Women to Organize

"Before another month rolls around, Council Bluffs will be able to boast of the existence within its gates of a chapter of the national society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, one of the most progressive and aristocratic organizations in the United States. Miss Isabel Patterson, who has been appointed regent has forwarded to the national board of management the list of charter members, twelve in number, and it is generally thought that when the chapter is fully organized applications for membership will be numerous." (April 25, 1897, page 3)
'Women to Organize,' Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil

"It was in May 1897, that the charter members of this chapter met to decide upon a name. Many historical names of persons, places and objects were offered for consideration. After much discussion, the members said, “Why not call the chapter for our town. It is a distinctive name as well as historic. There is only one Council Bluffs in the whole world, and when that name is mentioned, everyone knows it means Iowa." This suggestion met with the approval of all present and so the chapter was named."
The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Annual Conferences. (1916-1917), p. 119-120.

In the early years of the chapter, a past Council Bluffs Chapter, NSDAR, regent and NSDAR Vice President General, was involved in the volunteer efforts for the Hospital Corps of Nurses who saw service during the Spanish-American War.

Dodge House, 1900	1984 chapter meeting in Omaha, Nebraska
1990 chapter meeting in Logan, Iowa	110th Anniversary Celebration

Object Preservation

No honor conferred by the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution was more deserved than that bestowed upon our member during the National Congress of 1914 when she was elected Honorary Vice-President-General for life. This was particularly gratifying to the members of her chapter, and the Iowa Society DAR. Her election also showed the desire of the National Society to honor one whose work and ability had been recognized by the DAR. She was a charter member and the first secretary of Council Buffs Chapter, NSDAR, having served two terms. She served three years as chapter regent from 1899 to 1902. She was elected state historian in 1903 and state vice regent in 1905. Her first recognition in the National Society came in 1906 when she was elected Vice-President-General from Iowa and was re-elected in 1908. In 1918, a Past Honorary Vice President General presented the Iowa Society DAR with the beautiful state regent’s pin in memory of her mother. This pin has been worn by all Iowa state regents since that time.

A Council Bluffs Chapter, NSDAR, member presented the Iowa Society DAR with a gavel from the chapter with this interesting description, "made of woods connected with the service of the Iowa Regiment." The wood of the handle is of native mahogany brought from the Philippines and the head is Texas mahogany from the Border Service. The long line of inlay is from the staff of a flag brought by a Belgian girl to greet the Iowa soldiers as they passed on their way to Germany. The short lines of inlay are part of a bracket from a castle on the Rhine River, in which Iowa troops were stationed as a part of the Army of Occupation of Germany in WW II. The plate is from a shell that exploded on the Iowa front in the Forest of Argonne.

A Chippendale side chair, c. 1780, was donated to the Iowa Room located in Memorial Continental Hall in Washington, D.C. The chair is made of cherry wood and has a center splat of openwork with a shaped crest rail. A worked brass inlay was used to ornament this piece. The chair was originally used in the Moravian Sisters Home in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, after the American Revolutionary War. A member presented this chair in honor of her mother who served as the Iowa state regent from 1926 to 1928, and a member of the Council Bluffs Chapter, NSDAR.