No horse thieves, please. That was basically my Great Aunt Lelia’s reply when her cousins urged her to apply for DAR membership when they themselves were officially approved. I was a pre-teen when I heard her discussing this with my mother. “They’ll just go back my line and find a bunch of horse thieves and I don’t want to know about it,” she said with a wry smile. Since her grandfather and her cousins’ grandfather was one and the same, they insisted that she had only herself and her parents to document. She stood firm. I’ve always wondered why.
It wasn’t that she lacked patriotism. She was quite proud of the distinction of having voted in the first general election in Wisconsin granting women the right to vote, Wisconsin being the first state to officially ratify the 19th amendment. She was working as a teacher at the time and I like to imagine her as a suffragette, but I’ll never know. When she relocated back to Pennsylvania to accept another teaching position, Aunt Lelia was eligible to vote in the state’s first general election permitting women to vote. Voting with women in two states’ first election as a result of the 19th Amendment was a huge sense of pride to her.
Over the years, as my life transitioned through getting an education, raising a family, and operating a business, thoughts of joining DAR never came front and center. Once I settled into retirement, however, possible membership in DAR became more intriguing.
Doing some sleuthing, I located the website of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Plunging in, I discovered a local chapter just a few miles away: The Gettysburg Chapter, NSDAR! Before long, I found myself as a guest at monthly meetings. I loved everything about it! The Daughters were very welcoming and I immediately felt at home. They represented a vast range of occupations, education, ages, and home states of origin. We were united by our love of country, service, patriotism, and by family ties to the Revolutionary War. I became a member. It was fun!
Resources for in-dept research of family heritage have spurred me to go well beyond identifying and documenting ancestors who had courageously served in the Revolutionary War. As an ongoing quest, I have gotten acquainted with family members who came long before me, identifying values, physical traits, aptitudes, and even careers that I see in my extended family today. And I did identify one of a number of my Patriots!
So, no. There have been no horse thieves uncovered in my family tree, so far. But to my surprise, I did uncover my fourth great grandfather who fought in the Revolutionary War. He was a mercenary from Hessen, part of the unorganized country that would become Germany. Tens of thousands of Hessians were “hired out” by their king to fight for the British against the Americans. Clearly, he was not going to qualify me to join DAR! However, more digging in the voluminous library of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Washington, D.C. revealed that he had been held a prisoner for three years, and was subsequently released in a prisoner exchange. Two months later, he defected.
He is listed among deserters by the British as of March 25, 1782. Nearly 50% of his compatriots, including those who suffered death, did not return to their country. Many were eventually relocated to the Lancaster area and beyond where there existed a large population of German-speaking immigrants. The incentive to own land and the beautiful landscape they found in Pennsylvania drew many of them to establish a farm and a family. While he didn’t qualify as my Patriot, he established in Clearfield County a long line of hard working and highly respected descendants, including my own immediate family.
One need not fear what secrets or scandals may be unearthed in one’s search for courageous ancestors. My membership in DAR put me on the track of discovering him and other ancestors who proved to be not only Patriots of the American Revolution, but fine citizens of these United States. So, from horse thieves to Hessians. I often think of my Aunt Lelia’s memorable tongue-in-cheek remark that eventually, after many years, led me to membership in the Gettysburg Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. And I thank her!
Marian Singleton Witherow
Feb. 23, 2021
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