Our Chapter
In June of
2011, the seed to create a new chapter for Texas DAR was planted. A month
later, Leta Koch and Gay Hilbert of Pottsboro, Margaret Alverson of Denison,
and Joy Vian Martin of Sherman came together to plan the first invitational
meeting.
Two genealogy workshops were held that summer, at
which time any woman interested in joining NSDAR was given individual help in
tracing her family lines to search for an American patriot. Trained DAR
volunteer genealogists assisted the women in their research.
On December 10, 2011, ninety-seven prospective
members and guests gathered at Tanglewood Country Club for a formal dinner and
meeting. During the meeting, Texas DAR Division II Chairman Marcy Carter Lovick
installed the chapters first officers: Organizing Regent Joy Vian Martin,
Vice Regent Lisa Lettie, Chaplain Michelle Alverson, Treasurer Margaret
Alverson, Registrar Luanne Sbarbaro, Recording Secretary Ann Nikirk,
Corresponding Secretary Gay Hilbert, Historian Ocia Jeffries, and Librarian
Clara Landers. TXDAR State Registrar Margaret (Peggy) Jones installed
thirty-three women into NSDAR to become the organizing members of the chapter.
The last event of the evening was the announcement of the new chapters
name, Preston Trail. We invite you to join us!
Chapter Officers
(2019-2021)
Regent - Martha Jeanne Robinson
Groff Vice Regent - Linda Ann Spradling McAnaney 2nd Vice
Regent - Michelle Smith Alverson Chaplain - Gay Nell Hancock
Hilbert Recording Secretary - Margaret Yvonne Gilmore Carson
Corresponding Secretary - Gloria Jean Warren Huhtala
Treasurer - Lisa Cheryl Webb Lettie Registrar - Sandra Sue
Hansen Sharp Historian - Carolyn Ann Moir Dexheimer
Librarian - Billie Beth Hillard Bowling Parliamentarian -
Lynda Lou Pannell Fleming
Our Patriots
Maryland
Compton, Howard LT
Massachusetts
Bailey, Elijah
PVT Meeker, Grove PVT
New Hampshire
Starrett, David CS
PS
New Jersey
Ayer, Silas
PVT Stagg, James CAPT
New York
Steele, Thomas - SMN
North Carolina
Hardeman, Thomas
PS Hainline, John PVT Hampton, Andrew Hill, Abel CS
Hill, Reuben PVT Isaacs/Isaacks, Samuel PS PVT Neal,
James PS SOL Neal, William CAPT Pope, Henry
CAPT Pyle, John PS Reeves, Edward PS Strickland,
Jacob, Jr. PS Wolfe, Philip SOL |
Pennsylvania
Blackburn, Ephraim
CAPT McHatton, John PS CAPT
South Carolina
Isaacs/Isaacks, Samuel
PS PVT Johnson, William CS PS PVT Pollard, Richard
CAPT PS Pollard, Robert LT
Vermont
Burton, Josiah - PVT
Virginia
Alford, William
PS Barksdale, Dudley CS PS CAPT Castleman, David Chastain,
James PVT Crowder, Philip SGT Crutchfield, George
PS Gleaves, William CS PS LT Hamblin, Daniel Herring,
William PVT Hinkle, Abraham PS Hite, Joseph LT
Kidd, George PVT Lanier, Benjamin PS Preston, Moses -
PVT Skillern, William - CS PS Sublett, Lewis Thurmond, Philip
PS Ware, Edward SGT Wright, Bolling PVT
Wright, Solomon - PVT Yokum, Powle - CS S
NOTE:
PS = Patriotic
Service CS = Civil Service
|
Calendar of Events
2019-2021
September 03, 2020 -
The Founding Fathers and the Constitution Ken Tooke
October 01, 2020 -
Impact of Migration on Genealogy Research Marcy
Carter-Lovick
November 05, 2020 -
DAR Honorary President's General Reflections
January 07, 2021 -
Women of Resilience DAR Service in WWII
February 04, 2021 -
DAR Library
March 01, 2021 - DAR
Memorial Continental Hall
April 01, 2021 - In
Their Words: The Story of the Founding of DAR, Presented at the 125th
Continental Congress
May 06, 2021 - Annual
Awards Banquet. Honoring Unsung Heroes, Preston Trail Scholarship Winner, and
DAR Good Citizen Winners
Chapter Projects
Opening
Doors for Our Veterans
Each
year our chapter holds a fundraiser to assist disabled veterans in Grayson
County. The project aims to widen home bathroom doors and replace fixtures with
accessible ones, as needed.
Contact
our chapter for eligibility requirements and/or application form.
Support
Our Soldiers
We keep our soldiers and veterans
foremost in our minds by sending them toiletries, phone cards, clothing, hair
products, magazines, and books. We also volunteered at the First Annual
Veterans European Pheasant Hunt in December 2014 held at the High Brass Hunting
Preserve in Grant, Oklahoma. The hunt is sponsored by
The Foundation for Exceptional
Warriors (The F.E.W.) and Dreamcatcher Ranch. The event makes it possible
for 20-25 veterans and their families to spend the day outdoors visiting and
enjoying a friendly hunting competition, lunch, dinner, awards, and prizes.
Plans are to make this an annual event. Please
contact
our chapter for further information.
Support Cinderella's Closet
Cinderella's Closet provides evening
gowns and accessories to military spouses and service women for military balls
and special events throughout the year.
Bonham,
Texas VA Hospital
Members routinely visit our veterans
at the hospital and deliver handwritten thank you notes on holidays such as
Veterans Day and Memorial Day.
Preston Trail
Chapter NSDAR Scholarship
Our goal is to award a scholarship to
a Grayson County High School senior who has plans to attend college. The
scholarship is academics based and every applicant must be a resident of
Grayson County. Applicants submit a two page essay describing a U.S. veteran, a
family member or an ancestor, who has served our country, and what this service
means to the applicant.
Contact our
chapter for application forms.
Ronald
McDonald House (Dallas, Texas)
Our chapter collects aluminum can
pop-tops to offset family expenses while their child is undergoing medical
treatment.
Activities
Here are some of the things we do. We invite you
to get involved with us and our community!
Promote women's issues by distributing
materials on women's health and personal safety; volunteering at women's
shelters.
Save and donate qualifying clothing and
aluminum can pull tabs.
Assist in church activities, beautification
projects, and community volunteerism.
Enter fiber arts, art sculpture and crafts,
literature, music, drama, and quilts in the American Heritage contests offered
by NSDAR.
Observe NSDAR Day of Prayer.
Observe National Bible Week.
Help teachers promote American History,
patriotism and good citizenship.
Subscribe to American Spirit
Magazine and give subscriptions as gifts.
Sign cards for veterans, donate gifts, and
visit veterans' hospitals.
Fly the American Flag, donate flag
brochures and pins, and participate in Flag Day ceremonies.
Train as a volunteer field genealogist (DAR
designation).
Donate books to the DAR Library and our
local library. Promote literacy in our community.
Participate in planting trees, recycling,
and Earth Day activities.
History of the Preston
Trail
Albert Sidney
Johnston, Secretary of War for the Republic of Texas in 1839, sent soldiers
under the command of Col. William Gordon Cooke to build a road from the Brazos
River to the Red River and establish frontier forts to protect settlers from
Indian attacks.
The new trail was named after a young commanding
officer of a unit of the Republic of Texas, William Gilwater Preston. At age
23, he was stationed at the newly founded Fort Preston near Preston, Texas, on
the Red River. His soldiers were responsible for building a road from Preston
to Austin, Texas, and the road was surveyed in 1840.
Preston Trail
was a road created in 1841 by the Republic of Texas from Preston, Texas, on the
Red River, near present day Pottsboro, south to Austin, Texas. It was started
near the community of Preston Bend in present
Grayson
County. The centuries old trail nearby was the blueprint for Preston Trail
and was the main artery used by those traveling between north Texas and central
Texas in the latter half of the 19th century. It became one of the greatest
cattle drive trails between Texas, Missouri, and Kansas. And it was the
principal immigrant route into northern Texas. Today Texas State Highway 289,
also still called Preston Road, follows near this former road.
The ancient trail is said to have extended from
Mexico through Central Texas all the way northeast to St. Louis, Missouri. And
this Texas Road was in use as early as the 1840s. The route of the Preston
Trail in Texas followed the earlier cattle trail that came to be known also as
the Shawnee Trail. Cattle swam the Red River at Rock Bluff Crossing, a natural
rock formation that served as a chute into the water. The last large herd of
cattle moved through the Pottsboro area in 1871. In one six-week period in
1845, roughly 1,000 wagons crossed the river into Texas. Emigrants from the
north crossed the Red River just below its confluence with the Washita River at
a ford known as Rock Bluff Crossing.
By 1870 the main cattle trails were farther west,
but the Preston Road was still the most important route for immigrant and
freighter traffic in north central Texas. However, the Missouri, Kansas, and
Texas Railroad bridge across the Red River was built in 1872 at Denison, twelve
miles downstream from Preston, and, with the major flow of traffic bypassing it
both east and west, the road declined in importance.
Today, Preston Road is a major commercial roadway
stretching from the heart of Dallas through several suburbs between Dallas and
Pottsboro. There are several statues installed along the road in Frisco, Texas,
depicting the Native Americans, cattle drives, and settlers who used the trail.
The small town of Pottsboro has no
less than four historical markers along Farm to Market Road 120. |