DAR cleans graves at Shorters Chapel AME

The 2025 DAR Day of Service is a celebration of the anniversary of the founding of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) on October 11, 1890.  The Northampton Chapter of the DAR joined with Shorters Chapel AME Church in Bridgetown to assist with the church’s cemetery preservation project.  Chapter and church members and volunteering neighbors brought their rakes, pruners, and saws to clear accumulated pine needles and vines off historic tombstones.  Brush was cut back to make future maintenance easier.

DAR has a history of preserving cemeteries which memorialize ancestors, including veterans.  Tombstones also provide important genealogical information, which is valuable in proving DAR patriot lineage identification. The Northampton Chapter has cleaned up other historical cemeteries in the county, including family plots in Bay Creek and by the Northampton landfill.

The need at Shorter’s Chapel AME Church came to the attention of the Chapter during the installation of a county historical marker project at the church, a Virginia250 activity.  This cleanup was necessary to locate hidden tombstones and assess markers’ condition for a planned grant-funded project to restore damaged stones.  One of the volunteers counted at least forty government issued veteran stones.  Once an inventory of the cemetery’s interred is found, the Chapter also plans to assist in trying to identify descendants of Revolutionary War patriots, as part of the DAR “Forgotten Patriots” project.  More information about this national initiative can be found at:  https://www.dar.org/library/research-guides/forgotten-patriots

If you are interested in joining the National Society of the DAR, email [email protected] or visit www.dar.org