The Stoddert-del Norte Chapter of NSDAR was formed in the spring of 2006 when both the Rebecca Stoddert and the El Paso del Norte chapters NSDAR of El Paso, Texas merged. A vote of both chapters’ members was taken, and a two-thirds majority of the members agreed to merge. The proposal to merge was put before the National DAR Board meeting on April 8, 2006, and was approved.

The name of the new chapter was taken from both chapter titles. Rebecca Stoddert Chapter was organized on April 14, 1902, by Miss Thirza Westcott. Rebecca Lowndes Stoddert was the wife of Captain Benjamin Stoddert of the Revolutionary Army. She was a loyal helpmate to her husband from the time he was in the Army until he resigned from President Jefferson's cabinet to better care for his family. Mrs. Stoddert died in 1802. Her letters depicting life in the old capitol have been published in magazines and books of the time. Major Benjamin Stoddert was an ancestor of the chapter's second regent, Mrs. George C. Wimberly.

El Paso del Norte Chapter was organized on October 13, 1979, by Organizing Regent Mrs. William A. Burgett. The name was derived from the "pass of the North" which refers to the important mountain pass through which settlers could travel to Santa Fe or on to California. The town south of the river was called El Paso del Norte until the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo designated the town as Cuidad Juarez and the town north of the river as El Paso, Texas. Our new chapter then embraces both the revolutionary war era of our nation's history and the later settlement of the southwest portion of the country through the merging of the two chapters' names and members into one.

Compiled by Anne Parks, first regent of the Stoddert-del Norte Chapter