‘Real Daughters’ of the Revolution

Colonial patriotism saturated the historic Culpeper Masonic Cemetery on a humid Tuesday morning as more than three-dozen assembled to honor two “Real Daughters” of the American Revolution.

Culpeper sisters of yore, Elizabeth Roberts Strother (1815-99) and Isabella Roberts Jett (1826-1913), were the day’s honorees at a genteel ceremony hosted by the Montpelier chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

“When you think back to the sacrifices by patriots who actually fought in the American Revolution — what they had to sustain and give up — this was a matter of giving up everything with the possibility of dying fighting for this country,” said Bana Weems Caskey of Richmond, state regent of the 9,000-member Virginia DAR.

“They were away from family, and the real daughters certainly had a great sense of pride in what their fathers had done to establish our country.”

Strother and Jett — eventual members of the DAR — were the daughters of Major John Roberts (1758-1843) and Lucy Ann Blair Pollard of Culpeper (1791-1863).

Roberts served with the Virginia Convention Guards 1779-81 during the war against England and was the officer in charge of British prisoners interred at Charlottesville after the Battle of Saratoga in 1777.

His daughter Elizabeth married James French Strother of Rappahannock in 1832, and the couple had nine children, including two future judges, a doctor and two Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War. James French Strother, a Whig, served in the U.S. Congress from 1851-53.

Roberts’ younger daughter Isabella, or “Belle,” married John Jett, a merchant from Rappahannock County, in 1847. The couple had two children.

Obituaries for both daughters appeared in the Culpeper Exponent, and Belle’s was titled “A Daughter of the Revolution.”

Nationwide, there were 700 “Real Daughters” of American patriots — that is, women with memberships in the DAR who were actual biological daughters of men who served in some capacity in the Revolution. In Virginia, there were 14, including the two sisters from Culpeper County.

These women are unique in that they lived long enough to see the formation of the DAR in 1890 — some 115 years after the Revolutionary War began.

The DAR, in an effort to celebrate and honor the history of the women behind the men, is working to locate, restore and rededicate the tombstones of America’s patriot daughters. A book on the “Real Daughters” of the Revolution is in the works.

When the DAR located Elizabeth Strother’s grave in the Culpeper Masonic Cemetery, it was very dirty and leaning terribly, said Sharon Steo of Greene County, registrar with the Montpelier DAR chapter.

Randy Preddy with Preddy Funeral Homes in Madison reset the aged stone after it had completely fallen over.

Both sisters’ tombstones gleamed bright white Tuesday morning as DAR members placed colorful wreaths graveside, following a short procession through the circa 1820 cemetery.

DAR member Jean Wilkins came from Augusta County to pay her respects. She’s lived in Culpeper before, though, teaching business at the old high school — today’s Floyd T. Binns Middle School — more than 50 years ago. Wilkins mentioned the strength of early American women as the reason why they should be remembered.

“Because they fought. They were behind the men,” she said.

But it is not just the soldiers who are considered patriots, said Pat Mayer of Great Falls, past state regent of the DAR.

“These men went out young. They were fifes and drummers,” she said. “Women died early in birth at that time, so men were married two, three times because they needed someone to take care of the children.”

In fact, the Roberts’ sisters’ mother was their father’s second wife.

Julie Bushong of Culpeper, local history librarian at Culpeper County Library, attended Tuesday’s history-laced ceremony in the Masonic Cemetery as a guest of the DAR. She pointed out the value of remembering the “Real Daughters” of Culpeper.

“It shows continuity of American families,” she said, “and how we’re all connected to history and the history of our country.”