Heritage, Volume 11, Number 4, Fall 1993 Page: 8
26 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Galveston on January 10,
1868, in the Ballinger
home where the idea of
the Daughters of the Republic
of Texas was later
conceived.
The girls were blessed
with an honorable Texas
heritage. Their maternal
grandfather William
Houston Jack was a soldier
of the Battle of SanJacinto.
His brother, Patrick, was
one of the colonists whose
incarceration by Colonel
John Davis Bradburn
brought the troubles at
Anahuac that resulted in The unique;
the Battle of Velasco in Bryan Perry
1832. A third brother,
Spencer, was also a stalwart
pioneer.
Betty and Hally were also fortunate to
know many men and women who lived
during the days of colonization and the
Republic. Some of these individuals were
friends of the girls' fathers and were members
of the Texas Veterans Association.
The many discussions the girls had while
reading the "History of Texas" naturally
led them to consider that the ideas of the
pioneer men and women of Texas should
be perpetuated by their descendants. The
two young ladies formulated the idea of an
organization of ladies that would honor the
memories of their patriotic ancestors. They
enlisted the aid of Hally's father, Colonel
Guy M. Bryan, who was an active charter
member of the Texas Veterans Association.
He accompanied his niece and
daughter to Houston to enlist the assistance
of Mesdames Andrew Briscoe, AnsonJones,
and John Fenn, who were members of the
Texas Veterans Association. The preliminary
meeting was held at the home of Mrs.
Briscoe, at the corner of Crawford and
Capitol Streets.
Feeling that their cause was worthy, the
group decided to ask Mrs. Anson Jones,
widow of the last president of the Republic,
to accept the presidency of the newly formed
organization. The ladies persuaded Colonel
Bryan to approach Mrs. Jones thinking
it was unlikely she would refuse such a
distinguished and persuasive individual.
She accepted the honor bestowed upon her
with pleasure.
The fledgling organization was first
called the Daughters of the Lone Star Republic.
Colonel Bryan suggested the mottoand glorious history of the state of Texas inspired Betty Ballir
, right, co-founders of the Daughters of the Republic of Te"Texas -One and Indivisible," which was
accepted. OnNovember6, 1891,17 women
gathered from Houston, Galveston, and
Brazoria counties for the organizational
meeting at the home of Mrs. Briscoe. The
objectives of the Daughters of the Lone
Star Republic formulated at this first meeting
were:
* To perpetuate the memory and spirit
of the men and women who achieved and
maintained the independence of Texas.
* To encourage historical research into
the earliest records of Texas, especially
those relating to the Revolution of 1835
and the events which followed; to foster
the preservation of documents and relics,
and to encourage the publication of records
of individual service of soldiers and patriots
of the Republic.
* To promote the celebration of March
2 (Independence Day), and April 21 (San
Jacinto Day); to secure and hallow historic
spots by erecting monuments
thereon; and to cherish and preserve the
Unity of Texas, as achieved and established
by the fathers and mothers of the
Texas Revolution.
Letters were sent to the Texas Veterans
Association to obtain names and addresses
of members of their families eligible for
membership. In addition, letters were sent
to prominent women throughout the state
who were eligible urging them to qualify and
organize chapters in their communities.
The Veterans held reunions in different
cities each year. In 1892 the ladies decided
to accompany them and hold an annual
meeting of their own on the same day and
in the same city with the Veterans. And so,scarcely five-months
after organization,
the Daughters held
their first annual
meeting in Lampasas
in April 1892, during
which they were
newly christened
Daughters of the
Republic of Texas.
The presence of
the Daughters at their
annual meeting in
conjunction with the
Texas Veterans Association
was a resounding
success according
iger, left, and Hally to a Resolution of the
exas. Veterans Association
the next year at the
Waco reunion:
RESOLVED -that one of the greatest
pleasures we have enjoyed during our present
reunion is the presence of The Daughters of the
Republic of Texas...That we approve and
admire their noble efforts to perpetuate the
memories of the patriots of Texas, and to
prepare and preserve data for the correct history
of Texas - and that we exhort them to
persevere in their laudable enterprise, and pray
them God's help.
The ladies went on to organize their
group into chapters, one of the first being
the William Barret Travis Chapter located
in Austin, which was chartered in
the home of Mrs. Rebecca Jane Fisher,
the chapter's first president. At the first
meeting the members dedicated their efforts
to the collection and preservation of
documents and relics.
In 1895 in her report as chapter president,
Mrs. Fisher stated that "Our work this
year has been chiefly the collection of
relics..." These items, gathered by the William
B. Travis Chapter formed the basis of
the museum's collection, and during the
next few years, this chapter and others
continued to collect mementoes and artifacts
with the intention of establishing a
museum. At this time, the DRT collection
was basically a "traveling collection," in
that the group of artifacts was kept in
various members' homes until such time as
their husbands grew tired of having all of
that "old clap-trap" in the front parlor.
When the patience of one member's husband
was expended, the collection simply
"traveled" to another member's home. This
situation was far from ideal, and as the
collection grew, the Daughters knew that a8 HERITAGE * FALL 1993
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, Volume 11, Number 4, Fall 1993, periodical, Autumn 1993; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth45417/m1/8/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.