The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1916-01-07
KINGS DAUGHTERS
AND SONS Meeting
Annual Session Of Executive Board is
Being Held It Davenport
Today and To-
morrow.
SKETCH OF IT'S ORIGIN
Ten Women Wore Charter Members
and the idea Was Something Of /.
an Experiments
Been Success.

The annual meeting Of the execu-
tive board of the Iowa branch of the
Kings Daughters and Sons will be
held in Davenport on Friday and
Saturday of this week with the state
treasurer, Mrs. G.. B. Drummond OF
Arlington avenue. The members
who will be present are Mrs. F. J.
Mansfield of Burlington. state presi-
dent; Mrs. E. N. Coleman, Davenport,
vice president; Mrs. Lola B. Waite of
Burlington, secretary: Mrs. S. X.
Stevenson of Iowa City, and Mrs.
Clarence Roblett of Perry, members
of the executive board, and DR.. Jen-
ME McCowen of Davenport, honorary
president. Among the most important
business to come up will be the
plans for the international conven-
ton of the order that Is to be held
in Burlington, May Ills of this year.
Charter Member Died.
Members of the organization the
world over mourn the death of one
of the charter members, Miss Georgia
H Libby, who died in New York City
on November %, 1915, and which
now leaves but two of the ten women
who founded the order, Mrs. I. G.
Davis and Miss Kate Bond. both OF
New York Deceased was at one
time treasurer Of the international
organization.
A brief sketch of the origin of the
order is as follows:
The order of the Kings Daughters
and Sons began its existence In the
union of ten women, each and all de-
sirous of testing the question as to
whether union and cooperation for
their own greater advancement in
sr-fv, nj 6nfr
fulness in practical good works, could
be extended. They had no thought
of a worldwide organization. They
hoped to each become the center Of
a better influence than had hereto
fore been exercised, and each the
nucleus of some little group of friends
that she might gather about herself
and infuse with her own spirit, each
one of these in turn becoming a SINH
lar nucleus for Overwhelming circles
of usefulness.
They met for the first time at the
residence of Mrs. Margaret Bottome,
on the morning of January IL, 1886,
and after consideration of the good
TO be done, decided to organize them
selves into an order, sisterhOod Of
service.
Mrs Bottome was chosen president,
Mrs Mary Lowe Dickinson, score
tary, and Mrs. Hammersley, soon sue
ceeded by Miss G. H. Libby, treas
urer The other members of the circle
were Mrs. Theodore Irving, Mrs. F.
Payson, Mrs. C. D. Field. Mrs. j. F.
Ruggles. Mrs. l. C. Davis, Miss S.. B.
Schenck and Mrs. G. H Libby
OF the various names suggested for,
this order, the one proposed by Mrs.
II ~
most favorably received. Mrs. Irv-
ing, a well known educator of New
York City, had been in the habit of
giving this name to young ladies as
they went out into the world from
her school, and this has given rise to
the mistaken impression that the
order originated in these groups of
students.
g. The Choice of Insignia.
For the badge a little Maltese
cross was chosen and the word,
Tens" from 'Lend-a-Hand move
ment," was freely borrowed, but it
soon became necessary to abandon
it for the word Circle" as the i'm
practicability and undesirability Of
limiting to ten the bands of women
united for a common purpose, was
discovered.
The notices.
Look up and not down.
Look forward and not back
Look out and not in"
Lend a hand"
were also borrowed from the same
source, as. in one sense, was likewise
the watchword, "In His Name" in
debtedness for all which is gladly
acknowledged. From this circle OF
ten women the organization spread
over the entire world and today has
many thousands of members. In 1887,
after urgent requests, membership in
the order was opened to men and
boys, and it's Incorporated name is
now The International Order of
Kings Daughters and Sons.