Society Snippets: SCDAR and The State newspaper - Part 1

          For many, many years, newspapers served as the means of communication to get information to the populace.   In rural areas, an affluent individual would be the only resident in the area who had a subscription to the newspaper.  It was commonplace for nearby residents to gather at the home of that person to listen as he read the newspaper aloud allowing all to hear of the happenings.  Thomas Woodward, the patriot for whom my chapter is named, was one such individual.  He is said to be the first subscriber to the newspaper in the District where he would read it to his neighbors who would gather at his home to hear the news upon the paper's arrival.
          When Rebecca Pickens Bacon was charged with starting the DAR in South Carolina, one of the methods that she used was the newspaper enabling her to get the word out to ladies around the state.  It is interesting to note that the information found in the different newspapers of the time did not print the exact same information.   The first article found in my research was from The State in April 1893 just 15 days before the Columbia Chapter was organized and the SCDAR was officially formed.

The State 1893 Apr 25

          Rebecca Pickens Bacon did not stop with the organization of just one chapter.  She continued to work to gain additional members as evidenced in November of 1893.  Articles were published in the newspapers of Abbeville, Lancaster, Newberry, and Sumter.  It is interesting to note that the article appearing in the Lancaster paper had more information than the others.  Also, the article in the Sumter newspaper seems to be a reprint from the Edgefield Chronicle.  I am still searching for that article!

The Abbeville Press and Banner 1893 Nov 01

The Lancaster Ledger 1893 Nov 01

The Newberry Herald and News 1893 Nov 01

The Watchman and Southron (Sumter) 1893 Nov 01

          On July 20, 1894, a brief mention about the organization of the Cowpens Chapter appeared in The State.  On December 25, 1895, an article appeared in The Anderson Intelligencer informing the populace that Mrs. Bacon would be coming to Anderson in the near future to organize a chapter in Anderson.  The article also references the organization of the Rebecca Motte Chapter in Charleston.  I cannot wait to locate more articles about this!  These are what I have located thus far, but my search is not over.  If you have a copy of the article concerning organizing a SC chapter that was published in your local newspaper, please scan it at the highest dpi your scanner allows and forward it to me.  I would love to have them all!

1894 Jul 20 The State

1895 Dec 25 The Anderson Intelligencer

       


      The State would publish articles about the SCDAR and Rebecca Pickens Bacon and Malvina Waring.  However, The State went even further to allow one edition of The State to be completely put out by women except for the mechanical work of typesetting and running the printing press.  Rebecca Pickens Bacon was named in charge of the department Revolution and Daughters of the American Revolution.  Sara Aldrich Richardson was named one of the two publishers!  If anyone has this treasure which was due out the day after after Memorial Day of 1895, I would love to see it!
     

  The State then went on to publish an entire page about DAR on June 4, 1895.

       
          The State would continue to print available information within its pages.  Sometimes this was simply about individual chapters, and sometimes this information was included in the society section of the newspaper.  If a member of society was going somewhere or returning from somewhere, the newspaper was going to report it.  I have been pleasantly surprised to gain valuable information from this section of the newspaper!
          During the administration of Sara Aldrich Richardson, The State would be become the means by which information of the state society was presented to the membership.  More on this in the next blog post!