Willmar, Minnesota Daughters of American Revolution chapter turns 100
May 28---- The
is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.
Daughters of the American Revolution is a women's service organization that focuses on work in local communities to promote historic preservation, education and patriotism, according to
There are 175,000 members in 3,000 chapters located across the country and around the world. There are 21 chapters in Minnesota. Any woman 18 years or older who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution can join.
"It can be a military person, or it actually could be community or public service," Willmar Chapter DAR Regent Stephanie Sjoberg told the West Central Tribune during an interview. "If if they gave supplies to the troops, and they're on a supply list, that would also be accepted. Or if they actually did protection for their town, or a surveyor of roads — that was all community service, so it would be considered public service, too."
A reception for the Willmar chapter's 100th is planned from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, June 14, at the Kandiyohi County Historical Society, 610 Highway 71 N.E. in Willmar, with a program taking place at 2:15 p.m.
Reservations are requested, but not required, via email or phone at
or 320-894-3653, respectively.
The first organizational meeting of the Willmar Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution took place Feb. 17, 1925, at the Willmar Public Library under the guidance of Organizing Regent Myrtle Lund Diffendorf, according to an October 1975 article in the "Daughters of the American Revolution" magazine. Charter membership was open for several months after that first meeting.
Along with Diffendorf, other charter members included Lillian Cutter Benson, Alice Brown Branton, Madge G. Hahn, Dorrie Brown Handy, Helen E. Jenness, Josephine Fancher Jenness, Louise Branham Rodange, Jennie Brown Sherwood, Winifred Sherwood, Ethel M. Smith. Lila M. Spencer, Alice Thompson, Abbie Paddock and Edith Emery, according to an article celebrating the centennial of its founding in the Oct. 17, 1990, edition of the West Central Tribune.
Cutter Benson was the longest-lived founding member of the Willmar chapter, dying in 2008 at the age of 107, according to Sjoberg. She is buried at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis.
Sjoberg made sure that her Find A Grave website memorial was updated with her full obituary and noted that she was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She is listed as "Lilyan Martha 'Lillian' Cutter Benson" on the website.
"That was kind of fun, just to actually update it so people, when they come across it, they would know right away that she was a DAR member," Sjoberg said. " ... Her nieces actually wrote a very nice obituary honoring the DAR chapter here."
There are currently 25 members in the Willmar Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, ranging in age from 28 to 92. The chapter meets on the second Saturday of each month, but takes the winters off due to the number of members who are "snowbirds" and go south.
Sjoberg explained that the chapter has a registrar who can assist with genealogy research for those interested in determining if they are a direct descendant of an American revolutionary, in order to become a member. Sjoberg also helps with the genealogy research as an assistant registrar.
Potential members are asked for their birth certificates and those of their parents. Ideally, they can also provide birth certificates for their grandparents, but an obituary is also sufficient if the grandparents have died.
Sjoberg did not know that she would qualify for membership until she had retired and started researching her own genealogy. She found out she was a direct descendant of a patriot revolutionary on her mother's side of the family. Her mother also became a member.
She had always assumed her ancestors had immigrated to the United States during the 1800s, but her mother's great-grandmother was a descendant of Frederick Countryman, who was born to parents who immigrated in 1710 from the Palatine region of Germany. She also found out that her father is a direct descendant of people who immigrated in the 1600s.
In the last couple of years, Sjoberg assisted one family with their genealogy and the Willmar Chapter of the DAR gained five new members from that family.
Daughters of the American Revolution is strictly a nonpolitical, nonprofit service organization, Sjoberg said.
"We do patriotic things. We do educational things. We like to do commemorative events. We do a lot with the veterans," she said.
She noted the local chapter really promotes education and does a lot with local libraries, especially honoring Constitution Week. The chapter sets up informational tables at local events and festivals a couple of times per year.
Chapters receive awards if they have 600 or more volunteer service hours per year, according to Sjoberg, who noted that all 21 chapters in Minnesota met that goal last year.
Each year the Willmar chapter sponsors an American history essay contest for fifth- through eighth-grade students and the DAR Good Citizens Award for high school seniors.
Local winners of the essay contest go on to compete at the state level and winners at the state level compete at the division level. Winners of the division level earn a trip to Washington, D.C., for the award ceremony.
The winner of the Good Citizens Award is a student who possesses the qualities of dependability, service, leadership and patriotism in their homes, schools and communities. A scholarship is awarded.
A service project in 2023 by the Willmar chapter and three other chapters provided a grave marker for Cecile D. Evans Taylor, who served as an Army Nurse Corps member during World War I at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, from September of 1918 to August of 1919.
Evans Taylor died in 1999 at the age of 103 and was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Dover, Minnesota. An installation ceremony took place in September of 2023, with the American Legion erecting flags at the site and providing a firing squad.
Through her research, Sjoberg knew that Evens Taylor was Scottish and she found a local bagpiper who played the national anthem at the ceremony. Retired from the U.S. Army, the bagpiper is married to the regent of the Rochester chapter.
"That was kind of a fluke, too," Sjoberg said. " ... So, you know, if you have faith — it was like it was all really ordained from up above."
Sjoberg explained how challenging it was to get a veteran's marker for Evans Taylor due to complications with obtaining her military records. The National Personnel Records Center could not find any records for her and a National Archives and Records Administration query revealed that the records were destroyed in a fire in 1973.
Finally, the Military Women's Memorial was able to find a copy of her induction order and copies of her pay stubs, which were submitted to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for approval of a veteran's marker.
"It was just really, really satisfying to have this whole group of people come together and do this for her," Sjoberg said.
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