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.