Category: Clubs

The Sarah Maples Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution are lucky to have as a member Susan Cothran. She and her husband, Dan, are the most patriotic couple we know. They belong to the Patriot Guard Riders and just recently participated in the “Snowball Express.” The Patriot Guard is a patriotic organization nationwide that honors, respects and stands for fallen veterans. Both Dan and Susan “stand tall” escorting soldiers both young and old at funerals in the East Texas area. They escort their bodies from airports to the funeral homes and attend veterans/patriotic ceremonies where people request a flag line, or a motorcycle escort. Dan retired from the Army after 25 years of service and Susan served her country for 33 years by working with military and state department children living overseas. One of the jobs of the Snowball Express is to look after more than 1,700 children of our fallen Military Heroes. This year they managed to give each child a leather vest so they could be like the adults who ride motorcycles. They also collected service patches so the kids could decorate the vests with them.

Susan’s other projects are tending to the Veterans Memorial in Mabank. She combines conservation, patriotism and crafting into something useful. This year she designed and made various wreaths for the Memorial to honor our great country’s heritage through art. She finds wreaths of different types in church and garage sales, then takes them apart and recycles what she can. She then adds her own touch of symbolic items and ribbons to make the wreaths special. She has wreaths for Christmas, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving.

Susan believes our patriotic heritage is symbolized and honored by the use of the wreath. A wreath is the shape of a circle showing unity and completeness. Our patriots gave all for the unity of our country. It also shows no beginning or end. The various medium of vines, evergreens and foam signify the earth, traditions, order, truth and recycling. The colors used in the ribbons depend on the season but red, white, and blue promote the symbolism of our flag, our history and development of our country. Our flag and a POW/MIA flag are included. The seasonal colors of white for purity of sacrifice; gold for power, strength and trust, green for the environment, earth and renewal; red for the passion, love and energy of our country; brown for comfort and stability; blue for the heavens and peace.

By adding service patches, anchors, planes etc., and also flowers, berries, angels and other objects it shows respect, the cycles of life and God Above.

The Sarah Maples Chapter has a conservation project to keep the memorial gardens growing and beautiful with new plantings each year. Money for the project comes from collecting aluminum cans at each meeting and taking them to the recycle plant each month.

The Henderson County Retired School Personnel Association (HCRSPA) met on Jan. 8 and after a nice luncheon heard an informative presentation. Local Athens High School graduate Brad Fulton, now a state trooper, gave a presentation on what it takes to be a state trooper, and safety tips for seniors. A question and answer period followed. The business meeting began after the presentation.

By Nina Hendricks

Members of the Sarah Maples Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) are honored to have as their newest member Claire Stout. She is a history buff and has been working for several years to get her ancestor into the Sarah Maples Chapter. She was sworn in by Chaplain Priscilla Berry and Regent Helen Preston.

Claire was born in the West Texas town of Monohans, but moved to El Paso when she was 5 years old and it was here as a young woman she met and married her husband Glen Stout who was in the military at the time. After moving to her husband’s hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Claire finished her education at Kirkwood Community College.

Glen and Claire have four children, Tim, Todd, Ted, and Elizabeth, they are also the proud grandparents of two girls and four boys. All the Stout children beat her back to Texas but she made it as soon as she could. Continue reading “Sarah Maples DAR adds new member”

Mary Beth Haley has discovered some of her ancestors that were in the Oklahoma Land Rush. With this discovery, it peaked her interest and she had to learn more. Her research lead her to find out that there were four land runs.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, the Five Civilized Tribes ( the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole ) were dragged into a conflict which in the end brought them as much devastation as the great removal. There were wealthy Indian slave owners who sided with the Confederates. Differences among the Indians quickly flared into their own private Civil War. In the confusion they became victims of plunder and raiding on the part of both Union and Confederate troops scouring the land for food and supplies. By the time the war was over, many Indians had been forced out of Indian Territory. Scenes of desolation faced them when they returned to their land. They had been stripped of everything they possessed—tools, grain, and cattle. Their homes were destroyed, and their land had been burned.

In 1889 President Benjamin Harrison announced that Oklahoma Lands would be opened to public settlement.The unassigned lands were considered some of the best unoccupied public land in the United States. The Indian Appropriations Bill of 1889 was passed and signed into law with an amendment by Illinois Representative William McKendree Springer, that authorized President Harrison to open the two million acres for settlement. Due to the Homestead Act of 1862, signed by President Abraham Lincoln, legal settlers could claim lots up to 160 acres in size, provided a settler lived on the land and improved it, the settler could then receive the title to the land.

American Indians viewed the land run very differently than the settlers. While those who made the run saw the situation as an opportunity to claim free land, American Indians feared they may again lose even more land. In varying times during the nineteenth century, tribes had been forced from their ancestral homelands to reservations in present-day Oklahoma. Then, tribes were forced to accept individual allotments with the Dawes Act in 1887, which again reduced their land. The resulting land cleared of tribal ownership resulted in available land for the run. Continue reading “DAR member learns of Oklahoma Land Rush”