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 The Work 
 of the Hereditary 
 Patriotic Societies 
 
 REPRINTED FROM THE FIRST 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE OHIO 
 VALLEY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 
 
 19 8 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE OHIO STATE 
 ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTOR- 
 ICAL SOCIETY, COLUMBUS, OHIO 
 
liV 
 
 Copies of the Complete Report may be 
 
 obtained at FIFTY CENTS a copy, paper, 
 
 orSEVENTY-FIVE CENTS, bound in cloth. 
 
 Address 
 
 I. J. COX, 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI, 
 
 CINCINNATI, OHIO. 
 
Addresses on the Work of the 
 Hereditary Patriotic Societies 
 
F. J. Heer 
 Printing Co. 
 Columbus 
 Ohio :: i 908 
 
RECEPTION BY THE HEREDITARY PATRIOTIC SOCIETIES. 
 Saturday, 3 :00 P. M. 
 
 Presiding Officer, General Benjamin R. Cowen. 
 
 introductory Address, 
 
 Harry B. ■Mackoy Chairman Reception Committee 
 
 Addresses on the Work of the Hereditary Patriotic Societies : 
 
 Society of Colonial Dames Mrs. Herman Groesbecr 
 
 Society of Colonial Wars Robert Ralston Jones 
 
 Daughters of the American Revolution Mrs. John A. Murphy 
 
 Sons of the Revolution John A. Blaine 
 
 Daughters of the Confederacy Mrs. John J. Sheiarer 
 
 committee ox .meeting of patriotic societies. 
 
 Harry B. Mackoy. Mrs. J. A. Bechtel. 
 
 Mrs. W. D. Warren. Robert Ralston Jones 
 
 Herbert Jexney. Mrs. J. C. Hosea. 
 
Addresses on the W^ork of the Hereditary 
 Patriotic Societies. 
 
 SOCIETY OF COLONIAL DAMES. 
 
 Mrs. Herman Groesbeck, Honorary President National Society of 
 Colonial Dames of America in the State of Ohio. 
 
 Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen of the Hereditary Patriotic Societies: 
 
 I have construed your very kind invitation for a short report from 
 the National Society of Colonial Dames in America as a wish to learn 
 comething of the nature of the work that has been accomplished by this 
 Society. The time allotted me is short and my paper will bristle with 
 statistics and necessarily be stripped bare of much interesting detail. 
 
 The work of the National Society of Colonial Dames may for 
 brevity be classified as follows : 
 
 The marking of places of historic interest ; 
 
 The printing and preservation of valuable Colonial and other 
 records ; 
 
 The holding of expensive and interesting loan exhibitions; 
 
 The giving of prizes for essays on Colonial or early American 
 history. 
 
 Landmarks of historic interest threatened with destruction have 
 been purchased and restored and preserved for future generations. 
 Colonial study classes have been formed in many states with excellent 
 results. Essays written by members of these classes are sent to the 
 Reciprocity Bureau and circulated on request. 
 
 A National Relief Association that may be called upon in time of 
 war or in time of any national disaster has been orgc^nized. 
 
 In Pennsylvania the Society lia? purchased, restored and furnished 
 the home of James Logan — Stenton. James Logan was the friend and 
 secretary of William Penn, and Stenton is now in all its beauty the 
 center of the social life of this Society. The Elizabeth Gillespie Me- 
 morial has taken the form of an annual scholarship of $1,500.00 at Bryn 
 Mawr College. Prizes are offered to the graduates of the Girls' High 
 School and School of Industrial Art in Philadelphia for essays and also 
 to the girl students of the Thurston School at Pittsburg. 
 
 The Maryland Society gives its third course of lectures to the trus- 
 tees of Johns Hopkins University ; it has held interesting exhibits of 
 family portraits and armorial bearings of Maryland families and photo- 
 
 5 
 
graphs of Colonial homes in the State still standing. This Society was 
 tinancially crippled by the fire. 
 
 The New Jersey Society has marked the First Presbyterian Church 
 with a bronze tablet: "In memory of the first settlers who founded the 
 town upon ye Pasayake in 1666." This Society has also furnished part 
 of the old barracks with rare bits of historic furniture. 
 
 The Delaware Society has placed a monument to mark the spot 
 where was planted the first Swedish colony in America, where stood 
 Fort Christina on the banks of the Christiana. They have also unveiled 
 a boulder in memory of the occupation of Delaware by the Dutch, which 
 bears this inscription : "Fort Casimir was built by the Dutch in 1631, 
 and recaptured by them from the Swedes in 1655." 
 
 The Virginia Society has undertaken to copy the journal of the 
 House of Burgesses, 1773-1775. They have finished their sixth record of 
 church vestry books, Christ Church, Lancaster Co. being the last. In 
 Co-operation with the Richmond Educational Society they are making 
 a model of one of their public schools. They support a fellowship at 
 the University of Virginia, they care for the graves of the Washington 
 family at Wakefield, and they offer many prizes for essays in the schools. 
 
 The Massachusetts Society gives an annual prize of $100.00 to the 
 American Art Association in Paris for a painting on some subject of 
 Colonial interest. Classes have been formed among the Russian and 
 Italian emigrants in the north end of Boston. Many prizes for essays 
 in the schools have been given and loan exhibitions of old silver and 
 furniture have been held. Of great interest is their purchase of the 
 Quincy House, at Quincy. The wing of this house was built by William 
 Coddington in 1636 and the front of it in 1687 by Edmund Quincy. This 
 house is replete with historic associations and is now completely restored 
 and furnished in the quaintest and most charming manner. The paper 
 on the walls of one room was imported from Paris in anticipation of 
 the wedding of the charming Dorothy Q. to John Hancock. The house 
 is low pitched and wide spread with grounds and shrubberies about it 
 and presents a perfect representation of the homes of gentlefolk of 
 Colonial days. 
 
 The New York Society has also its beautiful and interesting home 
 in the Van Courtland Manor House, which is also a museum of Colonial 
 relics. Special exhibitions of china, plate and furniture have been held, 
 and more than one hundred thousand visitors pass through its doors 
 each year. 
 
 Prizes are offered to teachers' colleges for essays, and to the Uni- 
 versity of Rochester, and six classes in the various industrial schools are 
 supported. This Society continues its work of publishing the minutes 
 of the Orphans' Court of New Amsterdam, the second volume of which 
 is now being translated from the Dutch. 
 
 South Carolina has restored the old powder magazine, which is now 
 
the scene of social entertainment and l)usiness meetings. They offer 
 prizes for essays to four girls' colleges with excellent results. 
 
 The Connecticut Society report their traveling libraries amongst 
 country schools as numbering fifty, whilst forty-eight portfolios of his- 
 torical pictures go with them. Many prizes for essays arc offered to 
 high schools and grammar schools throughout the State. They have de- 
 voted nuicli time and money to the restoration of the old stone house 
 at Guilford, built by Henry Whitfield in 1639. They have copied and 
 still are copying church records and they are writing the histories of 
 Colonial houses in the State, of which 174 are standing. 
 
 New Hampshire offers prizes for essays to students in the public 
 schools and is making an effort to induce the Legislature to create the 
 office of Commissioner of Records in the State of New Hampshire. A 
 fine old house in Exeter, built in 1708, has been recently purchased, re- 
 stored and furnished, and is the home of the Society. 
 
 In Georgia the work has been chiefly in the line of preserving and 
 restoring the ancient landmarks which were rapidly falling into decay, 
 such as the restoration of the citadel of the old town of Frederia on St. 
 Simons Island, and they have also erected a monument to Oglethorpe. 
 
 North Carolina reports the unveiling of tablets to Cornelius Har- 
 nett and other Colonial patriots. 
 
 The Rhode Island Society has published the correspondence of 
 Colonial Governors of Rhode Island, 1723-1775. They have successfully 
 restored the Bishop Berkeley House and have established the Roger Wil- 
 liams Memorial Fund at Brown University. 
 
 Of the Associate Societies in the non-Colonial States it is needless 
 to say that they cannot purchase and restore Colonial buildings. They 
 are all, however, doing active and useful educational work, offering prizes 
 for essays in different schools and supporting scholarships in colleges. 
 
 The Illinois Society has been for years doing an admirable educational 
 work amongst the immigrants in Illinois. They have finally educated a 
 young Bohemian and prepared him for work amongst his own people. 
 He is to instruct them in the history of this country and in the duties 
 of citizenship. 
 
 Florida is preparing to place a bronze tablet with a suitable in- 
 scription upon the old gates of St. Augustine. 
 
 Alabama has erected a superb wayside cross in memory of the Sieur 
 de Bienville. 
 
 Kentucky is doing fine educational work. 
 
 The Michigan Society has unveiled a tablet in Detroit and pre- 
 sented it to that city, bearing this inscription : "Here encamped the Fox 
 Indians Outagamics during the siege of Detroit in 1712. Here also are 
 buried the soldiers killed in the battle of Lake Erie, 1813." 
 
 The Ohio Society has purchased and restored the Land Office of 
 the Ohio Company in Marietta. This little relic is frequently open to 
 the school children and to the general public. Our custodian reports 
 
8 
 
 many visitors and great interest shown. They have also published a 
 volume of the correspondence of Rufus Putnam from the manuscript in 
 possession of the Marietta College, and they help support a fellowship 
 in the University of Cincinnati. This fellowship is for the research 
 and study of the early settlement of the Ohio Valley. 
 
 I must close my paper by giving a short account of the National 
 work, aside from the State work, to which all the States have the priv- 
 ilege and the honor to subscribe. This was to begin with the Relief As- 
 sociation for the Spanish War sufferers, which Association raised and 
 spent under the guidance of the Surgeons General of the Army and Navy 
 over $50,000. Then later came the erection of the beautiful monument 
 cit Arlington in memory of those who perished during the war. 
 
 There was an appeal to Congress for the preservation of Niagara, 
 one for National Forest reservations, and one for the preservation of 
 historic sites in Washington. These appeals were pleasantly received 
 by influential members of Congress and of the Senate and did their 
 share of work in influencing public opinion. 
 
 As is fitting our last two efforts crown our years of work. First 
 •of these was the rebuilding of the ancient church at Jamestown, which 
 was first built of wood in 1617, then rebuilt of brick in 1640. Nothing 
 however was left standing of either building but the tower. Both foun- 
 dations were unearthed in making necessary excavations, and slates 
 from the old roof, tiles from the chancel, bits of leaded glass from the 
 •windows, and bolts and hinges were found, all sure guides for our skill- 
 ful and enthusiastic architect in his reconstruction. New brick walls 
 •enclosing the exterior foundations of 1640 were built, and the old brick 
 used as an inside facing. Several memorial tablets of bronze are now 
 on these walls, the old tile is replaced in the chancel "and the little church 
 after appropriate ceremony was handed over to the Virginia Society for 
 the preservation of Antiquities by our National President and the Dames 
 attending her. 
 
 The last great work of the National Society is the publication of 
 the letters of William Pitt, Lord Chatham, to the Colonial Governors 
 and Military Commanders of North America. Our Committee on His- 
 toric Research, through the kindness of Mr. Hubert Hall, of the Record 
 Oflfice and Royal Historical Society, received permission for the tran- 
 scription of these documents, and at his suggestion employed an expert 
 copyist at the Record Office in London. The book was published by the 
 MacMillans and is considered to be an invaluable addition to the his- 
 tory of that time. 
 
 In closing I wish to say that the Dames of Ohio are complimented 
 and pleased to be included in this distinguished company and have every 
 wish to work in harmony and sympathy with all other Hereditary Pa- 
 triotic Societies. 
 
II. 
 
 THE SOCIETY OE COLONIAL WARS; ITS AIMS ANIJ ITS 
 ATTITUDE TOWARDS HISTORIC RESEARCH. 
 
 Roi'.KkT R.-\LSTOx Jones. 
 
 The English Settlement at Jamestown, three centuries ago, followed 
 by similar beginnings at Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, and in the valleys 
 of the Hudson and Connecticut, stands as the Genesis of our Colonial 
 life; it marked the implanting of a vital germ, whicli, growing with ever 
 increasing fruitfulness. has overtopped the Alleghenies, descended into 
 the valleys (if the Ohio and Mississippi, spread out upon the broad 
 prairies of tlie West and crossed the Continental Divide to the seas of 
 the Orient. 
 
 The formative period which elapsed between 1607 and 1775, was of 
 incalculable importance to the land and its people. It was a period which 
 may be likened to that epoch through which our planet passed, when 
 chaotic nebulae became consolidated and formless elements took on sta- 
 bility and system. Our Colonial period was truly the creative one during 
 which many essential and characteristic forms of local self government 
 were evolved; the expression of popular opinion was unrestrained, but 
 freedom of speech and action was so tempered with prudence, that the 
 excesses whicli marked the great political upheavals in France, were un- 
 known to the colonists of our Atlantic seaboard: we might, even now, 
 with advantage turn back to some of tlic primitive methods of govern- 
 ment which were in use from 1C08 to 177.j. 
 
 The principles developed during the Colonial period have at all 
 times exercised a powerful influence upon tlic destinies of our country; 
 sometimes indeed amid storms which threatened the very life of the Re- 
 public, but for the most part advancing quietly, solemnly, yet irresistibly, 
 towards their final consummation wliativcr that may involve. 
 
 For more than a century and a half following the earliest settle- 
 ments, we looked across the broad sea for commercial aid and military 
 assistance, learning all this time, however, to forget the prejudice born 
 of conflicting religious creed, and the indifference due to race stock and 
 diverse political system. The whole colonial period was a gigantic train- 
 ing school. Political acumen and military prowess are not born of the 
 instant, both involve preliminary training ; statesmen were developed as 
 a result of the Town Meeting, the Provincial Councils and the Legis- 
 lative Assemblies of the various colonies; so too the soldier was edu- 
 cated and toughened in the campaigns against the Indian and the even 
 more strenuous wars with the French. Who can for one moment imagine 
 that mere untrained mobs of patriotic men could for long have opposed 
 successfully the trained veterans of Great Britain? To account for Lex- 
 ington, Bunker Hill, and Saratoga, we must look back to the Pequot War, 
 to the capture almost unaided of Louislnirg in 174'), and to the long 
 
lO 
 
 border warfare with France extending from Maine to the Carolinas. 
 From the very beginning our people possessed self-reliance and cour- 
 age, but the separate colonies contained little cohesive power until many- 
 crudities in life and government had become refined by trial and suffer- 
 ing; until the dross had been melted out in the crucible of life; then^ 
 when the fateful moment came and the colonial period ceased to exist, 
 the people rich and poor alike were in some measure fitted for self- 
 government. 
 
 Granting these premises, and no candid person can deny them as a 
 whole, we have good reason for studying closely the men, manners, and 
 achievements of Colonial times. We find much to applaud and imitate 
 in the vigorous manhood of those days ; much to profit by in the ex- 
 amples of sturdy honesty and self-denial then exhibited ; much to excite 
 our sympathy and arouse our admiration in the conduct of these founders 
 of our nation. 
 
 Our indebtedness to the founders of our social and political struc- 
 ture was duly recognized at the organization of the Society of Colonial 
 Wars in the following terms : 
 
 "The Society of Colonial Wars has been instituted to perpetuate 
 the memory of those events, and of the men who in military, naval, and 
 civil positions of high trust and responsibility, by their acts of counsel, 
 assisted in the establishment, defense and preservation of the American 
 Colonies, and were in truth the founders of this nation. With this end 
 in view it seeks to collect and preserve manuscripts, rolls, relics, and 
 records; to provide suitable commemorations or memorials relating to 
 the American Colonial period, and to inspire in its members the fraternal 
 and patriotic spirit of their fore-fathers, and in the community, respect 
 and reverence for those whose public services made our freedom and 
 unity possible." 
 
 With the aims and desires I have just enumerated, the first State 
 Society, that of New York, was instituted August 18, 1892. Similar so- 
 cieties were soon formed in other states ; Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
 Pennsylvania, and Maryland in 1893 ; New Hampshire, Virginia and New 
 Jersey in 1894; Georgia, 1896; Rhode Island and Delaware, 1897. Before, 
 even all of the original thirteen Colonies had been thus represented, the 
 states carved out of the "Territory Northwest of the River Ohio" had 
 begun to organize, and even some from the newer region yet — the old 
 Louisiana Purchase. Our own society, that of Ohio, was organized May 
 13, 1895, less than three years after the movement was first inaugurated. 
 At the close of 1906 there were twenty-seven branches of the General 
 Society, inclusive of that formed in the District of Columbia. 
 
 I shall not exhaust your patience by the presentation of mere sta- 
 tistics relating to membership. Our Society, and I use the expression 
 in its broadest meaning, includes a very large number of representative 
 men ; in our membership may be found clergymen, statesmen, lawyers, 
 physicians, educators, military and naval officers, bankers, and business- 
 
men. Suiiic cif llu-si.' have thcinsi-lvcs jiceii makers of Iiistory during the 
 Civil and Spanisli wars. I think \vc may modestly claim to commemorate 
 the past, its trials and its triumplis, and we also claim to have developed 
 among our own memhers tliat fraternal and patriotic spirit of our fore- 
 lathers, so earnestly commended in the constitution of the General So- 
 ciety. Our Society lends its hearty support to the preservation of objects 
 having liistnrical interest, and to the proper identification and marking of 
 spots once famous, from which the original old landmarks have fallen 
 away. Appropriations of money are made from time to time for the 
 purpose of erecting monuments on Colonial battlefields, and placing tab- 
 lets on buildings now occupying historic sites. Much has been done also 
 in the way of preserving old public records, muster rolls, diaries, maps, 
 and books : also warrants, wills, deeds, and other legal instruments. In 
 this way we give practical support to the expression of documentary 
 history. 
 
 We btar in mind also that West' of tlie Alleghenies, the period im- 
 mediately following the close of the American Revolution, corresponds 
 ■closely with that similar formative period in the older colonies, between 
 1607 and ]77o. Indeed the Great West lay in a state of retarded or 
 suspended development from 1607 until the passing of the Ordinance of 
 1787 and for the most of this vast region, for all practical purposes, the 
 period corresponding to that called Colonial, did not close until some time 
 after the several states of the West and Northwest had been admitted 
 to the Union. 
 
 We therefore welcome a movement to arouse greater interest in 
 American history, and especially in the history of that vast region, the 
 great continental basin of North America, whose primeval forests and 
 sun-lit prairies, two centuries ago, were untrodden save by the wild an- 
 imal, or his scarcely less savage foe, the Indian. 
 
 We welcome a movement to illumine the dark spots of mere tradi- 
 tion, and blazon them with the beacon lights of true history. The ma- 
 terials for such illumination are varied but greatly scattered ; many 
 an abandoned graveyard, shadowed by pines and cedars and carpeted 
 with myrtle, contains precise information as to men and events, now 
 otherwise remembered only by tradition ; the early records of church 
 societies are filled with discussions of questions which may to us appear 
 non-essential, but wlich were living issues to the active participants and 
 exercised a powerful influence upon their lives and conduct; the family 
 records, portraits, letters and journals of public men are becoming more 
 and more widely scattered and as time passes their recovery will be at- 
 tended with increasing difficulty. More than one instance has come to 
 our knowledge w-hcrc valuable manuscripts, public and private, were con- 
 signed to the paper mill for want of proper appreciation of their contents. 
 
 The Society of Colonial Wars will cheerfully lend its assistance to 
 this Historical Conference in its effort to remedy existing conditions 
 
12 
 
 to the end that the records of the preS'Tit and the past may be preserved 
 for future generations. 
 
 III. 
 
 OBJECTS AND WORK OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 
 
 Mrs. John A. Murphy. 
 
 This Society was founded in the year 1890, in the city of Wash- 
 ington, with Mrs. Benjamin Harrison, wife of the then President of the 
 United States, as its first President General. It was incorporated in 
 February, 189fi, under the United States Government, the Act of In- 
 corporation being signed by the President, Grover Cleveland, and the 
 Vice President, Adlai Stevenson, and the Speaker of the House, 
 Thomas B. Reed. It is made up of Chapters, at present numbering nearly 
 seven hundred, which are the active units through which the objects of 
 the Society are carried out. The purposes of this Association cannot 
 be told better than in the words of its National Constitution. Article 
 Second, Sections 1, "2 and 3. "The objects of this Society are: 
 
 (1) To perpetuate the memory of the spirit of the men and wo- 
 men who achieved American Independence by the acquisition and pro- 
 tection of historical spots, and the erection of monuments ; by the en- 
 couragement of historical research in relation to the Revolution ; . by the 
 preservation of the records of the individual services of Revolutionary 
 soldiers and patriots, and by the promotion of celebrations of all pa- 
 triotic anniversaries. 
 
 (2) To carry out the injunction of Washington in his farewell 
 address to the American people, to promote, as an object of primary im- 
 portance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge, thus de- 
 veloping an enlightened public opinion, and affording to young and old 
 such advantages as shall develop in them the largest capacity for per- 
 forming the duties of American citizens." 
 
 The Thirteen Original States had naturally a greater opportunity 
 to carry out the first section of Article Second of our constitution as 
 read above, because in these states were the homes of our Revolutionary 
 fathers. In them were the scenes of the local disputes between the col- 
 onists and British ; in them were the battlefields of the Revolution. The 
 eastern Daughters, by their untiring efforts, have created an undying 
 history of the Revolution in bronze and stone from Maine to Georgia 
 by the monuments they have raised, the tablets they h'ave placed, the 
 Revolutionary houses they have bought and preserved, and the impetus 
 they have given to research and study of American history. Many of 
 the sites so rescued would otherwise have been lost to history and be- 
 come mere matters of tradition. 
 
 As a condition of admission to this Society, each applicant must 
 
13 
 
 show authentic record that she is a lineal descendant of a man or wo- 
 man who rendered aid to the Cause of our Independence. This neces- 
 sity naturally stimulated research into family history, and the resulting 
 records of ancestral patriotic services are yearly printed in lineage books 
 published by the National Board. This has resulted in a great genealogical 
 library, now considered the best reference library on that subject in the 
 country. The chapters of the Middle and Western States having no 
 battlefields or Revolutionary sites to mark naturally turned for their ob- 
 jects to the second section of our constitution as read above. 
 
 It would be impos.sible in the brief time allotted me to enumerate 
 all the things done by this great society. In brief I will say that it has 
 lent its aid to aJl legislation in direction of good citizenship, and it has 
 certainly been a powerful agent in healing the animosities between the 
 Northern and Southern sections of the country, caused by the Civil War; 
 because yearly women who from all quarters of the Union meet in Wash- 
 ington at the D. A. R. Congress, learn to know each other, to under- 
 stand and respect each other's points of view and to lay the mantle of 
 their common proud inheritance. Revolutionary ancestry, over the graves 
 of the past. 
 
 But one thing I can tell you that only a few here know, namely, 
 that our Society is required by the United States Government as an in- 
 corporated part to render to the Government through the Smithsonian 
 Institution, a yearly account of all work done by it. This report is pub- 
 lished by the Government in one volume of the Smithsonian Reports. 
 In it are found records and photographs of all monuments erected, of 
 tablets placed during the year, of all moneys expended for patriotic pur- 
 poses, and of all patriotic educational foundations created ; and I am proud 
 to tell you that any one incredulous of our usefulness can turn to these 
 pages and be convinced of his error. 
 
 In 1893 our National Board appointed Mrs. A. Howard Hinkle of 
 this city as the first State Regent of Ohio, for the purpose of founding 
 this Society in our State. Mrs. Hinkle began her work at once by 
 forming chapters throughout the State. On April 27th, 1893, eleven wo- 
 men whose admission papers had been verified and signed by the Na- 
 tional Board met at Mrs. Hinkle's residence and organized a D. A. R. 
 Chapter, electing our late much beloved Mrs. .\rnold las its first Chapter 
 Regent, and called it the Cincinnati Chapter. The work of organizing 
 Chapters has been carried on until now there are forty-one in our State. 
 But it was not until October, 1899, that Mrs. Granger, the then State 
 Regent called the first Ohio D. A. R. Conference to meet in Zanesville. 
 By this movement she became the first agent towards unifying the work 
 of the state. She appointed the first two state committees, one of which 
 was on "Historic Sites of Ohio." Through this committee many interest- 
 ing facts of local history were revealed ; among others, the existence 
 of graves of Revolutionary soldiers who had emigrated to Ohio after the 
 war and died here. This committee still exists and yearly docs good 
 
14 
 
 work, chiefly in the direction of verifying and marking these graves in 
 a suitable uniform manner. The second was a committee on the "Ma- 
 nila Free Library," of which committee Mrs. James Kilbourne of Co- 
 lumbus was appointed and still remains chairman. Through its agency, 
 the Ohio Alcove in this far off Manila library was founded and 
 is still supported by our State. Mrs. John A. Murphy, when State Re- 
 gent, added committees on the Smithsonian Report, on the Continental 
 Memorial Hall, on Patriotic Education, and lately the present active 
 State Regent, Mrs. Edward Orton, has added committees on the Juvenile 
 Court, on the Children of the Republic, U. S. A., and one on Child Labor. 
 Good work has been done by all of these committees. But to go more 
 into detail is impossible and so I again refer you to our Smithsonian 
 volume. 
 
 I will now ask you to consider with me the more special works of 
 our own chapter. I find in reading the records that its history in its first 
 years is identical with that of all other new. chapters. It occupied itself 
 in recruiting new members, in learning how to conduct meetings, in the 
 study of ancestry and in reviving its own knowledge of our national his- 
 tory. But it was not until the Spanish War came that our chapter sprang 
 up out of its self-absorption into the most enthusiastic patriotic work. 
 In May, 1898, news was received that our soldiers in Florida were suf- 
 fering from climatic conditions and asking for flannel bandages. On 
 the instant fifty dollars were subscribed with which to buy material. A 
 committee with Mrs. Judkins and Mrs. Herbert Jenney at its head, 
 was appointed in charge, and in the short space of three days 400 band- 
 ages were made and delivered at the Army Post in Tampa. In June, 
 1898, our then Chapter Regent, Miss Annie Laws, called a special chapter 
 meeting to consider a call from our National Board to assist in forming 
 a plan to aid the Government in caring for the soldiers. The National 
 Board had organized the D. A. R. Army Hospital Corps, and the Cin- 
 cinnati Chapter immediately appointed a Cincinnati Chapter Army Hos- 
 pital Corps Committee, of which Mrs. Wm. Judkins was made Chair- 
 man, Mrs. Frank Wilson, Vice Chairman, Mrs. Arnold, Chairman of 
 Transportation and Mrs. Disney, Treasurer. All during the hot sum- 
 mer this committee was untiring. It sent medicines, money and delicacies 
 to the soldiers and made garments to the number of 2599 and delivered 
 them to army posts. At this time also the chapters called the attention 
 of the mayor to the necessity of providing food for sick and wounded 
 soldiers on trains passing through our city. Through the unflagging 
 efforts of Mrs. Frank Wilson during this hot season, aid and comfort 
 were afforded one thousand sick soldiers at the railroad stations. Through 
 our chapter, Miss Laws the Regent, proposed eleven trained nurses to 
 the National Hospital Corps, nine of whom were accepted. 
 
 On October 23d, at a chapter meeting, the then Chapter Regent, 
 Mrs. John A. Murphy, presented through the Recording Secretary, her 
 plan of work for the chapter. It was as follows: 
 
That onc-lialf the incoiiu' from annual dues be held by the Treas- 
 urer as a patriotic work fund. I liat two committees be appointed by 
 the Regent ; the lirst committee to be on Patriotism in Schools and Col- 
 leges ; the second connnittee on Neifihborbood Patriotic Meetings. The 
 object of the first committee shall be to promote patriotism in colleges 
 and scliools by offering prizes, I)y founding scholarships and fellowships 
 antl liy other means tliat it might devise that the chapter will approve. 
 
 The object of tlie second connnittee shall be the establishment of 
 patriotic meetings lamong the foreign or uneducated classes of the city 
 for the diffusion of knowledge of our history and (lovernment. 
 
 This plan was immediately adopted by the chapter and the Regent 
 appointed Airs. Brent Arnold, Chairman of the College and Schools Com- 
 mittee, and Miss Annie Laws, Chairman of the Patriotic Meetings Com- 
 mittee. 
 
 Mrs. .VrnoUl and the Regent, Mrs. Murphy, had an interview with 
 the then President of tlu- University, Dr. Ayres, and made a proposi- 
 tion to found a Fellowshij) in .\merican History in the University. It 
 was received with enthusiasm, not only because it would be the first fel- 
 lowship of the University, but because the Daughters would by this move- 
 ment give an impulse in this direction for others to follow. This predic- 
 tion has been fulfilled. Mrs. Arnold told the chapter that our Fellowship 
 would be a Post Graduate one in American History and it would 
 be honorary until we had paid in sufficient capital to earn the honorarium 
 for the fellowship. So she said, "It behooves us to be up and doing," and 
 our chapter was up and doing and worked four years to pay in the re- 
 quisite capital to the Endowment Board of the University. But ever 
 since 1900 our University has had in it a D. A. R. Fellow. Mrs. Arnold 
 and Mrs. Murphy also had a meeting with a delegation from the As- 
 sociation of Principals of the Public Schools. Mrs. Arnold regretted to 
 report that our proposal to ofTer prizes in the ^Public Schools for good 
 Scholarship in American History did not meet with the approval of the 
 principals, therefore it had to be abandoned. 
 
 From this year, 1900, patriotic meetings were held among the un- 
 educated women of the city. They were taught by maps, by talks, and 
 addresses, and, we think, gained much profit and exercised a good in- 
 fluence over their sons. It was the idea of Miss Laws, the Chairman, 
 that through these women we could reach the boys, which supposition 
 proved ultimately true. These meetings still continue, although the great 
 interest now in this patriotic education work centers in the boys. 
 
 In May, 1899, Mrs. Cadwallader presented the chapter with a map 
 showing the authentic site of old Ft. Washington. It was taken from 
 a map made by the United States Engineer of that period, which was 
 found among her great grandfather's papers. The finding of this au- 
 thentic site gave rise to a movement brought forward by Mrs. F. Wilson 
 to invite other patriotic Societies to join with us in erecting a monument 
 on this the early site of our city. Mrs. Wilson eventually accomplished 
 
i6 
 
 this and a monument was erected on this site, through the combined 
 efforts of The Daughters of the Revolution, The Colonial Dames, The 
 Daughters of the War of 1812, The Sons of The Colonial Wars, The 
 Sons of The Revolution, the Sons of the American Revolution, The May- 
 flower Descendants, and the Loyal Legion. It stands in East Third 
 Street, where it was unveiled Jvme 14, 1891. 
 
 In May, 1899, through the initiative of Mrs. Herbert Jenney, the 
 chapter published a collection of patriotic songs for the purpose of using 
 them at our park concerts, hoping by means of open air singing to 
 stimulate greater love of these beautiful songs. Fifteen thousand of 
 these song books were printed, four thousand of which were given to 
 the Superintendent of Parks for the purpose mentioned, one thousand 
 to the Superintendent of Schools, on his request, and many hundreds 
 and dozens were given away in quarters where we thought they would 
 be of use. Many were sold to Daughters of the American Revolution 
 all over the country for their meetings. The last hundred of the fifteen 
 thousand were ordered only two weeks ago by a chapter in Rochester, 
 New York. 
 
 October 19th, 1897, Mrs. Murphy now State Regent of Ohio, was 
 able at last to realize her long cherished plan of forming a club of chil- 
 dren of the less fortunate classes for the purpose of developing in them 
 a high order of patriotism and civic virtue. On this date j\Irs. Murphy 
 and Miss Burkam quietly collected thirty-five children in the McFarland 
 Street school house and organized them into the first club of The Chil- 
 dren of The Republic, U. S. A. This work was continued without much 
 help until the D. A. R. State Conference met in Cincinnati in October, 
 1902. Here a stirring paper was read on the need of educating foreign 
 children in American patriotism by Mrs. Knight, of Columbus, and our 
 modest effort on this line was used by her as illustration. The Con- 
 ference was greatly impressed and moved to adopt this work as a "com- 
 mon duty for Ohio Chapters." Our Chapter immediately thereafter 
 adopted it as its special work, appointed a local C. R. Committee, and 
 has from that time continued its protection and support. From this small 
 beginning have grown seven clubs of Children of the Republic in this 
 city. During this year the ladies on this C. R. Committee saw that the 
 boys who had been in our clubs six years were outgrowing the younger 
 and newer members. They therefore resolved to form a Senior Club 
 of all the boys who were sixteen years old, from these C. R. Clubs, and 
 to call it The Sons of the Republic. This is to be a sort of post graduate 
 club, to which all boys of C. R. Clubs, when reaching sixteen years of 
 age and being recommended by the Directors, can hope to be promoted. 
 No boy, however, who has not been a member of some C. R. Club can 
 be admitted to the "Sons of the Republic." This Senior Club was or- 
 ganized June 24th of this year and has had weekly meetings ever since. 
 It has, as expected, proved a tremendous stimulus. Our methods, though 
 various, follow a certain system. Each Club is organized by adopting a 
 
17 
 
 short constilutiou made for all C. R. Clubs. It is oriiccrcd by its mem- 
 bers am! its Intsiness meetings are conducted by these officers. But its 
 programs arc its means of development toward good citizenship. These 
 vary. They have speeches by the boys, debates on public matters, his- 
 tory, games and guesses, mock court trials, drills in parliamentary usage, 
 military drills, subjects assigned on which to hunt up information, cur- 
 rent events, public questions, addresses from outside men and anything 
 the directors and the Club can devise to help attain the Club object, 
 which is. "To study the underlying principles of our government and all 
 that pertains to promotion of good citizenship." On the last Saturday 
 night of each month the eight Clubs hold a mass meeting in the Lecture 
 Room of the Public, Library. At these mass meetings, lectures illustrated 
 by stereopticon views are given by eminent citizens on valuable subjects. 
 These are not only a source of enjoyment and improvement to our boys, 
 but it serves to make them realize that each club is one unit in a real 
 association, though each liears a special name of some dead American 
 hero or statesman. We have now eight clubs in Cincinnati, one large 
 one in Cleveland, two in Columbus, one in Youngstown, one in Spring- 
 field, one in Lima, and one in Sandusky. The movement was made Na- 
 tional by our D. A. R. Congress and a National Committee on Children 
 of The Republic created, of which Mrs. Murphy was made chairman. 
 The National C. R. Chairman has requested the other states to follow 
 Ohio's lead and appoint State Committees on Children of The Republic 
 to prosecute this movement in their states. Maine, New Hampshire, and 
 Rhode Island, the two Virginias, Washington, The District of Columbia 
 and Colorado have complied. So we feel that even though slowly, this 
 teaching of true civic honesty and honor to our poorer boys will eventually 
 become a national work. If the 60,000 Daughters in our Union should 
 finally unite in doing this work, it can be well believed that a great and 
 beneficial impression would be made on our body politic. 
 
 Our chapter contributes yearly $100 to the Memorial Continental 
 Hall fund. This is a fund for building a beautiful Memorial Building in 
 Washington to the memory of the soldiers and sailors who died in the 
 war of the Revolution. It is half finished now and its completion is 
 considered a sacred obligation by all our old chapters. It is of white 
 marble, is of Grecian architecture and will be a great ornament to our 
 already beautiful Capitol. In it will be placed our splendid Genealogical 
 Library and our already very considerable Museum of Revolutionary 
 relics. I am glad to tell you that the Congress of the United States three 
 years ago remitted all taxes on this building on account of its purely 
 patriotic character and uses. It is impossible to tell you today of all 
 our contributions to good objects, of all our efforts to secure good leg- 
 islation and of private donations. Only in conclusion I will again refer 
 you to our annual Smithsonian report. 
 
IV. 
 
 SONS OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 John A. Blaine. 
 
 The Society Sons of the Revohition, while occupying a position 
 •peculiarly its own, by reason of its requirements for eligibility to mem- 
 "bership, very properly belongs to the class of organizations that have to 
 do with the social life of the present day. The betterment of American 
 citizenship, with its responsibilities, and the education of the great masses 
 coming to us from foreign shores in the value of American Institutions, 
 are the supreme questions that command the attention of many of these 
 organizations, and embrace the great social problems, to which has been 
 given the most profound thought of American scholars and statesmen. 
 
 "America." to quote from my distinguished kinsman, the late Hon. 
 James G. Blaine, "America justifies her birthright as she uplifts, en- 
 larges, strengthens, the individual man in the widest organized com- 
 munity. Her peculiar glory is in the masses, their intelligence and 
 dignity, their recognition and due discharge of responsibility, their free- 
 dom from unworthy ambition, their adoption of intellectual, moral and 
 spiritual aims — if in this she does not excel all other nations, America 
 will have been discovered in vain and Christopher Columbus might 
 well have died in the little gray house at Genoa. What our fathers 
 delivered to us, that should we deliver to our children, not only un- 
 diminished, but increased and enriched by our own experience. Every 
 man who falls below his highest, harms not only himself, but lowers the 
 standard of his country, and to that extent falls short of the perfect 
 citizen." 
 
 Organizations and societies without number have been established, 
 whose supreme object is to make American citizenship higher and nobler 
 than the citizenship of any other country on the globe. Organizations 
 for the improvement of civic conditions, for the correction of evils and 
 abuses that have crept into the body politic, and, in a word, for the 
 furtherance of every project that promises a betterment of life among all 
 classes, by establishing higher ideals and promoting education in the 
 pure, true, and noble things that make for character and lead to good 
 citizenship. Patriotism, loyalty, and reverence for the worthy deeds of 
 worthy ancestors are but synonyms of good citizenship, and as these 
 virtues embrace the cardinal principles on which rest the foundation of 
 the Society Sons of the Revolution, I deem it an honor to speak to you 
 this afternoon of the purposes of that Society and of what it has ac- 
 complished. 
 
 In a speech delivered shortly after its organization, the Hon. Ham- 
 ilton Fish conferred upon the Society Sons of the Revolution the hon- 
 • orable title of "Younger Brother" to the Society of the Cincinnati, a 
 
19 
 
 most appropriate title, for tlic younger is practically an outgrowth from 
 the older. 
 
 May I ask your indulgence while I briefly mention the conditions 
 that led to the organization of this magnificent younger Society, a So- 
 ciety whose membership extends into every state of the Union, with 
 State Societies in the District of Columbia and thirty-one of the States r 
 
 The Society of the Cincinnati, as is no doubt well known to all 
 present, embraced in its membership only the officers of the Revolutionary 
 Army and their oldest male descendants. It was instituted at the Canton- 
 ment of the patriot army on the Hudson River, May 13th, 1783. 
 
 General Washington, the first President of the Society, in an ad- 
 dress to its members, closed witli the eloquent words, "Let us, then, 
 prosecute with ardor what he have instituted in sincerity; let Heaven 
 and our consciences approve our conduct ; let our actions be the best 
 comment on our words, and let us leave a lesson to posterity, that the 
 glory of soldiers cannot hv completed williout acting well the part of 
 citizens." 
 
 The Cincinnati, for many years, occupied the foremost place in the 
 country's celebration of Revolutionary events and anniversaries, but after 
 a distinguished existence its membership became greatly depleted, the 
 Society ceased to exist in m.iny of" the original states, and its members 
 no longer took an active part in the affairs of the country. 
 
 The centennial of the Boston Tea Party, celebrated December Idth^ 
 1873, inaugurated a notable sequence of official and public celebrations 
 commemorating the heroic occurrences in our great struggle for inde- 
 pendence, which aroused to activity the hearts of those who cherished 
 the deeds of their ancestors. The inactive condition of the Society of 
 the Cincinnati made a deep impression upon the minds of many who 
 were jealous of the brilliant fame of that Society, and it was hoped 
 that the advent of centennial years would be propitious for restoring 
 that organization to its original position of ascendency; to secure that 
 end an effort was made to have its doors opened to all male descendants 
 of Revolutionary officers. The suggestion was received in a kindly spirit, 
 but received no further consideration, as Mr. Fish, the President Gen- 
 eral, stated that the sentiment of the Cincinnati prohibited any departure 
 from the precedents of nearly a century, and no change could be made 
 from the established rule of eligibility. 
 
 Mr. John Austin Stevens of New York, by whom the matter was 
 presented, was gravely impressed by these conditions. Endowed with a 
 spirit of patriotism, he felt that the time was ripe for the organization 
 of a great patriot society upon the broadest foundations, catholic as to 
 its membership in right of ancestors of the Revolution, and which might 
 be made a factor for good in the direction of public affairs and the 
 inculcation of principles of honor and patriotism in the hearts of the 
 people of the Nation. With faith in the goodness of his cause, he pre- 
 sented the matter to those of his associates whom he knew to be in full 
 
20 
 
 accord with his sentiments. His proposition was heartily endorsed, a 
 Society was organized, and, by a happy inspiration, a name unique and 
 descriptive was selected for the new Society. 
 
 In 17G5, on nearly the same spot, and under the vows of Masonic 
 secrecy, was organized "The Sons of Liberty," whose purpose was re- 
 sistance to the Stamp Act, and the insidious encroachment of England 
 upon the rights of the Colonies. The movement spread rapidly from 
 Boston to Savannah, and its members were the leaders in all those ag- 
 gressive acts of opposition which finally compelled a repeal of the law. 
 
 In adopting the name, "Sons of the Revolution," the committee chose 
 an appellation significant of its purpose to conserve those eternal principli^s 
 of honor, patriotism, liberty and justice, the heritage from "The Sons 
 of Liberty," and which name we most devoutly believe will endure until 
 time shall end. 
 
 Public attention was immediately attracted to this new Society, 
 and an increase of membership followed, not alone from New York, 
 but from the adjoining States. Its increase was so rapid that, at the 
 time of the centennial celebration of the adoption of the Constitution of 
 the United States, it had upwards of four hundred members, and the 
 material of which this membership was composed was of such substantial 
 and good standing in the community, that when a committee of two 
 hundred was appointed by the Mayor from among the citizens of New 
 York to take the management of the magnificent celebration, thirty-six 
 of its members were found to be members of the Society of the Sons of 
 the Revolution. A number of them were again placed upon the most im- 
 portant sub-committees, and were entrusted with the most responsible 
 and laborious duties. The Society itself was given the highest place of 
 
 Tionor next to the Society of the Cincinnati, and paraded as an escort 
 to the President to their full number. 
 
 Just here permit me to refer to the unjust criticisms, that have, 
 from time to time, asserted that the Society Sons of the Revolution rep- 
 resented only an exposition of sentimental ideas ; that its dominating 
 
 •principles were pride of ancestry and class exclusiveness ; that its most 
 important work was devoted to the establishing of a genealogical descent 
 
 ■through four or five generations of American progenitors, that its mem- 
 bers may say "We are not as this publican whose father came to us in 
 the steerage." 
 
 Such criticisms, if made at all, have been made by those who have 
 no conception of its purposes. That one should not take a reasonable 
 pride in a worthy ancestry, indicates that such person is possessed of a 
 perverted mind, or, at least, an utter indifference to the higher ideals 
 of life. It is true, the millionaire, the political leader, or the social autocrat 
 cannot be enrolled in the membership of this Society unless he is de- 
 scended from a participant on the Colonial side in our war for inde- 
 pendence, and unless he is a man of integrity and respected by his 
 
 ■neighbors ; but every man, whatever his position, even the laborer who 
 
21 
 
 earns his bread by the sweat of his brow, if a good citizen and qualified, 
 is as welcome to its membership as he who sits in the executive chair or 
 presides in our courts of justice. As to its patriotic character, an 
 eminent member of the Society, the late William Lcvcrctt Chase of 
 Massachusetts, in an address, said : ''The only good from such orders 
 as the Sons of the Revolution may be the highest good, if we realize 
 the sacred trust of duties, a proud legacy committed to our faithful keep- 
 ing; to preserve in their purity, to broaden and ennoble by our own 
 self-sacrifice, and transmit to those who come after us, with no spot or 
 stain, unless it can be our holy privilege to pour our blood upon the 
 altar of American liberty, and go to our God and our fathers with the 
 only crown we revere ; that of martyrdom for principles which have 
 dignified and elevated the living, and will shed eternal lustre over those 
 dying to maintain and perpetuate them." 
 
 The Society Sons of the Revolution has, through its State Societies, 
 given object lessons to the young in our schools by awarding prizes for 
 excellence in essays upon subjects connected with the Revolution; in 
 the presentation of portraits of Washington, and the embellishment of 
 school houses with tablets, busts and portraits, — a daily incentive for 
 conscientious work and love of country. 
 
 In other fields, the Congress of (he United States, and our State 
 Legislatures have been petitioned to designate June 14th — the anniversary 
 of the adoption of our national banner — as Flag Day and to pass stringent 
 laws prohibiting the use of the Stars and Stripes as an advertising 
 medium ; and many battle fields and camp grounds have been purchased 
 and restored to the public domain as parks for all future time. 
 
 Its literature has been voluminous and characterized by artistic 
 merit in its publication. Over two, hundred volumes have been issued by 
 its State Societies, all of which are replete with biographical and his- 
 torical data discovered in old garrets and extracted from family archives, 
 which are unknown to our public libraries and which have thrown new 
 light upon the story of our Revolution. 
 
 It aims to keep alive the spirit of patriotism, to revive the 
 memories of the heroic deeds of the fathers, and to foster among all the 
 people of our land a fervent devotion towards the institutions of our 
 common country; to encourage historical research in relation to the 
 Revolution, also to provide for the preservation of documents, relics, and 
 the individual records of men, who, by their devotion, gave us the free- 
 dom we enjoy, and which we hope to leave as an inheritance to those 
 who come after us ; to bring together in a friendly brotherhood, the men 
 of the North, the South, the East and the West in non-political, non- 
 sectarian gatherings ; and to promote the celebration of patriotic anni- 
 versaries, and by these, and other means, to impress upon the present 
 and future generations the patriotic spirit which actuated our ancestors 
 when they established the Republic of the United States of America. 
 
 Further than this, one of the sacred duties which the Sons of the 
 
22 
 
 Revolution have assumed is that of perpetuating by imperishable marks 
 the memory of those devoted heroes, their illustrious deeds, and the places 
 which they consecrated in their great fight for freedom and justice. 
 This work has been, and is being, prosecuted with the greatest patriotic 
 zeal under the bountiful contributions of its members all over the United 
 States. 
 
 The bronze statue of Nathan Hale by MacMonnies, erected in the 
 City Hall Park of New York, has been accepted by the people as an 
 ornament to the city and an honor to the patriotic society that erected 
 it; the noble equestrian statue of Anthony Wayne, erected by the Penn- 
 sylvania Society, and the numerous statues, monuments and bronzes 
 erected in all of the original states, and in many of the other states, 
 indicate how thorough its work has been in establishing patriotic mem- 
 orials that will endure until time shall be no more. To enumerate the 
 historic grounds and buildings that have been secured by the Sons of 
 the Revolution and preserved for the people of the Nation, would greatly 
 exceed our limit of time. Nor can we undertake to describe the mag- 
 nificent tablets of bronze that in endless number adorn the cities and 
 beautify the country, telling in their mute language of heroic deeds and 
 historic events, and we confine ourselves to the mention of two tablets, 
 one erected on the old wharf in Boston, beautifully designed and 
 artistically decorated with tea leaves, bearing the inscription : 
 
 "No ! Ne'er was mingled such a draught. 
 
 In palace, hall or arbor, 
 As freemen brewed and tryants quaffed 
 
 That night in Boston harbor." 
 
 The other, the Society's latest tablet w^ork of art in bronze, erected 
 upon Frauncess Tavern, New York City, bearing in relief the bust of 
 Frederick Samuel Tallmadge, through whose interest and munificence the 
 building was secured for preservation, and for the use of the Sons of 
 the Revolution, and bearing the inscription : "Frederick Samuel Tall- 
 madge, New York, 1824-1904. To live in hearts we leave behind, is 
 not to die. 
 
 Frauncess Tavern, erected in 1719. 
 
 Chamber of Commerce founded here 1768. Washington's farewell to 
 his officers, December 4th, 1783. Centennial Celebrations of Washington's 
 farewell, 1883. Sons of the Revolution organized here December 4th, 
 1883. Building purchased and restored by the Sons of the Revolution as 
 a memorial to Frederick S. Tallmadge, 1905. Ceremony attending restor- 
 ation, December 4th, 1907." 
 
 This historic building contains an invaluable collection of souvenirs 
 of the Revolution and houses the library of the New York Society, and 
 
23 
 
 it will be a home and headquarters for Sons of the Revolution of the 
 entire country, who will always be welcomed to its halls. 
 
 I shall only take further time to mention some of the things that 
 have been accomplished by the Ohio State Society, which has contributed 
 liberally of its funds for patriotic and educational purposes. For some 
 years it gave money prizes to pupils of the Ohio public schools and 
 universities for tlic best original essays on revolutionary topics, the 
 subjects for which were prepared by a committee of the Society, and 
 led to contests that not only interested a large number of students, but 
 resulted in the securing by the Society of a number of thoughtfully pre- 
 pared and valuable papers. Having discontinued the giving of prizes 
 for patriotic essays, it has contributed to a well known college a large 
 sum annually, to be used in the education of descendants of Revolutionary 
 soldiers, of whom there are a large number on its rolls. 
 
 The Ohio Society has contributed to the erection of tablets and 
 monuments commemorative of Revolutionary events, and maintains a 
 regular committee for the purpose of locating and marking the graves 
 of Revolutionary soldiers buried within the State. 
 
 It has regularly celebrated Washington's Birthday, and other 
 patriotic events, and introduced to its members as speakers many eminent 
 men of letters from different parts of the country. It has established 
 a position that is second to no other State Society, and the Ohio Society 
 Sons of the Revolution is today faithfully and diligently prosecuting its 
 work, elevating so far as it may, the standard of American citizenship, 
 and teaching the virtues of patriotisin. loyalty to the government, and 
 reverence for the worthy deeds of worthy ancestors. 
 
 V. 
 
 DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY. 
 
 Mrs. John J. Shearer. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 It gives me pleasure to appear in this interesting company to assign 
 the raison d'etre of the organization known as the U. D. C, or United 
 Daughters of the Confederacy. 
 
 It would not be possible in the "five or ten minutes" allotted to 
 me on this program to give even the bare facts of our history, but I 
 hope to make clear in outline at least the plan and the objects of our or- 
 ganization. 
 
 During the war between the states, numbers of Southern women 
 on adjoining or neighboring plantations banded themselves together to 
 give all possible moral support and material aid to the soldiers of the 
 South. Long before it? close these bands and many others became 
 memorial and charitable societies. The Kentucky women in Jefferson 
 Countv decorated graves as early as 1862. .'\t the close of the war the 
 
24 
 
 locating and marking of graves became secondary to caring for those 
 who came back to the ruins of their homes with "all lost save honor."' 
 Long before our legislatures were able to provide hospitals and homes 
 for their wounded and now poverty-stricken heroes, these noble women — ■ 
 who had themselves little else than the will to do — nursed and fed, 
 clothed and comforted, hundreds of sick and needy; but it was not until 
 September, 1894, that these numerous and widely scattered local groups 
 were brought together into a national organization under the name of the 
 United Daughters of the Confederacy. 
 
 Those women who are entitled to membership are the wives, 
 widows, sisters, mothers, nieces, and lineal descendants of such men as- 
 honorably served in the Confederate army, navy, or civil service; or of 
 those men unfit for active duty who gave aid to the cause ; also women 
 and their lineal descendants who can furnish proof of personal service 
 and loyal aid to the Southern cause during the war. 
 
 Seven or more eligible women in any state or territory in which 
 no chapter exists may form a chapter and be chartered on application 
 to the "United Daughters of the Confederacy." All subsequent chapters 
 shall apply through the first chapter for their charter until a state di- 
 vision shall have been formed. 
 
 The national organization has now fifty thousand members, scattered 
 yet united throughout thirty States. Kentucky has fifty-seven Chapters, 
 with some twenty-four hundred members ; West Virginia, twenty-five, 
 with a thousand names enrolled ; Indiana one Chapter with thirty-nine 
 members ; Ohio three Chapters, with some hundred and thirty members. 
 Of course, the States farther South have very many more Chapters to the 
 State and a much larger membership for each Chapter. I have men- 
 tioned only the four States comprised in the Central Ohio Valley, because 
 this region is especially under consideration now; here the United' 
 Daughters number about three thousand five hundred and eighty — 
 there may be many other "daughters" not yet members of the national 
 organization. So much in brief for the organization itself: now for its 
 work : 
 
 Summed up, its objects are three: 
 
 1. Memorial. 
 
 '2. Benevolent and social. * 
 
 3. Historical. 
 
 I have already spoken of the decorating and marking of graves 
 even during the war. Well, that work of love has continued and ex- 
 panded. In some communities May 30, in others June 3, is observed as 
 Decoration Day. 
 
 We have been very diligent in our search for the graves of our 
 beloved dead, finding many here in Ohio— there are two thousand six 
 hundred in Camp Chase cemetery, some at Gallipolis, and some here in 
 Cincinnati, in Spring Grove. As we have been financially able to do so, 
 we have erected fitting monuments to our heroes in various parts of the- 
 
2.S 
 
 South and in some places in the North also. The broad and beautiful 
 Monument avenue in Richmond, Va., furnishes many magnificent 
 evidences of the loyal liberality and the stout-hearted persistency of 
 many struggling Chapters of the U. D. C. Indeed, in almost every city 
 of the South and in many small towns are to be seen statues and busts 
 of her heroes in marble and bronze. We have fixed Memorial Days. 
 June 3 (Mr. Davis' birthday) and January 19^Lee and Jackson Day, 
 for the whole organization. These are observed publicly throughout 
 the length and breadth of the Southland and in the North wherever 
 a Southern heart thrnhs, wliile each Chapter has its special anniversaries 
 and services. 
 
 'Tis little we can do for the dead but mark the places of their last 
 sleep and burnish the shields that show their brave deeds. 
 
 i^.ut many of the survivors are now so disabled or feeble that they 
 cannot work and must be cared for ; while the States provide homes 
 for aged and indigent Confederates, it is the work of the Daughters to 
 furnish through their Chapters or from their private purses, very many 
 things that add to the comfort of these homes. Mrs. I. Z. Duke, a 
 Southern girl who married in New York years ago, has just built an 
 Assembly Hall for the Home at Pewee Valley, Ky. 
 
 Beside food, clothes, shelter, etc., which these Homes provide, the 
 old soldiers have their tobacco, their reading matter, their visitors, their 
 weekly or monthly entertainments — it is home in every sense possible — 
 not an alms house. An old Confederate soldier in tlie poorhouse! Never! 
 Unworthy daughters would we be ! 
 
 Not only to these survivors of the war, but to those dependent 
 upon them do we strive to fulfill the duties of charity and love. We are 
 doing much for the education of the children of needy Confederates. 
 We, of the Stonewall Jackson Chapter, have a boy now in his third year 
 I believe at Miss Berry's school — this truly remarkable woman is de- 
 voting her home and farm near Rome, Ga., and herself to the cause of 
 industrial education in the Soutli. We pay for this boy's clothes, board 
 and tuition, and a number of other boys there are similarly enabled by 
 other Chapters to obtain an equipment for their life work. Lately the 
 Columbia University, I think it is, has offered a scholarship each year to 
 a Southern student, and the U. D. C. has agreed to give $350 yearly 
 for living expenses to the recipient of this scholarship. 
 
 Any stranded Confederate is sure of aid upon application to a 
 Chapter. He is helped out of his predicament or assisted to his desti- 
 nation with few questions asked. Crosses of honor are bestowed by the 
 Daughters of the Confederacy upon the Confederate veterans and de- 
 scendants of deceased Confederate soldiers and sailors. The Daughters 
 are quite active also in helping to make the annual reunion a delightful 
 occasion for the "Old Confed." They send their fairest maids and most 
 accomplished matrons to grace these gatherings, to strew flowers along 
 the line of march, to bow and smile and wave flags as the dear oia boys 
 
26 
 
 limp joyously along, to join with them in the "Rebel Yell," in a word, to 
 make them believe that the women of the South will ever be as they 
 have ever been, an inspiration to her men — that love and loyalty live now 
 as in the sixties. 
 
 Our national and state organizations, through their annual conven- 
 tions, together with our local Chapters, through their regular monthly 
 meetings, foster a spirit of sociability among our women themselves. 
 What the camps are to the old soldiers and their sons, these U. D. C. 
 Chapters are to mothers, wives, daughters, etc. Sometimes we have a 
 fancy to revive old traditions and usages, and make a party for our- 
 selves along the line of anti-bellum hospitality, and our friends on 
 this side of the river who are now and again bidden, say they quite under- 
 stand why we like to do so. 
 
 The third and perhaps the greatest object of the U. D. C. is 
 historical. 
 
 "History, as written," says Dr. J. L. M. Curry, "if accepted in 
 future years will consign the South to infamy." It then behooves the 
 men and women of the South to acquaint themselves speedily and per- 
 fectly with history written and unwritten, that they may disprove any 
 untruth, finish out any half truth and bring to light any hidden truth. 
 The Daughters have come to realize that most people do not know, but 
 have only impressions and traditions. We see as never before the 
 necessity of having the facts and well established authority for those 
 facts. So the study of history has a most important' place in the work 
 of this organization ; each Chapter has a historian, each State its 
 historian, and the national organization its general historian. At most 
 of the monthly meetings of the U. D. C. Chapters, there is some sort of 
 "history work on the program. The Stonewall Jackson Chapter has this 
 year a systematic study of "The Southern Colonies." We wish to know 
 the facts of our history as far as possible from the beginning. 
 
 Being desirous that our children as well as ourselves should know 
 the nature of our government and the love of our country, we have 
 urged our organization to use its influence toward the removal from 
 our school curricula of many histories whose authors were manifestly 
 both ignorant and prejudiced. I am sure you will be glad to know that 
 several malicious ones have been thrown out. 
 
 We are also protecting and restoring historic places of the Southern 
 Confederacy, collecting and preserving historical material and stimulat- 
 ing to historical research and authorship the literary genius of the 
 South, and throughout our deliberations and in all our intercourse with 
 those whose views may differ from ours, we seek to put ourselves in 
 that others' place in order to see Truth with clear vision and spread it 
 abroad with ungrudging spirit. 
 
 "There is no nobler work in this life than to help the Truth." 
 
27 
 
 REPORT ON THE CONFERENCE TO HIE DAUGHTERS OF 
 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 
 
 Mks. T. L. a. Gkeve. 
 
 Madam Regent and Daugltlcrs of tlic .Imerican Revolution, Ladies: 
 
 Few of us seem to have fully appreciated the importance of the 
 meeting of the Central Ohio Valley History Conference in our city on 
 November •2!lth and 30th. It was the iirst formal conference called for 
 the expressed purpose of perfecting a permanent organization of history 
 workers in this locality (I think) whose purpose is the gathering to- 
 gether and preserving in an intelligent manner all historical data relating 
 to this Valley. We are told by Dr. Thwaites that right at our door the 
 oldest historical remains in America, perhaps in the world, are to be 
 found. Are not their preservation of paramount importance? 
 
 Already wc have allowed the Massachusetts, the Wisconsin, the 
 Virginia and the Texas Historical Societies to far outstrip us. So val- 
 uable are their collections and so great their weight historically, that 
 Advisory Committees were appointed from each of these four great 
 historical societies to confer with Albert Bushncll Hart, Ph. D., LL. D., 
 Professor of History in Harvard University, and assist in compiling 
 The American Nation. ".A History from Original Sources by Associated 
 Scholars," consisting of twenty-seven vokmies and pronounced by the press 
 to be "a complete, authoritative and comprehensive history of the United 
 States from earliest times to the present day." 
 
 With the richest material at hand here in Cincinnati, we have per- 
 mitted the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio to lead a precar- 
 ious existence for many years, perhaps from its inception. We have suf- 
 fered it to live only through the effort of a few generous and reverent 
 scholar.s. foremost among whom was the late Hon. Julius Dexter. 
 Through his generosity and that of some of his associates, it still sur- 
 vives, terribly handicapped by lack of the sympathy and financial support of 
 the general public. Unable to publish its valuable documents and adver- 
 tise its collections, it cannot hope to take rank with its sister societies. 
 
 I speak knowingly and feelingly of this society, because I had the 
 honor to serve as one of its curators for a term of years. It is with 
 pride as well as pleasure then that we should hail the effort now being 
 made, to unite all the historical societies in this Valley, of which the 
 D. A. R. is one. 
 
 None of the historical and hereditary societies in our vicinity are 
 wealthy, by reason of the fact that the dues are small and the member- 
 ship not large, consequently we can only hope to achieve anything of 
 moment by and through hearty cooperation. We should allow no small 
 jealousies, but press earnestly forward to our goal, which is the preserva- 
 tion of American history. 
 
 It seems to an impartial observer that the hereditary societies are 
 
28 
 
 •called upon rather frequently to apologize for their existence, at least 
 the long explanations of why we organized and continue to exist that 
 •certain of our members put forth, seem to suggest an apology. Now I 
 would like to ask why we owe the general public any explanation as to 
 why or for what purpose we exist Most corporate bodies are not called 
 uppn to explain the why and wherefore of their existence. To those 
 Daughters, however, who insist on explaining, I would like to take the 
 liberty of saying that we have fully justified the birth and life of the 
 society known as the Daughters of the American Revolution by the 
 splendid genealogical and historical work we have done. Our ancestors 
 made history, we are trying to preserve it. Could there be a higher 
 branch of patriotic work? It is not alone to gratify our esthetic tastes 
 that we are building our splendid Continental Hall in Washington, nor 
 is it to add one more white marble palace to the city beautiful, our 
 national capital. Our primary object is and should be, to have a fire- 
 proof building in which to house our historical and genealogical papers, 
 our library and our relics, so that the historian of the future may have 
 -access to them. Second only to the man who makes history is the man who 
 preserves it. We Daughters have converted many traditions into facts, 
 and the records will be preserved in Continental Hall. 
 
 Incidentally, the hereditary societies have also accomplished another 
 splendid work in addition to preserving records and marking sites.. They 
 liave brought about the renaissance of American history. As a nation 
 we were lamentably ignorant of our own history ; but now, through the 
 efforts of the Historical Societies scattered through the country, and 
 through the efforts of the hereditary societies details of our history that 
 were drifting into oblivion have been rescued, and the invitation to unite 
 with the History Teachers and local History Workers of the Ohio Val- 
 ley in their work, is an open acknowledgement of the importance of the 
 work we have already accomplished and may be considered another 
 justification of our right to e.xist, if we need any. Thus I would empha- 
 size the importance and significance of this conference to us, and faintly 
 suggest the role we will be expected to fill in its organization. 
 
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