Chapter Meetings

Meetings are held at 1:30 p.m. on the first Saturday of the month, September through June, at various locations in Jefferson City.  For more information about specific meetings locations,  please contact Holley Smothers, Chapter Regent.

Chapter History

On January 6, 1897, the wedding anniversary of George and Martha Washington, 14 Jefferson City women met to organize the third DAR chapter in Missouri, preceded by (1) Elizabeth Benton Chapter, Kansas City, and (2) St. Louis Chapter, St. Louis.  The chapter was named "Jane Randolph Jefferson" in honor of the mother of Thomas Jefferson.

Florence Ewing Towles had been commissioned by the NSDAR, and the meeting was held in her home at 612 East Capitol Avenue.  Mrs. Towles was elected Regent and served in that office for ten years, until she was elected State Regent (1906-08).  Mrs. Towles presented a gavel to the chapter and this gavel is still in use today.  The handle of the gavel was made of holly and the head was made of cherry.  Both woods were grown on the grounds of Mt. Vernon near the grave of General Washington.

Sarah Caroline Pelot Epps Davison was elected Recording Secretary.  Mrs. Davison came to Jefferson City, Missouri, after the Civil War as the wife of Dr. Alexander Caldwell Davison.  She had been married to John Wales Epps, grandson of Thomas Jefferson.  Their daughter, Margaret Julia Epps, great-granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson, was a charter member of the Chapter.  Louise Winston Stone, wife of the Governor William J. Stone (1893-97), was elected Historian.  Other Chapter members were Louise Miller Bragg, Christine Harding Broughton, Louise Pope Church, Ellen Pedigo Edwards, Georgia Chiles Ewing, Elizabeth Allen Ewing, Beauregard Harding Ferguson, Christine Cordell Harding, Kate Madison Henry, and Margaret Harding Robertson.  Mrs. Davison presented a walnut secretary-bookcase to the Chapter which is now on loan to the Cole County Historical Society Museum.  Chapter minutes, since 1897, are stored in this secretary-bookcase.

Madge Waddill McHenry (1941-43) and Geraldine Osgood Kieselbach Finks (1968-70), both members of the Jane Randolph Jefferson Chapter, served as State Regents.  Over the years, many members have served on state and national committees.