81st ANNUAL STATE ASSEMBLY

    At left is the receiving line for the Candlelight Dinner Wwednesday evening.  Left to right:  State Recording Sec. Nancy Carr, State 1st Vice-Regent Charlotte Miller, National Historian and Hon. State Regent Linda Dean, State 2nd Vice-Regent Sue Groves, our speaker Ms. Carol Swindon, Women Veterans Coordinator for Tennessee, Hon. State Regent Aline Roberts, Hon. State Regent Gail Holman, State Corresponding Sec. Mary Ann Claxton, State Treasurer Susan Orman, State Historian Lynda Williams, and State Librarian Debra Wilson. 
    At the dinner the winners of the first $300.00 State Regent's Scholarships were announced.  Named first was Mrs. Jean Brown Hickerson who is working on a Master's degree in Business Administration at Strayer University, is a graduate of MTSU who works full time at Verizon Wireless.  Her parents are Mr. and Mrs. James Stanley Brown, and she and her mother, Susan, are members of the Thomas Jameson Chapter.  Jean is a Golden Acorn.   Tied for first place with Jean was Ms. Catherine Anne Walton, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Walton.  Catherine is a senior at Harpeth Hall School and plans to attend Wofford College in the fall to pursue an undergradute degree in history before working on her master's in historic preservation with a plan to become a museum curator.  Catherine and her mother, Bettie who is Chapter Regent of Prudence Hall, attended the dinner.
    Ann Dunn, Commissioner from Brentwood, extended the welcome to the city and the response to that welcome was given by 2nd Vice-Regent Sue Groves.

    There was a plea from the State Chaplain that chapter chaplains get word to her quickly at the death of a member so that they could be included in the Memorial Program.  This was echoed by other officers and later committee chairmen asking that chapter officers and committee chairmen get their reports in as quickly as possible and not wait until the deadline because that makes reporting to national more difficult for state officers and chairmen.

    In business of the meeting three main changes were made.  First, it was decided to change Standing Rules Section 1.b. Chapter Assessments for State Assembly to $20.00 for all chapters, replacing the sliding scale which was previously in effect.  Secondly, the Property Management Policy which had been set up in 2011 was updated.  And another change to the standing rules was to strike the references to corsages in Section 1.d.; whether to purchase corsages would be left up to the host chapter.
    In other business, 1st Vice-Regent Charlotte Miller announced that the new name for our state newsletter is to be The Colonist.  The name was suggested by Faye Henson.
    For more pictures from State Assembly click here.

CERTIFICATES AWARDED

On Feb. 25, 2013 our chapter presented certificates to Ron Watkins (at left), director of the Henry Co. Recycling Center, and Darlene Butler (center) center employee for their efforts in saving stamps for us for the Stamps for the Wounded project.  Darlene was instrumental in passing the word to workers who sort the paper at the center, getting them to save the stamps as they are sorting.  Also pictured are Chapter Historian Mary Ann Claxton (second from left), Suzanne Richter second from right, and Chapter Regent Joy Bland at right.

Pictured at left is Chapter Historian Mary Ann Claxton with Recycling Center employee Wendell Matthews who also received a certificate from the Chapter for his dedication and hard work in saving stamps and - as Darlene had done - passing the word to other workers to also save the stamps. 
 Pictured at left is Chapter Historian Mary Ann Claxton with Darlene Butler and Wendell Matthews who holds a box filled with cancelled stamps that had been brought in to the Recycling Center as a result of the newspaper article about the certificates that were presented on Feb. 25.  The stamps weighed 4 pounds!  And they have already been sent to the Stamps for the Wounded program so, hopefully, they would be quickly available to veterans.

MEETING 9 FEB 2013 Our first meeting of 2013 was called to order by Chapter Regent Joy Bland at 11:00 am on Saturday, Feb. 9 at Tom's Pizza and Steak House in Paris. Chaplain Janice Webb gave the invocation followed by our ritual. Regent Bland welcomed our guest, Emily Conroy. National Defense Chairman Mary Ann Claxton related the history of our Interstate highway system which was first funded in 1944 and received the support of President Eisenhower in 1956, but the “reason” for building the system was national defense: in case of a land invasion of our country (still a real possibility in 1944), there was no way to move troops effectively over the existing roads. So national defense is what has given us the system of roads that allows us to go from one ocean to the other in a matter of days rather than the two months that it took an Army convoy in 1919. Regent Bland read the minutes of the last meeting which were approved as read. She then said that, in talking with the program director at the veterans' home in Humboldt, it was determined back before Christmas

that all angel tree gifts for the veterans had been taken and they had an excellent supply the snacks and small items that they need for bingo prizes and other “incidentals.” They asked that we wait until April or May to help them out as that is when their supply of these items begins to run low and there is no additional money coming in at that time. The members all agreed that this was what needed to be done with the money.

Regent Bland then read a note from DAC National President Carole Holt thanking the chapter for our contribution to the National President's Project The next order of business was to elect delegates to the DAC State Assembly. We determined that most of the people who would be going were officers and already had a vote, so Mary Whayne Miles was selected as a delegate from our chapter. Similarly, delegates for the General Assembly in Washington in April are Mary Whayne Miles, Stella Anderson, and Mary Caroline Prince; no one else from the chapter was expecting to attend.

PROGRAM

The program was presented by Stephanie Tayloe and was a very, very informative talk on research sources for Black people in our county. Due to the issue of slavery, it is often difficult for Black people to trace their family history. She said the 1870 census is the beginning

place for many Black researchers and that intestate probates of masters were excellent sources because they listed EVERY slave, unlike the will where the master might mention only selected slaves. In 1865 Blacks were required to have marriage licenses, but it was not until 1930 that death certificates became mandatory and not until the 1960's for obituaries. Of course some of these records DID exist prior to these dates, but it was not required until then. Three “Slave Account” books have been put together for our county containing any reference which gave the name of a slave. Stephanie said that these records have helped many of the Black researchers who have come to the library; she said they continue to search for such references and will put them into another volume of records when enough have been found. Her suggestion for any Black researcher is first to listen to the stories passed down in the families – this is where the names of the progenitors are found, and it emphasizes again for all of us how important it is to write down the stories of our grand and great-grand parents.

Following Stephanie's program, our meal was served and the meeting was adjourned.

At 2:00 p.m. on December 15, 2012, member Stephanie Routon Tayloe opened her home to guests for a tea and a chance to see the beautiful Christmas decorations that Stephanie had arranged throughout the house.  Beautifully decorated trees graced many rooms and other greenery decorated many of the beautiful antiques found in all the rooms.  At left standing is Stephanie and seated on the settee are Chapter Regent Joy Bland and Chapter Historian Mary Ann Claxton.  Below: three of the trees: the Patriotic Tree, the tree in the Polk Sitting Room, and the tree at the top of the stairs. For other pictures of the decorations, go to this link.

REMINDERS!

Our State Regent Joan Harmon announced as one of her State Regent Projects collecting ancestor stories for compilation into a state book which would be available for members to have for a small donation. We are still needing stories for this project. Please send stories to Chapter Historian Mary Ann Claxton. Mary Ann says that she has all of the stories that were contributed by our chapter over the last three years to the National Historian's Project, but Joan has opened her project to ANY ancestor – not just a colonial ancestor. So there are still stories out there for you to write! And if you know of anyone OUTSIDE our chapter who contributed stories to the national project, please contact them and be sure that they know that they need to send a copy of their story(or stories) to Mary Ann Claxton(State Corresponding Secretary who is coordinating this Regent's project).

Also, don't forget that the new National Historian's Project is to tell "How I wound up here." This should be a migration story starting with your ancestor on whom your DAC membership is based and telling about each generation - where they were and where they wound up (if they moved), ending with you and how you got where you are today. You were all so very good about turning in your ancestor stories, I know we will have a good representation on this project as well. Again, these are histories that we need to be documenting for future generations. Send yours to Mary Ann Claxton, Chapter Historian. Deadline for turning in to national is Feb. 1, 2015, but we need to have them in well before that. Reports from committee chairmen should already have been turned in to our Chapter Regent. Also remember that they need to be turned in to the state committee chairman as well. If you've not turned your committee report in (either to chapter or state), you need to do so right away. Forms for committees should now be available on the national website.

And If you've not been to the national website recently, you should take a look. The new webmaster has done an excellent job in restructuring the site and getting needed information readily available. One of the National President's goals for the present is to “support the integration of computer technology methods of communication and record keeping.” The revamping of the national website has made a good start in working toward that goal.

92^nd GENERAL ASSEMBLY

April 7-10, 2013

Mayflower Hotel

Washington, D.C.