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| Pictured from Left: Mrs. Marjorie Crosby Jones, Mrs. Sharon S. Wyatt, Regent, of the John McAlmont Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and Jana Blankenship, Reference Manager at Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Public Library hold the 100-year-old document. |
A one-hundred years old original Daughters of the American Revolution document has been recently brought out of storage, framed and presented on loan to the Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Public Library.
The document, dated June 2nd, 1911, was given to Mrs. Julia McAlmont Noel, then State Regent of Arkansas, by the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. Mrs. Noel has been elected Regent of the Arkansas State Society on April 21st, 1911.
The large, fifteen by thirteen inch, fragile certificate with seal and ribbon still attached, was discovered by Mr. Stewart Sanders while going through the DAR memorabilia of his late mother, Mrs. Harlow (Pauline Drake) Sanders, who died in 1991. Mrs. Sanders was a former member and officer in John McAlmont Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution.
Mr. Sanders gave the document to Mrs. Marjorie Crosby Jones who had helped his wife, Ceil Sanders, prepare her papers to become a member of DAR. Mrs. Jones, having written a History of John McAlmont Chapter, NSDAR Wataseka District while serving as historian of the chapter, knew the significance of the document. Mrs. Jones, after much research, had the document framed using archival techniques. She also had a copy made and framed to be enjoyed by the John McAlmont Chapter DAR.
The Little Rock Chapter Daughers of the American Revolution, organized in 1894, and the Mary Percival Chapter of Van Buren, chartered in 1900, were the first two DAR chapters in Arkansas. The State Regent, Mrs. Lucien Coy, who served from 1905 to 1907, recognized the need for a chapter in Pine Bluff. She persuaded a member of the Little Rock Chapter, who was a resident of Pine Bluff, to take a membership-at- large in order to be appointed Organizing Regent of the new Chapter. Her name was Mrs. James William (Julia McAlmont) Noel.
The organizational meeting of the John McAlmont Chapter was held May 12th, 1906. The charter granted by the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution was presented October 25th, 1906.
Mrs. Julia McAlmont Noel helped organize the first State DAR Conference held at the Marion Hotel, Little Rock, Arkansas, on February 22nd, 1909.
The document may be viewed in the Genealogy Department of the Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Public Library in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
