News Letter

LT. NATHAN GANN CHAPTER
SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
P.O. BOX G
LUFKIN, TEXAS 75902-6701

LT. NATHAN GANN MINUTEMAN NEWSLETTER

Vol. 1 Issue 1

June 2004

In an effort to keep our members up to date during the summer months, check out this page.

It is the intent that this newsletter will only appear on our web page.

Tom Whitelock, the TXSSAR Historian, has requested that all members fill out a Archives Biography Information form. I will be mailing this out sometime in June. Fill it out and return to me and I'll send all of our forms to Tom Whitelock. On the form, where it says "Other Patriot Ancestors", it is referring to Supplemental Ancestors which have been documented the same as our initial ancestor.

Shannon M. Smith, State President Ladies Auxiliary from the Brazos Valley Chapter has sent a letter to all Chapter Presidents asking that we form a Ladies Auxiliary. I presume we are talking about the wives of members. The stated purpose is to raise funds for the proposed Center for advancing America's Heritage and other projects of benefit to the Society. The Ladies Auxiliary is also to assist the Chapter in addition to the objectives noted above. Annual dues are $5. We can discuss this in September or sooner.

I think we should have a meeting of all officers sometime before the September meeting to discuss the Auxiliary, the Poster Contest and other possible projects, and awards. We need to find a deserving Law Enforcement and/or Fire Safety Awards. We can also recognize Eagle Scouts.

We received a Col. Joe M. Hill Patriots Fund streamer for last year. This is awarded to each chapter which has total contributions of at least one dollar more than the previous years' contribution to the Patriots Fund. The streamer is supposed to be displayed by attaching it to the Chapter's SAR Flag.

Some new thinking on the Poster Contest. In talking with Sam Whitten, District 10 VP, he indicated Athens had 4 schools this past year. He took care of one school and judged all of their posters personnally. The other three schools judged their own posters. The winning poster from each school was then submitted to the whole Chapter (4 posters). From these a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place poster was selected. The first place poster was then submitted to State Competition.

I think we should get one more school involved to go with St. Cyprians and Hudson. We could let the respective history teacher judge their posters and submit the winning poster from each school. We would then pick a 1st , 2nd and 3rd place winner. We would have these three students attend our meeting for the awarding of prizes. I sent the current years rules for the contest to Jeff Corbett. Can discuss this later.

I should have reported at the last meeting that David Adams' father has cancer and is receiving treatment in Houston. For this reason David has not been able to attend meetings. We all hope and pray that his father responds well to the treatments and that David can soon re-join our group.

We need new members so I challenge each of you to bring in one new member before the May meeting of 2005. I currently have several prospects that had been approached by Woody and have about 3 more that I intend to contact. I approached LaNell Johnson, the new Regent of the local DAR, and she gave me 3 prospects and also the names of four speakers. Any of you who know of good speakers, let Ed Shelton know. If we can keep a good back log of speakers, you won't have to listen to Tom Gann or myself. Also, if you have any daughters or grand daughters that might be interested in the DAR or CAR, I'm sure LaNell would like to know. They seem to have a strong organization.

In exchange for her cooperation in directing members to us, I am creating a DAR web page for the Anthony Smith Chapter in Lufkin. Not finished yet but close. http://go-lufkin.com/dar

The May meeting turned out to be a success and everyone learned a lot about the use of Heritage Quest. On the Geneology Links on our web page you will find a link to Kurth Memorial Library from which you can click on TexShare Database and go to Heritage Quest using the user name and password issued by Cindy.

The speaker for the September meeting will be Wilton Killam (also a possible new member). Wilton graduated from Univ. of Texas in 1949 with a BS in Geology and a commission as a 2nd Lt. He served in the Korean Conflict in Ft. Sam Houston as a 1st Lt. Wilton got a Masters in Geography in 1958 and a Masters in Psychology from SFA in 1965. He served as Dean of Students at Angelina College for 26 years and still continues to teach psychology. He has been active in the Methodist Church and Kiwanis as a past president and Lt. Governor Div. 14, Texas-Oklahoma District. His subject will be the Revolutionary War in the South.