History of Oakland County Michigan a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, its principal interests / compiled from the official records of the county, the newspapers and data of personal interviews, under the editorial supervision of Thaddeus D. Seeley.

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY

95

in the same until November 14, 1776, when the regiment was dismissed
by General Gates, at Ticonderoga. Himself and his wife (seventy
years old) lived with a son, Stephen, and his family, and the old people had no property save their wearing apparel and bedding.
GENERAL RICHARDSON CHAPTER, D. A. R.
General Richardson Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution,
was organized in October, I899, and received its charter from the National Society on February 17, I9oo, engrossed with the following names:
Mrs. Ada Louise Leggett Smith, regent; Mrs. Lillian Drake Avery, viceregent; Miss Mabel Thorpe, secretary; Mrs. Harriet Beach Lounsbury,
corresponding secretary; Mrs. Josephine Brown Sanford,treasurer; Mrs.
Marion Eliza Seymour Ten Eyck, registrar; and Miss Marcia Richardson, historian; Miss Mary Fitch Crofoot, Mrs. Grace G. Blakesley
Thather, Mrs. Eliza Van Campen Birge, Mrs. Ann Loomis Richards
Coleman, Miss Lucy Carpenter, Mrs. Kate Beach Gray, Mrs. Julia Talbot Smith, Mrs. Anne Robinson Vernon, and Mrs. Anne Ingoldsby
Crawford.
The first work undertaken by this active, patriotic society was to collect and send boxes of books and magazines to the soldiers in the Philippines. It next endeavored to arouse an interest in American history by
offering prizes to the Pontiac grammar and high schools for the best
written essays on subjects selected from the Revolutionary period.
These competitions proved very successful and were continued several
years.
The society has responded liberally to the call for funds to build
Memorial Continental Hall. It felt that in no better way could our forefathers be honored than by assisting in erecting this splendid edifice to
their memory.
The Daughters meet once a month and aside from the regular business, have a program devoted to the study of historical or educational
topics. The preservation of the early records of Oakland county is a
work which the historical committee has recently taken up and much
valuable genealogical material has already been collected. This is especially true of the families of the Revolutionary soldiers of the county,
as it is their desire to have a record of all the descendants of these veterans.
They have a fine old mahogany bookcase which was formerly owned
by Dr. Elliott, an early practitioner of Pontiac. It contains a set of Lineage Books published by the National Society and bound volumes of
the American Mlonthly, the official D. A. R. magazine, beside a number
of very old books and papers which have been donated to them. They
also have been presented with a rare old map of the Provinces as they
were in 1776, a spinning wheel and reel, and a silver buckle which was
worn by a Revolutionary soldier.
To the generosity of Mr. Henry M. Warren of the P. S. H. they
owe their famous collection of autographs of celebrities. For twentyfive years Mr. Warren collected these letters, cards and pictures of
famous people, and when he presented them to the Daughters, they