Colorado Chapter, NSDAR

Serving the Denver metro area

Founded in 1904

Celebrating More than 100 Years

A typical Chapter meeting, including guests

Colorado Chapter, serving the Denver metro area, is more than 100 members strong. We usually meet on the fourth Friday or Saturday of each month, September through May. Each meeting lasts about two hours, including coffee and dessert, patriotic exercises, business and a program. See our Events below to learn about upcoming meetings. Contact the chapter if you are interested in attending our meetings. We welcome prospective members. RSVP at colochapt@yahoo.com.

For our brochure, you can download it here.

Officers:

How to Join:

Contact us to learn more about Colorado Chapter at colochapt@yahoo.com.

Our Registrar will provide assistance to our applicants in completing documentation. The applicant will need to show proof of direct lineage through birth/death certificates, land deeds or other types of proof. Our members are willing to help prospective members learn how to research their lineage through genealogy workshops and other types of help.

For more information on membership, you can visit NSDAR's Membership page.

Colorado Chapter - A Quick History

Colorado Chapter was founded in 1904 by the leading wives and daughters of some of the state's most prominent citizens. Colorado Chapter has more than 100 members, who remain committed to the values and ideals of its founding members - promoting educational, historical and civic causes.

Our founding members played an integral role in the region's development. It is important to remember that before women had the right to vote, their most effective means of influencing events was through their husbands, fathers or sons, and through women's groups like DAR. These women knew how to trigger the levers of power and entice those who could do right by the most worthy causes of the day.

Our first regent was Mary Goodell Grant, the wife of Colorado's second Territorial Governor and third State Governor, James B. Grant. The family came to Colorado in 1877, living first in Leadville, then relocating to Denver in 1882. The family home in Denver was later acquired by the Colorado Historical Museum and is now called the Grant-Humphreys Mansion.

Other Highlights:

1893: Charter member, Eliza F. Routt, was the first woman to cast her ballot when Colorado granted women's suffrage. She was the wife of the last Territorial Governor, State Governor and Denver mayor, John Routt.

1909: Alice Foster Cheesman and her daughter, Alice, renovated a former civil war cemetery to husband and father, Walter. The Cheesman Park Memorial still stands today as a monument to civic pride. In 1959, the Cheesman home became Colorado's official Governor's Residence.

1918-1919: Colorado Chapter's social meetings were abandoned in favor of Red Cross gauze work. One dollar per capita was taken from the Chapter treasury ($162) to purchase Liberty bonds. Fifty cents per capita were used to help restore the French village of Tilloloy. Colorado Chapter adopted three French orphans. The Chapter also provided 300 luncheons and one box of oranges for the soldiers at City Park on Colorado Day.

1923: Colorado Chapter received an invitation to the first Ball to be given by the crew of the brand new USS Colorado.

1924: The Chapter planted a large spruce tree in the Civic Center, specifying that it be used for Christmas decorating to save cutting other trees.

1927: The Chapter began to hold its meetings at the Denver Country Club. The tradition continues today.

The Depression Years: The Chapter shared financial responsibility with the State Board of Education for the salary of a teacher of Americanism and English for unemployed adults of foreign birth. The members supported Ellis Island and citizenship, including "adopting" a senior at East High School who enrolled at MIT after graduation.

World War II: The members logged 2,787 hours of work for the Red Cross committee. Colorado Chapter joined two other chapters at the Servicemen's Center - furnishing the fourth floor with comfy chairs, tables, a piano, and a flag. Every third week, chapter hostesses provided hospitality. Families also served the servicemen on an individual basis.

The Chapter's philanthropic work continues to this day. In the 1950s, an Iron Lung was donated to the Colorado General Hospital; presented a flag, a flagpole, and a bronze plaque to the Denver Botanic Gardens; and donated a flagpole, books, and tools to the Plains Conservation Center. The Chapter also participated in Operation Parent Lift during the Viet Nam era. The Chapter's duty to education endures - Kate Duncan Smith School and Tamassee have received monetary assistance as well as clothing and item items. The Colorado Chapter sponsored, with other state chapters, Santa Fe Trail markers in Holly, CO, and Raton Pass. The Chapter restored a 1904 painted of Mrs. James Grant, the first regent of Colorado Chapter, and presented the painting to the Colorado Historical Society at the Grant Humphreys Mansion.

For the several years, Holm Elementary School has made cards for the Veteran Patients in Denver. Other schools have also made cards for the former soldiers.

Members of Interest:

Helen Barnum Buchtel, daughter of P.T. Barnum and wife of Dr. William Buchtel (who helped to found the University of Denver). Louella Tabor, wife of Horace and Baby Doe Tabor's son, Nathaniel, was an active member of the Chapter. Charter member Helen Brown Jones became the first woman President of the Denver Board of Education in 1913. Dr. Minnie C. Love started Children's Hospital and was elected to the Colorado State Legislature. Jane Jeffries, current member, has served as the National Librarian General.