lead to anything beyond the confines of Longwood College in Farmville, Virginia. They were looking for many of the same things you probably looked for in a sorority: friendship, leadership opportunities, involvement in campus activities, and a support group while preparing for life after college.

Early Sigmas saw the need for both legal recognition as a social body and a written record of organization. Thus the early Alphas filed documents with the Commonwealth of Virginia and Sigma Sigma Sigma received its Charter of Incorporation on February 12, 1903. Tri-Sigma's first Constitution was adopted by the Alpha Chapter in April 1903.