Marion Chapter, NSDAR

The Marion Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) in Fayetteville (Washington County) is a group of women dedicated to serving the community while promoting the objectives of the NSDAR: patriotism, historic preservation, and education.

The Marion Chapter was organized on December 7, 1910, by a dozen women: Mary Jasper Bocock Willis, Mary M. Stone Albright, Amanda Stone, sisters Georgia and Olivia Norman, Edith Gillam Black Philips, Fanny Watson Wooddy, Jennie Chandler Parsons, sisters Adelle Ware Stearns and Elizabeth Ware Williams, Jean Tappan de Roulhac, and Rowena Gallaway. The national charter was granted on February 1, 1911, with Willis as regent, Parsons as vice regent, Georgia Norman as historian, Stone as treasurer, and Phillips as recording secretary. Named for General Francis Marion of South Carolina, it was the eighth DAR chapter formed in the state. In the twenty-first century, it is one of the oldest continuous chapters in Arkansas. In 2025, the chapter had 166 members.

Minutes for the Marion Chapter prior to September 1915 are considered lost. Other sources, including a 1910–1930 treasurer’s book, show that the earliest objective of the chapter was educational support. The Marion Chapter sent regular financial support to the Helen Dunlap Memorial School for Mountain Girls in Winslow (Washington County) from 1912 until its closing in the late 1930s. In April 2025, the chapter placed a marker in Winslow in honor of this school.

In 1915, Julia Vaulx, as regent of the chapter, as well as a librarian at the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville, wrote to friends about starting a city library. Later, she called a citizens’ meeting that led to the formation of the Fayetteville Public Library. Washington County Judge B. F. Campbell gave two basement rooms in the courthouse for the library. The chapter voted to allot $25 for the initial library on March 16, 1916. It contributed yearly until the operations of the library were assumed by the City of Fayetteville in the 1950s.

In 1919, the chapter developed a plan to erect a memorial to commemorate the sacrifice of the men of Washington County in World War I. A total of $1,700 was raised, ten cents at a time, from Washington County schoolchildren. A young muralist, William Steene of New York, was commissioned to paint the mural on cloth. The mural was unveiled on July 5, 1920, at the nearby Ozark Theater, the only stage in the city capable of displaying the mural, which measured thirty-six feet wide and eight feet tall. Later, it was installed on the second-floor mezzanine of the Washington County Courthouse. In 2004, the Marion Chapter collected funds to restore the eighty-four-year-old mural. Restoration was completed, and on September 14, 2010, the chapter held a rededication ceremony. In 2022, the chapter placed a commemorative metal plaque next to the mural.

One of the chapter’s major historical projects was marking the graves of Revolutionary War patriots: James Leeper, Peter Graham, Micajah Reeder, James Stewart, Samuel Gregg, and a “Real Daughter” of the American Revolution, Catherine Robards Stirman, all of whom are buried in Washington and Madison counties. Other activities include recognizing outstanding Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) cadets at UA and presenting DAR Good Citizen awards yearly to local high school seniors.

For additional information:
National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. https://www.dar.org (accessed July 16, 2025).

Cheri Coley
Marion Chapter, NSDAR