Louisiana Purchase Chapter, NSDAR – 1916-Present
On October 7, 1916, the Louisiana Purchase Chapter, NSDAR, was organized at the home of one of the charter members. Mrs. John H. (Albertise Coon) Reppy was appointed regent. The then-current state regent was present for the occasion.
The name originally selected was DeSoto-Jefferson Chapter, NSDAR, but when rejected by the National Society, the current name, Louisiana Purchase, was chosen. The name “perpetuates the memory of the event which doubled the area of the United States of America and extended the boundaries of the young republic beyond the Mississippi.” (MSSDAR, Centennial Jubilee History of the Missouri DAR Chapters, 1990, p 149)
King’s Trace Chapter, NSDAR – 1926-1958
“A demand for a county seat Chapter for county women not otherwise affiliated, resulted in the organization of King’s Trace Chapter (sic), December 7, 1925, and confirmed January 30, 1926. The bright wintry noon day saw a small band of eager women seated around the dinner table in the home of Organizing Regent Mrs. John H. (Albertise Coon) Reppy with the state regent… at the foot of the table…. ” (MSSDAR, Missouri State History of the Daughters of the American Revolution, 1929, p 315)
The originally proposed name of the chapter, Jefferson County Chapter, NSDAR, being rejected by the National Society, the name King’s Trace was approved at the February 1926 National Society board meeting. “King’s Trace Chapter (sic) derives its name from that part of the old Colonial Spanish road which runs across the northeast corner of Jefferson County…. Old King’s Trace is a link in the Spanish Colonial road called El Camino Real, extending from St. Louis to New Madrid. Since English occupation in 1803, the road has been called King’s Highway, after which the chapter at Sikeston is named. El Camino Real having been appropriated as a name by a chapter in California, we are left to choose the purely local historical name, which, after all, we really prefer.” (MSSDAR, Missouri State History of the Daughters of the American Revolution, 1929, pp 315-316)
By 1932, Mrs. Reppy was the King’s Trace Chapter, NSDAR, historian and she compiled a book titled A Genealogical History of King’s Trace Chapter, D. A. R. [sic], Hillsboro, Missouri, and Jefferson County Marriages, 1821-1871, which was requested by the National Society.
The King’s Trace Chapter, NSDAR, membership numbers varied between 13 and 17 members through 1958; membership in the nearby Louisiana Purchase Chapter, NSDAR, varied between 20 and 25 members during this same time period. In the 1959 MSSDAR Yearbook, Report of State Regent (February, 1959), stated that “She is sorry to report the disbandment of the King’s Trace Chapter (sic) at Hillsboro, but happy that the majority of its members transferred to other Chapters….” (MSSDAR, Daughters of the American Revolution, Yearbook 1959, Sixtieth Annual State Conference, State of Missouri, p 37), while in the 1974-1976 MSSDAR History Bicentennial Edition, the Louisiana Purchase Chapter, NSDAR history reports that “… In 1958, members of the disbanded King’s Trace Chapter (sic), Hillsboro, Missouri, were welcomed into Louisiana Purchase Chapter (sic), thereby adding talent and leadership, as well as memberships.” (MSSDAR, 1974-1976 MSSDAR History Bicentennial Edition, p 24)
Today’s Louisiana Purchase Chapter, NSDAR, members are proud heirs of Mrs. Reppy’s vision for the Daughters of the American Revolution in Southeast Missouri, and of these two chapters that she organized.