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Many places in Alabama have Revolutionary historical markers thanks to these ladies

(Here are some quick facts and names of charter members and early members of the Colonial Dames and DAR of Alabama. Most of the facts come from early 1900’2 when it was written.)

The National Society of Colonial Dames of America was organized in Wilmington, Deleware, in 1892, having for its purposes the collection of manuscripts, traditions, relics, etc., of Colonial and Revolutionary times, and the commemoration of the success of the Revolution.

Membership is restricted to women who are especially invited, and who are descended from some ancestor of worthy life who came to reside in an American colony prior to 1750. Today it has approximately 12,000 members. (ca. 1900) It is not to be confused with the Colonial Dames of America or the Daughters of the American Revolution, both formed around the same time.

The Alabama Society Colonial Dames was incorporated February 22, 1898, Mrs. Hortense A. Batre of Mobile being the founder and for sixteen years president. She was succeeded by Mrs. James G. Thomas of Mobile, and she by Mrs. J. Morgan Smith, of Birmingham, March 1916.

Marker for Fort Tombeckbe on the banks of the Tombigbee River

at Epes, Alabama.

Marker for Fort Tombeckbe on the banks of the Tombigbee River at Epes, Alabama.
Marker for Fort Tombeckbe on the banks of the Tombigbee River at Epes, Alabama.

The following memorials were erected by the Society by 1916: Fort Toulouse shaft on site of old Ft. Toulouse, now Ft. Jackson, at the confluence of the Coosa and the Tallapoosa rivers; the Bienville Cross, in Bienville Square, Mobile; the Tuscaloosa boulder, Tuscaloosa; Tombeckbee monument on the site of old Ft. Tombeckbee; Lunetter window in Y. M. C. A. building, Mobile; marked two old cannon with bronze tablets in Bienville Square, Mobile, one from Ft. Conde and one from Ft. Charlotte.

Bienville Cross

Bienville Cross
Bienville Cross

Charter members were Mrs. Hortense A. Batre and Mrs. Harvey Ellis Jones, Mobile; Mrs. Mary R. Kent Fowlkes, Selma; Mrs. Douglass C. Peabody, Mobile; Mrs. Ellen Peter Bryce, Tuscaloosa; Mrs. Benjamin Rhett, Mobile; Mrs. Albert J. Henley, Birmingham; Mrs. James J. May field, Tuscaloosa; Miss Elizabeth Benagh, Birmingham; Mrs. Samuel G. Wolf, Demopolis; Mrs. Minthorne Woolsey, Mrs. J. P. Furniss, Mrs. Frank Gaines, Selma; Mrs. Martha G. Snow, Mrs. Charles Shawhan, Mobile; Mrs. Fleming Tinsley, Selma. The first officers were: president, Mrs. Batre; first vice president, Mrs. Jones; second vice president, Mrs. Fowlkes; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Peabody; recording secretary, Mrs. Bryce; treasurer, Mrs. Rhett; historian, Mrs. Mayfield; registrar, Mrs. Henley. There were 224 members in 1916.

SOURCES

  1. Thomas McAdory Owen.History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography
  2. Alabama State Archives

ALABAMA FOOTPRINTS Exploration: A Collection of Lost & Forgotten Stories Kindle Edition

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8 comments

  1. […] [This is Ethel Fowlkes Toner, daughter of Minnie Kent Fowlkes (Mrs. Edward T., Jr.). Minnie was an artist, and founding member of the Alabama Chapter of the Colonial Dames.] […]

  2. Is there a way to get a list of the 224 names? I know in the 1970’s my grandmother was a member of DAR & Daughters of the Confederacy.

    1. You might check with the Alabama Department of Archives and History http://archives.state.al.us/

      They probably can advise you how to get a list.

  3. We have the family roots traced to 1759 in Virginia. Two of my ancestors fought in the American Revolution

  4. Do not tell folks, they will come and remove…lawd

  5. LOVE your blog, but I wanted to share with you a fact which occurred with regard to one of the honors they paid to a Revolutionary War Veteran who did NOT ever live in Alabama. It has caused worlds of errors too! They erected a monument for a Revolutionary War Veteran named James Morton……..only it was placed in error in Blount County and the Alabama Genealogical Society President, Jerry Jones, filed a complaint about it in the courthouse. The only James Morton who lived and died in Blount County Alabama was James Morton, the son of Marshall Morton of Orange NC. While Jerry Jones successfully proved that they had placed the monument without any genealogical proof and the county was able to prevent any further errors of placement within the boundary of county, they did not EVER remove their error because the cost would have been more than the placement of it. And so there still occurs now and then a Morton researcher or two, normally one from out of state, who will assume that a Revolutionary War Veteran named James Morton was buried in Blount County Alabama. No such documentation exists and Morton descendants have always known this to be the fact.

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