Day 67 of 110: Early Chapter Active in Remembering History

Continuing with from prior blog noting chapter history.....


     In 1914 a bronze tablet was placed on a wall of the Court House in memory of Colonel Benjamin Forsythe [sic], a soldier of the War of 1812, for whom the county was named, bearing the following inscription:

Colonel Benjamin Forsythe

Who fell on the Canadian Frontier.

Erected by the General Joseph

Winston Chapter D.A.R. June 1914

     While Mrs. W.O. Spencer, another member of our Chapter, was State Regent, Mrs. W.N. Reynolds Vice-President-General, and Miss Jenn Coltrane of Concord, N.C., was Historian General, the three went to Valley Forge to consult with authorities in charge as to completing North Carolina's Bey in the Cloister of the Colonies. A committee from the State was appointed to take charge of the work of collecting funds needed. This work was completed while Mrs. Tillett of Charlotte was State Regent, succeeding Mrs. Spencer. North Carolina has fittingly commemorated the loyalty and endurance of her soldiers in the trying winter of 1777, with Washington at Valley Forge.

Pictured above, State Regent Mrs. William N. (Kate Bitting) Reynolds

 During Mrs. Morrison's term as State Regent, she planned and began a fund for a scholarship to the State University as a Memorial to our World War Soldiers. This was carried to completion as a perpetual scholarship while Mrs. Spencer was State Regent. During her term of office fourteen chapters were added to our State Roster. Finances for completing the work of preserving the Constitution House at Halifax, Old Fort Dobbs, the Tillaloy Fund and Fifteen Hundred Dollars for the North Carolina Room in the New Administration Building were collected. North Carolina was the first State to pay for its room. This shows that our State had not only a loyal and paying organization in good working order, but that our State Regent had fine executive ability.

In 1922 one of our Chapter Regents, Mrs. E.B. Jones, was appointed Organizing Regent to form another chapter, growth in the membership of the General Joseph Winston warrenting [sic] the step taken. The Old North State Chapter has doubled its membership and in every way is living up to its fine old name.