La Villita DAR Information
Welcome to La Villita Chapter
Our Beginning
College Station had been incorporated for only five years when Mrs. S.W. Bilsing saw the need for a chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and organized the LaVillita Chapter in December 1944. Mrs. Bilsing, regent of the William Scott Chapter in Bryan who lived in College Station, felt that it was important to tell the DAR story and have a chapter in her own hometown. She began her efforts in October, 1944, and the chapter's organization was planned in the home of Mrs. E.B. Reynolds in College Station.
Origin of our Chapter Name
Nancy Reynolds Tiner, Mrs. Reynold's daughter and a past regent of the chapter, was 12 years old in 1944 and in middle school at A&M Consolidated. She was studying Texas history in school using a textbook written by then Texas A&M College professor Dr. Ralph Steen. The topic was LaVillita, or "The Little Village," in San Antonio which is the first permanent Spanish settlement in colonial Texas. When her mother and the other ladies discussed the naming of the chapter, Nancy suggested LaVillita since it meant "little village" and College Station was also a small town.
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Photos courtesy of College Station Project HOLD
Our Chapter Today
Many of our projects over the past 60+ years have continued. We continue to support the students with two ROTC Medals; DAR Good Citizen Award and a scholarship at A&M Consolidated High School; Good Citizen Awards, essay awards, and Constitution Week items in other schools in the area; placement of flags in the cemetery to honor our veterans; and Literacy Challenge donations of books.
Our efforts at historic preservation have continued. Finding and moving the last lost Brazos County OSR marker was completed. New markers were placed in various cemeteries. Members are working with other organizations to catalog and preserve local documents then donating these to the DAR library.
Our chapter joined in the Texas DAR project “Stitching for Scholarships” by making two quilt blocks that were part of five quilts that were used to raise money at the Houston International Quilt Festival. In 2008, for the first time in the history of the DAR, 20 pre-1850 quilts from the DAR Museum Quilt collection left Washington D.C. to be brought to this show. The centerpiece of the collection was the Francis Scott Key quilt made by his wife, Mary Tayloe Lloyd Key. Note the quilt blocks at the bottom of this page that were made by some of our chapter members.
Meetings
Our chapter meets on the second Thursday September through May except for the following; February’s Presidents Day luncheon in conjunction with the William Scott Chapter in Bryan and the annual business meeting in January.
For Further Information
If you are interested in further information about La Villita Chapter NSDAR meetings, activities or membership, we would be delighted to hear from you.
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Updated: October 2011