Chapter History

Kaweah Chapter was organized October 28, 1954, with 18 organizing members. Though Mrs. Charles Olsson has been listed as the Organizing Regent in our yearbook for many years and is also listed as such in the State History Book, reading through the old scrapbooks of the chapter has revealed that Mrs. Olsson resigned and Mrs. Harry H. Holley (Kate) was appointed as Organizing Regent. There are 40 charter members listed on the official charter.

Other surprises can be discovered reading though the State History books - one volume shows that the first project of the newly organized chapter was to cooperate with the Visalia Presbyterian Church to help organize a public gathering to hear Mr. R. E. Combs, counsel for the California Senate fact-finding subcommittee on Un-American Activities, speak on "Communist Front Organizations," and in 1955 the chapter presented Mr. Combs with a National Defense Merit Award. Many of you may know that for many years Kaweah Chapter was known for its strong support of the National Defense and Resolutions Committee winning first place in the state on numerous occasions. Guess we got an early start on that. Our first Regent Kate Holley served on the National Resolution Committee and the state Resolutions chairmen for years counted on the chapter with Peggy Gist as chairman to submit resolutions.

It is interesting to note that the organizing meeting was held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, the same place that the chapter meets today. The chapter was confirmed by the National Society on December 7, 1954. The chapter derived the name from a small band of Indians who made their home in this area long before the white settlers arrived.

Including the organizing regent, nineteen different Daughters have served as chapter regent, with 4 regents, Peggy Gist, Emily McClaine, Barbara Jaggers, Linda Calvin, Debra Jamison, and Jane Blair, serving two terms of office, and Carole Reeder serving three terms.

Josephine Pinkham was our first State Officer serving as State Historian from 1966-1968 on the Board of Eleanor Spicer, who of course later became California's first President General. Jo also served as President of the State Officer's Club. Linda Calvin was only our second State Officer, but she continued to serve in 4 positions on the State Board, including State Regent from 2000-2002.

In addition, our chapter has had 5 Daughters serve as District Director: Mesdames Gist, Jaggers, Calvin, Reeder and Jamison, along with many who have served on the District V Board.

Seven Juniors have served as pages on the State level, four as Personal pages to State Regents and three as Personal Pages to a President General. All three of the "Gist girls" were State Outstanding Juniors and both Linda and Carol were honored at the state level as Outstanding Chapter Regents.

Many served as State chairman of various committees and we are proud that five have served as National Chairman of committees on the National level.

In 1973, Barbara Jaggers, as State Junior Membership Chairman, conceived and carried out a plan to place an American Eagle at the top of the Flag pole at Independence Hall as part of Mrs. Spicer's "Gift to the Nation." Barbara also supervised the National Junior Membership doll "Miss Eleanor" honoring Mrs. Spicer.

The chapter was also very interested in Conservation with particular interest of flood control. After the floods in the 1950s, the chapter passed a resolution for the construction of Terminus Dam and wrote letters to congressmen asking for immediate action.

Kaweah has organized celebrations for Constitution Week since 1956 holding a yearly luncheon, sponsoring displays in the City Library, County Court House, schools, and stores in downtown Visalia, and during the city wide Bicentennial celebration of the Constitution, contributed money to sponsor the planting of a tree in the newly created Constitution Park in memory of our member, Barbara Gist Jaggers.

Even though many chapters sponsor work within the various committees framework, the numbers seem worthy of mention. Since the inception of the American History Essay contest in 1956 the chapter has sponsored the Contest in area schools honoring approximately 192 students as winners, and thousands of students as participants. We've sponsored the DAR Good Citizens Awards and scholarships in area high schools since the organization of the chapter in 1954. We've presented the DAR Good Citizenship Medals to graduating eighth grade students in Northern Tulare County Schools for 44 years and have presented over 1100 medals and certificates, thereby encouraging good citizenship in our youth.

The chapter also promoted patriotism through their work in the Fresno VA Hospital and also by the presentation of thousands of Flags to naturalized citizens prior to the ceremonies being moved from our area. Thousands of DAR Manual for Citizenship have also been presented including some printed in Spanish for citizenship classes in area farm labor camps.

In 1976, for the bicentennial celebration of the United States, the chapter donated large Flags to the Visalia City Library and also planted a tree in Mooney Grove Park in the museum area, which still stands with it marking today.

Seven volumes of Genealogical records, acquired from family bibles, family papers and obituaries, were indexed and bound by the chairman of Genealogical Records Committee, Shirley Farnesi, assisted by chapter members.

During Mrs. Calvin's term as State Regent, the chapter generously provided funds for her State Regent's Conservation project, the building of the Wild Flower Gazebo at the Clemmie Gill School for Conservation (SCICON) and also the re-carpeting and furnishing at Tamassee Pouch Cottage.

Since the inception of the Outstanding Community Service awards, the chapter has honored two women: Peggy Gist and Mayor Mary Louise Vivier for their service to the community. It was an honor to present a National Conservation Medal and Award several years ago to Ralph Moore in recognition of his outstanding dedication and contributions to the Rose industry.

In 2007, Kaweah Chapter was extremely proud to have its most honored Daughter, Linda Calvin, elected to serve as President General NSDAR 2007-2010.

Looking back, the past fifty years have been very productive years. In addition to the accomplishments listed, we've had a good time with long time members and new ones. Most likely, not many of us will be here in 2054 when the centennial celebration is held, but hopefully those members will look back on the accomplishments of the first 50 years and know that the group of Daughters who organized the chapter in 1954 and those who have worked so hard during the first 50 years were a dedicated group of Daughters committed to our motto of God, Home and Country.

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Site last updated 02 October 2007.

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