Ellen McCaffrey, President General · 2014-08-12 · the Overton Hotel in Lubbock. The Overton is...
Transcript of Ellen McCaffrey, President General · 2014-08-12 · the Overton Hotel in Lubbock. The Overton is...
The Da ught e r s o f the Re pub l i c o f Te xa s
Volume 1, Issue 2 February 2014
Happy New Year everyone! A
lot has happened since my last
newsletter! On November 6th, a
meeting was held with the General
Land Office to hear their opinion on
our ownership of the DRT Collection
at the Alamo Research Center
(formerly DRT Library). It was obvi-
ous that the GLO staff needs to be
educated in archival records and the
history of archival record keeping.
To that end, we are fortunate to have
the assistance of
Dr. David Gracy,
retired from the
State Archives
and UT Austin.
Dr. Gracy is
studying the
GLO opinion
along with our
records and I
hope that by
early February
we will meet
again with the
GLO. This has
been a much
slower and more painful endeavor
than originally anticipated.
Visits with the Tejas Chapter in Beau-
mont, the William B. Travis Chapter in
Austin and the Nathaniel H. Davis
Chapter in Montgomery have helped
me stay in touch with our members
and I am pleased to share some pho-
tos.
In December, the Republic of Texas
Museum Committee met for lunch on
December 11th and then toured the
Susanna Dickinson House and
O’Henry House in Austin. They are
located in the
middle of
downtown and
both offered
ideas for the
committee to
use in planning
our new mu-
seum.
At their De-
cember meet-
ings, the
French Lega-
tion Commit-
tee worked on
their budget,
the Headquarters Committee com-
bined work and fun with a covered
Ellen McCaffrey, President General
Continued...
Board Members attending Alamo Employees’ Christmas Party, Dec. 19, 2013: Melissa Goodrich, Recording Sec.
Gen., Kim Zapalac, 4th VPG, Lynne Byrd, District 8 Rep., Ellen McCaffrey, PG, Melinda Tomerlin, Alamo Executive Director, Esther Silva, DRT Registrar Gen.
Inside this issue:
Dimmett Papers
and the Republic
of Texas Mu-
seum
Memorial me-
dallion webinar
CRT President
General Memo-
rial medallion
offer
Texas history
essay and
teacher contests
Board of Man-
agement Tea in
Austin
Tables for the Tea set up in our Republic of Texas Museum! Come Visit – no tea but a lot of his-tory! (p. 6)
dish lunch and the Library Com-
mittee had lunch at The Palm
Restaurant in San Antonio. The
Board of Management presented
all Austin employees with gift
cards in appreciation of their work
this year.
On December 19th, six members
of the Board of Management at-
tended the Alamo employees’ rec-
ognition party. Each department
honors a staff member for
exceptional performance
with a brick in the Galla-
gher House courtyard and
recognition is given to em-
ployees who have been
with us for 5, 10, 15 or
more years. We are very
fortunate to have employ-
ees with such tenure.
On January 3rd, the Bylaws
Committee met at the
home of committee chair-
man Dusky Waters.
Dusky has spent many
hours gathering all the bylaw
amendments you have submitted.
She graciously hosted two com-
mittee members overnight, fed
everyone a great lunch and
cracked her whip during the work
sessions. All this while recover-
ing from hip replacement surgery
about a month earlier. Not that’s
dedication!
The committee will present the
proposed amendments to the
Board at our February meeting
and then they will be distributed to
the membership, by way of the
website.
Each of you should print them,
study them and bring your copy to
convention. We are working very
hard to have an efficient and thor-
ough discussion and approval
process at convention.
Speaking of Convention: it is fast
approaching – May 22nd – 24th at
the Overton Hotel in Lubbock.
The Overton is now full and the
overflow hotel is the MCM Ele-
gante’-- 806-763-1200 or 806-740
-9950. Convention registration
will be emailed to all chapter
presidents and posted on the
members’ website by the first
week in February.
Registrar General Stephanie
Gault resigned the first week in
January. I am pleased to report
that the board approved the ap-
pointment of Barbara Stevens to
serve the remainder of this term.
Barbara previously served as both
DRT and CRT Registrar General
and is already hard at work on
applications. Contact her at:
[email protected] or regis-
Wanted: Publicity Committee
Chairman! I am still searching
for someone to take over the job
of collecting and totaling the
amount of publicity submitted
from chapters. The former chair-
man, Judy Wolfe, prepared a
great description of the job as well
as tools to make the job easier.
This job can be done from
home – no traveling required
which makes it a great job for a
working member.
Chapters send in clippings and
descriptions of newspaper arti-
cles, radio or TV features, etc.
and the committee totals and
organizes it. This is a great
public relations tool for DRT
and chapters receive certifi-
cates for their level of partici-
pation. If this interests you,
please contact me at 713-917-
0527 or Kelsey at DRT HQ --
512-339-1997.
I am sure many of you, especially
our newer members, have ques-
tion about our organization and
now is the time to ask. Contact
your chapter president and district
representative with your ideas
and questions. I hope to have a
“workshop planning” meeting
within the next month and all of
this will be discussed. This will
be for 2014 only – in 2015 we will
resume our regular meeting
schedule in order to elect district
reps and nominating committee
reps.
Cont. from first page
Bylaws committee meeting, January 3, 20014: Betty Vaughan, Kimberly Wiley, K Jenschke, Parliamentarian General, Kay Crews, Parliamentary Advisor, Dusky Waters, Chairman, Carol Dyson, Ellen McCaffrey, PG, Nancy O'Massey, and Leslie Inman
The President General’s Newsletter
The Philip Dimmett Papers Museum visit and presentation at LaBahia
Among the early Anglo-American settlers in Texas was Philip Dimmitt who came to Texas in 1823 from Ken-tucky. By profession, he was a trader on the southwestern frontier who procured food and supplies for the people, as well as the troops. In 1835, he was elected Captain by the volunteers serving in the Texas Army at Goliad for the first three months of the Revolution. He helped write the Goliad Declaration of In-dependence and also de-signed two flags for his troops: 1824 Flag and Bloody Arm.
He was relieved of his duties by Austin, but Dimmitt contin-ued to serve the people of Texas with his numerous trad-ing posts. The Mexican army captured him and stole all his
wares at his trading post at Lavaca Bay. He was taken into Mexico where he died in 1841, taking poison in preference to being slain by the firing squad.
Ms. Martha Leigh, a de-scendant of Philip Dimmitt, bequeathed the Dimmitt papers and research mate-
rials to the DRT’s, Republic of Texas Museum. The collec-tion includes the Goliad Vol-unteer Muster Rolls, Dimmitt's correspondence, Land Grants, and property transac-tions. These documents offer a glimpse into life in Early Texas were used and organ-ized by Ms. Leigh's aunt, Catherine George, while do-ing her research for her 1937 Master's Thesis: The Life of Philip Dimmitt. An Exhibit is now on display at The Repub-lic of Texas Museum in Aus-tin.
178 years after their creation a copy of the Dimmitt papers returned to LaBahia – a gift from DRT. Attending the presentation were members of the Republic of Texas Mu-seum, the Goliad Chapter and their friends and families.
Group picture of Republic of Texas Museum Com-
mittee, LaBahia Chapter members and friends were
entertained at the home of Alicia Cowley with a
lovely luncheon prior to the 3:00 o'clock program at
LaBahia.
A copy of the Dimmitt Documents returned to the
Presidio LaBahia Mission area after leaving this
same area in 1836. Jean Sitterle and Newton War-
zecha, director of the mission.
Publicity Committee Chairman! The President General is still needing to fill this state committee position. This job can be done from home because no traveling is required. The chapters send in various articles, clippings, radio or TV fea-tures, etc. and the committee totals and organizes it. This is a great public relations tool for DRT and chapters receive cer-tificates for their level of participation. If this interests you, please contact Ellen McCaffrey at 713.917.0527 or Kelsey at DRT Headquarters (512.339.1997).
Page 3
Texas History Essay and Outstanding Texas History Teacher Contests
Do you have a Veteran or Defender whose grave needs to be marked but you or your chapter just can’t afford to purchase a Memo-rial Medallion for them at this time? Well, CRT President General Reed Denton has a deal for you! His President General’s Project will pay for any Veteran or Defender’s Memorial Medallion marker approved by the Fourth Vice President General. However, there is only so much money allocated for this project, so first come, first served. Time’s a-wasting with less than five months left in his administration. So, send those applications in now and be sure to mark your application “For CRT President General’s Project Consideration!”
Memorial Medallions Attention Daughters and Chapters!
From the Fourth Vice President General Veteran, Defender, and Citizen Memorial Medallions
The Education and Flag Commit-
tee conducts an annual Out-
standing Fourth and Seventh
Grade Texas History Essay Con-
test for students and selects an
Outstanding Fourth and Seventh
Grade Texas History Teacher.
The DRT Essay Contest for 2014
was announced last May in Beau-
mont. It can be found on the public
DRT site (www.drtinfo.org )
>Education >Texas History Awards
>Student Essay Contest or the
member site (www.drtinfo.org/
members) >About DRT >Texas
History Awards >Student Essay
Contest. The fourth grade topic is
William Barrett Travis or the letter
“Victory or Death.” For the seventh
grade, it is William Barrett Travis
and the impact of the letter “Victory
or Death.”
The Texas History Teacher
Awards are found on the tool bar
below the essays. Teachers de-
serve the recognition for going
above and beyond presenting ma-
terials that intrigue our students
creating a lasting interest in Texas
history. There are many that in-
spire our students and as DRT
members, we hope to encourage
our schools to recognize them.
A monetary award for the students
is $500, $750 for the teachers, and
$1000 for the schools of the win-
ning teachers. This is a small
amount for these deserving peo-
ple. Donations for the Laura Lani-
gan Texas History Fund were col-
lected at nine workshops which will
cover about half of this amount.
Since we are not monetarily re-
sponsible for the Alamo anymore,
it would be very nice if our chap-
ters considered donating to this
fund. Your help will be appreci-
ated. If you have any questions,
please contact Carolyn Raney,
Fifth Vice President General, (972)
690-6117, carolynra-
[email protected] or 2413 Grand-
view Drive, Richardson, TX
75080.
The President General’s Newsletter Page 4
Don't understand the dif-ference between a Vet-eran or a Defender Me-morial Medallion? Can a person have more than one? Are only "Heads of Families" allowed to re-ceive a Citizen Memorial Medallion?
The Fourth Vice Presi-dent General, Kim Stra-cener Zapalac, will be presenting another webi-nar on "Veteran, De-fender, and Citizen Me-morial Medallions on Fri-day, March 28, at 6:30 p.m.
If you are interested in learning more about DRT’s Veteran, Defender and Citizen Memorial medallions or you would like to have some of your questions answered, be sure and register using the link below. The class will be limited to 20 par-ticipants.
https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/s/registrations/new?cid=owzj705oivwc
The President General’s Newsletter Page 5
Judge Nathaniel Hart Davis Chapter, Montgomery: Front Row:
Lacretia McReynolds, soon to be District 6 Rep, Ellen McCaffrey,
PG and Barbara Stevens, Registrar General. Back Row: Linda
Ludecke-Registrar, Lady Dalton-Co-Registrar, Betty Dutton- Re-
cording Sec., Shelly Lane-1st VP, Juliet Bullock-Treasurer,
V.Murray-Pres.; Pat Spackey-Historian
Judge Nathaniel H. Davis Chapter, Montgomery - January 27, 2014
Tejas Chapter members attending their meeting on November 12, 2013 in Beaumont.
At the September and November
board meetings, we discussed mak-
ing changes to our district meetings/
workshops next fall. Since there
will be no elections or other busi-
ness that must be conducted by dis-
trict, we have the opportunity to try
something new.
Instead of 10 meetings every Satur-
day from August through October,
we will have 5-6 meetings spread
over the state. Two to three dis-
tricts will be combined both in plan-
ning and attendance. Seminar type
sessions will be held, approximately
1 hour each on several different top-
ics.
All seminars could be held in the
same room and a smaller separate
room could be available with coffee,
tea and water for members to sit
and visit if a particular topic doesn’t
interest them.
Topics being considered are: DRT
101: Who are we, What do we do
and How do we do it, How does a
chapter operate – what are the re-
sponsibilities of the officers and the
members, Parliamentary Procedure,
Financial responsibilities and proce-
dures, DRT’s Administrative Com-
mittees – what they do and how
they do it and Program planning
tips.
Montgomery~ Judge Nathaniel Hart
Davis Chapter and
Beaumont~ Tejas Chapter
The President General’s Newsletter Page 6
T he Museum Committee honored the Board of Man-
agement with an afternoon tea on February 6, 2014 at our Re-public of Texas Museum. Each table was set with lace table-cloths, china and crystal glasses. The menu began with tea sand-wiches and scones with lemon curd, mayhaw & orange jelly ac-companied by Earl Grey and Oo-long teas. This was followed with raspberry tea with cookies, brownies and tarts. A review of the book “Love is a Wild Assault” was given by Mary Ann Pringle. Afternoon teas are a specialty and passion of M u s e u m C h a i r m a n , Jean Sitterle who supplied the table set-tings and most
of the food. All of it hauled from Giddings to Austin! Truly a la-bor of love and we enjoyed every minute of it. Please enjoy the photos and as
a side benefit you are getting a
mini-tour of our museum. We
are still in our Anderson Lane
location, but these photos give
you a hint of the new Dimmit ex-
hibit - please come visit us in
Austin.
Board of Management Tea Republic of Texas Museum in Austin
Jean Sitterle and her Nippies: Linda Dietert, Lois Lacy,
Susan Merritt, PG, Jean, Audrey Tyler-HQ staff, Janie Frere
and her granddaughter Lucy Oliver
Janie Babcock-Historian General, Bobbie Moss-guest, Esther Silva-CRT Registrar General, Nancy Shurtleff, Museum Committee and Melissa Goodrich-Recording Secretary General
Kay Crews, Prof. Parliamentarian, K Jenschke-
Parliamentarian General, Kim Zapalac-4th Vice President
General, Carolyn Raney-5th Vice President General, and
Museum Committee member Betty Bird
Beverly Locklin-Treasurer General, Jean Sitterle-Museum Committee Chairman, Ellen McCaffrey-President General, Barbara Stevens-Registrar General and Pat Horridge-Corresponding Secretary General
Renee Armstrong & Kelsey Powers-HQ Staff, Mary Goodwin-
District 4 Rep & Webmaster, Arlene Garey-Custodian General and
Mary Ann Pringle-Museum Committee member