The Louisa St. Clair Chapter NSDAR was formed by a group of eight women in the Detroit, Michigan, home of Mrs. William Fitzhugh Edwards at 371 E. Congress on January 19, 1893. The chapter was named for Louisa St. Clair, the daughter of General Arthur St. Clair, Governor of the Northwest Territory, following the Revolutionary War. The name of Louisa St. Clair was suggested by charter member, Katherine Hendrie Green, as Louisa was a Daughter of the American Revolution in every way, having been born in 1773.
By the time the national charter was issued on February 13, ten more had joined. This made 18 charter members, with Mrs. Edwards as regent of the first chapter in Michigan and 44th in the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (formed a little more than two years prior).
The chapter grew rapidly, becoming one of the largest in the country. By 1903, it had reached 300 members. The 1928-1929 yearbook listed 653 members. Membership decreased in the 1930s, but began to grow again during the 40s, reaching 600 members by 1950. Due to the exodus of Detroiters to the suburbs and the organization of many new chapters, membership again fell.
In the fall of 1896, the chapter began meeting at the Russell House, a large hotel in Detroit, at 10:30 a.m. on the third Thursday of each month. Later the meetings were moved to the Twentieth Century Club, the Women’s City Club of Detroit, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Book Cadillac Hotel. Then, in 1937, the chapter started meeting at Newberry House on East Jefferson Avenue at the invitation of Helen Newberry Joy who later deeded the property to the Louisa St. Clair Chapter NSDAR. Newberry House was the chapter’s home for the next 24 years. In 1961, an office was established at the Women’s City Club of Detroit, moved to the Whittier Towers in 1976, and from there to Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church in 1998.
In April 2007, after the chapter changed its official location to Grosse Pointe, the archives were removed to Kerby Elementary School in Grosse Pointe Farms. The archives were removed to a climate-controlled storage facility in August, 2012. Chapter members now meet in restaurants, clubs, and homes.
Louisa St. Clair was born December 24, 1773, in the wild of the western Pennsylvania frontier. She was educated and introduced to society in Philadelphia while her father served the State Assembly and later, the Continental Congress. When frail health prevented her mother from travelling to Marietta, the seat of the Northwest Territory, Louisa served as hostess for her father during his appointment as the first Territory Governor.
Louisa attracted the romantic intentions of the son of the powerful Six Nations Indian tribe, but her father refused his consent to a marriage. Heartbroken, Louisa returned to Ligonier and impetuously married the dashing Samuel Robb, who had studied medicine and was an accomplished violinist and dancer. They had three sons and three daughters. Samuel Robb enlisted in the War of 1812, was captured with his unit on their way to Fort Niagara, and held as a prisoner of war aboard ship on the Atlantic coast until after the Treaty of Ghent was signed.
The St. Clairs sacrificed their fortune by financing the American war for independence forcing them to leave their grand estate for a humble cabin on a ridge near Ligonier. Louisa cared for her parents until their deaths in 1818, sharing in their poverty and deprivation. Louisa died in 1840 and Samuel died in 1853. They are interred, side by side, in the Old Ligonier Cemetery.
23 members of the Louisa St. Clair Chapter journeyed by coach to the 44th Continental Congress, stopping on their way in Ligonier, PA to dedicate the new granite marker they had placed on the grave of their Chapter namesake.
Eighty years later, Chapter Daughters followed in the footsteps of those earlier members and rededicated the final resting place of Louisa St. Clair. Returning from the 123rd Continental Congress, Daughters from the Michigan and Pennsylvania State Societies held a ceremony on June 30, 2014 and paid tribute to the accomplished and adventurous daughter of General Arthur and Phoebe Bayard St. Clair.
In so doing, they fulfilled the wishes, expressed in Chapter minutes of 1934, that “…future generations of our beloved Chapter will guard, cherish and preserve this memorial to endless time.”
In January, 2017, an Ohio Daughter alerted the Chapter to a Kent, Ohio auction of an antique collection that included a large wooden sign bearing the name of the Chapter. Unsure of its provenance, then Chapter Regent, Peggy King Scully, and Vice-Regent, Kay Burt-Willson, attended the auction and successfully bid on “lot 17.” Registrar, Grace Bliss Smith located a photo from our Chapter Archives confirming that the sign once hung over the front porch entrance to the Newberry House, our former Chapter Headquarters, almost a century ago.
This elegant Victorian structure in Detroit had been the childhood residence of beloved chapter benefactor and DAR Honorary Vice President General, Helen Newberry Joy. Upon the death of her parents, Mrs. Joy offered the residence to community service organizations for use as a meeting place. In 1939 she gifted the residence to the Chapter and it remained the Chapter’s “home” until it was acquired through eminent domain by the City of Detroit and razed in the name of urban development.
The mystery remains as to how this humble Chapter sign found its way to Ohio, but as the Chapter prepared to celebrate its 125th anniversary in 2018, Chapter Daughters were delighted to have this “treasure” back home where it belongs.
Louisa St. Clair
Each day in the frail light of dawn
you pulled your bow-string taut.
Crisp leaves crackled underfoot,
bittersweet hung on vines
and wild grapes warmed with a star sprung bloom.
No deer, no turkey, no pigeon
could escape the larder in the St. Clair home
while you hunted the thick woods, riding low in your saddle,
you, the Diana of the American frontier.
Then, later each day, by the table,
the frail lace of your bonnet slightly shadowed
a pretty brow unclouded with grief,
your future secure
in an America made safe by your father.
Hunting and yearning for your horse,
you were a wild tomboy who could
pour tea, sew a straight seam,
Strawberries and cream on the table
in the parlor your mother blessed.
No wonder the first love of your life
was smitten, and no wonder your
father denied the match, given those harsh
demands by the young man’s chieftain father.
Grief then began to cloud your brow,
new American sacrifices rose up time and again.
Your father’s poverty was a bitter sorrow,
and your children’s deaths were a public sorrow,
your broken heart a secret sorrow.
You were a first American. Fortune and honor bolted
away, then returned, rooted in the crisp
leaves underfoot, the vast mystery of the Pennsylvania landscape.
In the sure and steady brightness of your woman’s heart.
By Kathleen Ripley Leo
Regent, Sarah Ann Cochrane Chapter
©2014 KR Leo
Created for the Chapter in tribute to Louisa St. Clair on the occasion of the re-dedication of her final resting place in Ligonier, PA, on June 30, 2014.
Mrs. Henry Bourne Joy (Helen Hall Newberry) #10093
Joined Louisa St. Clair Chapter NSDAR – November 7, 1895
Born June 9, 1869 – Detroit; Died March 13, 1958 – Grosse Pointe Farms
Buried Elmwood Cemetery; Detroit, Michigan
Patriot – Pvt./Sgt. Amasa Newberry, CT
Chapter Benefactress and Honorary Vice-President General for Life
A native of Detroit, member by birth and marriage of families whose lives are part and parcel of the historic events of our country and especially the Northwest Territory.
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