Special Edition #1

We interrupt our regular programming with this special message!  According to the last Reflections post, I was supposed to have the Conservation Corner followed by the latest Chapter Clips.  As you can see, I made some adjustments.  You will soon learn the reason for this change.  Sometimes, something unexpected and wonderful occurs.  During Constitution Week, this happened.  As soon as I received word of this special situation, I made adjustments.  You will now learn why I posted the Chapter Clips about the first NSDAR chapter as it “segways” beautifully into this special edition.  Talk about Divine intervention!

During Constitution Week, I received an e-mail from Susan Saunders with the subject line reading: DAR Strange Happening.  Just the subject made me curious, and then the content of the e-mail evoked an array of emotions.  I felt this “strange happening” was something that needed to be shared with you; therefore, I asked Susan to write an article of the event for the blog.  Here is the story as she wrote it.

 

Historic DAR Certificate Returns Home…

On September 17, 2013 Sumter’s Home Chapter held a Constitution Day Celebration at the Sumter Mall.  It was a fun-filled, exciting day for all as we recognized the day our Constitution was signed with song, Proclamations, and waving flags.  To add to the day’s exhilaration, one of the mall employees, Nancy Holmes, presented chapter Constitution Day Chair Helen Mahon with an old, framed DAR Certificate dated 1898.  We were all aghast with disbelief.  Helen gave the treasure to Susan Saunders, State Lineage Research Chair (and Sumter’s Home Regent) to research.

What a thrill it was to research this Certificate.  To begin, the beautiful Certificate had been given to Ms. Holmes by a gentleman who was at the mall back in the mid-80’s setting up a display for the 4^th of July.  Afterwards, he gave the Certificate to her saying “Hang on to this, it might be worth something.”  She held on to it for 30 years before giving it to the chapter.  That in itself is quite a story.

After thoroughly researching the Certificate, Susan found it to be the membership certificate of Mrs. Anna M. Carson Dillman (DAR #22644) dated 1898.  Mrs. Dillman joined the Chicago chapter, which has a very noteworthy legacy.  Chicago Chapter, NSDAR was established on March 20, 1891, as the first chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.  While Mrs. Dillman was not one of its charter members, she was certainly one of their earliest.  She passed away in 1900.

Sadly, Mrs. Dillman’s line seems to end with her.  No other DAR members have joined through her line and only six members have joined the DAR through her Patriot James Wright.  The latest joined in 1961, and none of these ladies seem to have descendants who have joined through other Patriots.  It seems that line is dead - which leads us to the question – What do we do with this treasure?

After speaking with the Illinois State DAR Registrar and our South Carolina DAR Curator, it has been decided that Mrs. Dillman’s treasured DAR Membership Certificate should be returned home to Illinois.

 

What a story!  It’s a shame that no one in Mrs. Dillman’s family (no nieces, no nephews, no cousins, no one) wanted or valued her certificate.  Then, the questions begin.  How did this certificate of a member from the Chicago Chapter of Illinois, the first chapter in the NSDAR, end up in South Carolina?  Who was this gentleman that had this certificate?  Where did he get the certificate, and why did he have it or want it?  Why did he give the certificate to this lady?  Why did she keep it after all these years?  What made her give it to the DAR now?   There are so many questions yet so few answers.  The good news is this.  Just as Grace Marshall’s scrapbook had a fairytale happy ending and is home under the protection of the SCDAR,  Mrs. Dillman’s certificate will also have a fairytale happy ending as it finds its way back home to Illinois and under the protection of the Illinois DAR.

Even though the gentleman will never know our appreciation, I want to thank him for seeing the value of the certificate and keeping the certificate safe. Thank you to Ms. Holmes who held on to it for those many years.  Thank you to Susan Saunders for understanding the treasure she had been given, for searching so diligently for Mrs. Dillman’s family in the hopes the certificate could be returned to them, and then contacting the ILDAR State Registrar to ensure its preservation.  Thank you to the Illinois DAR who will take the certificate and give it a treasured home.

For those of you who follow the blog, you know I have a challenge for you.  This is a perfect example of why the “Reflections of Our Treasured Past” project was started, to preserve the treasures of our past and make sure they don’t end up in the trash forever lost to the future.  I cannot even begin to tell you all of the treasures that are missing from the SCDAR for which I am desperately searching.  I need your help.  As you travel, as you shop, as you browse the internet, PLEASE always be on the lookout for DAR treasures such as this especially any from our state.  As Susan Saunders can attest, you never know what may come your way, when something may come your way, or how it may come your way. 

As President General Young in her blog about the “Reflections” project quoted me as saying, “We cannot honor our heritage if we haven’t preserved it.  We cannot teach the future generations without the treasures of our past.  We cannot Celebrate America if we don’t have America’s story to celebrate.” 

 

Chapter Clips #2

           Before beginning to look at our chapters, I thought it would be interesting to know a clip about the NSDAR’s very first chapter.  Do you have any idea which chapter was the first to be organized?  Was the first chapter located in one of the 13 original colonies? 

As it turns out the very first chapter to be organized in the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution was located in Chicago, Illinois.  The name of this chapter is the Chicago Chapter.  The chapter was established on March 20, 1891 with 45 women eligible for membership in attendance.  Our first President General who was also First Lady of the United States at the time, Mrs. Caroline Harrison, appointed Mrs. Effie Beulah Reeme Osborn to organize the state of Illinois and to establish chapters.  Mrs. Osborn’s work was strictly organizational as she was a resident of Washington, D.C.  She spent three weeks in Illinois to accomplish this task.

According to the chapter’s website, Mrs. Osborne stated at this organizational meeting that in “The Daughters of the Revolution’ [sic], party lines and sectarian differences were to obliterated.  It would know no North, no South, no East, no West, and all creeds were admitted into its communion.  Its watchword was Patriotism.”

It is interesting to note that members of the Chicago chapter attended the first Continental Congress in February 1891 prior to their official organization in March.

           

Reflections Overview #3

For those of you who know me well, you know I love college football, especially Clemson football.  Both my grandfather and father played football for Clemson, and my grandfather taught me all about it.  I was quite the quarterback and receiver back in the day.  In attending a private school, I was the only one who wasn’t playing football that knew anything about it; therefore, I was made the football statistician in high school and helped out while I was in college.  Once I graduated from college and started my teaching career, I was again asked to be the football statistician.  I did this for 20 years and decided to retire when the members of my church youth group graduated.

Needless to say, I have been waiting for the college football season to begin.  Let me add, I was glad that Fall Forum wasn’t scheduled for this past weekend!  When the first football game came on television Thursday night (South Carolina vs. North Carolina), I started watching and scanning DAR records.  ESPN’s College Game Day was at Clemson Saturday; therefore, we headed early to Clemson in order to take part in the festivities.  While at Game Day, Chris Fowler showed some historical pictures of Clemson’s Bowman Field (where Game Day was located).  I even learned something when he showed pictures of the basketball games being played on the grass of Bowman Field.  I knew the military parades and other things took place there, but not basketball games.

As the crowd grew larger and larger awaiting Lee Corso’s head gear prediction of the game’s winner, I thought about all of the young men who marched on this same field for military parades.  I wondered just where Grace Marshall, SCDAR State Regent 1936-1939, had stood as she and the DAR attending Founder's Day at Tamassee reviewed the troops as she and the DAR reviewed the troops who passed in review on that special October afternoon.  For those of you who have been to a state meeting and viewed the displays, you have probably heard this story and have seen the pictures that I found in my great- uncle's Clemson yearbook, "Taps."

 

 

 

I have been going to Clemson football games since I was a little girl and have seen first hand the rich tradition that continues still today.  From First Friday parade, to the delicious Clemson ice cream, to the infamous Clemson Blue Cheese, to the tailgating, to the pre-game band concert, to the band marching down the hill to the stadium, to the team rubbing Howard’s rock and running down the hill to the playing field, to Tigerama and the displays on Bowman Field for Homecoming, tradition runs very deep.  In 2010, Clemson once again honored its military heritage by adding the Memorial Scroll of Honor which perpetually honors the students from Clemson who paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country from WWI to Afghanistan and Iraq including wars and campaigns.  It stands just a few feet away from the entrance to Memorial Stadium (which was named in 1942 for those students who made the ultimate sacrifice) at Howard’s Rock and The Hill. 

To enter the Memorial Scroll of Honor, you pass through two tigers which guard the scroll and wind your way to the barrow encircled by trees at its base.  As you walk around the barrow, you see a name engraved on a stone and then another and then another.  The scroll of honor contains 482 names to date of those Clemson students who paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to their county. 

Every time I go to Clemson, I stop at the Scroll and place a flower from my garden on my father’s stone.  Little did I know that placing a flower on my father’s stone prior to each home game would become such a meaningful gesture for the Clemson Corps of Cadets, the alumni group responsible for the Scroll’s creation.   On my way into the stadium for each home game, I cross the street and enter the Memorial going to my father’s stone.  Even though members of the Corps are there to give assistance and answer questions, they haven’t been stationed at my father’s stone; therefore, they had no idea who was leaving the flower.  It was a mystery to them. 

It was the last home game of the season last year, and believe it or not, my garden produced a beautiful rose at a time in the season when it shouldn’t have.  I cut the rose and placed it in a flower tube with water and carefully transported it to Clemson.  I made my way to the scroll and found a group of people near his stone.  I made my way around them and gently placed the flower on his stone cleaning away the pebbles that had accidentally been kicked on it from the walkway.  As I stood to proceed back across the street to enter the stadium, I heard a voice saying, “So you’re the one.”  I wasn’t sure if the comment was meant for me. I turned to face the voice to hear again, “So you’re the one.”  He continued, “We have been wondering who was placing the flower each home game on this stone.”  The flower would just appear without fanfare.  It wouldn’t be there one minute, and yet there it would be there the next.  He went on to tell me that as the Corps brought high school students on a tour, there the (wilted) flower would be.  It spoke not only to the person giving the tour but to the students as well because it gave meaning to those names because someone cared enough to place a flower.    As we talked and stories were told, tears began flowing down his cheeks which of course started tears flowing down mine.  The character of Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own said, “You don’t cry in baseball!”  Well, if you don’t cry in baseball, you certainly don’t cry in football!  Yet, there we were creating a small puddle of tears. 

 

You see, Clemson gets it because it doesn’t forget its history.  It doesn’t forget its heritage and strives to help others remember.  As a matter of fact, one alumni coined the phrase concerning Clemson’s fallen, “We will never forget!  Never!” The Corps of Cadets, they recognized the fact that I got it.  I understood the importance of their efforts in honoring the Clemson students who gave the ultimate sacrifice with the creation of the Memorial Scroll of Honor.  I demonstrate that fact each time I place a flower on my father’s stone. 

So my question to you is, do you get it?  Do you understand the importance of the project Reflections of Our Treasured Past and for what it stands?  If you do, then how are you demonstrating that you get it?  What are you doing to preserve your chapter’s history?  It’s not only up to the chapter officers!  Every member of the chapter can help if she is willing.  We cannot wait to get started or delay in finishing.  For those of you who saw the minutes from 1896 on display at Fall Forum, you saw what time and the elements do to documents and what history is lost from the pages that have been affected.  What you may not think about is that time is against us because we never know when we will face tornados, hurricanes, floods, fires, etc.  Do you realize how many chapters lost everything from Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy as well as the epic tornado outbreaks in Alabama, Missouri, and Oklahoma?  Had they only taken the time to digitize their histories and records when all was well, their histories and records could have been restored to them.  Let’s not let our chapters be one of those.  Let’s have our chapters lead the way in digitizing our histories and preventing their destruction. 

Oh, by the way, don’t forget that the perfect time to scan is when you are watching football on television and not emotionally invested in the game!

So, what will you learn about in the upcoming posts?  In Conservation Corner, I remind you about the scan settings and explain why you should use them.  This information was presented in one of the sections of the webinar I did for the NSDAR in January 2012.  Check the NSDAR website if you would like to view the entire webinar or get the transcript from it.  Just remember that I have increased the dpi settings from that which is in the webinar.

In Chapter Clips, I decided that before sharing information about our chapters, I would start at the beginning of chapters in the NSDAR.  Can you guess in which state the first chapter organized in the NSDAR is located?  Was it organized in one of the original 13 colonies?  Read to find out.

In Society Snippets, I share with you a little more information about Georgia Moore de Fontaine and a phenomenal find giving a glimpse of what went into our own beginnings.

In National Nuggets, you will begin to learn the story of our National Society’s organization.   You may be surprised at why it was started and who aided in its organization and formative years.

 Tamassee Tidbits contains the continuation of the story of Tamassee’s beginnings and answers the question, “Why is the school located at Tamassee?”

I hope you enjoy this post and of course, learn something new with the upcoming ones.   Please be sure to share this with all of our members.  If an SCDAR member has a computer, I want them to know about the blog.  For more information about the Memorial Scroll of Honor, go to http://cualumni.clemson.edu/scrollofhonor.