News

Jos. McDowell DAR celebrates 100th birthday

Jos. McDowell DAR chapter Regent Jean Ann Rushton addresses audience at a luncheon celebrating the chapter's 100th birthday.

By Bill Moss, Published: November 27, 2016

On Oct. 26, 1916, 14 women from Hendersonville gathered at the home of two sisters, Catherine and Matilda Carson, to organize a chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.

As the society’s name suggests, all traced their lineage to soldiers of the Revolutionary War. In the Carson case, the sisters’ great-grandfather was Joseph McDowell McCarson and their great-great-grandfather was Revolutionary War Capt. John Hazzard Carson, who reached the American colonies in 1773 at age 21at New Castle, Del., and traveled by ship to New Bern on the North Carolina coast.
The chapter was named for Revolutionary War hero Joseph McDowell (1758-1795), sometimes known as “Pleasant Gardens Joe” McDowell, for the community in Burke County (now McDowell County) where he was born. One-hundred years later, Chapter members gathered at the Hendersonville Country Club to celebrate the organization’s history and works.
After attending school in Winchester, Va., Joseph McDowell served under Gen. Griffith Rutherford in a campaign against the Cherokee Indians in 1776. He went on to serve in the Revolutionary War, fighting at the only battle fought in Rutherford County, on Sept. 12, 1780, against British loyalists led by Maj. Patrick Ferguson. After studying law and medicine, McDowell was admitted to the Bar in 1791 and practiced law in Burke, Rowan and Rutherford counties. He served in the state House of Commons (1785-1792) and the Third Congress (1793-1795).

Met at Fassifern and The Cedars

Early meetings of the Joseph McDowell Chapter rotated among members’ homes, including the Fassifern Home School for Girls, where the Carson sisters lived, and The Cedars. Founded in 1914 by Jeannie Bailey (wife of Southern Railway president J.W. Bailey), the 3½-story neoclassical revival structure operated as a hotel (the first to have steam heat) for 70 years, until Clifton Shipman bought it in 1976. The Cedars was operated by two-time chapter Regent Darline Dodderer Chamison while owned by the Baileys.
Among the Joseph McDowell Chapter’s projectS was spearheading Henderson County’s centennial, in 1938. Led by Regent Fanny Bacon Freeze and Executive Committee Chair Harriet Reed Whitaker, the chapter laid markers at the graces of Revolutionary War soldiers a theme of the centennial. Among gravesites located and commemorated were those of Jesse Rickman, the great-great-grandfather of Sadie Patton, a Hendersonville historian; James Brittain, in Mills River, and John Peter Corn, who served under George Washington at Valley Forge and is buried at Ebenezer Baptist Church. A memorial service on Nov. 13 of that centennial year drew 200 people to honor Andrew James Miller, who served under “Swamp Fox” Francis Marion and is buried at French Broad Baptist Church. Also honored was James Johnson, whose grave the DAR members located at Campground Cemetery in Horse Shoe. In 1956, the chapter erected a monument to Revolutionary War soldiers buried here. Others were discovered later. The bronze plaque on the granite monument honors William Capps, John Peter Corn, William Senter, Joseph Henry, James Johnson, Andrew Miller, Samuel King, Abraham Kuykendall, James Brittain, Jesse Rickman, Elijah Williamson and Joel Blackwell.
In a ceremony on Sept. 18, 2008, Patsy Farmer Jones led the dedication of a new bronze plaque adding the names of Revolutionary War soldiers who had been discovered since 1956: William Erwin, Noble Johnson, John Merrell, Matthew Maybin, Jacob Shipman and James Stepp.
Formed during World War I, the chapter sold pennants for the Red Cross and donated Liberty Bonds to the war effort. In 1918, hearing news that her son, William, was listed as MIA and later confirmed to be a POW in Germany, Claudia Holt Oates held a fundraiser dance at her Osceola Inn. She later allowed the inn to be used by the government as a convalescent hospital for returning veterans. The chapter has continued to serve veterans through the present day, sewing pillows, lap quilts and other items for the V.A. Hospital in Oteen, making visits and collecting Christmas gifts for patients.
Through the years the NSDAR has recognized James McDowell chapter members for outstanding genealogical research. This year Cricket Crigler was named North Carolina State Volunteer Genealogist of the Year.

Serves hospitals and veterans

The chapter’s work for local hospitals, and its connection to the facilities, also goes back to its earliest days. Sadie May Smathers Patton (1886-1975) married Preston Fidelia Patton III, whose mother, Annie E. Patton, was a naming sponsor of the old Patton Hospital, which served Hendersonville from 1913 until 1953, when Pardee Hospital opened, having been made possible through a major donor, Ivor R. Pardee. His wife, Jane Johnston Pardee, and daughter Patricia Pardee Ricks, were James McDowell Chapter members.
During the 100th anniversary luncheon on Nov. 5, the chapter continued its history of charitable giving for health care, marking its $10,000 pledge for the Nurse Navigator Room at the new Pardee Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“We are a service organization and always want to support projects in our community,” Jean Ann Rushton, the regent of the Joseph McDowell Chapter. “Several members of our chapter have faced cancer, either themselves or as caregivers. We wanted to give back to Pardee because we believe having a strong cancer center here in Henderson County is so important.”
Rushton’s sister received cancer treatment at Pardee and her husband has had several minor surgical procedures at the hospital.
“Pardee is so convenient to us and we received wonderful care,” Rushton says. “The doctors and nurses were very helpful and friendly, the facility was nice and clean, and the service was excellent.”

Information in this report is drawn from the booklet, Joseph McDowell Chapter: 100 Years of Outreach, by Centennial Celebration Committee members Shannon E. Coffey and Sharon S. Coffey.