Chapter History


Chapter History

Thirty-two members and guests attended the organizational meeting of Governor Thomas Ford Chapter, NSDAR held at Hick's Cafe in Roberts, IL. Mrs. Albert G. Peters of Chicago, State Chair of Organization of Chapters, presided and announced there were already 18 members of this new chapter and expressed gratitude to other chapters from which some of these members transferred.

Mrs. Arthur Arends, Organizing Regent of the chapter, was presented and introduced the following officers: Vice Regent - Mrs. Howard Stuckey
Recording Secretary - Mrs. Wm. G. Raudabaugh
Treasurer - Mrs. Elbert Sawyer
Chaplain - Mrs. Walter Arends
Registrar - Mrs. Clarence Dowse
Additional officers were elected at their next meeting in February, 1960:
Corresponding Secretary - Mrs. William Sherfey
Historian - Mrs. William DuSold
Librarian - Mrs. W. H. Crandall Sr

The Regent appointed Mrs. H. H. Chamberlain as Program Chair and Mrs. John Gallahue as Social Chair.

Mrs. Peters gave a brief history of Thomas Ford, Eighth governor of Illinois, for whom the Chapter was named and read the purpose of DAR. She read the names of nineteen women whose signatures were placed on the Charter. It was decided that the Charter would be held open for one year for the benefit of prospective members whose records were not yet completed.

The charter members as of February 1, 1961, were as follows:

Arends, Bertha Kewley

Arends, Margery Stuckey

Arends, Maxine Bever

Babb, Muriel Abbie

Benson, Lula McLaughlin

Chamberlain, Sara Hodges

Chambers, Dorothy Montelius

Cooper, Florence Irene Kenny

Corkill, Nelrose Isabel

Crandall, Flossie Morris

Crandall, Carole Jean

Day, Lucile Cary

Dowse, Ida Kerr

DuSold, Grace Alberta Cranston

Gallahue, Leota Mansberger

Gebhardt, Mae Foster

Harford, Margery Peregrine

Hill, Sarah Bridges

Horin, Genevieve Rohrer

Hunt, Mabel Dunnan

Johnson, Bessie Miner

Johnson, Laura Peregrine

Keiper, Mary Cunnington

Kelly, Sydney Marie Kenney

Kramer, Sybil Mershon

Marks, Martha Edith Hickok

McKee, Virginia Smith

McKinney, Lucille Ebel

Middleton, Sibyl Hoover

Mies, Gertrude Elva Francis

Moore, Helen Granger

Raudabaugh, Mary Ruth Cline

Reitz, Sarah Mae Kenney

Richter, Beverly Lorraine Buckman

Ryan, Edna Ferne Kenney

Sawyer, Ethel Gilmore

Seng, Nancy Jeannette Kenward

Sharp, Faye Lucille Sharp

Sherfey, Donna Mies

Shoemaker, Clara Hammerlund

Smith, Arlene Benson

Squires, Oma Foster

Stuckey, Erma Fitzgerald

Wilson, Lilla Snedaker

Woodward, Myrtle Hammerlund

Wright, Blanche Foster