Mrs. Gross Robert Scruggs, Organizing Regent, charter member, and first Honorary State Regent of the Texas State Society of the Daughters of the American Colonists, was born July 10, 1869. in Jessamine County, Kentucky, the only daughter of Captain Robert Stuart Price and Margaret  Harrison Butler, who soon moved to Texas with their small child.

Marian Stuart Price Scruggs was graduated with highest honors, including the coveted “Geometry Medal,” from the Mary Nash College at Sherman, Texas, where a lifelong interest in both history and botany developed. She was a founder of the National Council of State Presidents of the Garden Clubs of America and served as the organization’s third national president. Mrs. Scruggs and her daughter, Mrs. Margaret Scruggs Carruth, who was also a charter member of the Texas Society, DAC, were named Overseas Fellows of the Royal Horticultural Society of England, conferred for their contributions to cross-breeding of iris, amaryllis, and day lilies and the production of the first practical book on Gardening in the South and West, now out of print.

After her 1930-1931 term as State Regent, Mrs. Scruggs was named the Southern Section Vice Chairman of the Correct Use of the Flag Committee for 1931-1932. She became an organizing member of John Chew Chapter in 1958.

Mrs. Scruggs held national offices in the Order of the Crown in America, Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America, Daughters of the Barons of Runnemede, and Society of Descendants of Knights of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. She was also a member of the Daughters of the American  Revolution, Colonial Dames of America, United States Daughters of 1812, Order of the Descendants of Colonial Governors, and Order of First Families of Virginia 1607.1624/25. She was a founder of the Dallas Woman’s Club, was active in a number of social clubs, and was a life member of the First Presbyterian Church in Dallas. Mrs. Scruggs died on April 20, 1961.

Mrs. Marion Nelson Chrestman, Regent of the Texas State Society from 1931 to 1933 and one of its charter members, was born in Mexia, Texas, but moved to Dallas at an early age, where she was later a teacher. Her husband was an attorney and a member of the Sons of the Republic of Texas.

Mary Elizabeth Wathan Chrestman was active in the work of the Baptist Church, the Young Women’s Christian Association, the Women’s Auxiliary to Baylor Hospital, and the Dallas Woman’s Club. and was president of the Dallas Woman’s Forum, The Dallas Patriotic Association, the Dallas Lawyers’ Wives Club, and the Oreades Literary Society. Her other hereditary-society memberships included the Daughters of the American Revolution, which she served as Regent of the Jane Douglas Chapter of Dallas; United States Daughters of 1812, of which she was an Honorary State President; and Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America.

Mrs. Chrestman continued to work actively in the Texas Society of the Daughters of the American Colonists, filling the offices of State Recording Secretary from 1938 to 1940 and 1942 to 1945, and of State Parliamentarian from 1933 to 1935 and 1945 to 1951. She was named to several national  committees, including Memorials and Marking Historic Spots and Correct Use of the Flag, which she served as Vice Chairman for the Southern Section. She was also national chairman of the Insignia Committee from 1943 to 1946.

At the time of her death In 1963, Mrs. Chrestman was making her home in Houston, though she had been a member of John Chew Chapter of Dallas since its organization in 1958.

Mrs. Charles Couch Holt, elected Regent of the Texas State Society for the years 1933 to 1935, was a charter member of both the National Society and the Texas Society and received the No. 1 state membership. She had previously served the organization from 1930 to 1933 as its first State Corresponding Secretary, and in the years following her term as State Regent, she accepted appointments to the positions of State Parliamentarian and Color Bearer.

Annie Young Holt was born in Eufaula, Alabama, and attended Union Female College there. She married Charles Couch Holt in 1894, and they lived in Georgia before moving to Dallas in 1923.

During her residence in Georgia, Mrs. Holt was president of the Macon Woman’s Club and was active in the Young Women’s Christian Association and the state’s Federation of Women’s Clubs. She was regent of the Macon chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and served as a state Officer of the Georgia Society, DAR.

Mrs. Holt was also a member of the Colonial Dames of America, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America, and Order of the Crown of America. In addition, she served as president of the Texas Society of the United States of Daughters of 1812. A Methodist, Mrs. Holt died on January 1. 1943.

Mrs. Alvin Valentine Lane, 1935-1937 Regent of the Texas State Society, was born in Anderson, Texas, the daughter of Joseph Huey, who became noted as a pioneer merchant and banker of Corsicana. She was graduated from the Alta Vista Institute of Austin. Following her marriage to University of Texas professor Alvin Valentine Lane, the couple moved in 1888 to Dallas, where he became vice president of the First National Bank.

Mrs. Lane was a charter member of the Texas State Society and was chosen its first bylaws committee chairman. She was elected State Treasurer for 1932-1934 and was appointed State Parliamentarian for 1939-1940. She erved as Southern Section Vice Chairman of the Colonial and Genealogical Records Committee from 1931 to 1934.

Lulie Margaret Huey Lane was active in a number of community organizations, including the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, the Dallas Bankers’ Wives Club, and the Young Women’s Christian Association, all of which she served as president; and the Dallas Woman’s Club, the Dallas Art Association the Dallas Historical Society, and the First Methodist Church. She was also a vice president of the Dallas Southern Memorial Association. Mrs. Lane was State Regent and an Honorary Vice President General of the Daughters of the American Revolution, State President and a National Treasurer and Vice President of the United States Daughters of 1812, president of the Dallas Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a past Deputy Governor General and Honorary Governor of the Texas Branch of the Sons and   Daughters of the Pilgrims, and a member of the Colonial Dames of America and Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America. She died September 4, 1941.

Mrs. Henry Houston Hawley. Sr., was the 1937-1939 State Regent and the first Texas member to hold national office in the Daughters of the American Colonists. Luteola Gibbs Hawley was a native of Huntsville, Texas, who married Henry Houston Hawley of Dallas.

Before her election as State Regent, Mrs. Hawley had served as State Recording Secretary and State Registrar. She was elected National Vice President for the Southern Section in 1940 and was named an Honorary National Vice President upon completion of her three-year term of office in 1943. She was a member of the National Executive Committee, National Headquarters Committee, and National Auditing Committee and also was active in the National Officers’ Club in the capacities of Historian, Vice  President, and Director. She became a member of John Chew Chapter at the time of its organization in 1958.

Mrs. Hawley participated in a number of organizations of her city, including the Dallas Bankers’ Wives Club, Dallas Woman’s Club, Dallas Woman’s Forum, Dallas Art Association, Dallas Patriotic Association, Browning Study Club, Young Women’s Christian Association, and Southern Methodist University Mothers’ Club. She was also a member of the Randolph-Macon Woman’s College Club and the Daughters of the American Revolution. She died in Dallas on November 8, 1976, and was buried in Huntsville.

Mrs. John H. Connell served briefly as Regent of the Texas State Society, Daughters of the American Colonists, from April. 1939, until her death on June 11, 1939. She had previously sewed the Society as 1935-1937 State Corresponding Secretary.

Maude Brock Connell was born in Cynthiana, Kentucky, in 1871 and was educated at the Sayre College for Women in Lexington. She was married in Lexington in 1889 to Dr. John H Connell, and they were the parents of two sons.

In Dallas she, like her fellow DAC members, was active in a number of patriotic associations, including the Colonial Dames of America, Daughters of the American Revolution, United States Daughters of 1812, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America, and Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims, of which she was a charter member of the Texas Branch. She also held membership in the World War Mothers, Dallas Southern Memorial Association, Kentucky Club of Dallas, Dallas Kindergarten Association, and Dallas Penwomen’s Club. She was a Baptist.

Mrs. Henry Lee Tenison was Regent of the Texas State Society from 1939 to 1941. She had previously served as the 1937-1939 State Corresponding Secretary and had been elected State Second Vice Regent for the 1939-1941 term, but was elevated to the office of State Regent following the untimely death of Mrs. John H. Connell in June, 1939. Mrs. Tenison was appointed to the office of State Parliamentarian for 1941-1943.

Ruth McCarroll Tenison was active in a number of Dallas organizations and was a past president of the Dallas Patriotic Association and the Dallas Southern Memorial Association. She was a member of the Kentucky Club of Dallas.

Her other hereditary-association memberships were numerous. She was a member of Jane Douglas Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, for more than fifty years, and was president of the Dallas Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. In addition, she was a member of the United States Daughters of 1812, the Sovereign Colonial Society Americans of Royal Descent, Colonial Dames of America, Colonial Order of the Crown, Order of Washington, the Plantagenet Society, Magna Charta Dames, Dames of the Court of Honor, Daughters of Colonial Wars, and Society of Descendants of King William I the Conqueror and His Companions at Arms.

Mrs. Frederick Brewster Ingram, who served as the 1941-1943 State Regent, was Texas’ only second-generation Honorary State Regent. The Austin native who was a Dallas resident for eighty years was the daughter of Alvin Valentine Lane and his wife, Lulie Margaret Huey, who was the 1935-1937 State Regent. She married Frederick Brewster Ingram in  Dallas on June 26, 1941.

Alice Lane Ingram was an early member of the Texas Society, serving as State Treasurer from 1934 to 1936 and as State Corresponding Secretary from 1939 to 1941 before her election to the state’s highest office in 1941. She was named 1957-1959 State Parliamentarian. Long active on the national level as well, Mrs. Ingram was the first General Assembly Page from Texas and was chosen chairman of two national committees, the 1937-1940 Patriotic Education Committee and the 1940-1943 Memorials and Marking Historic Spots Committee. She sewed on the National Resolutions Committee from 1953 to 1958. Mrs. Ingram became a member of John Chew Chapter of Dallas at the time of its organization in 1958.

Other patriotic organizations also received the benefit of Mrs. Ingram’s capable leadership. She was an Honorary Vice President General of the Daughters of the American Revolution and served as 1932-1934 Regent of Jane Douglas Chapter, DAR. of Dallas. She was an Honorary President National of the United States Daughters of 1812, as well as an Honorary State President of that organization; a former officer of the Texas Branch of the Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims; and a Past President of the Dallas Southern Memorial Association and the Dallas Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

In Dallas civic endeavors, Mrs. Ingram served as a vice president of the Matheon Club and was active in her support of the United Service Organization and the Young Women’s Christian Association. She was also superintendent of the junior department of the First United Methodist Church. Mrs. Ingram was a charter member of the Dallas Woman’s Club and a member of the Dallas Country Club.

Alice Lane Ingram died at the age of ninety in Dallas on September 10, 1978, and was buried at Grove Hill Cemetery In addition to one brother, she was survived by eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Mrs. Frank Garland Trau, Regent of the Texas Society from 1943 to 1945, is the only Texas member who has been honored by election as National President of the Daughters of the American Colonists. In her       distinguished years of service to the Society, Mrs. Trau has also filled the state offices of First Vice Regent and Treasurer and the national offices of Vice President for the Southern Section, Treasurer, and Parliamentarian. She has held membership on a number of national committees and has been elected Director, Vice President, and President of the National Officers’ Club. Since 1958 Mrs. Trau has been an Honorary National President. She has also been a member of the John Chew Chapter of Dallas since the chapter’s organization in 1958.

lmogene Guion Trau was born in Seneca Falls, New York, the daughter of Edward Latham Marshall Guion and Carrie Virginia Watling. Following her graduation from Mynderse Academy of Seneca Falls in 1918 and from Cornell University of Ithaca, New York, in 1922 with a Bachelor of Arts   Degree, she was married on July 5, 1923, to Frank Garland Trau in Seneca Falls. To this marriage were born a son, Frank Garland Trau, Jr., and a  daughter, Guion Trau, now Mrs. Edgar Rives Taylor, Jr.

In addition to her DAC activities, Mrs. Trau has served the Daughters of the Amencan Revolution as State Regent, Vice President General, and Organizing Secretary General; the National Society of New England Women as First Vice President General; the National Society, Colonial Daughters of the Seventeenth Century as National Parliamentarian; the National Society. Daughters of Colonial Wars as National Organizing Secretary; and the United States Daughters of 1812 as First Vice President of John Cavet Chapter of Dallas. Her other hereditary-society memberships include Magna Charta Dames, Order of the Crown of Charlemagne in the United States of America, and the Huguenot Society of Texas. She is an associate member of the Huguenot Society of the Founders of Manakin in the Colony of Virginia.

Mrs. Trau has been active In the Community affairs of Sherman as a member of the Listeners Club, the Sherman Antique Club, and Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church. She has also served her church as vice president of the Dallas Diocesan Board. Her other memberships include the Cresap  Society, Grayson County Historical Society, and Texas State Genealogical Society.

Mrs. John Norman Weatherby served as Regent of the Texas State Society from 1945 to 1947. Ann Berry Weatherby was born in Goldthwaite, Texas. on December 7, 1887. She was married on January 19, 1907, to John Norman Weatherby, and they made their home in Brownwood.

Mrs. Weatherby was interested in the affairs of her city and her nation. She was a devoted member of the First Baptist Church of Brownwood and participated in local, state, and national activities of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

During World War II, Mrs. Weatherby served the Daughters of the American Colonists as Southern Section Vice Chairman of the War Service Committee. She became a member of Honorable Philip Livingston Chapter at the time of its organization in 1958.

Mrs. Weatherby died on June 28, 1960, in Brownwood.

Mr. George T. Spears, Sr., Regent of the Texas State Society from 1947 to 1949 and founder of the Texas State Officers’ Club in 1948, was born at Myrtle Springs, Texas, on December 29, 1877. She was married to Colonel George Thomas Spears, a newspaper publisher who, at one time in his career, owned seventeen Texas newspapers. They were the parents of three children: Lucille, who died at the age of three years; George T. Spears, Jr., who married Alysse Sangster; and Clara Mary, who married Philip E. Luker. Mrs. Spears, her daughter, and her daughter-in-law were all organizing members of the Honorable Philip Livingston Chapter, DAC of Fort Worth.

Maude Lucille Dawson Spears received her education at Kidd-Key College in Sherman, Texas, where she prepared for her profession as a teacher. She was active in the Methodist Church and held local and            district Offices in the women’s work of the church. A member of the Chautauqua Literary and Science Club of Graham, Texas, she participated in many community projects.

Mrs. Spears was also active in hereditary associations other than DAC. She filled the offices of State Historian and State Vice Regent of the Texas Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, and was a board member of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.

For the last few years of her life, Mrs. Spears was confined to her room in the Decatur home of her daughter, but she remained alert and interested in the happenings of the times. She died at Decatur on December 12, 1975, only a few weeks before her ninety-eighth birthday.

Miss Mary Ethyl Walter, 1949-1951 Regent of the Texas State Society, is a native of Dallas who was graduated from the University of Colorado and later received her master’s degree from Southern Methodist  University.

A teacher and world traveler, Miss Walter is a lifelong Presbyterian who taught Sunday School for many years at the old City Temple of that denomination in Dallas. She is a member of  P.E.O.

Her long list of services to hereditary and patriotic organizations includes terms as State President of the United States Daughters of 1812 and Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America. She has held state office in the Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims and is a member of the Colonial Dames of America, Daughters of the Republic of Texas, and Magna Charta Dames. A former vice regent of the Jane Douglas Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Miss Walter is now a member of James Campbell Chapter, DAR.

In addition to her service as Regent of the Texas State Society, DAC, Miss Walter was named national     co-chairman of the National Awards Committee for 1955-1958. She was an organizing member of the John Chew Chapter of Dallas in 1958.

Mrs. Edward Rowland Barrow, the 1951-1953 State Regent, was born in Iola, Kansas, coming to Texas with her parents as a young girl. Completing local schools, she attended the University of Texas, where she met a young aviator, Edward Rowland Barrow, whom she married shortly after graduation in 1921. Following several years spent in San Antonio,  Houston became their permanent home.

Few women have worked as unstintingly in the service of patriotic and genealogical societies as Jane Ewing Barrow. Descended from a long line of distinguished forebears, she joined many such organizations and served all with distinction: the Daughters of the American Revolution, achieving membership on its National Board as Corresponding Secretary General and as a Vice President General; National Society, Colonial Dames of America; Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America; Magna Charta Dames; Daughters of the Barons of Runnemede; and the Huguenot Society of Washington, D.C.

Joining the Texas Society, Daughters of the American Colonists, in 1938 when it was just eight years old, Mrs. Barrow held several state chairmanships and offices. She was 1943-1945 State Second Vice Regent; served as State Vice Regent from 1945 to 1949; and after her term as State Regent, was appointed State Parliamentarian for 1953-1955. Mrs. Barrow also achieved a long record of active service to the National Society, as national chairman of the National Defense Committee for 1949-1952, as a member of the National Resolutions Committee from 1952 to 1953, as a member of the National Bylaws and Revisions Committee from 1952 to 1958, and as national chairman of the National Awards Committee from 1955 to 1958. She was elected     National Vice President for the Southern Section for 1958.1961 and served again from 1958 to 1960 as a member of the National Resolutions Committee.

Her last service to the National Society was as a member of the National Headquarters Committee from 1961 to 1964.

Jane Ewing Barrow was a great worker in her community, an active member of the Pan American Round Table, a devout Presbyterian, and a director of the Institute of Religion for ten years. The Barrows were both   generous donors to the activities they sponsored and enjoyed. Their son, killed during the Korean conflict, was memorialized at the United States Air Force Academy by the Captain Edward Ewing Barrow Award for outstanding work in chemistry. which is presented annually in the name of the Daughters of the American Colonists.

Jane Barrow is remembered by those who worked with her as an exceptional instructor in the ways of organizations. She died in Houston on November 3, 1971, survived by one daughter.

Mrs. Albert B. Horn served as State Regent during the years 1953-1955, after filling the office of State Treasurer in the preceding two years. Previously she had been appointed State Color Bearer for 1947-1949.

Mrs. Horn was born in Howard County, Missouri, and was educated at Howard Payne College of Fayette, Missouri. After teaching school in Brandon and Davenport, Iowa, she married Albert B. Horn in 1919 and moved with him to Corsicana, Texas.

Marie Simpson Horn has maintained an active interest in church, civic, and patriotic affairs. She has rendered long and devoted attention to the First Christian Church of Corsicana, having taught a Sunday School class for more than twenty-two years and served as president of the Christian Women’s Fellowship. During World War II she volunteered more than nine thousand hours to the American Red Cross. A member of the Daughters of the American Revolution since 1926, Mrs. Horn worked to secure the admission of nineteen junior members during her term as Regent of James Blair Chapter, DAR. She is also a member of Magna Charta Dames.

In addition to her state DAC duties, Mrs. Horn was appointed to the National Finance Committee from 1955 to 1958. She has been a member of the Louis Guion Chapter since it was organized in 1958.

Mrs. Albert Earl Hudspeth served as the 1955-1957 State Regent of the Texas Society. Born and reared in Dallas, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Turner Skiles was graduated from the Ursuline Academy of Dallas, from Maryland’s National Park Seminary, and from the University of Texas at Austin.

Leta Amonette Skiles Hudspeth was an active member of the East Dallas Christian Church and of many service and patriotic groups. She was president of the Dallas Patriotic Association, a member of the Dallas Woman’s Club, and director of her Delta Delta Delta fraternity. A promoter and secretary of girls’ activities for the Dallas Young Women’s Christian Association, she served as first director of the YWCA summer camp, Tres Rios, in Glen Rose, Texas.

Mrs. Hudspeth was Regent of the Jane Douglas Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution; advisor to Levy Casey Chapter, DAR; and Organizing Regent of the James Campbell Chapter, DAR. She also served chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy as president.

Before her election as DAC State Regent, Mrs. Hudspeth had completed a term as State Recording Secretary for 1947-1949. She was also named Southern Section Vice Chairman of the 1958-1961 National Defense Committee.

Source:

Crews, D’Anne McAdams, comp and ed. Daughters of the American Colonists in Texas—a History of the Texas Society 1930-1979. Huntsville, Texas: n.p., 1979.