History continued

When Abigail Wolcott married Oliver Ellsworth, she provided him with the strength and stability to continue his highly productive life.

A Short History of the Abigail Wolcott Ellsworth Chapter, NSDAR on our 100th Birthday, by Donna Holt Siemiatkoski / December 14, 1994

This month marks the Centennial of the Abigail Wolcott Ellsworth Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, one of the oldest civic organizations in Windsor. Our chapter began as a result of a nationwide movement of women in 1890 who envisioned a patriotic society in which they could work to express their ideals of service to God, home and country. On October 11, 1890 the National Society of the D.A.R. was formed in Washington, with Mrs. Caroline Scott Harrison, the First Lady, as first President General. Its object was, and still is, “to perpetuate the memory and the spirit of the men and women who achieved American Independence; to promote the development of an enlightened public opinion; and to foster patriotic citizenship.”

Soon afterward the Connecticut Chapter was organized. In November 1894 the State Regent, Mrs. Keirn, with Mrs. Abbie H. Loomis of Windsor, discussed with Sarah Hayden Power of Windsor, a member of the Ruth Wyllys Chapter in Hartford, and her daughter Mary Power, the possibility of establishing a chapter in Windsor, the oldest town in the state. During the next month several discussions were held at the home of Miss Power, as they shared with their friends the idea of organizing this chapter. Soon more than the required twelve women were found and the organizational meeting was held on December 8, 1894 at the home of Mary Hatch Bell, who was then elected as the first regent of this chapter. As the State Regent was unable to attend, she sent the vice-regent, Mrs. A.H. Pitkin, also a member of the Ruth Wyllys Chapter. Thus, our chapter is closely connected to the Ruth Wyllys Chapter, the home chapter of our current state regent, Barbara Ulrich. Eighteen ladies met on that December night and made history by becoming the Charter Members of the chapter.

Not surprisingly, several of these ladies were from old Windsor families, such as Hayden, Loomis, and Phelps. One, Mrs. Elizabeth Ellsworth, wife of Frederick, a grandson of Oliver and Abigail, was the last member of the Ellsworth family to live in the homestead. Elizabeth Halsey Ellsworth thus became the critical link between the Ellsworth family, the homestead, and our chapter, being the last member of the family to reside in the homestead and one of the chapter`s charter members. As might be expected, the ladies decided to name the Windsor Chapter after the wife of Windsor`s most prominent citizen, both at the time of the founding of our country and since then – Oliver Ellsworth. From the beginning we have proudly borne the name of Abigail Wolcott Ellsworth, who provided the strength and stability for her husband`s productive life, and whose influence as a mother was so profoundly felt not only in her children, all of whom became active in public service, but also in the life of their descendants after them, many of whom have carried out this couple`s commitment to excellent in public service in many fields of endeavor.

Named for a notable woman, our chapter has also been home to some notable women. At 97 years of age Anna Maria Benton was the oldest living real daughter of a patriot in Connecticut at the time she became a founding member of the chapter in 1894. On April 15, 1897 the ladies of the chapter were the hostesses for her one-hundredth birthday party. When she passed away in 1898 at the age of 101, the ladies of our chapter attended her funeral as a group and saw her laid to rest in Palisado Cemetery, where Oliver and Abigail are also at rest. Just a few years ago the ladies of our chapter marked her grave with a D.A.R. marker. Two of our regents have gone on to become State Regent and then Vice President General: Mary Charissa Welch in the 1940s, and Hope Sasportas in the 1980s. The regent who served the longest was Miss Jennie Loomis, who served for 23 years from 1903 to 1926. In the early years several actual descendants of Oliver and Abigail joined our chapter, including Ellen Ellsworth (Hall) Curtis of Springfield, a great-granddaughter of Oliver and Abigail, and her daughter, Ruth Alden Curtis, as well as descendants living further away. The last descendant to join was Mrs. Harriet Ellsworth Siebert in 1936. Throughout her long and productive live, Mrs. Siebert collected material on every Ellsworth in America. As a result of renewing acquaintances with our chapter during the restoration of the Ellsworth Homestead, Mrs. Siebert`s family donated her genealogical collection to the Homestead upon her death at about age ninety-five. As a further result of the search for the Ellsworth heirs to help with the research for the restoration, several more descendants of Oliver and Abigail are now completing paperwork to join the chapter named for their ancestor.

Throughout our century of existence this chapter has been active in three distinct ways: in support of the wide-ranging programs and projects of the National Society and the Connecticut Chapter of the D.A.R., in preservation and commemoration of Windsor`s rich history and community life, and in activities concerning the maintenance of the heritage of both the Ellsworth homestead, which we are privileged to use as a chapter house, and the family who lived there . . . Oliver, the great architect of our national government and his wife, Abigail, for whom we are named.

In the early days we raised money for the building of the D.A.R. Headquarters in Washington, the first building of its size funded, owned, and administered by women. We did our part in the furnishing of the Connecticut Board Room by providing two chairs – one in honor of Abigail Wolcott Ellsworth and one in honor of Miss Jennie Loomis, the only regent to serve for twenty-three years.

After Elizabeth Ellsworth, last member of the family to live in the home built by Oliver, passed away in 1903, the family decided to give the beautiful Homestead to the CT D.A.R. as a museum. The Homestead, as it has been affectionately called, is one of the first historic properties to come under the ownership and stewardship of the D.A.R. anywhere in the country. Members of this chapter have responded enthusiastically and generously, both in 1903 when the Homestead was being furnished by the various D.A.R. Chapters, and in the renovations of the 1960s under the direction of Hope Sasportas and the major restoration of the 1990s first envisioned by MaryAnn Ferrigno.

Our chapter has contributed in other ways to the preservation of history in and for Windsor. One of the early works of the D.A.R. across the nation was to mark and to preserve the monuments of our nation`s history. Since all history is local, local chapters have placed plaque after plaque to celebrate our nation`s history. Here in Windsor we had no lack of historic sites to mark. As its first historic marker, the chapter suitably chose to place a plaque on a boulder on which was then called “the Island” and is now called the Loomis Chaffee campus. Placed by the chapter and town officials with much ceremony in June 1898, the plaque reads: “This rock marks the first English settlement in Connecticut by members from Plymouth Colony 1633. Dedicated by the Abigail Wolcott Ellsworth Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution, June 1898.” A fitting first act of commemoration, this rock commemorates the site of the first settlement of the oldest town in Connecticut. On the 275th anniversary of the adoption of the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, written by Windsor`s Roger Ludlow, the chapter placed a plaque in the Roger Ludlow School, now St. Gabriel`s School. When the Town of Windsor celebrated its Tercentenary in 1933 the chapter celebrated by placing three more markers, still seen by thousands of people daily . . . to the Old Stone fort on the Stoughton property, to the site of Bissell`s Ferry, both on Palisado Avenue, and to Warham`s Mill, outside Larsen`s Hardware Store on Poquonock Avenue. As of the chapter`s fiftieth anniversary in 1944 the mill had been in continuous operation as a gristmill since it was presented to the Rev. John Warham by his congregation in 1640.

Members of our chapter have also preserved history by the written word. In 1929 the Chapter published an inventory of the five cemeteries in Windsor which is still a standard item in most genealogical libraries. The cemetery surveys were updated in the 1980s by Jacqueline Gilman and have been filed in the appropriate libraries both locally and nationwide. Mrs. Gilman has also contributed many pages of genealogical research, following in the tradition of Cora Alford Harvey, regent at the time of our fiftieth anniversary, who submitted seven volumes of records in three years. At the time of the restoration of the Ellsworth Homestead, this writer was enlisted to locate living descendants of Oliver and Abigail Ellsworth to discover more details about the use of the homestead. As a result of this research the Descendants of Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth and His Wife Abigail Wolcott was published, received good reviews, and has found its way into many private and public genealogical collections.

From the beginning, we have participated in service projects, to enhance the lives of our neighbors far and wide, some with the rest of the D.A.R. and some of our own choosing. With the rest of the D.A.R. we have faithfully supported projects for new citizens and Ellis Island, the Mountain Schools, and veterans homes. In 1901 we were among the community organizations to pledge support to the Windsor Library Association. Our chapter organized the Red Cross Chapter in Windsor and spent many hours during World War II making thousands of bandages.

We encourage patriotism in young people in several ways, through our Good Citizens and Scholarship programs conducted locally and through our support of D.A.R. and ROTC scholarship programs. At various times we have also supported the Children of the American Revolution. For many years the Elihu Drake Society held activities under the direction of Evelyn Mills. Over time this society was disbanded. In the 1980s the CAR Society in Windsor was re-organized under the name of Sgt. Daniel Bissell, one of the first recipients of the Purple Heart. Under the sponsorship of our chapter, the Sgt. Daniel Bissell Society was twice voted the outstanding society in the state and received several national first prizes. Society President Ronald Siemiatkoski went on to become Connecticut State CAR President, the first person of Polish descent to hold that position. We have also striven to honor those who teach our youth. For three years in a row, the people we have chosen as our teacher of the year have won that statewide award as well.

We have six fifty-year members, who have been members of our Society for over half its existence. Both Marion Case and Julia Carlson joined on the same day, April 14, 1928. They joined Florence Ellsworth, who had become a member on April 14, 1920. Barbara Erickson became a member on December 17, 1941, joined not long after by the Smith sisters, Harriet Sniffin and Jeannette Zorro, on June 1, 1943. Now 101 years old, Mrs. Ellsworth is our oldest member and still comes to meetings. In our 100 years we have had 28 regents, listed below. Those still living are: Hope Sasportas, Helen Hall, Helen Fleming, Doris Zatti, MaryAnn Ferrigno, Donna Siemiatkoski, Marilyn Davis, Lillian Gudzunas, and our current regent, Lenora Santy.

Begun by a group of ladies, many of whom were descendants of Windsor`s first settlers, we have expanded both our membership base and our scope of activities. We still have members who are descendants of the founders of Windsor, and we hope to again have descendants of Oliver and Abigail on our rolls. Yet, while maintaining our Windsor roots, we have become a community of ladies descended from patriots from seven of the original 13 colonies, with many other ancestors from many other nations, as our varied maiden names and surnames show. We honor local excellence in citizenship, scholarship, and teaching; we participate in state and national projects that have impacts far beyond us . . . in veterans` homes and in mountain schools, and in classes for new citizens. Our ages range from the twenties to 101. Some of us are retired; some of us are women of the nineties who must both work and raise a family, leaving us less time than our mothers had to continue the laudable aims of our Society. We are united in our love for our country and desire to perpetuate our heritage, and in our willingness to do what we can with our neighbors to continue the good works begun by the hundreds of women who have been this Chapter for these 100 years. We feel humble as we consider the many women who have gone before us, yet we hope we have done and will do our part to pass our heritage of love of God, home and country along to the generations of women who will be our chapter for the next 100 years. As we look to the second century of our existence as a chapter and the third century of our nation`s history, we seek the wisdom and strength of our mothers before us who served God and their neighbors to the best of their ability in their generations, so that these ideals will continue to instruct and inspire the generations yet to come. In that endeavor, as in all of life, may God bless us all.

Donna Holt Siemiatkoski, past regent
Abigail Wolcott Ellsworth Chapter, NSDAR.
Windsor, Connecticut
December 14, 1994
“A Short History of the Abigail Wolcott Ellsworth Chapter, NSDAR on Our One Hundredth Birthday” is copyright protected and used by the chapter with permission of the author, Donna Holt Siemiatkoski.