There are many excellent service organizations here in Naperville, which for the most part are open for anyone to join. They all do good works from providing scholarships to holding popular fundraisers.
But there’s one with a very exclusive membership. Any woman wanting to join the Daughters of the American Revolution must prove she is a direct descendant of a patriot who took part in the War of Independence between 1777 and 1783.
You might be forgiven for thinking that the membership is made up of a bunch of elderly ladies proudly clinging onto their heritage in one hand and a string of pearls with the other. While there is some truth to this, it turns out the patriotic group does have younger members too.
As members of the Fort Payne Chapter, which includes Naperville, prepare to participate in this year’s Memorial Day Parade, I spoke to four members about their heritage and why following in their ancestors’ footsteps is so important to them.
Wrenne Jakubiak is the current chapter regent. She’s naturally effusive about all the work the group does, but nothing can outshine the fact that one of their newest members is her 44-year-old daughter, Julie Hartmann.
“It makes me really proud that I signed her paperwork as regent,” she said. “Not only that, but I didn’t have to twist her arm.”
Jakubiak didn’t join DAR until she retired, drawn to their mission of promoting history, education and patriotism.
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“I taught eighth-grade American Constitution (classes), so this has always been a subject dear to my heart,” she said.
“When my husband worked in Boston during the summer while I was still teaching, I walked the Freedom Trail. I was loving it and wondered if anyone I was related to might have been in the revolution, although I had never heard anyone mention it.”
Her family is from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and using Ancestry.com, I traced ancestors back through my paternal side to find the name William Alexander Russwurm, who fought in the Revolutionary War.”
Hartmann also lives in Naperville and teaches second grade in Romeoville.
“It feels great to be joining the DAR alongside my mom. I know how important the DAR is to her, and the fact that we now get to experience all that it is together means so much to both of us,” she said.
“We are definitely at different points in our lives and will serve different roles within the organization, but the DAR’s principles are timeless, and we both are equally passionate about upholding what it stands for,” she said.
Hartmann says learning about her roots has helped her to discover who she really is.
“Knowing I had multiple relatives fight in the Revolutionary War, and that my children carry their namesakes makes me so proud. This war was really how America was born, and the fact that my family members had even the smallest part in how our great country gained its independence is just fascinating to me,” she said.
Second Vice Regent Elizabeth Breese joined DAR in her early 20s when she was a stay-at-home mom with a baby girl.
“I have been a blue-haired old lady for 19 years,” she joked. “One day I received a package from my grandmother in Alaska. It was a big manila envelope stocked with 10 bundles in paper clips. She said it would nice if I joined DAR before she died. After my grandfather passed away in the mid-80s, she did all the genealogy and found out she had ancestors in the Revolutionary War.”
For many years Breese was the chapter’s youngest active member.
“I took my infant daughter to meetings where some of the other members were old enough to be my great grandmother!” she said.
Breese’s children are members of the Children of the American Revolution. They meet monthly and take part in patriotic duties, like placing wreathes at Naperville Cemetery on Memorial Day.
“One of my dad’s ancestors was a patriot from Connecticut. I am proud especially when you think that the history of our country is not pristine,” she said.
“There are plenty of things you can say that are horrible, but you also have people who got on a boat and sailed off not knowing where they were going. They got here and dug out a little piece of the planet. When things didn’t go well, they stood up for themselves and other people. That carries down. When we see something is not right, we have to change it.”
Former Chapter Regent Sarah Dore is a DAR legacy member, which means she’s following in the footsteps of her mother and grandmother.
“My grandmother did all the foot work. Back then you had to travel to different counties for the records,” she said.
“There were four patriots in my family, which isn’t uncommon. They came from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and New York. They were people seeking fame and fortune in the U.S. There are a lot of interesting stories. Not all patriots were fighters, some were suppliers and clerks.”
As well as their joint link to the past, the women are bound by their love for the work DAR does. From running school programs during Constitution Week every September to sponsoring Flights of Honor for female veterans, their busy schedule is a constant reminder that their freedom is due to the sacrifices of their ancestors more than 200 years ago.
Hilary Decent is a freelance journalist who moved to Naperville from England in 2007.
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