Oneida Chapter History

Oneida Chapter, NSDAR, is the 4th oldest chapter in New York State and 49th in the nation. It was organized June 1893, the first women’s society to be formed in Utica, New York. Its name was taken from the Oneida Tribe of Indians, one of the "Six Nations" of the Iroquois Confederation, who inhabited this region. When the Oneidas departed for the far west, they left behind their Sacred Stone, which for years was in Utica’s Forest Hill Cemetery, but has since been returned to the Oneidas.

The Oneida Indians were known as the "Tribe of the Upright Stone." This Sacred Stone was their National Altar.

It was in 1893 that Miss McAllister, then State Regent, requested that a Chapter of the DAR be formed in Utica. Mrs. Roscoe Conkling (Julia Seymour), sister of New York State Governor Horatio Seymour, consented to be Regent and held the first meeting at her home on Rutger Park with 14 charter members present.

Oneida Chapter's First Regent- 1893	Oneida Chapter's First Meeting Place- 1893

The early settlers of Utica were New England pioneers, and nearly all descendants of Revolutionary soldiers.  Therefore the membership grew rapidly, to about 150 women in only three years.  Mrs. Conkling, however, did not live to see this rapid expansion; she died in October 1893, only a few months after the Chapter was organized.

The first New York State DAR Conference was held in Utica June 3rd and 4th, 1896, at the invitation of the regent from Oneida Chapter, with regents and delegates from 20 chapters attending. The meeting took place in the U.S. Circuit Court Room in the Old Court House on John Street.

Historic Old Court House, Utica, NY Meeting Place of the First NY State DAR Conference hosted by Oneida Chapter-1896

Four more State Conferences have been held in Utica since then - in 1906, 1940, 1943 and 1953. Oneida Chapter is honored to number among its former members a State Regent, Mrs. Henry Roberts, who served from 1906 to 1908. Many of our members since then have served as state officers, and committee chairmen at both the state and national level. 

On Flag Day, June 14, 1912, the DAR Chapters of the Mohawk Valley sponsored the placing of markers at intervals along the route of a now historic 40-mile march, taken by General Herkimer’s troops, through the valley to Oriskany. The march took place in August 1777 for the relief of Fort Stanwix. This Battle of Oriskany on August 6th between Herkimer’s men and St. Leger with his Indians was the turning point of the Revolution. (The Oneida Indians remained true to the colonists, fighting on our side.) Two of these markers, 14 in all, were dedicated by Oneida Chapter. Oneida Chapter DAR worked with the Sons of the American Revolution and the Oneida County Historical Society to have the Oriskany Battlefield made into a State Park, and on August 6, 1952, this request was granted.

Oriskany Monument - dedicated to those patriots, who fought at the Battle of Oriskany

The Fort Schuyler Society, Children of the American Revolution, was organized by Oneida Chapter in 1896, and chartered in 1926.

These are indeed only brief highlights of the earliest endeavors and accomplishments, of which Oneida Chapter has good reason to be proud. Today Oneida Chapter continues to initiate and support projects that promote our most worthwhile national objectives of Historic Preservation, Promotion of Education, and Patriotic Endeavor. As reaffirmed in the following poem, Oneida Chapter "faces the future confident that the best is yet to be."

"Life is a story, in volumes three -
The Past, the Present, the Future -
The first is written and laid away,
The second we're writing day by day,
The third and last of these volumes three
Is hidden from sight, God holds the key."

- The foregoing history contains excerpts compiled and edited by Ex-Regent, Harriet Morrison, from  Chapter Records entitled, "History of Oneida Chapter 1893-1953" by Historian, Isabelle B.C. Smith.

- Chapter History Photos courtesy of Oneida County Historical Society at Utica, NY.            
- Graphics by Penny Parker Penny's Place In Cyberspace