Chapter History

 

On May 5, 1894, New Hampshire State Regent Mrs. Arthur E. Clarke appointed Mrs. Annie Bartlett Shepard as chapter regent of a new DAR chapter in Derry, New Hampshire. It was the second chapter to be formed in the state. The chapter was organized in October of 1894, with twenty-four members.

The new chapter was named Molly Reid Chapter for the wife of our most distinguished Revolutionary War soldier, General George Reid.

Annie Bartlett Shepard

 

Annie Bartlett Shepard was born on February 18, 1861, in Nottingham, New Hampshire, to Thomas Bradbury and Victoria Cilley Bartlett. Educated in public schools, Mrs. Shepard later attended Lasell Seminary in Auburndale, Massachusetts. She taught at the Derry Village School before her marriage to Colonel Frederick Johnson Shepard, Sr., on September 27, 1887. Mr. Shepard was the president of the Derry Bank. They had four sons.

She is the grandmother of Astronaut Rear Admiral Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr.

Mrs. Shepard joined DAR in May of 1894, and in October of that year, she founded the Molly Reid Chapter. In 1905, Mrs. Shepard was nominated and elected state vice regent at Continental Congress. She became state regent two years later.

She was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the New Hampshire Association Opposed to Women's Suffrage; the Derry School Board; East Derry Village Improvement Society; Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests; New Hampshire Conference of Charities and Correction, Mercy Home; Presidential Elector for New Hampshire; President of New Hampshire State Federation of Women's Clubs; First Woman Chairman of the Rockingham County Woman's Republican Club; and a charter member of the Derry Women's Club. She was a member of the New Hampshire Society of Colonial Dames.

She died on December 4, 1944, in Boston, Massachusetts, at the age of 83. She is buried in the Forest Hill Cemetery in East Derry, New Hampshire.

Her Patriot ancestors were Major Joseph Cilley of the First New Hampshire Regiment; General Thomas Bartlett of Nottingham, soldier and member of the Committee of Safety; Joseph Neely of Nottingham, who furnished money to hire soldiers; Ensign Nathaniel Batchelder, Sr., of Hampton, New Hampshire, who served under Colonel Scammell and died at Valley Forge; Abraham True, Sr., of Deerfield, New Hampshire, signer of the Association Test; and Benjamin True, of Deerfield, New Hampshire, who served under Captains Marston and Butler.

Real Daughters

 

Three early members of the Molly Reid Chapter were Real Daughters, women whose fathers were Revolutionary War soldiers. Their patriot father was Corporal John Piper, who was born in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, on January 17, 1760. He served in the Continental Army with New Hampshire companies from the beginning to the end of the war. After the war he was commonly called "Adjutant Piper." He died in Tuftonboro, New Hampshire, on April 20, 1830.

Vienna Emily Piper Allen was born in Tuftonboro, New Hampshire, on January 16, 1821, to John Piper and his second wife, Anna Young Piper.

She married Lyman Allen of Nottingham, New Hampshire, and they were parents to seven children. Mrs. Allen became a member of the Molly Reid Chapter in 1896. Two of her three daughters were members of the DAR, as well as two grand-daughters and at least two great-granddaughters. Mrs. Allen died in Nottingham, New Hampshire, on October 23, 1904.

 

Sarah H. Piper Hersey was born in Tuftonboro, New Hampshire, on May 20, 1813; the eighteenth child of John Piper with his wife, Ann Young Piper. She married Levi T. Hersey, and they had one son.

Sarah resided in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, until her death on March 9, 1900, at 86 years of age. She had become a member of the Molly Reid Chapter one year before her death.

 

Martha W. Piper Mason was born in Tuftonboro, New Hampshire, on February 16, 1812; the third daughter of John Piper and Anna Young Piper to have joined the Molly Reid Chapter as a Real Daughter. She married Nathaniel Mason and they resided in Wolfeboro, about a mile from where her sister, Sarah Hersey, lived. Mrs. Mason died on December 18, 1899.

 

Our Past Chapter Regents

 

Mrs. Annie Bartlett Shepard	1894-1897
Mrs. Mary Upton Bingham	1897-1899
Mrs. Mary Latham Clark	1899-1900
Mrs. Kate Hughes Plummer	1900-1901
Mrs. Martha Shute Stevens	1901-1904
Mrs. Harriett Fuller Chase	1904-1905
Mrs. Elizabeth Fitz Hill	1905-1907
Mrs. Mary Durgin Chase	1907-1909
Miss Sarah Prince Webster	1909-1911
Mrs. Harriett Chase Newell	1911-1913
Mrs. Emma Albee Pollard	1913-1915
Mrs. Julia Hopkins Greenough	1915-1917
Mrs. Joanna Clark Nesmith	1917-1919
Mrs. Mary Stuart MacMurphy	1919-1921
Miss Nellie Etta Webster	1921-1923
Mrs. Alice Watts Campbell	1923-1925
Mrs. Mamie Knott Saltmarsh	1925-1927
Mrs. Ethel Payne Adams	1927-1929
Mrs. Martha Neal Crosby	1929-1931
Mrs. Ella Emerson Griffith	1931-1933
Mrs. Lena Peason Low	1933-1935
Mrs. Florence Harvey Currier	1935-1937
Miss Lillian Brickett Poor	1937-1939
Mrs. Helen Melvin Moody	1939-1941
Mrs. Helen Pumpelly Cochran	1941-1943
Mrs. Barbara Grinell Schurman	1943-1945
Mrs. Ethel Hardy Campbell	1945-1946
Miss Marguerite E. Clark	1946-1948
Mrs. Carolyn Burrell Cochran	1948-1950
Mrs. Ethel Hardy Campbell	1950-1951
Mrs. Edna Bliss Blake	1951-1953
Mrs. Murial Armstrong Ferson	1953-1955
Mrs. Louise Newell Audette	1955-1957
Mrs. Josephine Adams	1957-1959
Mrs. Dorothy H. Read	1959-1961
Mrs. Winifred Low Brown	1961-1963
Mrs. Florence V. Minks	1963-1965
Mrs. Dorothy Chadwick Evans	1965-1967
Mrs. Mary E. Smith	1967-1970
Mrs. Harriett Chase Newell	1970-1971
Mrs. Phyllis P. Goyette	1971-1972
Mrs. Barbara W. Blunt	1972-1976
Mrs. Winifred Low Brown	1976-1982
Mrs. Louise Newell Audette	1982-1984
Mrs. Mary E. Smith	1984-1986
Mrs. Sheilah Putnam Sproul	1986-1992
Mrs. Harriet L. Dumas	1992-1998
Mrs. Carol A. Babineau	1998-2004
Mrs. Shirley Ann Cone Reed	2004-2010
Ms. Julie E. Pike	2010-2016