This year our chapter is remembering Lucy Patterson, our Organizing Chapter Regent and the woman who led others to mark history 100 years ago with the DAR's marking of the Daniel Boone Trail.
Following is the text from our chapter's nomination to recognize Lucy Patterson during Women's History Month.
Lucy Patterson was an organizational leader, literary figure, and Republican national committeewoman.
1904-1918 she wrote for the Progressive Farmer. Other columns were published in the Charlotte Observer, Journal of American History, and The Winston-Salem Journal-Sentinel. Women in various leadership roles, woman's rights and opportunities in business, the arts, and politics are among the themes that ran through her writings.
Lucy Patterson is provided an annual award for literary
achievement in the state; the Patterson Memorial Cup award to writers received
from 1905 to 1933. This award, her writing, and her close ties with other
writers earned for her the sobriquet "Inspirer of Tar Heel Writers"
to add to that of "Our Patroness" from a grateful editorial writer
and "Our Lady of Letters" from a Charlotte Observer correspondent.
After World War I, Mrs. Patterson visited the Balkan
countries and wrote home describing her experiences. She was decorated by King
Alexander of Yugoslavia for her work in Serbia and made an honorary member of
Kola Sestara, an organization for the relief of war widows and orphans.
Throughout the years she had widespread interests: she was the organizing
president and president for the first three years (1902–5) of the State
Federation of Women's Clubs; organizing regent (1902) of the Centennial Chapter
of Salem, later renamed the Colonel Joseph Winston Chapter; and the first North
Carolinian to be elected vice-president general of the NSDAR, serving two terms
(1906–9).
In 1907, as president of the Southern Woman's Interstate
Association for the Betterment of Public Schools, she spoke at the Tenth Annual
Conference for Education in the South held at Pinehurst; in 1913, as chairman
of the Interstate Boone Trail Association, she saw to completion the marking of
Daniel Boone's trail from North Carolina through Tennessee to Kentucky; and in
1915 she was chairman of the newly organized Forsyth Moonlight (Night School)
Association, which enlisted volunteers as teachers in an adult education
program. She was state chairman of several national committees, including the
Jamestown Historical Commission, Shakespeare Ter-Centenary Celebration, and
Work for Relief in Belgium.
In 1922 Lucy Patterson campaigned actively, though
unsuccessfully, in the Fifth Congressional District against Major Charles M.
Stedman, a Democrat; she upheld the reasonableness of the Republican tariff,
arguing for its help to wages; emphasized her support of action to make the tax
burden lighter; and urged especially the need for and justice of having women
in diplomatic and consular positions. An effective party worker on the national
level, she served on the Republican National Executive Committee from about
1923 until her death—a period of almost twenty years—first as an associate
member and later as national committeewoman from North Carolina.
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