United Daughters of the Confederacy
Robert E. Lee Chapter #885, Seattle, WA
Chartered March 12, 1905
The Seattle United Daughters of the Confederacy Robert E. Lee Chapter #885 was chartered March 12, 1905. At that time, many members were real daughters. The national United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) organized on September 10, 1894, by uniting many small groups of ladies’ organizations formed to provide care to the Confederate veterans and their families. The objectives for all UDC chapters are “Memorial, Benevolent, Historical, Educational and Patriotic”.
The Seattle chapter was organized at a meeting, called by Confederate Veteran Judge John A. Allen at the Lincoln Hotel on February 28, 1905. Sixty-eight Southern women signed the application for a charter. First elected officers of the Robert E. Lee Chapter #885 were Mrs. Arthur Priest, President; Mrs. Samuel Carlisle, first Vice-President; Mrs. G. Rochester, second Vice-President; Mrs. Walter Beals, Recording Secretary; Mrs. Arthur Jordan, Corresponding Secretary; and Mrs. James Howe, Registrar. UDC chapters grew across the state developing a division.
Mrs. Edith Brockett was nationally elected as Third Vice-President General of the UDC in 1940. By accepting the office, she gained the title of the first person to hold a national UDC office from the Northwest. She was the first President of the Robert E. Lee Chapter and, also, of the Washington Division to be born in Washington State.
In 1917, the Daughters turned their efforts to war service. The Washington chapters contributed to the national UDC fund for a hospital bed in Paris, France, for the soldiers. A program of hospitality and aid for the Soldiers and Sailors Club was established and the local ladies dutifully served as hostesses to the soldiers coming through this area. After the war, General John Joseph Pershing, as guest of honor, attended a Lee’s birthday dinner held on January 19, 1920, at the Lincoln Hotel with Confederate Veterans in attendance.
In 1941, the Daughters organized services again for the war effort and the soldiers. The UDC members of Washington State provided hospitality and service to the Day Room at Fort Lawton. Mrs. Leslie Ayer helped organize the Gary Ladies. Many descendants of the Confederate Veterans that settled here served in the military and their names are on the monuments around town honoring the soldiers of WWI and WWII.
One of the most outstanding women to lead this chapter was Mrs. May Avery Wilkins. Her father was a colonel in the C.S.A. She moved out here in 1910 as a young married lady. Becoming a widow in 1914, she turned her attention to social organizations of this area: The Women’s City Club, the Travelers Aid Society, the Women’s Federated Clubs, the old Women’s Legislative Council, the Women’s Democratic Club and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She held every office in the local UDC chapter and division from 1913 until 1953. Mrs. Wilkins, Chairman of Wartime Services Relief, organized the Robert E. Lee Chapter to man the Day Recreation Room at Fort Lawton to provide hospitality. She was the leader in getting the Jefferson Davis markers placed on the Oregon border in 1938 and the Canadian border in 1940 marking the Jefferson Davis Highway 99 through Washington State.
In the 1958 UDC Annual Convention minutes, Mrs. Gunderson, Secretary of Washington Division wrote about Mrs. Wilkins’ passing in 1957, “The division is largely the result of her initiative and her organizing ability. Her political influence, coupled with persistent efforts was responsible for the legal designation of the Jefferson Davis Highway in Washington State. With the natural qualities of leadership which she possessed many civic and political honors came to her. Firm and strong in her loyalties it would have been difficult to know her and not have known that she was a Democrat and a Southerner: though not everyone knew that she had been presented at the court of the reign of Queen Victoria.” Mrs. Wilkins can be accredited for the Jefferson Davis Highway 99 markers and the Confederate Monument in Lakeview Cemetery.
Two of the Daughters were Confederate nurses during the War Between the States. Mrs. Rosalie Claire Simpson born in Montreal, Canada, and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, joined the Confederacy with her husband. Rosalie was assigned as nurse to Jackson Hospital, 3rd Division, Richmond, VA. She lived through four major wars: the Mexican War (1846-48), War Between the States (1861-65), Spanish-American War (1898), and World War I (1914-1918). Mrs. Marie Burrows Sayre was on the battlefield with the Army of Northern Virginia as a field hospital nurse during the war. She was the mother of James Willis Sayre, reporter for the Seattle PI as theater critic and historian.
As women started working, less time was given to organizations. The Robert E. Lee Chapter continues to support the veterans: the local VA hospital and Walter Reed Hospital. The Chapter continues to offer scholarships each year. The members continue to serve their community.
Marjorie Ann Reeves, Historian
UDC Robert E. Lee Chapter #885
March 25, 2004