DAR honors three women in American history
It’s been nearly 250 years since Elizabeth Gilmore Berry and her sister, Ann, served as frontline nurses for Gen. George Washington’s army at Valley Forge, during the brutal winter of 1777-78.
The teens had emigrated to the American colonies a year earlier.
Berry, who married Continental soldier John Berry, one of the soldiers she had nursed back to health, had another role: she enlisted as a private and fought in battles as a “Lady Ranger” of the frontier alongside her husband until the end of the War of Independence.
Following the war, the Berrys purchased a 251-acre tract of land in Mount Pleasant Township, Washington County, from Washington, where they raised eight children.
Berry died in 1824, at the age of 67, and is buried at the Robinson Run Cemetery in McDonald, Allegheny County, just across the Washington County line.
Berry was honored earlier this month by the National Pike Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution as a DAR Women in American History.
The DAR also honored two other women who have made significant contributions to Washington County and their communities: Sarah Foster Hanna, a 19th-century educator and longtime principal of the Washington Female Seminary, and Washington County resident Deborah Davis, a 50-plus-year member of the DAR and organizing and charter member of the National Pike Chapter and honorary State Regent for Pennsylvania, who has served in a variety of leadership roles in DAR at the chapter, district, state and national levels.
At the ceremony, held at Faith United Presbyterian Church in Washington, Davis, along with National Pike DAR member Rosalyn Lawton and her niece, Amy Hardis, who are descendants of Berry, received a certificate and a medal from National Chapter member Bettie Stammerjohn.
Davis, who worked as an executive secretary for four presidents at Washington Hospital before retiring in 2014 after 40 years, said she was humbled to be included among the women who have contributed to Washington County in meaningful ways.
“I was very much honored to receive the award. I love history, and I love trying to share it with others, and I try to make people’s stories come alive for others,” said Davis.
Davis’ interest in genealogy was driven by a desire to learn about the family history of her father, Lewis Merle Davis, whose mother died when he was 9 months old. Her father and his siblings were separated and sent to live with different relatives. She linked two American Revolution soldiers to her father.
Since Davis joined the DAR in 1972, she has developed several DAR programs that she presents to DAR chapters throughout Pennsylvania.
Since 2016, she has prepared and published daily posts for the Washington County Historical Society Facebook page, and the National Pike Chapter Facebook page of the early members of the NSDAR (she currently has written about 3,562 members).
She also is a member of the Martha Washington Garden Club and the Dolley Payne Madison Chapter of the United States Daughters of 1812.
The Women in American History Award highlights women who have made notable contributions across fields such as government, education, scientific, or cultural innovation.
“It’s very important to recognize the contributions that women have made throughout our history, and these are women who made a difference or are making a difference in the lives of other people in our community,” said Stammerjohn.
Hanna was born in New York in 1802. She began teaching in local county schools at an early age, but her parents objected to her earning a teaching degree. After her mother died, Hanna’s father allowed her to enroll in the Troy Female Seminary at the age of 31.
After two years of education, she moved to Cadiz, Ohio, to serve as principal of the female academy, and in 1840, she was hired as principal of the Washington Female Seminary in Washington, where she served for 34 years, until her retirement in 1874.
In 1848, she married the Rev. Dr. Thomas Hanna, a widowed minister from Cadiz with five children, who moved to Washington.
Hanna was recognized for breaking the barriers of traditional women’s roles by establishing the Women’s General Missionary society of the United Presbyterian Church of North America, and in 1875 became the first woman to speak before the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of North America.
Because Hanna died without direct heirs, her certificate will be donated to the Washington County Historical Society.
Rosalyn Lawton brought with her to the awards ceremony a framed copy of a rubbing of the text on a monument the Pennsylvania DAR erected in 1932 at Berry’s gravesite to honor her service as a nurse and ranger who “fought by the side of her husband to the close of the war.”
“I was honored to receive the award in recognition of her service,” said Lawton. “I have a feeling she would be surprised her legacy has lived on through the years. It’s been a very interesting history for my family, and it gives you a sense of continuity to be able to go back and find out about someone in your family who was instrumental in the Revolutionary War. It’s especially interesting since this is the 250th anniversary of the country.”
The DAR’s National Pike Chapter was founded in 1973 and named in honor of the National Pike, the first highway to be constructed with federal funds. The National Pike became the basic route of U.S. 40, a major link in the land of the transportation chain.