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:

stevensertrg@aol.com or regis-

trar@drtinfo.org.

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-

ney@sbcglobal.net 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