Youghiogheny Glades Chapter, NSDAR

Our History

On August 1, 1967, a group of local women, along with several state officers met at a local restaurant for lunch and to discuss the formation of a chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Garrett County, Maryland. At that time, Garrett was the only county in Maryland that did not have a DAR chapter.

Youghiogheny Glades Chapter, NSDAR was organized on December 7, 1967, with Ruth Calderwood as the founding regent. She had been a member of DAR for 25 years. Ruth had joined the E. Pluribus Unum Chapter, Washington, D.C., in October 1942.

The chapter has remained active throughout the years. Its members have participated in many activities and events, including dedication of sites and graves of American Revolutionary War soldiers. The first large-scale undertaking was the copying of all the cemeteries in Garrett County. To raise funds to publish the cemetery information, each chapter member made a quilt block of a scene in Garrett County, and the blocks were joined making a large quilt. It took several years to locate the cemeteries and to copy all the stones. Maryland’s Garrett County Graves, a 475-page book, was published in 1987. The chapter is indebted to Alice Arnett Proudfoot and Martha Wood Kahl for their dedication and perseverance. They are the ones who brought this project to frution.

In June 2004, Maryland's Garrett County Graves, Volume II, was published. The publication began by picking up where Volume I ended and continued to the present. Additional new-found cemeteries were included along with cemeteries in Pennsylvania and West Virginia near the Garrett County border.

A member of the chapter transcribed the 1880 Garrett County Census (the first census after Garrett became a separate county in 1872) from the old handwritten records. The 1890 Garrett County Military Census and the 1910 Garrett County Census were also transcribed from the handwritten records. The chapter published all three transcriptions in book form.

More recently, the chapter has sponsored a veterans memorial, located in Accident, Maryland. Those wishing to honor or remember a veteran may purchase a brick and have it engraved with the service members name, rank, and unit. The bricks are arranged in a beautiful park like setting featuring a monument to all who have served.

Today the chapter supports a Breast Cancer Awareness Tea in October, offers a 4th of July Yard Sale for veterans support, and many more community activities that focus on patrotism, history, conservation, education and more.

Presently, the chapter has two surviving charter members. For more information concerning the chapter activities or publications, contact us.