The Jacob’s Well Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution celebrated their 30th anniversary this month culminating in a tea party gathering for local members as well as some members from the state chapter members.
Daughters of the American Revolution, often referred to as DAR, is a women’s service organization for members who trace their lineage to an individual who contributed in securing American independence during the Revolutionary War.
With over 185,000 members and 3,000 chapters across the United States and abroad, DAR members have provided millions of hours of volunteer service to their local communities across the country and the world.
“From the very beginning, we are a society founded on service,” Laura Chalberg Honorary Regent, said. “All members must have a direct blood lineage to someone who partici pated in and supported the Revolutionary War. It’s not just military, you may have someone who sold a side of beef to the Continental Army, or paid taxes during certain years to support the revolution. There are a lot of different things that can qualify you as a patriot and you must prove your direct lineage from that person to be a member.”
The Jacob’s Well chapter was founded on April 18, 1992 and has served the Wimberley Valley through a variety of ways from refurbishing all seven of Wimberley’s historical markers, helping celebrate constitution week, donating and supporting local charities and organizations, and donating school supplies among other things.
“We first and foremost do service,” Chalberg said. “We clock our service hours where we clocked them nationally. It’s not a contest but instead we want to know how much we are doing… Right now, Jacob’s Well has 127 members, so we are growing. Women want a good organization to have a lot of service opportunities, and we have a lot of fun. Sometimes too much fun, but we have a lot of fun.”
For Joan Sabol, the Regent of the Jacob’s Well Chapter, joining DAR was a way to not only support the community but also make friends while being a newcomer.
“When I moved to Wimberley six years ago, I needed friends.” Sabol said. “DAR had been on my bucket list ever since I raised my children. I knew about the organization, and that’s when I decided to do the research and try to join DAR. You work hard because of our goals: historical preservation, patriotism and education. We are in schools, do a lot with veterans, and deal with conservation. We make award-winning quilts, have award-winning writers in our chapter so we deal with a lot of projects locally.”
“I’ve got so much out of this organization, be cause I have a vast network of friends,” Sabol continued. “Not because of our meetings locally, but because I’ve been to the state and correspond nationally. So it’s a very wide network of friends.”
Cherie Dawson, who is a member and cochair at the Jacob’s Well Chapter, moved to Wimberley nine years ago and only knew two people. Since joining, not only has Dawson made new friends along the way, but she has also discovered why her patriotic streak is so strong.
“I’m doing this for not only myself, but also for my mother in her memory. Because it’s her side and line that I’m able to join,” Dawson said. “I’ve done a lot of research, and it’s been rewarding. But it’s also a way for me to meet new people. I knew only two people when I moved to Wimberley, my brother inlaw and sister in-law. So having these ladies be my acquaintances has also been a growing experience for me. They come from different areas and experiences: what they retired from, what they know, what they share with us, and it’s something I couldn’t do without. They are my friends but also support each other in any way that is necessary.”
“I really have a patriotic streak in me and have had for a long time,” Dawson continued. “I really never understood why, but after you research your family’s lineages and how you got here, then I understand why I’m so blessed and proud to be an American.”
Tracing her family roots for nearly 30 years, Renee Norton, who is the recording secretary for the Jacob’s Well Chapter, loves the fact that DAR is about historical preservation and helping members trace their family roots.
“For me it’s a way to honor my ancestors,” Norton said. “I’ve been doing the family tree for nearly 30 years. I’ve traced a lot of people who came during the Mayflower days, and they have had a lot of interesting titles, jobs, and things that they have done. I can’t believe there are young people today that don’t know who their great-grandfather is. It boggles my mind, because I’m so interested in it that I’m on every little thing that I can find about them. It’s basically to honor those men and women. We are the DAR, and it shows the things that they (the women) did to help their men when they were fighting the war. They were home running the farm, raising the kids and making bandages for hospitals.
It’s a service organization.” “I love that we can preserve something for our children and grandchildren and not tear everything down to put something new in its place,” Norton continued to say. “That’s one thing I loved about Texas was you can go to Blanco and see the courthouse on the Square. Someone has had to keep that there all these years and preserve it. A lot of these little towns have done the same for their courthouses and it’s one of the nice things that I have found… For me it’s the ancestors, the preservations and being in an organization with a lot of nice people that try and help each other.”
Despite being a part of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Jessie Boudin, who runs the publicity for the Jacob’s Well Chapter, joined DAR after tracing her father’s side of the family while also wanting the younger generation to remember about the fight for the war of independence.
“I did DRT (Daughters of the Republic of Texas) before DAR,” Bouldin said.. “I got interested in my father’s family and part of it had already been done. I did a lot of traveling in the south and different places to look in libraries and courthouses. We’ve all done the same thing to beat the bushy-ness to find the information. Unfortunately there were a lot of courthouses that burned down, but I never gave up.”
“I’m a very patriotic person,” Bouldin continued to say. “This war was fought because the British were taxing the people who had come over, but didn’t give them a place in parliament, which is unfair. After some years, we got really tired of it and had a war over it. I’ve always thought that was really interesting, because we don’t do that nowadays… All that part of our history has created a nation and our kids need to know that.”
For more information about the Daughters of American Revolution, visit their website at www.dar.org. To know more about the Jacob’s Well Chapter, email them at [email protected].
