Conococheague Chapter, NSDAR

Conococheague Chapter History

The Conococheague Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, was organized on September 27, 1932. That date was the 200th Anniversary of the birth of George Washington. Mrs. John Lillburn, Maryland State Regent, accompanied by members of the Frederick Chapter NSDAR, met at the Women’s Club in Hagerstown with eighteen members of the newly organized DAR Chapter, the first in Washington County. Mrs. Frank N. Hoffmeier was the organizing regent of the newly formed Conococheague Chapter.

In her address of welcome, Mrs. Lillburn stated “in commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the birth of General George Washington, no group of people could pay greater homage to the memory of this great man than by the organization of a chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. As your State Regent, I am deeply grateful for this opportunity to organize a chapter in this progressive and beautiful town.”  Mrs. Edgar McCardell, regent of the Frederick Chapter NSDAR presented a gavel made from a log excavated from a street in Frederick, Maryland. Such logs formed a corduroy road during the early history of Frederick. We still utilize the same gavel. In 1933 a large American flag was presented to the Conococheague Chapter NSDAR by the Thomas Johnson Chapter NSDAR in memory of Mrs. Lilliburn.

Mrs. Warren Miller, first chapter historian, began searching for church and cemetery records as early as February 1933. Through her efforts, seven volumes of cemetery records of Washington County were compiled by 1948 and sent to the National DAR Library. They were also presented to the Maryland Historical Society in 1959. Through Mrs. Miller and later Mrs. Samuel Greenwalt, all eleven churches, patriots of Washington County, bible, and cemetery records were compiled. All material was copied for the State DAR Genealogical Records Committee and also given to the Washington County Library.

Significance of the Chapter Name

The Conococheague Chapter NSDAR is located in Washington County, Maryland. Originally this geographic region, known as “Conococheague,” was comprised of parts of western Maryland and what now are southern parts of Pennsylvania. In 1739, an early settlement began along the banks of the Conococheague Creek that flows through this region. In accordance, the origin of the Conococheague Chapter’s name is a Native American word meaning a “long way,” “long waters”, or “land between the mountains.” The first settlement in 1732 was so called, and later in 1756 George Washington referred to this whole locality between the mountains as Conococheague.