Our Chapter

The Alexander Martin Chapter, NSDAR, was formed on May 26, 1916, during a meeting at the Broad Street home of Blanche Armfield Pickens (Mrs. R. T. Pickens). Credentials were sent to the National Society on October 19, 1917, and the charter was signed and issued on January 9, 1918.

Charter Members

  • Regent Mary Lewis Millis
  • Vice Regent Anne Carter Marsh
  • Recording Secretary Lisette Hanff Kearns
  • Corresponding Secretary Berta Lindsay Carraway
  • Registrar Blanche Armfield Pickens
  • Treasurer Annie Wilson Idol
  • Historian Helen Bonner Eshelman
  • Sarah Webster Caldwell
  • Verta Idol Coe
  • Mary Thompson Hancock
  • Anna Pearce Hanff
  • Kathleen Sadtler Hiatt
  • Polly Heitman Ivey
  • Ella Arnold Lambeth
  • Marietta M. Munyan
  • Ella Lambeth Rankin
  • Nannie Wood Stewart
  • Minnie Weedon Tabb
  • Nan Heitman Terry


 

Charter Namesake

Alexander Martin Photo

Alexander Martin was chosen as the chapter’s namesake at a meeting of the charter members in 1916. His name was well chosen both for his personal characteristics of integrity, intelligence, justice in leadership, as well as for his unselfish, loyal patriotism to the cause of American independence.

Martin was born in 1740, and died in 1807. He represented North Carolina at the Constitutional Convention and is known as one of the Founding Fathers. Martin witnessed several significant chapters in colonial and early U.S. history, including the Regulator Rebellion, the Revolutionary War, and the North Carolina ratification debates. When the Revolutionary War began, Martin served first as colonel in the Richard Caldwell’s militia in North Carolina and later in George Washington’s army.

Martin served as a North Carolina Senator from 1778 to 1782. In 1782, he became acting governor of the state. Later in 1782, Martin was elected as governor and served from 1782 to 1785. Martin was elected to the United States Senate where he served one term from 1793 to 1799. Martin served as North Carolina Governor again from 1789 to 1792. An advocate for education, he became the first president of the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina and served on its board until his death in 1807. At the time of his death, Martin was Speaker of the North Carolina Senate.

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